TSS: February reading round up

This week's unofficial Sunday Salon post is my February reading round up, although I am still wondering how on earth can it possibly be the end of February already. I know it is a short month, but it really should still only be near the middle of the month, maybe the 21st, not the end of the month.

The biggest casualty of the fact that the end of the month is upon us is my LOTR Readalong book, The Fellowship of the Ring. My intention was to read 100 pages a week, but I am still stuck on page 160 having not read anything for a couple of weeks at least! And, I haven't even requested the next book from the library so it isn't like I would be ready for the next month's readalong anyway!

So, if I haven't been reading the Tolkien book, what have I been reading? This month I read 12 books, which is not bad, especially considering that two of those books were chunksters.

The books I read were:

If His Kiss Is Wicked by Jo Goodman (4.5/5)
Leonardo's Swans by Karen Essex (4/5)
First Comes Marriage by Mary Balogh (4/5)
A Distant Shore by Peter Yeldham (4.5/5)
Tears of Pearl by Tasha Alexander (3/5)
Graceling by Kristin Cashore (4.5/5)
Emma Vol 2 by Kaoru Mori (4/5)
Remember When by Nora Roberts/J D Robb
Roses by Leila Meacham (4.5/5)
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (5/5)
Betrayal of the Blood Lily by Lauren Willig (4/5)
Mistress of the Sun by Sandra Gulland (4/5)

And how did I go with my challenges?

I had several books which covered multiple challenges this month. I love it when that happens! The book that I read for the Year of the Historical challenge was Jo Goodman's If His Kiss Is Wicked (excellent dialogue) also qualified for the Romance  Reading Challenge as did First Comes Marriage.

The books that I read for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge this month were Leonardo's Swans, Roses, The Betrayal of the Blood Lily and Mistress of the Sun. I am making good progress through the Historical Fiction Reading challenge having read 6 of the 20 books required to get to the Obsessed level of achievement. Karen Essex's Leonardo's Swans also qualified for the Tournament of Reads (just), and Mistress of the Sun for the French Historical Challenge.

I am happy to report that I am still doing okay on the Aussie Authors reading challenge. This month I read A Distant Shore by Peter Yeldham, and I am currently over half way through Lord Sunday by Garth Nix, the final book in the Keys to the Kingdom YA series.

So far I have read 27 books for the 100+ Reading challenge and 22 books for the Support Your Local Reading Challenge. I did notice that there is new reading challenge called 100 Books in a Year that is being hosted by Reading with Sea which runs from March 2010 to February 2011. I am still deciding whether to sign up or not for that challenge. It does seem to be a duplication 100+ challenge that I am already participating in, but covers a different period, so I might still sign up.

I made a start on the Chunkster Challenge this month by reading Roses by Leila Meacham and The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (excellent, excellent book). Roses also qualified for the Pub 2010 challenge.

I also read a book for the In Death Reading Challenge. Remember When is a bit of a strange book really. The first half of the book is written in the style of Nora Roberts, and the second half is J D Robb featuring Eve Dallas from the In Death books. Nora Roberts and J D Robb are the same person writing under different names but it was still a bit strange to read.

The challenges that I didn't make any progress on this month include the Harry Potter Reading Challenge, the Vampire Series Challenge (which I kind of surprising - a whole month without reading a vampire novel. I can't remember the last time that happened), the Tudor Book Challenge, the L J Smith reading challenge and also my own Terry Pratchett Reading Challenge. I am planning to put a post up for the Terry Pratchett Challenge this week. Actually, I have been planning that for a while now, but this week I will actually do it!


No progress on these challenges doesn't stop me from joining new challenges. This time I am joining Carrie at Books and Movies in her Ireland Reading Challenge. It runs from February to November and I am planning to meet the Luck O' the Irish level of achievement by reading 4 novels that are either set in Ireland, written by Irish authors or involving Irish history or Irish characters

Lord of the Rings Readalong: The Fellowship of the Ring

It's February, and that means it is time to move on from The Hobbit and onto the first book of the Lords of the Ring trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring. I must confess, I am not quite ready to move on from The Hobbit. I finished reading the book in a couple of days early in January, but since then I have also borrowed a radio adaptation to listen to, and also a graphic novel version of the book which I haven't managed to read yet. But move on we must!

This second part of the Lord of the Rings readalong is being hosted over at the Literary Omnivore and she has started off with these questions:

When did you first hear of The Lord of the Rings

Have you read The Fellowship of the Ring before?

What’s your plan of attack, now that we’re dealing with more “mature” literature?

Have you ever seen the movies? If so, do you think they’ll influence your reading? If not, well, why haven’t you seen them?

