2012 | ECF's Year in Review

Well, here we are. Another year nearly over, and now it's time to take a look back on it all, and...try to remember anything that happened before October. I'm not very good with recollecting.

I knew I should have worn sunglasses.

Let's see. Well, at the beginning of the year, I signed up for a bunch of challenges. I kept track of my books faithfully for about a month and a half, and then I -- oh look, a see-through frog! Yeah, I'm not very good at keeping up with challenges, and they generally don't really affect my decisions on what to read anyway, so I decided not so sign up for any this year.

Yes, it is a real thing.

However, I did manage to keep track of how many books I read -- a total of 253 as of this morning, three more than my goal. Of those, 67 were published this year, 116 were first-time reads but published in previous years, and 70 were re-reads. You can see all the books I read here. Out of those 183 new-to-me books, I gave six five stars (Fate's Edge by Ilona Andrews, Shatter Me by Taherah Mafi, Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, and Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein).

I also kind of neglected my blog in the summer and fall, but I'm starting to get back into the swing of things and remembering why I started doing this in the first place. I hope next year I'll be back to daily or almost daily posts.

I started another blog with a group of friends that I met on Goodreads. It's called GReeps Through the Shelves, and it's more a discussion blog than a book review blog most of the time. We'd love it if you stopped by to say hello!

Some of my favorite posts of the year: my not-really-a-review of John Green's The Fault in Our Stars, my bookish bucket list, the "stars" feature I did at the beginning of the year on the best books in a whole bunch of categories, and my post over at GTS about strong female characters.

Next year, my goals include getting back to daily posts, doing more discussion posts, coming up with some new features, and commenting on more blogs! And in the spirit of commenting, if you'd like to include a link to your own year in review post and/or your favorite post of the year, I'd love to stop by!

See you next year! And remember, the next 52 Fridays are ALL Friday the 13th! Mwahahahahaha.

Jason and Mrs. Vorhees wish you all a happy and lucky
new year.

Bout of Books | Wrap-Up

The end is upon us! I had fun doing the read-a-thon, though I didn't get quite as much reading done as I wanted to due to a rather busy schedule. Still, I got a few books in, participated in the Twitter chat on Wednesday, and commented on a few blogs.

My reading has been a little unfocused lately, which is why you'll see me reading (and not finishing) several books on the same day. I've been reading Before They Are Hanged all week and still have about 150 pages to go, but it's one of those books that takes a little more time. So I ended up finishing only four books, but if you added up all the parts of different books I didn't finish yet, that's probably another book or two. So...that counts, right? Ha, just kidding. Hope you all enjoyed the read-a-thon too!

UPDATES

Monday

Number of books I've read today: 1

Total number of books I've read: 1

Books: Angels' Blood

Tuesday

Number of books I've read today: <1

Total number of books I've read: >1

Books: Archangel's Kiss, Before They Are Hanged

Wednesday

Number of books I've read today: 1

Total number of books I've read: 2

Books: Archangel's Kiss (finished), Before They Are Hanged

Thursday

Number of books I've read today: 1

Total number of books I've read: 3

Books: The Giver, Before They Are Hanged

Friday

Number of books I've read today: <1

Total number of books I've read: 3

Books: Before They Are Hanged

Saturday

Number of books I've read today: 1

Total number of books I've read: 4

Books: Beautiful Disaster, Before They Are Hanged

Sunday

Number of books I've read today: <1

Total number of books I've read: 4

Books: Secrets of the Demon, Dearly, Departed, Before They Are Hanged

Bout of Books | End Day 2

So remember how I said I was going to spend my evenings this week reading and not watching all of Doctor Who? Well, that was before I got distracted by the second half of Season 3. They keep doing the "to be continued" thing, and obviously I can't just stop. Brilliant show. Although it does make me talk to my computer screen in this weird amalgamation of British accents. Good thing there's no one to hear me.

Anyway. You are not here for Doctor Who. (Though you should be!) You are here for reading. To the point!

