Happy Holidays! and a happy new reading list!!!!

**updates**

Can you believe that Christmas is just around the corner!? Where did the year go?

In 2016 I started with a reading goal of 75 books. I was part of a 54 book challenge with my coworkers and then an online reading group “book hunting” challenge so I thought it was a fair enough target. Happy to report that not only did I meet that challenge, I blew it out of the water. Around July, I think, I ended up moving that target to 120 books. As of today I have read 121! And I still have time left to wrap up a few more.

With all the reading that I did get done there is a lot that got left behind. In January I plan to have a “TBR clean up” personal challenge. I started a bullet journal in September and tracked various challenges and some of them I was unable to finish in the challenged time slot, so my TBR cleanup is born from those as well as other sources!

“TBR Clean Up Challenge”

October Challenge:

#1 A book with a bug on the cover

#2 A classic horror novel

#3 A book about creatures of the night

#4 A ghost or supernatural story

#5 A book by Ramsey Campbell

#6 A book of witches

*A book with a black cover

*A scary book turned movie

*A book about a haunting

*A book with a Halloween theme

Avnet Literary Challenge:

*The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business - Charles Duhigg

*The Children’s Home - Charles Lambert

Penguin First To Read:

*My Not So Perfect Life - Sophie Kinsella

*Nemesis - Brendan Reichs

*The Lonely Hearts Club - Heather O'Neill

*My Husband’s Wife - Jane Corry

December Challenge:

#1 A book based in/about Christmas

#2 A book with a winter weather condition in the title

#3 A 6 word title related to Christmas

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie - Alan Bradley

#4 A book with a red or green cover

My Not So Perfect Life - Sophie Kinsella (killing two birds with one stone!)

#5 A book received on Christmas
The Coffin Dance - Jeffrey Deaver

Currently Reading: (not including the ones already mentioned above)

*Change Management: The People Side of Change - Jeffrey Hiatt

*How to Become a Brilliant Leader - Carla Howard

*The Beauty Myth - Naomi Wolf

*Slow Burn: Infected - Bobby Adair

If you’re counting, yes that is a lot of books to read in January (if I can’t finish any more before the new year)! But hey… have some faith! Some of these books I am currently reading so it’s not like it’s the whole book I have to read! Also, its #24in48 January 21-22! I am hoping to beat last year’s 4.5 hours and get at least 5 if not 6 hours! My hubby is already getting mad since you know I have the hubby to spend time with, 2 kiddos (3 and 2yrs old) that need all the attention less if I want the house to fall down, 5 dogs to walk and play with, and last but not least…2 piggies that need cuddles and kisses! Oh yeah… and food to buy and laundry to clean… *exhausted just thinking about it*

What are all your reading goals? Any books that still need to be finished come the new year?

Come February the lovely @thetallented (Instagram) has a new challenge for the #coolbookbitches and the Avnet Literary Club should be getting two new books (one business and one non-fiction). So I’ll probably do another clean up come March-April!

check out my Instagram @shelf.loving to see pictures of my books and @kiraandreyeva for pictures of all the pets!

Perfect Days - Raphael Montes

This was the book in my Muse Monthly subscription. I like this subscription service since it is not just another YA and it wasn't full of a bunch of pointless items that would end up in a junk drawer. Its a book and tea, cant go wrong there.

Teo Avelar could be a perfect boyfriend, if only Clarice was cooperative she would not currently be stuffed into a pink Samsonite suitcase.

Teo is a medical student and shows sociopathic tendencies (I would say that his character can make emotional attachments and feel empathy, it is his conviction of love for Clarice that drives his behavior). He keeps to himself and his best friend, a cadaver named Gertrude, when he comes across Clarice at a barbecue and immediately feels a connection to her.

Clarice is a university student off for break. She wants to get away and finish writing her screenplay about a group of girls that go on a road trip. The screenplay ends with the character waking up, it was all a dream. Is this ending a reflection that Clarice wants to wake up from her own personal nightmare?

