TL Wright

A Bookish Life: Books & Writing

30 Books in 30 Days A Reading Challenge.

30 Books in 30 Days – A Reading Challenge

Inspiration

My inspiration was 30 Books in 30 Days Challenge | Book Riot, with a few tweaks of my own, since I’ve been haphazard with what I read. So I went through my kindle app and picked a variety of books I’ve been meaning to read. There’s a wide assortment, I feel, with some non-fiction, and a diverse range in fiction genres. Could be a little more diverse, but I only had 30 slots, and let’s say over 30 choices, not counting all the Instapaper article collections I have sent to my Kindle app.

Everyone is welcome to follow along! Make your own rules, or follow mine. The only firm rule is that it has to be thirty books in thirty days. The definition of a book is up to your taste. I’m planning on doing similar challenges for poetry, plays, short stories, and essays at a later time.

I’ll be posting a review of each book, so bear with me as I shake the rust off my reviewing skills. I’ll start the challenge on September 1, 2020, and do a wrap-up post beside the book reviews so keep your eyes peeled, or subscribe to the blog.


30 Books in 30 Days A Reading Challenge.

My Personal Rules

These are the rules I set for myself for this challenge. Adjust the rules if you wish for your own personal challenge.

  1. Over 100 pages & able to read the entire book in a day. ~900 is my max length.
  2. Cannot reread over 15 books. (Not Applicable because all the books I chose I haven’t read yet.)
  3. A mix of genres, but cannot be a blogging book, writing craft book or a business book.
  4. Must already have a copy. No buying specifically for this.
  5. No box sets, anthologies, or series bundles. Individual books only. Can read a series, but they have to be individual books.

My Booklist – 30 Books in 30 Days

  1. Strange Love: An Alien Abduction Romance – Ann Aguirre
  2. The Bear and the Nightingale – Katherine Arden
  3. The Whole Five Feet: What the Great Books Taught Me – Christopher Beha {Nonfiction}
  4. Grumpy Jake – Melissa Blue
  5. The Emperor’s Edge – Lindsay Buroker
  6. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet – Becky Chambers
  7. A Closed and Common Orbit – Becky Chambers
  8. Record of a Spaceborn Few – Becky Chambers
  9. The Invisible Library – Genevieve Cogman
  10. In the Vanisher’s Palace – Aliette de Bodard
  11. Servant of the Underworld – Aliette de Bodard
  12. Dragon Unleashed – Grace Draven
  13. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe – Fannie Flagg
  14. The Price of Salt – Patricia Highsmith
  15. A Curse So Dark and Lonely – Brigid Kemmber
  16. The Raven Tower – Ann Leckie
  17. Jade City – Fonda Lee
  18. Brazen and the Beast – Sarah MacLean
  19. Sex on the Moon – Ben Mezrich {Nonfiction}
  20. Gods of Jade and Shadow – Silvia Moreno-Garcia
  21. Love & Other Poisons – Silvia Moreno-Garcia
  22. Sleeping Giants – Sylvain Nuevel
  23. Waking Gods – Sylvain Nuevel
  24. Only Human – Sylvain Nuevel
  25. A Conspiracy of Truths – Alexandra Rowland
  26. The Priory of the Orange Tree – Samantha Shannon
  27. White Whiskey Bargain – Jodie Slaughter
  28. Make Me No Grave: A Weird West Novel – Hayley Stone
  29. Artemis: A Novel – Andy Weir
  30. American Nations – Colin Woodward {Nonfiction}

Briefer June 2020 Update of My Bookish Life

I just got an account at StoryGraph. It’s supposed to be similar to Goodreads but with a better recommendation system and a did not finish reading status! It’s also Black woman-owned, and it looks great. They have stats, and you can import your Goodreads library as well, so that makes things easier! I’m looking at the reading challenges they have and adding books to my massive list, which will be a page here soon.

I’ve kept up with my reading challenge at Goodreads to read 104 books in a year, tearing through The Elenium/Tamuli in a single weekend. I read all six in three days. I’ll have a post up discussing the series hopefully soon. There are a few posts I have in various stages of readiness, but none are ready to post yet.

 

text over pink peonies and an open book. text says ypdates and restarts tlinwright.com

Updates And Restarting For A New Month

February and March felt like they’ve gone on forever! We are okay, and are staying at home, only leaving for essentials, and I’ve gotten a lot done already: new garden beds set up and planted, cleaned out closets, my husband took care of the storage shed, I got our kitchen about 75% organized, and I have a list of things to do while at home.

