Outread Aubrey! Challenge discussion

BushMaid wrote: "* is reading too many books at once * ;)"

Rebekah wrote: Me too. :)"

Me three.

Y'all have been busy! Excellent. :D

That's the spirit, Jordan! Any reading you can sneak in during the course of other business is good, and a great way to get more value out of your effort.

Hey! I'm going to format Sienna North's book when it's ready. :D

Aubrey wrote: "

Hey! I'm going to format Sienna North's book when it's ready. :D"

^_^ I'll definitely ask her to add it soon, then. :D

I... haven't been reading anything this week. :P I haven't hardly touched a book since last Sunday. Yeah, I should fix that...

*nods sagely at Renna* Indeed, you should.

I finished all the Fullmetal I had checked out, so that won't distract me for a while...

Robert Jordan's "A Gathering Storm"

About to start reading the last three books, have waited until now, being quite patient until the last one was published, here goes, a bit sad really, that all good things have to come to an end.

Hey, Peter! So glad you're joining us. Did you make a shelf?

I've set a new personal goal for this month. Last month was to read 10 books, which I passed. My reward was buying myself a skin for my Kindle, which I finally convinced myself to do today after Amazon gave me a 50% off voucher. This month my goal will be to read 5 nonfiction books (of any sort). Corey helped me come up with the goal. No idea if I'll bother rewarding myself other than to grin in satisfaction if I succeed. ;)

Hideout I read this one so I could write a review, which I did, and submitted. It's a kid book, 5th in a series I hadn't read, but I have Gordon Korman's books in my school library, and they are pretty popular. I think this series would be a hit, too.

Where do you post your reviews, Tracy? Do you read & review a lot of books for your school library?

I'm finally rereading my own book Peter's Angel cover to cover in preparation for continuing work on the series... It's going fine so far, despite the fact that it hasn't been that long since I published it--it took me about a year before I could truly reread Red Rain. Nevertheless, it's still the strangest feeling to read one's own book and feel like someone else wrote it...

I can never read books I wrote, because I just sit there thinking about how horrible it was. XD

There is that. ;) For me, it's more like I'm just afraid to read it... Just can't do it.

Aubrey wrote: "There is that. ;) For me, it's more like I'm just afraid to read it... Just can't do it."

That's one reason I have a hard time editing my books and stories. :P

I'm working on Secret Believers: What Happens When Muslims Believe in Christ now. Only on page 24, but I'm loving it so far.

Aubrey wrote: "Where do you post your reviews, Tracy? Do you read & review a lot of books for your school library?

I'm finally rereading my own book Peter's Angel cover to cover in preparation for continuing wo..."

Aubrey wrote: "Where do you post your reviews, Tracy? Do you read & review a lot of books for your school library?

I'm finally rereading my own book Peter's Angel cover to cover in preparation for continuing wo..."

Aubrey wrote: "Where do you post your reviews, Tracy? Do you read & review a lot of books for your school library?

I'm finally rereading my own book Peter's Angel cover to cover in preparation for continuing wo..."

I review for Linworth Publications. Their magazine, LMC (Library Media Connection) is for librarians mostly, but has a lot of good information for general ed teachers. I've been doing reviews for them for probably 20 years. I used to review for Foreword Magazine, too. Many of the books I receive are galleys or paperbacks, but lots of books I've reviewed have ended up in my library. I usually review 4 or 5 books over a month's time, and review 4 batches a year.

I don't have any problem rereading my stories before they're published. I do that sometimes just for fun, even if they're not that good! But after they're published, it's... bizarre. I should really write a blog post on it.

That sounds like a fun job, Tracy, one a lot of us probably dream of having. :D Do you write much by way of "personal" reviews that you post on Goodreads or a blog?

Aubrey wrote: "I don't have any problem rereading my stories before they're published. I do that sometimes just for fun, even if they're not that good! But after they're published, it's... bizarre. I should re..."

It depends, Aubrey. When I'm writing reviews for Linworth, I don't generally take the time to do write really extensive reviews here. I find writing reviews HARD, and I have to really think my way through those 350 words! It mostly depends on my mood, which is why I'll never be a professional writer. Think how much money I would never make!

*laughs* I sympathize! As much as I envy people who make money reviewing (or bloggers who have gained a following for it), I've decided I'm not cut out for reviewing. I write short, informal reviews on Goodreads and sometimes Amazon, but anything longer takes forever. It's just not worth it to me, so I've given up on ever becoming an influential reviewer. *grins*

Aubrey wrote: "*laughs* I sympathize! As much as I envy people who make money reviewing (or bloggers who have gained a following for it), I've decided I'm not cut out for reviewing. I write short, informal rev..."

I'm always looking at my audience - other librarians. With book budgets as tight as they are, it's really important to me to be honest about the quality of a book so people don't waste their money. And I guess you could say I get paid - in books!

Aye, I like to write a short "review" on Goodreads for the benefit of my friends who may be following my selections. My big concern is content; I like to be honest about content in my reviews, as I, as a reader, really like to know what I'm getting into. Pay it forward, as it were.

Yes! I envy those who get free books to review, but like I said, I'm not cut out for it. ;) In any case, those are all books you can count for this challenge... :D

I'm reading The Adventures of Rabbi Harvey. ^_^

I'm reading "The Heart Of Arcrea" by Nicole Sager

I think I have that one on Kindle, Mikayla... Isn't it self-published?