I first heard of The Lord of the Rings after reading The Hobbit, but I am pretty sure I didn't actually read it until I had already left school. Here's the thing about this trilogy though. I hardly remember anything about it. I am relatively sure that I have already read it, but it will in effect be just like reading it the first time through I think. I do have vague recollections, but I am not sure that it is any more than is out in the general knowledge in the public.

In terms of my plan of attac, normally with my library books (yes that exceptionally boring cover is from my library book), I keep a list of return dates and whether the book can be extended again, and I keep track of which book I should read next. In other words I keep every library book to read until the last possible moment. I am actually breaking out from that routine to include this book in my February reads, because in theory, assuming that I can extend it through the full cycle of extensions, then I wouldn't actually have to read it for another 8 weeks or so. Instead I think I will try to read 100 or so pages each week. I am sure once I get into it, I won't want to put it down and so I will get through it by the end of the month.

There are some times when I am almost shy to confess that there are certain movies that I haven't ever seen. Let me give you an example. I have never, ever seen any of the Star Wars movies from beginning to end. I've seen bits and pieces, but not whole movies. There's no real reason for this. My mother wouldn't let us see the early movies when we were kids because in her opinion they were rubbish, and then I just really never got around to seeing them once she no longer controls what I view despite the fact that I did go through phases of being really into series like Star Trek, Stargate etc. You know where I am going with this don't you? Yep. Never, ever seen any of the Lord of the Rings movies. Maybe reading this book will inspire me to go and watch it.

Are you joining in on the readalong this month?

Lord of the Rings Readalong: The Hobbit, or There and Back Again

There are times that I obliviously wander through life, not noticing the things that are going on around me. Or perhaps it is that at the time I did notice it, but didn't think I would be able to participate. Whatever the case actually was, apparently as long ago as November, there were conversation happening on Twitter and on blogs about a Lord of the Rings readalong starting in January, and I never noticed...until a couple of days ago, when suddenly I needed, yes, NEEDED, to reread The Hobbit. It must have been fated because I walked into my lounge room, stood in front of the bookshelf, and there was the book. Found it without even trying! And now that I am nearly finished reading it, have to say that it is pretty much the perfect read for me at the moment!

I first read The Hobbit in either year 8 or year 9 - the first couple of years of high school anyway. I remember liking it a lot at the time, but my overwhelming memory is the title page that I did for the book report. Now, I am pretty sure I have said before that I am not an artist, and never have been. My friends would turn in these super artistic title pages with gorgeous colours, lettering and illustrations, but that really was never my strong point. If you wanted to talk about what was in the report in terms of content, then I was up there for sure, but presentation...not so much.

My title page had my idea of what the hill that Bilbo Baggin's hobbit hole was built into, with a path leading to his door. I guess in concept it was something similar to the header over at Kaye's blog, The Road Goes Ever On, but there was a mile wide gap in terms of execution!

If you had of asked me, I would have sworn that the edition that I have in my book collection was the one that I had read that first time, but having a look at the details, that doesn't appear to be the case given that I read the book in either 1983 or 1984, and the edition that I am now reading was published in 1987. You can see that it is a book that has been read a few times. The spine is a little damaged, there is some sticky tape holding the spine together, so even just the experience of reading it again has been something of a trip down memory lane without even reading any of the words.

I did really struggle to find an image showing the cover that I am reading, but thankfully Violet from Still Life With Books came to the rescue! There are so many different covers out there! The only difference between this image and my cover is that at the very bottom it says 'The Hobbit 50th Anniversary'.

In the introductory post, Eva, who is hosting the discussion for The Hobbit, asked several discussion questions to get things going.

When did you first hear of The Hobbit? What made you decide to join the read-a-long?

Have you read it before? If so tell us about that experience.

If you’re new to The Hobbit, do you have any preconceptions going into it?

J.R.R. Tolkien pretty much founded the modern fantasy genre. So let’s take a moment to think about the genre as a whole; have you always loved fantasy? Or perhaps you still feel rather skeptical towards the whole idea of wizards and dwarfs and magic? What was your introduction to the genre?

Do you have a certain plan for reading it? A few pages a day, spacing it out over the month? Or are you just going to race through it? Let whimsy decide?

A few years ago I would have said that I wasn't really a fantasy reader. While I don't read anywhere near as much fantasy as I do other genres, for example historical romance or historical fiction, these days I do read a fair proportion of fantasy, and also books featuring paranormal creatures. There are certain authors that I have read for an extended period of time that are classified as fantasy authors, like Terry Pratchett and Jasper Fforde, but other than those, one of the changes that blogging has made to the way I read is that I do read more outside of my two major genres, and really enjoy it!

When I started rereading this book, I didn't really have a plan as to how I was going to read. It was more a case of having to read it and read it now, and so that's what I have done. In the end I have been enjoying reacquainting myself with Bilbo, Gandalf and all the dwarves, I think I will probably finish it tomorrow morning.

Guess the main question I have left is how many more years will it be before I reread this book again?