Friday, January 6, 2012

2012 Comment Challenge & A Few Goals

Lee Wind and MotherReader are hosting the 2012 Comment Challenge, and I'm excited to be participating. I read a lot of blogs, but am not very good at commenting. Hopefully, by the end of these three weeks, I'll have a new habit! I know I'll have new blogs to read - I've already found some great ones.

I've been blogging for about a year now, although sometimes sporadically. I have a bare bones blog. I'm thinking it might be nice to finally add an About Me page...maybe a blogroll of bookish places I go...we'll see what happens.

I've never really set reading goals before (with the exception of the summer in elementary school when I read 100 books and got a James Avery dangle ring), but I have three very different books I'm determined to get read this year.

  1. If you've been reading my blog, you may remember this post, when I re-read the first six Harry Potter books in about three weeks, and got pottered out. The whole reason I re-read them was so I'd be ready for the last one, which I still haven't read. I am going to read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows this year. Soon.
  2. I've always liked biographies, and I was a journalism major in college. I've been wanting to read Personal History by Katharine Graham, so much so that the not-small book has moved five times with me. I've finally decided this is the year.
  3. I've never read The Outsiders. Haven't seen the movie, either. Every year, when students come in looking for it, I decide I'm finally going to read it, but never do. And really, what finally made me decide to commit to reading it, was listening to Rob Lowe's Stories I Only Tell My Friends. (I'm not sure I would have stuck with the book, or maybe I'd just have skimmed, but I very much enjoyed listening to it on car trip. It is like Lowe is just right there, telling you these amazing stories.) Anyway, he talked a lot about the movie. This year, I'm going to read the book.
What about you? Do you set reading goals, or have any specific books you want to tackle this year?

20 comments:

  1. Hi Amy
    The books i have for this month are THe Prague Cemetary by umberto Eco. It happened in Boston by Russell greenan and then hopefully guns, germs and steel by Jared diamond. A little eclectic (spelling?)
    like the site
    Cheers
    Andrew

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  2. As a teacher, I can't read during the school year because I have no willpower when it comes to stopping. I either get behind with school work or I'm dead tired the next day because I read too late. So, my goal every summer is just to read as many books as I can.
    So glad you have Dao's and my love of reading!
    Becky

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  3. My seven-year-old has been asking me repeatedly to read through history with him, and I keep putting him off. My reading goal is to pick out and read some children's books about history with him. He will not be asking me to read with him for much longer, so I'd better take him up on it now.

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  4. I want to finish reading The Name of this Book is Secret with my seven-year-old daughter, then read the other books in the series.

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  5. i loved the outsiders i can't believe i have read a book that you haven't. haha jeff

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  6. Great goals.

    I enjoyed the comment challenge last year, so I'm doing it again.

    I joined three reading challenges, so my reading goals are tied up in those -- food books, books about Ireland, and the fun and quirky What's in a Name challenge.

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  7. I don't set goals. I am a bookaholic. I MUST read. I'd like to discover new authors this year. If you like Magic realism. I thoroughly recomment Sarah Addison Allen.

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  8. Last year, I committed myself to reading more widely by starting an online book club. It worked: I read books I never would have chosen on my own, and I even liked most of them! Best of all, we discussed them, and I got more out of them as a result.

    Participation in the book club is down just now, as two of my best readers/commenters just got busier than usual. So my goal is to find some more readers to talk books with and to continue to read more widely.

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  9. And by all means, if anyone reading this (Amy???) is interested in checking out the online book club, give me a shout at jen AT funkandweber DOT com. I look for volunteer discussion leaders, and if you lead a discussion, you can pick the book. Almost anything goes (sorry, horror is out). I'm always there to help, pick up slack, or take over as needed with discussion-leading. We read and discuss one book a month.

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  10. We started blogging at almost exactly the same time! I had set a goal of 2 posts a week and I came close but didn't exactly meet it last year and am already falling behind this year! I don't have any book-specific goals, although over the last month or so I've been reading a lot of middle-grade fiction, in an effort to get more up-to-date in that area.

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  11. I love seeing what everyone is reading!

    Andrew - eclectic lists are the best!

    Delightful Childrens Books & Rachel - I love that you are reading with your kids!

    Jeff - Ha!

    Pen & Ink - I read The Peach Keeper last year and enjoyed it.

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  12. No specific goals here, except that I want to find time to read more for pleasure. I get so bogged down with coursework for grad school that sometimes I forget reading is my first love, and what led me to library school in the first place!

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    1. I remember all those days of grad school! Luckily, since I took quite a few children's courses, I still got to do lots of fun reading, in addition to all the other.

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  13. I have piles of books I plan to read. I'm always finding new ones to add to the piles, and there are some I never seem to get to. A friend's book is my next read. One goal at a time.
    Kathy Cannon Wiechman (Swagger Writers)

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    1. I am the same way - for every book I read out of my stack, I add two or three more!

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  14. I loved The Outsiders growing up and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is amazing! I hope you enjoy both.

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  15. Thanks for joining us on the Comment Challenge! I haven't set any reading goals this year. I think I just want to catch up on my reading... as if that's possible. I may have to stop the clock at Jan 1, 2012 and read nothing new until I've read the old.

    Like that's going to happen. Good luck with your goals!

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  16. Hey, I just read the Rob Lowe biography as well, partly because my book club did The Outsiders, with special guest starts of two 13 year old kids (who found us very dull and went off to play video games).

    Anyway, it inspired me to order the director's release of The Outsiders so I can see all the scenes that Lowe said were cut.

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    1. It was interesting that so many scenes were cut. I know the movie is rarely like the book, but it sounds like these are really different. I'm eager to compare both, and then like you, watch teh director's release.

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