Booking Through Thursday -- December 27, 2012


What are/were your favorite book(s) of the year?  Bonus points if you know how many books you read.

Well, since I participated in the 2012 Reading Challenge, I know how many books I read.  My goal was 25 books and I completed 22 and am still working on 23.  I may or may not get it finished by the end of the year.  I did  better this year than last year but I don't think I will be participating in any more challenges.  I feel like the goal to finish a certain number of books sort of lessens the enjoyment of reading so my goal for the new year will be to read books I really enjoy, take the time to really enjoy them and write some nice reviews.

As far as my favorite books of the year are concerned, I have to say I enjoyed all the books I read.  I really enjoyed getting into the "Aunt Dimity" series and plan to continue with the series this year.  There are fifteen in the series and I am about half done, taking breaks between books to read other things.

I have to say that "The School of Essential Ingredients" was a favorite contemporary work.  The setting drew me in immediately -- I  love being able to visualize where/when a book is set.  If the setting is well developed, I am caught.

I think my favorite "period" novel was "The Forgotten Garden".   For me it was a page turner that I couldn't put down.  I read it on my Nook and then bought a hard copy for my library.  I had never read any of Kate Morton works but several other titles of hers are on my list for 2013.

I enjoyed "The Little Stranger" by Sarah Waters but it wasn't as scary as I was hoping.  It was more sad than scary and when I read it I was in the mood for scary but it was still really good -- I am a big fan of Sarah Waters and hope to read more of her works in the new year.

So, yeah, that's about it!

Random  Thoughts --- AKA Another Boring, Photo-less, Post

Since I am completely engulfed in a severe case of Cedar Fever, I am doing a lot of sitting which is getting really, really boring.  My cabin fever is centered around my chair in front of the tv -- awful.  Anyway, I am sitting here, not feeling like doing  much, but I am thinking about the year to come.  I am not a good one with resolutions.  I don't like making them because I generally forget about them immediately and they aren't very inspiring anyway.  It isn't like I resolve myself to do some good, charitable work or somehow change mankind.  I usually resolve to lose half my body weight -- right after the current cookie! So, I don't do resolutions.

However,  I am thinking about how to do things better this year.  Not big things, just little things and how to make time for the things I love to do but generally let go because of the things I HAVE to do.  Another thing on my list is how to lighten up my stress level.  I don't have a lot of stress.  We are retired and are reasonably secure in that status.  I don't have a lot of pressing things to worry about but I tend to worry a lot about things that I can do nothing about.  I need to work on that.  Maybe some exercise would help with that.  I have to think about it.

The one thing to change that sticks in my mind is joining reading challenges.  I find them stressful.  Last year I joined a couple and found myself rushing to read a certain number of books -- I didn't enjoy the books, it was just an exercise to see if I could meet my goal and see how fast I could read. This year was a bit better even though I didn't make my goal.  I didn't worry about that so much so I enjoyed my reading experience more which tells me that maybe reading challenges aren't my "thing".

Another thing I am going to try to get involved in again is genealogy with the goal of adding more ancestors to my DAR roll.  I have run across a lady in Del Rio -- a cousin -- who has just had one of our relatives approved for the first time and I am looking forward to working with her to add him to my list of ancestors who fought in the American Revolution.

As far as crafts, sewing, etc. go, I haven't had much time for that plus my hands seem to be giving me arthritis problems so quilting and such isn't much fun.  However, I have three quilts promised that I need to work on and a mound of cross stitch patterns to do.  I don't know that I am going to do the cross stitch with any particular project in mind -- just for the joy in doing it.  I do have a couple of bird charts that I would like to do so that I can frame them -- I have a nice place to put them and think they would look good in my house so that will probably be a goal.

So, like I said, this post is just a bunch of random thoughts.  I am just trying to figure out how to be happy, to do what I enjoy and let go of what I don't without guilt!

Yeah.