Read Your Library Challenge Progress: January 2015
January is almost over, so it is time to check in and review my progress towards my Read Your Library Challenge goals. Are you reading your library (or sections of it)? How is your reading progressing?
I had hoped to finish the first shelf of the A's in our adult fiction section this month, but that hasn't happened yet. I have read 37 books this month, 38 by tonight, yet I still have books stacked up to read from that 'first shelf', and there were 6 more I hadn't read yet that I didn't check out yesterday. Of course, if I read and return all the books I have out, and they get reshelved, those last 6 books might turn out to belong to the next shelf. On the other hand, 3 of the books I checked out yesterday were ones that had been returned, and sit closer to the beginning end of the shelf. I have a feeling that I'll still be mopping up stray A's even when i am solidly reading the B's. Still, I've read a respectable number of books towards this challenge this month.
So far, these are all the books I have read for this challenge since I started this reading adventure in late September 2014-
Fiction
There are a few books on these shelves that I had already read prior to starting the challenge, and I have a stack of books checked out that belong on these shelves but that I haven't read yet. So, this is only a partial list of the books on the first fiction and non-fiction shelves of my library. Due to mis-shelving and constant circulation of the book collection, the actual books on each shelf vary from day to day, of course, but the first shelf, when the books are all shelved correctly, should end with Susan Wittig Albert, whose books spill over onto the second shelf.
The Ghost of Christmas Present: A Novel , Scott Abbott (heartwarming, Christmas, child-custody, fast-read, all-ages)
Collision , Jeff Abbott (spy thriller, secret splinter spy group, terrorism, immigration, PG13)
Doctor Who: The Silent Stars Go By , Dan Abnett (science fiction series, colonial life on a harsh distant planet, aliens, All ages/PG)
Unsaid , Neil Abramson (language research, chimpanzees, animal rights, PG-PG13)
Relentless , Cherry Adair (Egyptian archaeology, steamy romance, spy thriller, R)
White Horse , Alex Adams (Apocalyptic thriller, disease wipes out most of humanity & turns some people into zombies, PG13)
Written in Stone , Ellery Adams (murder mystery, tribal politics in North Carolina, PG)
Gregory's Game , Jane A. Adams (spy thriller, PG13)
By Blood We Live , John Joseph Adams (vampire short story collection, multiple authors, PG13)
The Outlander , Gil Adamson (adventure, woman on the run from the law in the Canadian frontier, PG-PG13)
The Goblin Emperor , Katherine Addison (fantasy, half-goblin teenager becomes king unexpectedly, PG/All Ages)
Last to Know , Elizabeth Adler (murder/crime thriller, book 2 of series, set in New England, PG13)
The Hotel Riviera , Elizabeth Adler (murder/crime thriller, set in France, PG13)
The Absent One , Jussi Adler-Olsen (Danish crime thriller, PG13-R)
Edge of Dawn , Lara Adrian (vampire murder/crime thriller, romance, PG13-R)
Thanks for the Memories , Cecelia Ahern (woman receives a blood transfusion that carries its donor's memories, PG)
The Darling Dahlias and the Cucumber Tree , Susan Wittig Albert (Book 1 of series, murder mystery, set in Alabama 1929, PG/ All ages)
The Darling Dahlias and the Texas Star , Susan Wittig Albert (Book 4 of series, murder mystery, set in Alabama 1930's, PG/ All ages)
Lavender Lies , Susan Wittig Albert (Book 8 in series, murder mystery set in Texas, PG/ All ages)
------End of Shelf 1-----
The Timekeeper , Mitch Albom (fantasy, a man is granted power over time itself, All ages)
The Inheritance , Louisa May Alcott (first book written by Alcott, girl living on the charity of a family friend discovers who she really is and finds a husband, All ages)
Face , Sherman Alexie (poetry, PG)
Flight , Sherman Alexie (fantasy, time travel, US race relations with native tribes PG13)
The Kingdom of the Golden Dragon , Isabel Allende (fantasy, fictional world based on Bhutan, YA/middle-grade oriented, All ages)
The Omega Theory , Mark Alpert (geeky thriller, astrophysics and grand unified theory as the key to destroying the universe, autism, PG13-R)
Alburquerque , Rudolfo Anaya (murder mystery, PG)
Rio Grande Fall , Rudolfo Anaya (murder mystery, sequel to Zia Summer, PG13
Tortuga , Rudolfo Anaya (coming of age, disability, meaning of life, great for YA readers, PG)
Zia Summer , Rudolfo Anaya (murder mystery, PG13)
Clockwork Angels , Kevin J. Anderson (fantasy, coming of age, boy leaves small village and discovers the rest of the world, All ages)
Hair Raising , Kevin J. Anderson (murder mystery, zombies, werewolves, vampires, PG)
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol. 1 The Pox Party , M.T. Anderson (historical fiction/fantasy, Black Americans during the US Revolutionary War, often considered YA, PG)
Nonfiction
I started with the first readable, non-reference shelf of non-fiction, but I may be shifting to the back end of non-fiction instead, or most likely a bit of both. So far I've only read from the front end, but one of the books I am currently reading, The Sand Creek Massacre, by Hoig, is at the back end of the library's non-fiction section.
