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October was another good reading month for me and I’m confident that I will meet my goal of 80 books by the end of the year if not sooner.

Though I missed my goals by a hair’s breath, I am very pleased with the results of the FrightFall Read-a-thon earlier in the month.  I’ve been on the lookout for holiday ‘thons.  I’ve found two for December so far.

In this past month, I decided to give it another go at participating in a weekly meme: Throwback Thursday.  We’ll see how long I last with this one.

On the Goodreads front — I intended to sit out team games like bookshelf bingo at least until the new year.  Well. . .One of the teams had a member drop out and there were no other stand-by players.  If no one else stepped forward, the team would have been allowed to continue with one less player, but I volunteered anyway.  I do like bookshelf bingo, even though it makes it hard to plan ahead.  So far, it hasn’t upset my plans for the Seasonal Reading Challenge — I need only 85 points to reach my goal of 300 and the 50-pointer will work very well with this game (series, paranormal, romance).  However, bingo has interfered with Monopoly and the Hearts & Tears games.

Behind-the-Scenes and Looking Forward: As I mentioned in the previous update, I’ve been working on finalizing my personal reading challenges — the 2013 Reading Has Its Rewards Challenge and the Baker’s Dozen Challenge.  I’ll be launching their respective pages shortly, but in the meantime, here are the badges I created for them.

The third personal reading challenge I’d been contemplating is also being finalized, and launched, in the upcoming weeks.  This one will be a two-year challenge and it is based on the books of Philippa Carr (AKA Victoria Holt and Jean Plaidy, among others). Under the Carr pseudonym, she wrote a series of books that went from (in most cases) mother-to-daughter over the course of English history, from the time of Henry VIII to World War II.  Goodreads has the books tagged as the “Daughters of England” series.  Philippa Carr wrote a book titled Daughters of England, but from the description, it sounds like the book was not connected to the others — as the supposed 20th book, it is set during the Restoration, the same time frame (more or less) as the 5th and 6th books, Lament for a Lost Lover and The Love Child.  My reading challenge will only include the nineteen connected books. I made a badge for it as well.

Besides the challenges, I’ve been working on some things I want to do differently here on the blog. Some of the changes will start right away, some next year. One of the changes that will start next year is how and when I update challenges and the Reading Has Its Rewards points updates. Another item is a read-a-thon tracker, a place where I post my results for all the ‘thons I participate in during the course of the year — similar to my master challenge page. I haven’t worked on it yet, but it is a project I’d like to get done before the end of the year.

One change that will start right away is my Seasonal Reading List.  Around the end of November, I will post a list of books I plan to read during December, January, and February.  I’ve been looking over my various challenges.  There are a few that I know which books I have to read for each month — for instance, the Philippa Carr challenge.  No matter what else I might read during the time frame, some books have to be read in a certain month.  Since I was already keeping a list, I thought it would make a good quarterly post.  I also didn’t want to over-plan the months, so I’m keeping the must-read lists small.  Some of the books will be for challenges; some will be those eagerly-awaited, must-read-now books; and some will be themed (example, Christmas-themed books during December).  I don’t have a badge for seasonal lists; I’ll be using Creative Commons images that fit the seasons.

Note: All books count toward my personal “Reading Has Its Rewards ” challenge. Exceptions will be noted.

• Bound by Flame (Anna Windsor) {5 Oct 12} – By the Dozen
• The Kingdom (Amanda Stevens) {7 Oct 12}
• Ember’s Kiss (Deborah Cooke) {14 Oct 12} – Year of the Dragon
• Phantom Shadow (Dianne Duvall) {20 Oct 12)
• The Red Heart of Jade (Marjorie M. Liu) {21 Oct 12} – By the Dozen
• Changeless (Gail Carriger) {28 Oct 12}

Reviews added this month.

• Bound by Flame (Anna Windsor)

Challenges Completed this month:
NONE
Incomplete (Ended in October):
NONE

♥ = Will complete; ♠ = Maybe; X = Won’t

2012 Challenges:
♠ By the Dozen (personal) – 29/36
♠ Harlequin/Silhouette Reading Challenge -4/6
♠ Romance Reading Challenge – 4/5
♠ Sci-Fi Reading Challenge (6-10) – 6/?
♠ What’s in a Name 5 Reading Challenge – 5/6

2012-2013 Challenges:
♥ Year of the Dragon Reading Challenge(personal/GoodReads) – 3

Perpetual Challenges:
♠ 101 Fantasy Challenge (Month): 0
101 Fantasy Challenge (Year): 5
Grand Total since 2009: 17
~~ & ~~
♥ Georgette Heyer (Month): 0
Georgette Heyer (Year): 1
Grand Total since 2008: 5
~~ & ~~
♥ In Death (Month): 0
In Death (Year): 2
Grand Total since 2010: 3
~~ & ~~
X Reading the RITAs (Month): 0
Reading the RITAs (Year): 2
Grand Total since 2011: 4

Totals (Monthly/Yearly)

Total Read (Month): 6
Total Heard (Month): 0
Grand Total w/o Audiobooks (Year): 71
Grand Total w/Audiobooks (Year): 72
~~ & ~~
Total Audio Hours(Month): 0
Total Audio Hours (Year): 7h, 19m
~~ & ~~
Total Pages Read (Month): 2,281
Grand Total w/o Audiobooks (Year): 24,608
Grand Total w/Audiobooks (Year): 24,988

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