One January Two Thousand and Eighteen

Good Evening Readers,

Did the first day of the new year treat you well? Mine did. Put in new bookshelves, read Celtic Gods and Heroes by Marie-Lousie Sjoestedt (Pop Sugar 2018 - A book about or tied to your heritage.) I also started reading Ulysses by James Joyce on the Serial Reader App, and holy crap do I ever understand why this book is so impossible for people.

The Serial App is giving me a piece a day to read, for 109 days. April 19, 2018 cannot come quickly enough! This is one impossible read that is seriously giving me Quixotic vibes; and I may just need to read it under a tilted windmill.

However tomorrow's piece is new, and one day closer to an end goal. Plus, I have another quick book to read on my Kindle for the Pop Sugar challenge, one that takes place on a different planet. All leading up to spending the bulk of my time reading a Cyberpunk tale.

Until next time,
XoXo
BrainyHeroine

Decisions, Decisions

Happy New Year All!

To kick off this new year I am doing a book reading blitz. Between today and tomorrow I plan to read as many challenge books as I can! There are about 10 on my master list that are nice and short, unintentionally, yet this is making my blitz that much more doable.

The blitz had been planned for awhile, but the books kept bouncing around. Actually deciding what to read sometimes is hard! I am one of those who can simultaneously want to read any and everything, while still not being able find anything to read.

For the blitz I have chosen the shorter books on my list which will let me start off with a bang. Over the next couple of days I'm aiming to get through about 8 books; each meeting a different challenge requirement.

Am I insane? Yes. But this will also be great practice for the 24in48 January Read-a-thon later this month. (Check it out and sign up!)

Happy Reading!
-BrainyHeroine

Books and Math

Good Afternoon All,

One thing that I have always loved about books is that they are decidedly un-mathy, unless you're reading a book about math. Since I was never very good at math, numbers and I just don't get along. However it occurred to me that these reading challenges are going to be a numbers game. By the end of next year I will have (hopefully) read between 84 and 108 books; 26 from the #LitsyAtoZ challenge + 40 from PopSugar's 2017 Challenge + 12 additional PS challenge books + 12 books for my Historical Fiction book club + 12 Book of the Month Club books + 6 to make the total nicely divisible by 12. All said and done it is 108 books, the minimum to meet the challenges will be 84. I'm still presuming that there will be some cross over as 9 books in a month is quite a bit. Though, when you factor that some of these books will be in audiobook format it seems more plausible somehow. I'm excited for this undertaking. I've bought a second book log to keep track of EVERYTHING I read and listen too next year, whilst keeping my TARDIS log for the challenges.

The more thought and preparation I'm putting into my Lit Goals for 2017 the more excited and nervous I'm getting. Help me along, won't you? Tell me what your favorite book is, or one you think would fit any of these challenges, or one that makes you happy, one that you think the world should read; I'd really love to know.

All the best,
Brainy Heroine

The Hunt Begins and Ends in Geekdom

Evening All,

Today was a day spent trying to find the one, singular, most perfect item to aid me in the coming year of literary challenges. Today I made it my mission to find a book journal. Now there are several available for purchase online, Amazon has a great selection, Moleskine has a seemingly good one at a great price too boot. However I find these sort of things to be challenging to purchase online. When it comes to journals in general I prefer to feel them, smell them, see if the thickness of the pages will hold or smear the ink of my favorite pens. I love looking for journals that are purse sized, ones that I will carry with me every where, or find ones that are large, perfect for desks or nightstand writings. My husband found me a truly beautiful one the other day, an 8x10 Blue Sky marble looking hard back thing of art. Honestly though? I just need something that feels right, is cute, and will keep me committed to it, and an excuse to spend hours in Barnes and Noble to find something that meets ALL the above criteria and then some (and just time spent in B&N) doesn't hurt anything either.

With a solid goal and budget in mind I set about to find my magical item. The first trip through B&N didn't yield a winner, then again I wasn't giving anything a fair enough chance. B&N is my go to place to physically buy Moleskine notebooks, I was looking for the book journal, didn't find it, and found 5 discount books to soothe my soul. At Ross I was able to find a perfect 2017 planner, and thought I found a great notebook to match, but flaws were found. The realization of the coupon magic that was had at B&N meant a trip back to purchase a Christmas gift, and to give the other journals a second chance.

As I'm looking at them, seeing their Dapper Fox, sloth, and motivational journals I grabbed some contenders and sat down to really pour through them. As I began putting them back I found the one. The only one like it. The Doctor Who TARDIS 6"x8" Journal.  "You want weapons? We're in a library! Books! Best weapons in the world! This room's the greatest arsenal we could have. Arm yourself!" - The Doctor, played by David Tennant While I'll have to implement my own organizational structure, dealing with some trial and error on that end, it felt right.


A reading challenge, or a series of them is something at its very core is meant for the Nerd/Geek/Dorkdom's of the world. And books are like the TARDIS, they are bigger on the inside and can transport you
  anywhere you could ever want to go.


So this is what I wound up with, and I'm excited to see where it leads me next year.

Thanks for reading,
Brainy Heroine