I restarted my What I Read Today posts, but they are now on my Tumblr @ tlinwright.tumblr.com. My newest post is already up!

Plans for here: I have a lot of fantasy, science fiction, romance, and classics that I already own and I’m going to read those and write up each book as I complete it in addition to my Classics Club Challenge, Well-Educated Mind List, and especially focusing on the list I already made: my 2020 Plans which included selections from my Classics Club and Well-Educated Mind lists. I’m going to start the read my shelves series with the Belgariad by David Eddings.

My Stay At Home Plans

  • Restart my Harvard Classics Readings (Already did with the April 1 reading, and I will loop around to catch up the ones I missed in February and March)
  • Restart my Bradbury Challenge (Links posted on my Tumblr post, all those updates will be over there)
  • Catch up on my saved to watch later Youtube videos and subscriptions
  • Catch up on my RSS feeds and read blogs. (I hope there’s a resurgence in using RSS to keep up to date on blogs, I have a huge list of things that don’t always update daily)
  • Restart my reading lists already posted
  • Read the writing, blogging & business books I’ve bought and take notes for use.
  • Restart Duolingo. I think the owl is Disappointed in me.
  • Start Reading My Shelves. I have 3k e-books on my e-reader (an Asus tablet) and a lot of physical books. I’m also planning on doing reviews/writeups on each book as I finish it, posted here. The first series will be The Belgariad by David Eddings.
  • I also have plans for dusting off my crochet, sewing, and baking skills, and learning how to can and knit.

Project 366 – Jan. 01-11

Gathered two new pictures (Sunset & Josie) and added them to the previous pictures for Project 366. I had a bit of a Day on Monday and didn’t have time to get a photo that day, but did get pictures for Tuesday (Sunset) and Wednesday (Josie), with both taken on my Pixel 3a. I had some other things come up Thursday and Friday (my daughter’s birthday) and today (Saturday) so no photos, either. I’ll do better next week.

What I Read This Week

Daily posts were not working out so I’m doing a weekly post. This week’s post is just from Monday Jan 06 to Saturday as I posted a daily reading on Sunday, and next week’s post will be a full week. I had trouble this week, lol, between a tornado warning and my laptop freezing so hard I had to reboot. But I persevered.
 

Monday, January 6

Book: Romancing the Duke by Tessa Dare
Bradbury Trio
    Poem: “South in Hundreds” by Ching-in Chen
    Short Story: “Annotated Setlist of the Mikaela Cole Jazz Quintet” by Catherine George
Misc
Simple Abundance: “Standing Knee Deep in a River and Dying of Thirst”
Harvard Classics in 15 minutes a Day: Warned by Hector’s Ghost
In the dead of night Hector’s ghost appeared to warn Æneas of the impending doom to come upon the walled city of Troy. Æneas lifted his aged father on his back and, taking his son by the hand, sought safety in flight. Off to Latium!
(H. Schliemann, discoverer of ancient Troy, born Jan. 6, 1822.)
 

Tuesday, January 7

Book:
Bradbury Trio
    Essay: “A Reader’s Manifesto” by B.R. Myers [The Atlantic]
    Poem: “The Artist Signs Her Masterpiece, Immodestly” by Danielle DeTiberus
    Short Story: “The Rose Sisterhood” by Susan Taitel
Misc
Simple Abundance: “How Happy Are You Right Now?”
Harvard Classics in 15 minutes a Day: If He Yawned, She Lost Her Head!
The Sultan had a habit of beheading each dawn his beautiful bride of the night before, until he encountered Scheherazade. Cleverly she saved her life a thousand and one mornings.
 

Wednesday, January 8

Book: The Elusive Earl (kindle)
Bradbury Trio
    Essay: “Staring At Hell” by Kate Wagner
    Poem: “Unruly” by Jari Bradley
    Short Story: “The Open Window” by Saki
Simple Abundance: “The Underrated Duty”
Harvard Classics in 15 minutes a Day: Trying the Patience of Job
God was pleased with the piety of Job, but Satan accredited the piety to Job’s prosperity and happiness. So a trial was made. See how each succeeding affliction visited on Job shook the depths of his nature, and how he survived.
 

