New Year’s Eve Read-a-Thon

Last night I was feeling kind of down because I didn’t have any plans for New Year’s. I got on Twitter to check out my fellow bloggers tweets and found out that Jenn from The Picky Girl was doing a New Year’s Eve Read-a-Thon with a few other fellow bloggers. I believe that Becky from One Literature Nut is hosting the event and Heidenkind from Truth, Beauty, Freedom, and Books is the other organizer.

Anyhow, I asked Jenn if I could join in and she welcomed me into the event. There are a few books that I wanted to hit on today now that I DO have New Year’s plans with these lovely people.

Here they are:
The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
--I actually finished this book earlier today. I had only 5% left to go on my Kindle and I was determined to hit ,*sigh*, 20 books read this year.








The Disappearing Spoon and other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the Periodic Table of Elements by Sam Kean
--I am currently reading this and just by the introduction know I’m going to enjoy it. It starts off talking about laxatives containing mercury! Fantastic! I’m in!







Grave Peril by Jim Butcher (The Dresden Files, Book #3)
--I need to work on my TBR shelf. It sits at 237 right now and this has been sitting on my shelf for some time. The Dresden Files are fun and quick reads, and I’m definitely in need of a little fun in my reading life right now.






The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
--Oh yes, this poorly neglected book on my shelf has been sitting there for a year without me picking it up. Lydia from The Literary Lollipop started a read-a-long last year and guess what….we all put it down for an entire year. We’re trying to get back into it right now. We’ll see how it goes. It’s a fantastic book so far. I plan to pick it up at some point this evening.






In all, 2011 was an abysmal reading year for me. I didn’t like most of what I read, and felt pretty unsatisfied every time I finished a book. In fact, it sounds like a lot of people had mediocre reading years and a mediocre 2011, too.

My favorite book of the year was probably On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan. He is simply an amazing author. My least favorite books of the year were probably Tinkers by Paul Harding and The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie. City & the City by China Mieville is probably third in this Year of Blah. Maybe I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to read these books at the time I read them. I can’t really say what it was that made me dislike them as much as I did.

As for goals for 2012? Well, I was just talking to Fiona from The Book Coop and I decided that I would try to finish some other poor, neglected books that I started and haven’t finished:

• Finding Chief Kamiakin by Richard D. Scheuerman – I was enjoying this book when my life very suddenly and drastically changed. I put it down and never picked it back up.
• People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks – I was also enjoying this book and all of a sudden didn’t feel like reading it anymore so I put it down.
• North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell – OK…I don’t know why I put this book down. I was enjoying it immensely. Mr. Thornton, I love you. I actually think I put it down because I was ruining my copy in my bag that I carry on the train. I can’t stand books that don’t look pristine!
• The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis – I’ve read two of the books. I felt “meh” about them, but I want to finish the series to see if they get better. Maybe I’ll just try for one or two of the books in 2012.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful 2012. This past year has seemed to be a challenging one for a lot of people. I feel your pain if this has been a challenging year for you. It’s definitely been one for me, but I am better for it and happier. I still have days where I struggle, but overall I think my life has changed for the better and brighter days are ahead. I hope that all of you feel that way too. Without struggle, we don’t grow so I hope to keep that in mind for the upcoming year.

I also hope that everyone has a fantastic 2012 reading year! Good luck and keep me updated on what you’re reading! I love to know about new (and old) books!