Cover to Cover Challenge discussion

So, I definitely didn't read as much as I wanted. I figure I will need to bring my pal down a little since I'm going to be doing a lot of wedding planning for myself this year *happy dance* XD I'm going to try a slightly different format too. Let's see how this goes!

Sammie - what is your goal? (So I can move your thread to the appropriate lounge

ETA - i've put you in the 50's lounge for now, but can move you if needed

my mistake! My goal is to read 55 books this year.

January
Personal Goal of the Month: Read one borrowed book and book of the Month for book club.

January
Personal Goal(s) of the Month: Read at least one borrowed book.Read book of the Month for book club.

Mr. Midshipman Hornblower (borrowed)
310 pages, 4 days
5/5
I'm not a person who likes to read sailing stories, mostly because I barely have any knowledge of sailing or the terminology. Considering all that, I loved this book. Each chapter was its own adventure, in chronological order, and kept me wondering what would happen next. Most of the chapters held some mystery as to what will happen or why the circumstance is as it is. I would say that knowing the terminology would probably help a lot, but I still was able to really enjoy the book without knowing it. I'm extremely excited to read the next one!

A Discovery of Witches, 579 pages, 3 months

5/5
So, I favor fantasy novels over most other books, but I can also be picky about my fantasy novels. After two people recommended this book to me, plus being a bestseller, I decided to try it. I really love this story. It has a very interesting plot line and doesn't really slow down. You're always wondering what the next step will be. Also, the romance story keeps you hooked to see when/how they get together (cause we ALL know it'll happen). I'm so stoked about reading the next one! I recommend it to anyone who wants something that's completely opposite from twilight.

Wonder Woman, Vol. 1: Blood

5/5

I was looking for a comic featuring a "bad ass" superwoman. Naturally, Wonder Woman was the first name to come up. I wasn't quite sure what to expect because I know so little of her. I finished this book and was so stoked for more! She's confident, yet kind. She's strong, but knows when to be gentle. She not a stereotypical feminist,but is firm in her power of being a woman. I absolutely love it and would recommend it to any girl or woman if they want to read about a woman who isn't a stereotype.

Wonder Woman, Vol. 2: Guts

5/5

What I really love about this story line is the interaction with Hell I'm really loving how the concept of each God is different from what is the usual description. Hell doesn't look like the devil at all, yet it completely works with the storyline. I'm excited to see how things continue to develop.

So, it's been a LONG time since I've updated this and I've read some books since, so I'm going to do a mass adding of books. I absolutely loved all of them, so you can't go wrong with any of them :)

Wonder Woman, Vol. 3: Iron
Wonder Woman, Vol. 4: War
Skip Beat! (3-in-1 Edition), Vol. 1: Includes vols. 1, 2 & 3
Skip Beat! (3-in-1 Edition), Vol. 2: Includes vols. 4, 5 & 6
Skip Beat! (3-in-1 Edition), Vol. 3: Includes vols. 7, 8 & 9
Skip Beat! (3-in-1 Edition), Vol. 4: Includes vols. 10, 11 & 12
Skip Beat! (3-in-1 Edition), Vol. 5: Includes vols. 13, 14 & 15
Skip Beat! (3-in-1 Edition), Vol. 6: Includes vols. 16, 17 & 18
Preludes and Nocturnes
The Sandman, Vol. 2: The Doll's House
The Sandman, Vol. 3: Dream Country
The Sandman, Vol. 4: Season of Mists
The Sandman, Vol. 5: A Game of You

June
Personal goals of the month: To finish the books I have started and to read the books I'm borrowing from other people.

Lady Mechanika #0
Lady Mechanika #1
Lady Mechanika #2
Lady Mechanika #3
Total: 104 pages, all in 1 day

These four comics I actually received as a present in collected form (0 &1 together and 2&3 together) so I was able to read through these pretty quickly. This is one of my favorite comics for sure. It's focused on Lady Mechanika's origin and how she's trying to figure it out. The character development sucks you in as tiny hints and details are told every once in a while to keep you hooked, the suspense of who's behind it all is as thick as can be, and lady mechanika kicks ass! It's definitely steam punk and I love every page of it. The difficult thing about it is you can only really find it in print form on joe benitez's webpage and he doesn't have an unlimited supply, so to speak. after finishing the 3rd issue, I immediately went to his website to see if there was a collected edition of 4 & 5 (you know, have to keep it all the same) and it hasn't been created yet due to issue 5 just coming out 2 months ago. So, I figured I would break my obsessive compulsion to have all of one series in the same format (because the story is THAT good) and they're currently out of stock for issue 5. I am determined to get my hands on it, but be prepared that you might have to wait patiently since the comic isn't run through a major company like Image.

The Sword of Shannara, 726 pages, approx. 3 months

I read this book in 2013, but I wanted to re-read it so I can move on to volume 2. It's such a massive book that I wanted to refresh the details again. Definitely LOTR for the first half, but fell in love with it all over again during the second half. I can't wait to dive into the second volume and see what's in store for me there.

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, 416 pages, almost 3 months

This was such an excellent book. I sometimes find it hard to read non-fiction books because they'll read more like textbooks than a story of someone's life or an event. This book does such an amazing job of telling Louie's life story. What makes it so incredible as well is the fact that a lot of what he went through does seem unbelievable. It is something that ordinary people could never imagine, but is all too real for those who have been involved in a war. I highly recommend this book to anyone, especially for some inspiration. I heard the movie is boring, but there is nothing boring about this book.

Wonder Woman, Vol. 5: Flesh, 176 pages, 1 day

I've really been loving Wonder Woman and being on this journey with her. With this volume, I gave it 4 stars instead of my usual 5 because, frankly, I'm starting to get bored of who is the top dog of Olympus. I thought we were going to find out where Zeus was or find out some more about what Zeke is capable of. Instead, it's just been more of Wonder Woman protecting Hera and Zola. The end of this volume left off on a cliffhanger, which I'm excited to see that play out, but I'm really hoping the story will move on. At this point, I don't care who rules Olympus, I just want to see Diana kick some butt.

The Princess Bride: An Illustrated Edition of S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure, 450 pages, 1 week

Oh God, how I loved this book. It's on my top 10 favorite books and that's difficult for me to do because I usually don't have favorite. There's book I like, books I love, and favorites. This, is a favorite. I've seen the movie and heard that they are basically the same thing. The movie is indeed very accurate to the book, but like all adaptations, the book has more to it. I loved this book. It brought so much more to me and brought this story so much closer to my heart. The movie sometimes gives me this impression that it's all to be light-hearted, but the book goes so much farther than that. And you HAVE to read Buttercup's Baby. It's a must! I can't tell you how much I loved this book. If you haven't seen the movie, by some ridiculous chance. I highly recommend reading the book first. I would most definitely read this book again <3

Superman – Action Comics, Vol. 5: What Lies Beneath, 144 pages, 1 day

I liked this volume more than I've liked the past two. At first, I was wondering why they were telling us the origin story, again, but as I kept reading, I saw that it had ties throughout the volume. I actually liked the way this story arc was written, showing Superman's concern and struggle between humans and non-humans. I'm just hoping the next volume will actually continue with the arc and not just be random short stories.