Thursday, January 9

Book: N/A
Bradbury Trio
    Poem: “Did Rise” by Jessica Rae Bergamino
    Short Story: “The Daughters of the Late Colonel” by Katherine Mansfield
Misc
Simple Abundance: “What is It You Truly Need?”
Harvard Classics in 15 minutes a Day: A Treasure Hunt in Nombre de Dios
With only fifty-two men, Sir Francis Drake conceives the idea of attacking his archenemy, Spain, at her most vulnerable point the treasure at Nombre de Dios. (Drake died at Nombre de Dios, Jan. 9, 1596.)
 

Friday, January 10

Book: N/A
Bradbury Trio
    Poem: “Say The Word” by Sandra Beasley
    Short Story: “Sometimes You End Up Where You Are” by Beth Cato
Misc
Simple Abundance: “Until It Is Carved in Stone”
Harvard Classics in 15 minutes a Day: Where Love Lies Waiting
King Pantheus of Thebes contended against Dionysus, the God, for the adoration of the Theban women. The god was winning by bewitching the women when the king interceded. Euripides tells the story in a masterpiece of Greek drama.
 

Saturday, January 11

Book: N/A
Bradbury Trio
    Essay: Jesus Plus Nothing by Jeff Sharlett [Harper’s]
    Poem: “Farewell” by Alice Dunbar-Nelson
    Short Story: “Soul Searching Search Engines” by Rodrigo Assis Mesquita
Simple Abundance: “Is It Recession or Depression?”
Harvard Classics in 15 minutes a Day: Hamilton – Father of Wall Street
Hamilton organized the Treasury Department. He penned most of the Federalist papers, which were greatly influential in bringing New York into the Union – the first step toward its eminent position in national and world finance. (Alexander Hamilton born Jan. 11, 1757.)
A list by day of what I read for my various challenges

Afternoon at the Lake

Day 5/366 of my 2020 Project 366. I went out on a drive today, mostly as I wanted out. We were sick the entirety of December, and I was tired of only leaving the house to go to the store or errands. So I got in my car, turned on navigation, and went driving. This was taken at the boat loading area at Rhea Springs Recreation Area near Spring City, TN.

Camera: Nikon D5600

Settings: ƒ/13 | 1/640| 35mm| ISO200

Edits: Portrait + Accentuate in Snapseed

What I Read Today – January 05, 2020

What I read today for my various challenges and projects

Simple Abundance – “The Woman You Were Meant to Be”

Harvard Classics – The Soaring Eagle and Contented Stork“, essay by Mazzini. Mazzini labored for the freedom of Italy but was exiled. Byron and Goethe also battled for liberty. Mazzini wrote an essay in which he compared Byron to a soaring eagle and Goethe to a contented stork. (Byron arrived in Greece to fight for Greek freedom, Jan. 5, 1824.)

Short Story – “Last Bus to What’s Left of Albuquerque” by Carrie Cuinn

Essay – “A Tale of Two Continents: The Story of Lemuria and Gondwana” by Thomas Manuel

Poem – “The Affair” by David Baker

What I’ve Read Today – January 04, 2020

What I read today for my various challenges and projects

Harvard Classics – A Flounder Fish Story” by the Grimm Brothers

Simple Abundance – “This isn’t a Dress Rehearsal”

Short Story – “The Other Two” by Edith Wharton

Poem – “The Editor’s Ex” by Caitlin Doyle

Essay – “The Hatpin Peril” Terrorized Men Who Couldn’t Handle the 20th-Century Woman  + “The Womens’ Movement” by Joan Didion

Book – The Beast of Beswick by Amalie Howard (amazon) [I rated it 5 stars for being excellent and engrossing. A minor quibble but it didn’t make a difference to the story]

Wintry Day

Day 4/366 of my 2020 Project 366. it’s cold and wet and wintry today, and the maple tree in my yard is sleeping for the spring along with the other trees and my garden.

Camera: NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D5600
Settings: ƒ/9 | 1/320 | 35mm | ISO200
Edits: Portrait + Accentuate in Snapseed

What I Read Today – January 03, 2020

What I read today for my various challenges and projects

Essay: Living in the age of Prewar by Mohsin Hamid

Poem: “Little Wife” by Marianne Boruch

Short Story: “The Bowmen” by Arthur Machen

Harvard Classics: Cicero on Friendship: pp. 16-26

Simple Abundance: “Simple Abundance: The Inner Journey”

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