The plot follows the emotions of Teo, mellow and slightly colorless. He spends weeks doing the same thing. Then there will be a “well that escalated quickly” moment. Example, let me tell this girl I like her, by bashing her head with a book that was meant to be a gift. Teo cannot just leave her to wake up mad though, he loves her. She would love him too if she just would warm up to the idea. Teo uses Clarice’s vacation plans and screenplay as his opportunity and carts her away in the suitcase. Good boyfriend material that he is, he takes time to make sure she looked comfortable!

The plot fell apart a little at the middle end and there were a lot of questionable transitions and questions that were left unanswered so could only give 3 stars. I did really love the last lines though.

TBR

On Instagram I have fallen into the trend of taking pictures of books. It is not as easy as it looks to make creative/beautiful photos. Those that take the time to bring in a lot of props… props to you! As I see these books though it makes me add more to my “to-read” list on GoodReads. Which leads me to look at their Giveaways which adds to my growing problem… my To Be Read pile.

Most of my current book collection are books that are waiting patiently to be read. I have one Ikea Billy bookcase that is not even half full of read books. My collection of books I couldn’t be parted with even when I moved in the middle of summer in 107 degree heat to a third story apartment. It was a dry heat… Anyways I digress, I have two 6ft uprights and one 4.5ft upright bookshelf crammed with books that I want to read. My hubby thinks I have a problem. I think of it as a investment into my sanity and future retirement, I am only about 40++ years away from that bliss.

My co-workers, who are also fellow bibliophiles, don’t seem to have as an extreme TBR shelf like I do but their lists are as endless as mine.

I came across the books and pieces channel hosted by Elizabeth and thought it would be fun! Basically you have to pick 9 books from your TBR list that match the description below

01. What book have you been unable to finish?
Youth and Revolt – C.D. Payne

I borrowed from a friend. She watched the movie first then read the book and I’m thinking maybe I need to do the same.

02. What book have you yet to read because you just haven't had the time?
All of them… there are way too many to list. With my self-imposed book buying ban though (minus my Muse Monthly box… I need the tea!!!) I hope to make a dent in my bookshelves through the rest of the year.

03. What book have you yet to read because it's a sequel?

I currently have several series waiting for me. The Lunar Chronicles, The Fifth Wave Trilogy, The Dark Tower Series, The Women’s Murder Club, Harry Hole… Next year the book challenge will be series based so some of these will wait till then. Others I hope to sneak into my 2016 challenges and just read them freely!

04. What book have you yet to read because it's brand new?
Perfect Days – Raphael Montes

I just received this in my first Muse Monthly box. It has awesome reviews. Let me not forget to mention that Muse Monthly is a book and tea monthly subscription and the tea that came with Perfect Days was from The Angry Tea Room and wholly smokes! Passion Black Tea yummy yummy yummy.

05. What book have you yet to read because you read a book by the same author and didn't enjoy it?
The Fault in Our Stars – John Green

I did not overly like Paper Towns. I saw the movie first and liked the story line/ strength of characters portrayed and thought the book was going to be a million times better. The two are not even remotely alike! **Side note, I usually try to read the book first and rarely ever do I like the movie over the book. This might actually be the first time this has ever happened**

I saw the movie The Fault in Our Stars and I am worried the same thing will happen!

06. What book have you yet to read because you're just not in the mood for it?
A Pirate Looks at Fifty – Jimmy Buffet

I bought this to take to Jamaica. I read the first couple chapters before we left and forgot to bring it with me. It isn’t a bad book, his writing style I actually like. I just have so many other book vying for my attention. I have this in my June pile though since it falls into my 2016 challenge.

07. What book have you yet to read because it's humongous?
The Stand – Stephen King

I have wanted to read this book forever but it is such a huge commitment. It is on my to-read June pile though since it fits into my 2016 reading challenge, a book that was a bestseller the year you were born.

