Another one bites the dust!

Another reading challenge that is! And this time it is the Vampire Series Reading Challenge.

The books that I read for this challenge are:

The Struggle by L J Smith
Tempted by PC Cast and Kristin Cast
When Twilight Burns by Colleen Gleason
The Fury by L J Smith
Burned by PC Cast and Kristin Cast
Twilight: The Graphic Novel by Stephenie Meyer (illustrated by Young Kim)

Twilight: The Graphic Novel Vol 1 - Stephenie Meyer and Young Kim

When Isabella Swan moves to the gloomy town of Forks and meets the mysterious, alluring Edward Cullen, her life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. With his porcelain skin, golden eyes, mesmerizing voice, and supernatural gifts, Edward is both irresistible and impenetrable. Up until now, he has managed to keep his true identity hidden, but Bella is determined to uncover his dark secret...

Beautifully rendered, this first installment of Twilight: The Graphic Novel is a must-have for any collector's collection.

The current trend to turn successful novels and series into graphic novels is one which has passed me by to a certain extent. Whilst I know for example that there is a graphic novel of Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark Hunter series, I haven't yet managed to read it. In fact, most of the graphic novels that I have read have all started out as graphic novels and not been converted from an existing series. I actually think I prefer the idea of the upcoming Outlander graphic novel a bit better. Rather than a straight retelling of one of the existing books, it is a companion story and will have new events to share with the reader.

This graphic novel was a pleasant surprise, in that it tells the story that is familiar that is told in the first of the Twilight novels and in a some what altered fashion in the movie, it was good to see that the imagery used in the graphic novel didn't seem to have been influenced by the movie in terms of the way that the characters were portrayed. The only thing is that I still like the way that Charlie Swan looks in the movie! I can't remember who the actor is that plays him, but for me he is still one of the best parts of the movies.

Young Kim has done an excellent job of illustrating the events in the book, and bringing Stephenie Meyer's words into a new medium. 

I would say that I would happily drool over the Edward from the graphic novel more than I would ever drool over Robert Pattinson. Jacob not so much.

One thing that Bella from the graphic novel and the movie do have in common is that they both have good hair! I know that for graphic novel Bella was drawn that way (to paraphrase Jessica Rabbit), but it doesn't stop this hair-challenged person being envious!


This book counted for the Vampire Series challenge, and I have now completed that challenge. I will do a wrap up post later this week.

Actually, yesterday was a bit of a Twilight day really, because in addition to reading this, I also went and saw Eclipse with a group of friends. I liked it a lot. The movies have definitely improved a lot. I do look forward to watching Breaking Dawn, but I must confess that I am concerned with how a few things are going to be portrayed given that there were a few moments in the book that had me wanting to throw the book at the wall! I guess we will see in due course how I like the movie.

March Reading Reflections

It's been a busy month here at Adventures of an Intrepid Reader. It is still a surprise to me to get emails saying that I have received a comment from that blog name, after having been Reading Adventures for so long, but I like it! Not only was there the makeover here and at Historical Tapestry but we also managed to get a few days away. Hopefully by the end of the weekend I will get a few photos up. Maybe.

Reading wise, I continue to surprise myself by managing to read more than the eleven or twelve books that I figured I would be able to read each month when I was looking at my goals for the year in January. This month I managed a respectable total of 15 books:

Lord Sunday by Garth Nix (4/5)
Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett (4/5)
Devil's Cub by Georgette Heyer (5/5)
Dance of Seduction by Elle Kennedy (3.5/5)
The Struggle by L J Smith (4/5)
Then Comes Seduction by Mary Balogh (4/5)
Tempted by PC Cast and Kristin Cast (4/5)
Dance Upon the Earth by Nora Roberts (4/5)
The Champion by Elizabeth Chadwick (4.5/5)
A Duke of Her Own by Eloisa James (4.5/5)
The Postmistress by Sarah Blake (4.5/5)
The House on Tradd Street by Karen White (4.5/5)
The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen (4/5)
Fireworks Over Toccoa by Jeffrey Stepakoff (4/5)
The Stolen Crown by Susan Higginbotham (4/5)

I actually managed to read quite a few books for challenges this month, so let's see what progress I made, or didn't make as the case may be.