UPDATES

Monday

Number of books I've read today: 1

Total number of books I've read: 1

Books: Angels' Blood

Tuesday

Number of books I've read today: <1

Total number of books I've read: >1

Books: Archangel's Kiss, Before They Are Hanged

Wednesday

Number of books I've read today:

Total number of books I've read:

Books:

Thursday

Number of books I've read today:

Total number of books I've read:

Books:

Friday

Number of books I've read today:

Total number of books I've read:

Books:

Saturday

Number of books I've read today:

Total number of books I've read:

Books:

Sunday

Number of books I've read today:

Total number of books I've read:

Books:

Bout of Books 5.0 | Goals

Hi everyone! Long time, no see. In an effort to get back to my blog (oops) I've decided to participate in Bout of Books 5.0 this week. Let's be honest, it's pretty much going to be like every other week, except with more socializing with other bloggers! But that's the fun. Anyway, here's what I've got planned. (Ha, planned? That's funny.)

TIME DEVOTED TO READING
I'll be reading in the evenings and most of the weekend. Basically same as normal. I'll try to keep away from Netflix for the week, but the call of Doctor Who is hard to resist.

MY GOALS
Que sera sera. I'm just doing this for the prizes! (Are there prizes? I have no idea.)

BOOKS TO READ
Whatever strikes my fancy. I'm currently reading Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie and re-reading Angels' Blood by Nalini Singh.

UPDATES
Monday
Number of books I've read today:
Total number of books I've read:
Books:

Tuesday
Number of books I've read today:
Total number of books I've read:
Books:

Wednesday
Number of books I've read today:
Total number of books I've read:
Books:

Thursday
Number of books I've read today:
Total number of books I've read:
Books:

Friday
Number of books I've read today:
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Saturday
Number of books I've read today:
Total number of books I've read:
Books:

Sunday
Number of books I've read today:
Total number of books I've read:
Books:

See you all around! Leave your links in the comments and I'll stop by!

Bout of Books

I have just now decided to sign up for the Bout of Books Read-a-Thon! I like read-a-thons. This one starts today and ends Sunday, and it has the straightforward goal of people reading more than they would in a normal week. My personal goal is going to be to read six or seven books, which may or may not actually happen, and to actually write the reviews when I'm finished. I don't know exactly what I'll be reading yet, except that it will include Tricked (Kevin Hearne) and Railsea (China Miéville). Other than that, I'm winging it. Click the button to sign up yourself!

Updates

Day 1

Tricked by Kevin Hearne (338 pp)

Froi of the Exiles by Melina Marchetta (69 pp)

Total books read: 1

Total pages read: 407

Day 2
Froi of the Exiles by Melina Marchetta (255 pp)

Railsea by China Miéville (40 pp)

Total books read: 1

Total pages read: 702

Day 3

Froi of the Exiles by Melina Marchetta (105 pp)

Total books read: 1

Total pages read: 807

Day 4

Froi of the Exiles by Melina Marchetta (169 pp)

Railsea by China Miéville (40 pp)

Total books read: 2

Total pages read: 1016

Day 5

Railsea by China Miéville (282 pp)

Total books read: 2 

Total pages read: 1298

Day 6

Railsea by China Miéville (86 pp)
Insurgent by Veronica Roth (525 pp)
Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley (228 pp)

Total books read: 5

Total pages read: 2137

Day 7
The Eternity Code by Eoin Colfer (352 pp)
Dark Magic by James Swain (39 pp)
Total books read: 6
Total pages read: 2528 (Probably. I'm bad at adding.)

Bloggiesta Wrap-Up

And the weekend is now over! I didn't get as much done as I might have hoped, but the essentials were completed, and I don't intend for the end of the weekend to be the end of my improvements. The Twitter chats especially have given me some ideas to work on when I have some more free time.

Here's what I wanted to do:

-Spiff up the banner/button which became "totally redesign the blog"
-Update my review/feature pages
-Make buttons for new features that I want to start: okay, didn't actually get to this. I will either this week or this weekend, though.
-Figure out how to do those drop down pages: a couple of people were nice enough to send me instructions for this, I just didn't have time to actually do it.
-Catch up on a few reviews I am now more or less caught up!
-Whatever other stuff I come up with

So yeah, mostly it was just redesign and reviews. Which is fine; I really like how the blog looks now, and it's good not to be three weeks behind on reviews. Although I didn't participate in the chats and mini challenges as much as I might have liked, they did give me some good ideas of further work I should be doing. I hope next time I'll be able to devote more time to this!

Bloggiesta Day 2

Even though it's day 2 of Bloggiesta, I didn't get anything done yesterday, since my internet was sulking in its room. But it's fixed now! Yay!

