P&PS

One of my 101 in 1,001 goals was to complete a reading challenge. I started out working on a couple of my own devising, picking my way through a couple of top 100 and recommended favorites list, without much success. I was getting pretty discouraged until the Book Riot Read Harder challenge popped up at the end of last year. This was something I could do; twenty four books in a year and a half was more than doable, even with the couple of categories I had added. It started out so well in fact I decided to try and finish it within the year. Things slowed down a bit midsummer, and ultimately I've discovered I like projects a little more open ended like the Seasonal Reading challenge on Goodreads, but I finished and I'm so glad I did. I read a lot of books I wouldn't have read otherwise. I picked up books I ended up loving instead of watching them fall to the bottom of my TBR list. Much like my 100 book goal for the year (something else I'm planning on revising), it ...

I know I've said I was going to skip Book Riot's 2016 Read Harder Challenge . I know I said I loved 2015's but I wanted a bit of a break to be free and read all the things, and that's true, but I love that the challenge makes me read new things and I love that it motivates me to read when I don't feel like it and I love that it's an attainable goal for me. 2016's challenge has some great categories and the NYPL's list of recommendations is beautiful, so as you might have suspected I can't resist. It's not even 2016 yet and I'm already jumping on the bandwagon. This year I made the mistake of making a list of books that fit the categories and trying to stick to it. That didn't work for me. I need to be able to pick up a book on a whim, not necessarily spontaneously, but it has to appeal to me in the moment, and having a pre-set list doesn't allow that to happen. So instead, this year I'm making a list of books by challenge categ...

Current Obsessions (On Repeat) Fresh coconut Apples (still) and pears! Roaster chicken Asparagus Cranberries NaNoWriMo(ish) Waiting for the furnace guy QGIS and the MassGIS database Tech support for my grandma's new tablet Reading! Spanish flashcards Library visits Favorites  Book(s): Station Eleven (Emily St. John Mandel), I Am Malala (Malala Yousafzai), and In Order to Live (Yeonmi Park) TV Show(s): Film(s): Music: Hello (Adele), How Deep is Your Love [Calvin Harris cover] (Daniela Andrade) Recipe(s): Apple dumplings, Cranberry Muffins, "Pumpkin" Pie Social Media: The Frey Life ( YT vlogs ) Game/Software/Tech Thing: the Kittens Game (addicting idle clicker game), QGIS "Analog" Thing(s): Hardcover books, and my bullet journal Item of Clothing: black canvas Docs, Maroon J Crew wool sweater Wellness Related Thing: Naps On Going Project(s): Thing(s) to Learn About: Sea level rise & flood resistant housing, History of the Middle E...