Yet again, I made no progress with the Period Drama Challenge or with the Harry Potter Reading Challenge. The Pacific is about to be shown here though so I am going to make a special effort to watch that, which will count for the first of those two challenges! The other challenges I made no progress with were the French Historical Reading Challenge (although quite a bit of The Champion was set on the tourney fields of France so I did think about counting that book for the challenge), the Art History Reading Challenge, the Tudor Challenge, In Death Reading Challenge, the Ireland Reading Challenge, but I should be able to do something with those in the not too distant future...hopefully. The Champion does however qualify as a chunkster so I am now half way through the Chunkster Challenge.

Another challenge that The Champion qualifies for, along with Susan Higginbotham's The Stolen Crown, is the Tournament of Reading. In theory I have now met the challenge requirements for this challenge, but I the first book I read for it only just qualified (should have a medieval setting where medieval is quantified as occuring between 500-1500 AD) I might read another book just to be sure!

The Struggle is the second book in the original Vampire Diaries series, which means that I am halfway through The LJ Smith reading challenge. This book and Tempted also counted for the Vampire Series Challenge, so I am third of the way through that challenge now.

Lord Sunday is by Australian author Garth Nix, so that book counted towards the Aussie Authors Challenge, which I am have now read 5 out of the 8 books required to finish this challenge.

The book that I have used as my Year of the Historical read for March was Devil's Cub by Georgette Heyer, which is also the book that I reviewed when the Classics Circuit came to visit earlier this month. This book also qualified as a read for the Romance Reading Challenge, along with Dance of Seduction, Then Comes Seduction, Dance Upon the Air, and A Duke of Her Own. I only have two more books to read before I have completed the Romance Reading Challenge.

Another challenge that I only need to read another couple of books before I can say I have completed it is the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. This month The Champion, The Book of Unholy Mischief, The Postmistress, The Stolen Crown and Fireworks Over Toccoa all counted towards this challenge. Those last three book were all published this year and so also count towards the Pub 2010 Reading Challenge as well.

The new challenge I joined this month was Once Upon a Time IV, and The Girl who Chased the Moon qualifies for that challenge, so I am on the way for that one too!

Phew! That's a lot of books for challenges, or challenges for books, whichever way around you want to see it! All that is left is to update my progress on the 100+ Reading Challenge (I have read 42 out of the 100+ I am aiming for), and the Support Your Local Library Challenge where I have read 35 out of the 100 books I was aiming for.

On Sunday I will be posting about Reading Our Own Bookshelves, which is going to put a bit of a dent in my library reading, but I am very excited about participating in!

Wait, there's more!

You would think that given that my January wrap up post was so long, I couldn't possibly have anything else to add to it, but that isn't the case.

The first thing is that I forgot to say thanks for an award that I was given by Miss Moppet from the excellent blog, The Misadventures of Moppet. Here are the award details:

This award is for those followers who are the most loyal and give bloggers joy by commenting regularly and giving their support. Pass it on to 3 to 7 followers who are as loyal as dragons.

In turn I am passing this award on to some bloggers who have starting commenting on my blog relatively recently, to thank them for sticking around! My thanks to:

Amy from Just Book Reading
Cat from Tell Me A Story
Aths from Reading on a Rainy Day
Rowenna from Hyaline Prosaic
Muse in the Fog from Confessions and Ramblings of a Muse in the Fog

and thank you to everyone who keeps on coming back to visit me!

The other thing I needed to add was yet another challenge that I am signing up for. Thanks to Serena from Savvy Verse and Wit who posted about it, I have just found out about the 2010 Vampire Series challenge, and I of course am in thrall to vampires so am going to have to join in! There are four different levels available for this challenge. I am signing up for the third level:

Level Three: Vampire Enthusiast ~ Read 6 books from any series featuring vampires as key/main characters. This can be a mix of different series, or you can read all 6 books from one series, or whatever.

The challenge runs from January 1 to December 31. You can find out all the details, and sign up to participate, over at MizB's Reading Challenge blog.

I have read two books already which would qualify for this challenge (being The Awakening by L J Smith and Shadowfae by Erica Hayes), but I am not sure if I am going to claim them for this challenge yet. I am pretty sure that I will be able to still meet the challenge without claiming those two books, but I reserve the right to change my mind on that decision!