Of course, then today I had to go grocery shopping and finish a book that was about to be overdue, so I still wasn't all that productive. I have been working on a new header – the purple and brown color scheme is starting to look a little dull – but I'm not quite satisfied yet. I'd appreciate any suggestions! I'm using Picnik, and have absolutely zero Photoshop expertise (and also zero Photoshop) so just keep that in mind.

And version 2. I still think there's too much white (blue) space, but it's an improvement.

And the quotes version. I might be leaning towards this one.

Thoughts?

Bloggiesta

So after much consideration, I decided to sign up for Bloggiesta this weekend. I have some improvements I want to make (especially since Picnik is going away soon – sad), so I figured I'd spend some time hanging out with and getting advice from other bloggers while I do.

Signups are still open here if you want to join in!

These are some of the things I want to get done:
-Spiff up the banner/button
-Update my review/feature pages
-Make buttons for new features that I want to start
-Figure out how to do those drop down pages
-Catch up on a few reviews
-Whatever other stuff I come up with

Goodreads Catch-Up Readathon Wrap-Up

I'm doing another read-a-thon! After having lots of fun with the 24-hour Read-a-thon in October and the Wicked Winter Read-a-thon earlier this month, I just had to sign up for Once Upon a Chapter's read-a-thon when I saw it. It's theoretically for people to catch up on their GR reading challenges, but I'm just doing it for fun, since I'm already at least ten books ahead. But after this I'll need a review-a-thon, because I'm already four reviews behind! Ahhh! I do have a whole lot of library books to read, though, so this will be a good way to get all those done before I have to return them.

You can still sign up, just click the button! The Thon starts tomorrow and runs through March 1. I'll just be updating this post with each day's reading and such.

Day 1 (Friday)
Books read: 2
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Alcatraz Versus the Scrivener's Bones by Brandon Sanderson
Pages read: 633

Day 2 (Saturday)
Books read: 2
Abandon by Meg Cabot
Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta
Pages read: 514
Total pages read: 1047

Day 3 (Sunday)
Books read: 1.25
Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Pages read: 245
Total pages read: 1292

Day 4 (Monday)
Books read: <1
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Pages read: 183
Total pages read: 1475

Day 5 (Tuesday)
Books read: 1.5
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
A Perfect Blood by Kim Harrison
Pages read: 786
Total pages read: 2261

Day 6 (Wednesday)
Books read: 0.33
Feed by Mira Grant
Pages read: 195
Total pages read: 2456

Day 7 (Thursday)
Books read:

Feed by Mira Grant

Pages read: 388

Total pages read: 2844

Wrap-Up

This was a nice little read-a-thon to join. I read seven books and 2844 pages. All of them were decent at worst, and most of them were really pretty great. Thanks to Stephanie for hosting, and see you all next time!

Review Copy Cleanup

I've just signed up for the Review Copy Cleanup Challenge, hosted by Nyx Book Reviews and Books, Biscuits, and Tea. The RCC runs the entire month of March and is dedicated to getting through that stack of review books that may or may not be from your overindulgence in NetGalley. Click the button to sign up yourself!
It's already March and time for the challenge to start, so here are the review books I have:
Moonstone series by Marilee BrothersWhite Witch by Trish MilburnStarters by Lissa PriceSlide by Jill HathawayGoddess Interrupted by Aimée CarterThe Green Man by Michael BedardRoyal Street by Suzanne JohnsonThe Peculiars by Maureen Doyle McQuerryDark Magic by James SwainLies Beneath by Anne Greenwood BrownDust Girl by Sarah ZettelSeraphina by Rachel Hartman

**For regular readers, Stars of Myths and Fairy Tales will be up tomorrow. I was going to do it today, but then I read Feed, and then I couldn't do any more thinking. So stop by tomorrow for that.

Soul Screamers Reading Challenge: My Soul to Take

Rachel at Fiktshun is hosting a great challenge to read/re-read all of Rachel Vincent's Soul Screamers books before Before I Wake comes out. Since I loved the first one but hadn't read the rest, I signed up right away!

To get started, over the weekend I re-read My Soul to Take, book one in the series. I reviewed this book in October, but I wanted to do the full challenge, and besides, I really liked it the first time around. It was just as great the second time! Okay, maybe not quite as great – a lot of the fun from that first read came from not knowing what was going on – but even remembering pretty much everything that happened, I really enjoyed it. I went right on to book two, which I'll be reviewing...er...soon. Whenever I get through my backlog of reviews. This series is terribly addicting, and I'll probably be finished with it long before the challenge ends. I'll try to spread my reviews out though.