Aubrey wrote: "I think I have that one on Kindle, Mikayla... Isn't it self-published?"

Yes it is. Though I didn't guess until Sarah told me it was, Its Amazing.

Awesome! That's on my TBR list, then. :D

I was forced to read "I Kissed Dating Goodbye" and now I'm back to some Louis L'Amour, which I much prefer.

Heehee. Was the book useful at all, Kaleb?

He had a highly annoying voice, and it wasn't targeted at somewhat cynical people like who don't want to be in relationships. It was aimed at the serial dater. (As opposed to the cereal killer.)

I am too. In fact, I killed about 30 this morning. I eat cereal punks like that for breakfast.

Yeah. I thresh the grains of my foes into Wheaties.

(Sorry for all the ad puns. I need to get my annoyance from Joshua Harris' voice out of my system.)

That bad, Kaleb? ;)

Going against the grain, are you?

Yeah. That bad.

Ha!

You guys are hilarious. XD

*bows*

Thank you, thank you very much.

UPDATE: In the spirit of generosity, peace, and general goodwill (read: the desire to make this challenge fun for all, and also the desire to avoid annoying certain people ;) )--I have decided that I will not be counting manga towards my personal totals for this challenge. Y'all can still count it, but I won't be adding it to my Outread Aubrey! shelf. This should level the playing field a bit, lol. ;)

For those who are still interested in outreading me manga-included, you can check out this shelf of mine: http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/...

Speaking of manga, I was going to read Kitchen Princess, Vol. 1 but bailed because the story looked unbearably stupid and the art was obnoxious. I'm spoiled by FMA...

Though I refuse to update as to what I'm reading right now, I just have to ask - what in the world in manga? I keep thinking about asking, then deciding not to - now I'm just too curious. :)

Aubrey wrote: "UPDATE: In the spirit of generosity, peace, and general goodwill (read: the desire to make this challenge fun for all, and also the desire to avoid annoying certain people ;) )--I have decided tha..."
Yay! I actually have a chance. Thank you! :) :P

Corey wrote: "Reading Tortured For Christ by Richard Wurmbrand, The Godly Man's Picture by Thomas Watson, and Hellstrom's Hive by Frank Herbert."
I've started Tortured For Christ several times and have never made it through. Definitely a worthy book, though.

Manga is basically Japanese comic books.

*ponders Rebekah's intriguing refusal* o.O

Yes, manga are Japanese graphic novels. It's a novel form of a comic book, basically, as Kaleb said--a novel-length book told with comic-style art and speech bubbles.

I've just finally finished reading A Memory of Light. (Which would give me a big boost if you were counting pages rather than books, as it's over 900 pages long, and uniquely among the series none of those are glossary.) There's another collection of Charles Williams' plays from Christmas, and a number of books in my room that I need to either at least dip into to triage (to see if I want to even keep them) or go through (since I've collected them as possible sources for my strategy game or as "writing background" or some such) to free up shelf space, and still yet more ebooks that I've accumulated ...

I Finished Heart of Arcrea and Fate of Arcrea and now I'm reading Kingdoms Edge.

I'm still working on "Never"... and a few other books. Of course, now I have an essay to do on alcoholism for school, so my time will probably be snapped up by reading books for that. : P

We stopped at Barnes & Nobles today, and I picked up "Foundation" and "The Book of Three." I read through all of "Foundation" while my siblings were doing a puppet show at church, and I'm about a third through "The Book of Three."

Yep. Lloyd Alexander. I do too. Actually, I think "The High King" was the first real high fantasy novel I ever read.

*glances at cave storage boxes of books from library sales* I know exactly what you mean, Jon...

How were the Arcrea books, Mikayla?

I bought Insurgent today. I'm hopeless.

Aubrey wrote: "*glances at cave storage boxes of books from library sales* I know exactly what you mean, Jon..."

My books in boxes are the ones that I've "archived," in storage out in our barn. The books that would be on my shelves were there room are just stacked around the bookshelves. (Less than half of the area of my room is usable floor, because of a fairly large built-in bed, two built-in bedside chests of drawers, a built-in vanity, and a square yard of floor---jutting out over only the landing of the staircase going down---being so awkwardly placed that it's only useful for the filing cabinet and the shelves behind it are unreachable, so I can't really add more shelves.) I'd guess that maybe a quarter or a fifth of the overflow at the moment is a set of Encyclopedia Britannica "Books of the Year" dating (if I remember correctly) from the 1980s to the early 2000s that I picked up off the library's "free" shelf several years ago. Many of the rest do come from Friends of the Library book sales, but probably most of those I got as my "pay" for helping out at said sales. :)

*laughs* You don't say! I adore helping out with my local Friends of the Library book sale, and I acquire such a ridiculous amount of books each time. Ah, but it is such fun work, though. :)

Jonathan wrote: "Aubrey wrote: "*glances at cave storage boxes of books from library sales* I know exactly what you mean, Jon..."

My books in boxes are the ones that I've "archived," in storage out in our barn. T..."
Like your comment - my books currently inhabit tv room, cellar, attic, bedroom and random piles throughout the house.

Due to not feeling well yesterday, I got a lot of reading done. Finished four books, three of which I started. :blush: Although, one of them was a collection of three short stories. A very good collection: The Purple and Gold Afghan and other stories by Jordan Smith.

*is not happy that Faith was sick, but can't complain about the reading progress* ;) *hugs*