08. What book have you yet to read because it was a cover buy that turned out to have poor reviews?
The Sunken Cathedral – Kate Walbert

This book has a 2.84 average rating on GoodReads but the cover is so pretty! I received this as a GoodReads first read. I selected it for the title/cover/synopsis. Hubby is partial to WWII and it is rubbing off on me.

09. What is the most intimidating book in your TBR pile?
Humans of New York: Stories – Brandon Stanton

The images and the stories can be so haunting. I already own and looked through the original book of just the pictures and loved it so much. I am just scared the stories will be too emotional for me to handle.

How to Sort a Series

Shelving books is an individual art form. A way for book lovers to express themselves through their collection. There is always a method to the madness. As my own collection is growing again I find myself sorting and re-sorting as more books get added to my “read” shelves.

When I was younger, I was extremely particular in that everything was either non-fiction or fiction. Within these two broad stroke categories the books were then sorted by author last name. If an author had several works, book titles were alphabetic order. This included series, though they went in as the series name in lieu of book title. So for JK Rowling you would swiftly find her under R, Harry Potter would be under H within R.

Now that I am older and read a lot more variety, categories no longer fit into just “fiction” and “non-fiction”. I also read a lot more series and I don’t like them jumbled in with other singular books.

As of right now my “read” shelves are broken into the following categories with some having their own sorting:

·         Auto/biographies

o   Sorted by subjects name (Einstein by Walter Isaacson can be found under E)

·         Business

o   Author last name

·         Children’s Books

o   No order at this time, any recommendations would be appreciated

·         Educational

o   By subject

·         Fiction

o   Author last name, first name (for when you have 3 different Browns), book title

·         Harry Potter

o   No real order, just all things Harry on one shelf. This is the only shelf where nothing really matters. I have the series, a “fan fiction”, a funk pop, a beanie baby, the Hogwarts themed textbooks…

·         Non-fiction

o   As of right now under author last name, debating if it should be subject matter

·         Poetry/Quotes

o   Book title

·         Self-Help

o   Author last name

·         WW2

o   No order at this time. Hubby is a huge fan so have a tiny collections of books he has never read but likes the idea of reading. Night Trilogy is in this grouping and I cannot recommend it highly enough. 5++++++ star rating. It should have its own shelf like Harry Potter

Some categories are depressing small though, poetry/quotes only has two! Makes it very easy to see which categories I do not venture into a lot.

I think so far that I like the new system, other than it shows how many books I do not own anymore and my “to-read” books are all in bags on the floor around my shelf.

Series is where I am stumped though. Do you sort them by author? By series name? Once that initial sort is done…do you have them lined up side by side? With 1 on the left? Or do you have them stacked? If stacked, is 1 on the top or the bottom?

Every book challenge I get means that I am able to squeeze in some books from a series in but typically am left with only a partially read series which makes me really sad. I propose a new type of challenge.

The Series Challenge:

·         Each quarter has a new theme

·         Each quarter there are five additional categories that are selected at random (i.e. A book with a green cover, A book with a child protagonist…)

·         Each quarter there are five additional blank slots

This challenge allows three months to read a series while still allowing the scavenger fun of finding books that fit into categories. The five empty slots are in case a series is too large to complete in the quarter so there is still ample time to finish it throughout the course of the year.

The extra five quarterly categories will be reset as well!

and I am going to throw in that a series is 5 books or more. Trilogy is a trilogy, four is a quartet so that leaves five and more as a series!

Also, since I have a lot of series that I have started and not finished, if you read at least five books in a series that counts toward the challenge :) example being, The Women's Murder Club by James Patterson I have read the first seven books already but it is a 20 + book series. 

Shelf Loving <3

**EDIT** since writing this, and while I was trying to take a half decent picture I have re arranged my shelves again! I still kept categories mentioned above and also added a few more.

Happy National Pig Day!

