Jillypenny’s Comments (group member since Nov 28, 2018)

Jillypenny’s comments from the Nothing But Reading Challenges group.

Hi! As of tomorrow, I’ll be camping for a week. The good news: I go alone, so I usually get a lot of reading done. The bad news: there’s not always a great internet connection. I’ll do my best to update, but I’ll get it done for sure when I get back. Thanks!

Still reading, still kicking! The audiobook I'm listening to is set in a fictional middle ages; would that count?

Still alive and reading. Noticed the food challenge too and will keep my eyes open for food words.

Tammie wrote: "@Jill

I did some poking around and saw one of the books you are reading works for Canada author...so I put your book there...if you aren't reading it right now, please feel free to delete

I took ..."

I am reading this and fairly quickly too! I'm happy to have you move books to wherever you need them. I consider myself as offering suggestions to where they could fit; you go right ahead and stick them where they need to go! Also, I added "Tusks of Extinction" to my tower list. Sorry I initially forgot!

Tammie wrote: "Jillypenny wrote: "Hi Tammie! Yesterday, you requested that I check in. I did check in on June 4th. I'm almost done my audiobook (American Spy). I'm thinking about abandoning my book (The House of ..."

Awesome, thanks!

Hi Tammie! Yesterday, you requested that I check in. I did check in on June 4th. I'm almost done my audiobook (American Spy). I'm thinking about abandoning my book (The House of Spirits) as I am just not engaging with it. Is it awful if I drop it and pick up another book?

Hi all! I'm still reading. I'm reading "The House of the Spirits" by Isabel Allende. This book will take me a while. It's a very dense and nuanced novel. Feel free to move it around however you need to. In the meantime, I'm still moving through audiobooks. I do check the open spots for minis regularly while I'm reading, but sometimes my books just don't fit them. I've started being better at including author and character names so they might help.

Oh never mind, I just read that it's part of the Netherlands.

Hi! I was glancing through my TBR and noticed one of my books is set in fictional Aruba. I wanted to see how many points Aruba would be, but I can't find it on the list. Is it part of another country or is it just missing from the list?

ok, sorry! I was just leaving it for you to decide if you wanted to use one or the other (or none) of the countries listed.

Tammie, that’s okay; I actually found a book set in Croatia that was already on my TBR and found a book of short stories by a Laotian author that sounded interesting. I hope I added them to the spreadsheet correctly.

Are we allowed to read the same book for it to count? For example, can I also read "Mrs. Pollifax on Safari", as Jackie is, and that be counted? Or does it have to be 2 different books from each country?

Hi! I'm Jill. I live in rural mid-southern Ontario, Canada and about an hour's drive from our namesake, the CN Tower. I have visited it several times in Toronto. I work with adults with developmental delays and mental health struggles. I'm a PSW, essentially.

I have travelled to all 10 provinces and 2 of the territories in my own country. I have visited 15 of the states in the US, including yours, CB and Denise! I have visited Mexico, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Costa Rica several times (my folks live there in the winter), England, Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, Malta, Greece, Denmark, Sweden, Germany x2, and Finland. I would love to see Africa (maybe Kenya or Tunisia) and Asia (Japan or Thailand). My latest trip was to West Virginia last September to go 4-wheeling in the mountains. My next trip will be this November, back to Costa Rica with some friends.

Once summer gets rolling, I'm pretty bad at conversing, but great at updating my books on the spreadsheet. I will do my best to check in at least once a week, but there are some weeks that I go amping and internet will be spotty.

Well, I had a mystery series set in North Korea all ready to go, but those spots have been taken. I'll do some research for another tricky country/countries.

My shelf name is tower ix.

I used to do the original decade challenge, but I never succeeded at it. I'm going to attempt the lite version this year.

37/55 books read

2025 = X X

2024 =

2023 =

2022 =

2021 =

2020 = X X X X X X

2019 = X X X

2018 = X X

2017 = X

2016 = X X X X

My current TBR is 1500+. I read how I feel at the time I choose a book, so my goal is to knock 80 books off of my TBR.