The Shelf: From LEQ to LES: Adventures in Extreme Reading, Phyllis Rose (I probably should meet this woman some day. She read a shelf of her library in New York and wrote this book about her reading adventure.)
A Philosophy of Walking , Frederic Gros (This is a set of essays on past authors and thinkers who wrote about walking.)
My Quest for the Yeti: Confronting the Himalayas' Deepest Mystery , Reinhold Messner (Messner is an Italian climber, and this is his story of seeking the truth about yetis in the Himalayas.)
Image Credit » MINE
Comments
scheng1 wrote on February 1, 2015, 6:56 AM
I seldom stop by A. My favorite writers seem to come from C shelf.
msiduri wrote on February 1, 2015, 9:39 AM
What a wonderful cross section. My reading assignment for 2015 is to cut down on the unread/unfinished books I have at home.
Ravenmount wrote on February 1, 2015, 7:30 PM
I also rarely draw from the a's, at least till I started this project. Mine tend to be in the middle of the alphabet. When I get to J I'll be able to skip a lot that I already read from J-N. I really liked some of the A's I read so far, though (Ellory Adams, Kevin J Anderson, Rudolfo Anaya and Susan Wittig Albert especially), so I'll probably go back and read more by those authors when they have new books out.
Ravenmount wrote on February 1, 2015, 7:34 PM
I started last year's reading with that goal. I finally got to where I had no 'currently reading' unfinished books stacked up by about July. Now I have 5 books going at once, which isn't perfect, but better than last February. I tend to gather in lots of unread books, though, and get rid of most books when I finish them, so aside from ~200 books I liked enough to keep them, most of my huge home library is unread books. (And, with not having much shelf space, most of the books I own that I have read are put away in boxes, so most of the books on my shelves I haven't read yet.)
MelissaE wrote on February 1, 2015, 9:39 PM
Wow! That's amazing. I was just getting ready to brag about all of the books I've read, but I'll hold up on that.
Ravenmount wrote on February 1, 2015, 10:03 PM
Feel free to brag about your reading. I am in the 'extreme reading' category of readers, and if I was not unemployed or if I had a spouse or kids, or school, or any sort of social life, I'd not be able to read so much. (And, to brag a bit myself, the books listed in this post are just the ones I read from the particular shelves I am 'on' for this challenge. I've read ~60 other books over the same time period, too. :) )
AliCanary wrote on February 2, 2015, 4:22 PM
I have not made the time for reading so much, but I am very impressed by your progress!
Ravenmount wrote on February 3, 2015, 12:54 AM
Thanks! :)
valmnz wrote on February 3, 2015, 5:46 AM
That seems like quite a formidable challenge. Good luck to you. How much time do you spend reading each day?
Ravenmount wrote on February 3, 2015, 5:10 PM
It's hard to say for sure, since I am almost always multitasking, reading while crocheting, or reading chapters in between doing social media/blogging tasks, but I definitely spend hours each day reading. It definitely varies from one day to the next (yesterday I spent a while working on modifying my chicken vindaloo and a few weeks ago I was spending hours experimenting with candlemaking, but this week in general I am just doing blog work and reading). I do also watch a lot of shows on youtube and netflix, and when it is warm I work outside in the yard a lot, so I am not just reading, but if I am not doing something else useful, when I can I read.
1msiduri wrote on February 28, 2015, 9:48 AM
That's a lot of reading. Good thing you're chronicling this. Blogging about it? Going to write a book about it?
paigea wrote on March 19, 2015, 8:18 PM
You are indeed an extreme reader. I can't even begin to imagine reading this much.
Ravenmount wrote on March 19, 2015, 10:26 PM
It is tempting to write a book about it, maybe with some well researched chapters on how library collections work, and highlighting some of my favorite discoveries in terms of authors and books. I read one book for this project that was written by a woman who read just one shelf of her favorite library in New York, and my reading project is much bigger than that. In the meantime, now that I am finishing a shelf and moving on to lower shelves, I'll be posting more about my favorites among the books and authors I've read so far.
msiduri wrote on March 19, 2015, 10:37 PM
I look forward to reading about the favorite books.
arthurchappell wrote on March 22, 2015, 8:37 AM
impressive challenge - I do use my library a lot and I have more books at home than I can finish if I live to a hundred but I am doing my best