So I constantly start and stop this blog. I need more consistency in when I post but posting is on the bottom of a very long too do list. Sad part is, I have a lot of drafted reviews I could easily post but I don’t want to spend the few moments logging in and posting in order to get them up.

Well I hope it isn’t too late to add a new New Year's resolution.

Going to try something new. A quarterly post. We will see how that rolls out and if there is time try to whittle it down to every two months then maybe to one! We will see how it goes though.

Did you know that March 1 is National Pig Day?

Well in honor of National Pig Day, and the fact that my family recently acquired two of the little critters, I finished reading Pot Bellies and Other Miniature Pigs – A Complete Pet Owner’s Manual by Pat Storer. A brief glimpse in what it takes to choose the pig as a good breed for your family, how to choose a good breed of pig, and basic care and maintenance. It is a good launch point for further research. 

March reads so far:

Ever read that book you just cannot get into? Yeah, well I have a couple of those right now so therefore they are stuck on my currently reading shelf. I am loath to give up on a book. I would rather skim it then give up on it. I have no idea why when there are thousands of others I would readily read instead.

(Kindle) Emerge – a dystopian story about a virus that basically wipes out civilization. An elitist group fortresses themselves and a bunch of supplies allowing the people that could not buy their way in (minus the few hand selected for their invaluable expertise) to die. Well the virus is back but it starts in the closed community. So far really enjoying it.

Bright From the Start – It is interesting reading once I dive in but I made the mistake of starting other books that were more interesting and fun to read that this got buried. I think I started it early 2015? It has a nice coat of dust on it. Not to say it is bad, just I found much easier and more fun reads since I put it down.

Paper Towns – Just started that over the weekend, so far it’s shaping out to be just like the movie. I think I will enjoy this one.

A Pirate’s look at Fifty – I love Jimmy Buffet and the book definitely isn’t bad. I meant to read this while in Jamaica and just never got around to it while there so it is just sitting on my shelf waiting to be completed.

Youth in Revolt – ugh… my friend lent me this book and she saw the movie then read the book. Maybe this will help me like it? I am on page 40, and have been at this point for several months. So far it is all about a teenage boy masturbating. With his friend, alone, eating, writing, and I’m sure if he could, sleeping.

Everybody Rise – a GoodReads first read, it is an audio book, my first. So far I am enjoying the listening to the book while I drive (especially since I have a 45min-1.5hour commute depending on traffic). The story though… It has its good parts and bad.

A nice mix of books don't you think?

My shelf for the year is even more of a mix match. This shelf will change, or more likely just grow, through out the year to accommodate the different reading challenges I am a part of as well as just reading books I want to!

Happy March! and happy first quarter of the year. 

And just because I can...pictures of my piggies in honor of National Pig Day!

(Bacon on the left, Chorizo on the right)

A Sunday Well Spent Brings a Week of Content

Everyone views Monday as the start of their week. Why? Their 9-5 is Monday through Friday? School is held (at least when I went) Monday – Friday. Sunday seems to be considered the last day of the week. Game changer, I consider it the first day of the week.

On Sundays, I find, that if I spend it getting chores done, to-do list items accomplished, and in general preparing for the week ahead the week goes by so much smoother.

A Sunday well spent for me includes:

·         Waking up before 9

·         Reading/Watching a show in the DVR

·         Getting the kids up, fed and dressed for the day

·         Running small errands or just going out to walk around for some fresh air

o   2017 we hope to have a backyard installed instead of just a dirt lot, that will help Sundays be spent at home and not in a shopping mall! I don’t need any more excuses to spend money :)

·         Home again for kids naptime, reading, household chores taking a nap

·         Dinner with the kids and then playtime for a little bit and a bath before they are off to bed for the night

Sundays tend to be unscheduled, when I get to it I get to it mentality. With the New Year though I want to make my Sundays better well spent. Actually start knocking items off the to do list (like that latch hook rug that I started in middle school, should I really keep it to try to get it done or is it time to throw that bad boy away?!).