51/80 books read

Books that have been on my TBR for 1 year:


Books that have been on my TBR for 2 years:


Books that have been on my TBR for 3 years:


Books that have been on my TBR for 4 years:


Books that have been on my TBR for 5 or more years(!):

I went for 60 this year, but when I finished sorting out my list, I realized I had 61 numbers listed. Not sure what happened, but I'm going with it, lol!

26/61 books read

✔️6. Waiting by Ha Jin (22/01/25)
13. Neuromancer by William Gibson (own)
41. Kalki by Gore Vidal (own)
55. House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende (own)
101. Still Life by Louise Penny (own kobo)
131 Killing Floor by Lee Child (own)
139. Ringworld by Larry Niven (own)
✔️152. The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen (09/07/25)
154. Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross (own)
163. The Man Who Was Thursday by G K Chesterton (own)
202. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (own)
256. Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins (own)
✔️260. Thor Vol 2: Who Holds the Hammer? by Jason Aaron (22/01/25)
✔️273. The Stainless Steel Rat by Harry Harrison (03/01/25)
✔️276. James Bond: Hammerhead by Andy Diggle (29/01/25)
✔️290. The Woods Vol 1: The Arrow by James Tynion IV (22/02/25)
304. A Rendezvous in Avervoigne by Clark Ashton Smith (own ereader)
✔️324.The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ by Philip Pullman (17/03/25)
✔️338. The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi (10/02/25)
348. The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino (own)
381. If On a Winter's Night a Traveller by Italo Cavalino (own)
415. A mother's reckoning by Sue Klebold (SMPL)
✔️416. Wait Until Spring Bandini by John Fante (22/02/25)
✔️427. Who? by Algis Budrys (04/01/25)
449. The Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu (Libby B)
484. Lying in Wait by Liz Nugent (SMPL)
552. Sphere by Michael Chricton (own)
✔️558. The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers (24/07/25)
614. Slan by A E van Vogt (own)
617. Aftermath by Chuck Wendig (own)
620. The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro (SMPL)
682. The Stone Raft by Jose Saramago (Libby B)
✔️770. Self Made by Mat Groom (13/03/25)
✔️809. This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar (12/03/25)
✔️819. The Future of another Time Line by Annalee Newitz (08/01/25)
842. Shinju by Laura Joh Rowland (own)
881. Holding by Graham Norton (Libby B)
✔️883. Unfollow by Megan Phelps-Roper (21/06/25)
✔️897. Black Science Vol 1: How to Fall Forever by Rick Remender (08/05/25)
✔️975. Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski (28/05/25)
978. Saint X by Alexis Schaitkin (SMPL)
✔️1002. Oroonoko by Aphra Behn (21/01/25)
✔️1011. Batman Universe by Brian Michael Bendis (16/03/25)
1022. Killshot by Elmore Leonard (own)
✔️1024. Astrid Parker Never Fails by Ashley Herring Blake (01/07/25)
1030. Chosen Ones by Veronica Roth (SMPL)
✔️1049. Batman Year One by Frank Miller (04/05/25)
✔️1052. Captain America: White by Jeph Loeb (19/05/25)
✔️1094. Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline (25/06/25)
✔️1107. Claire DeWitt and the Bohemian Nightmare by Sara Gran (15/05/25)
1205. Five Little Indians by Michelle Good (own)
✔️1379. Grave Peril by Jim Butcher (08/02/25)
1431. Berlin Game by Len Deighton (Libby B)
1435. Sour Candy by Kaelan Patrick Burke (Libby B)
1490. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (own)
✔️1494. Nemesis by Jo Nesbo (31/07/25)
1495. The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl (own)
1513. The Fifth Season by N K Jemisin (own)
1522. Black Mouth by Ronald Malfi (own)
1541. Eagle in Exile by Alan Smale (Libby A)
1551. The Demonologist by Andrew Pyper (own)

Wow, fantastic! Congratulations everyone!

Thanks so much! What were the final standings? How did we do?

Isn’t District 5 power and electricity?
edit: sorry, I forgot we were doing District 9.

I have added a graphic novel to my list, “Batman: Dark Victory. It has a word count of 51, 131 words according to word counters.com.