2011 Wrap-Up

2011 has been a crazy year! I graduated from college, moved, joined Goodreads, started the blog, met a bunch of awesome people, and read a lot of great books! I met Maggie Stiefvater (who is terribly funny and if possible even more amazing in person than she is on paper), Cassandra Clare, and Michelle Hodkin (both of whom are quite entertaining). Thank you all so much for reading and following; I appreciate all your comments and your support. And I appreciate not talking to myself here, because I do enough of that already.

...I have done this. A lot.

I don't know if you notice this, but I read fast. (This is something that happens when you start reading 700 page books when you are twelve. You have to read fast or you will never finish anything.) So I am happy to say that I read a lot of books this year. You can see what I've read since the end of July by going to my challenge page on GR. Here's a screen shot, though you can't necessarily see what all the books are:

Since July 27, 2011 I have read 163 books, of which 128 were new reads. My goal was originally 60 (because I had never counted the number of books I read before), which I then changed to 200 when I finished the first 60 by September. While I didn't end up meeting my revised goal, I think it was a pretty successful year!

I also took part in the Horror and Urban Fantasy Challenge to read and review at least 24 horror/UF books, and I'm pleased to report that even though I didn't start until August, when I started my blog, I managed to review 33 books for the challenge. Thanks to the lovely ladies at Book Chick City for hosting this challenge!

How many books did you read this year? Did you finish your challenges? Leave a comment or link to your wrap-up post and let me know! Have a fun and safe New Year's Eve, and Happy New Year!

2012 Reading Challenges Or It's Almost 2012 Already?!

Can you believe it's already December? 2012 is in less than a month! Time flies.

Since the new year is fast approaching, I thought I'd post the challenges I'm planning on for next year. I'll try to update this page as the year goes on, hopefully without making it too ridiculously long. (I may just post links to Goodreads.)

Wish me luck! It looks like a lot, but the larger ones will overlap. I also entered some of them in lower categories than I thought I might reach, just in case, so we'll see how it goes!

Updates will be posted here, so stop by and see what I'm reading!

11-20 books - a friendly hug

One chomp - 6 zombie books

24 UF/horror books

12 YA/MG debuts




Server - 100 ebooks





Challenge on GR will be for 250 books

You've got a serious problem and really need to go book shopping - 21+ re-reads

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: Rhyming Review Challenge!

Well, Chris, your challenge I accept

To write a post that rhymes

And for this task, the book I chose

I've read uncounted times.

When I began this book I was

A child of Harry's age.

These words imagination sparked,

Dreams of magic from a page.

Quidditch, wands, and owls as pets:

Old myths greet others new,

And through my youth I learned to love

This tale that grew and grew.

A world of wizards Rowling spun

In loving, bright detail

Though one small flaw this jewel marred--

That magic's price seemed pale.

But Harry's story here is told

Not of magic but of love.

Here good and evil, friends and trust

Reach heights few rise above.

And so this book I recommend

To everyone and all!

For laughter, tears, great loves and fears

Sing in its siren's call.

Horror and Urban Fantasy Reading Challenge 2011!

I just recently found this challenge on Book Chick City to read and review 24 horror/UF books in 2011. While it's already October, I figure since I've already read a bunch since August, I can manage 24 before year's end.

So far I've done:
Working for the Devil
A Discovery of Witches
Dead Reckoning
Bloodlines
Demonglass
First Grave on the Right
The Forest of Hands and Teeth
Ghost Story
Insatiable
Johannes Cabal the Necromancer
Nightwalker
Starcrossed
Succubus Revealed
The Wolves of Mercy Falls
You Slay Me
Tithe
Angelology
Lament
My Soul to Take
Archangel's Blade
World War Z
The Scorpio Races
Blood Price
Stray
Fairy Tale
Beg for Mercy
The Son of Neptune
Ballad
Aloha from Hell
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
The Iron Duke
Second Grave on the Left
Blood Bound
The Demon's Lexicon
The Goddess Test
Drink Deep
Clockwork Prince
The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer
Feyland: The Dark Realm
Shadow Heir