tourconditionsrss

It was a very good reading month for me!  I finished 10 books and 1 short story.  And, because I read that many books, I reached a Milestone Goal a month early:  read 25 books by 30 April.  I am very pleased with this because I know that my reading tends to slow down around the holidays.  I have a better chance of actually reaching 80 books by the end of the year if I do well early.

I’ve made a couple of changes to the Reading Has Its Rewards Challenge.  First, I changed the goals for pages read and number of points.  The new goal for pages read is 20, 000 pages.  The new goal for points is 30,000.  My reasoning:

Reached 10,000+ points on 25 March. Though I’ve been reading older books, the books haven’t been longer ones. If I continued this trend, I would easily have reached the points goal, but fall short of the page goal. Switching them gives me a better shot at reaching them both by the end of the year.

I also modify the rule for short stories, Did Not Finish, and audiobooks. I think I would have modified the rule during the planning stages, but I was so caught up with deciding point values based on other factors, that I barely gave it a second thought. Reading short stories takes time and should count for more. And so should DNFs, especially if I get well into the story and realize it’s not working for me.

The RITAs nominations were announced and I’ll be extending the Reading the RITA challenge indefinitely. In other words, it will be a perpetual challenge for me. I’ve already read some of the nominees, but they won’t count.  More about that later.  I completed the Men in Uniform and the Speculative Fiction Challenges and I will do wrap posts later.  I’m at the halfway mark with the Off the Shelf, Harlequin, and What’s in a Name challenges.

In April, I will be participating in the 24 Hour Read-a-thon.  If the Bingo game hasn’t ended by then, my primary goal for the read-a-thon will be to read whatever book I need for the game. Either way, I’m not planning on checking in hourly — only when I feel I need a break from reading.

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

• The Restorer (Amanda Stevens) {1 Mar 12} – Men in Uniform, Harlequin (title),
• Revenge of the Wrought-Iron Flamingos (Donna Andrews) {3 Mar 12} – Mt. TBR, Off the Shelf. By the Dozen
• Flashfire (Deborah Cooke) {6 Mar 12} – Bingo, Year of the Dragon, By the Dozen
• Oracle’s Moon (Thea Harrison) {13 Mar 12} – By the Dozen, What’s in a Name, Spec Fiction
• Doppelgangster (Laura Resnick) {18 Mar 12} – Mount TBR, Off the Shelf, Men in Uniform, Bingo
• Storm Kissed (Jessica Andersen) {19 Mar 12} – Mount TBR, Off the Shelf, Bingo
• Practice Makes Perfect (Julie James) {23 Mar 12} – Off the Shelf, Mt. TBR
• Discount Armageddon (Seanan McGuire) {25 Mar 12} – Bingo, By the Dozen
• Mad About the Earl (Christina Brooke) {29 Mar 12} – By the Dozen
• Flowerbed of State (Dorothy St. James) {31 Mar 12} – What’s in a Name
• “Crystal Skull” (Jessica Andersen), On the Hunt (anthology) {18 Mar 12} – N/A

The backlog — whether from last month or last year.

• Seduced by Shadow (Jessa Slade)

Note: Audio “pages” will be counted separately.

• NONE

Challenges Completed this month:
Men in Uniform Reading Challenge (1-5) – 5/5
Speculative Fiction Challenge – 6/6

Incomplete (Ended in March):
NONE

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

2012 Challenges:
By the Dozen (personal) – 11/36
Fairy Tales Retold – 0/3
Harlequin/Silhouette Reading Challenge -3/6
Harry Potter Reading Challenge – 0/7
Mount TBR Reading Challenge – 15/40
Off the Shelf Reading Challenge – 15/30
Romance Reading Challenge – 2/5
Sci-Fi Reading Challenge (6-10) – 2/?
What’s in a Name 5 Reading Challenge -3/6

2012-2013 Challenges:
Year of the Dragon Reading Challenge(personal/GoodReads) – 1

Perpetual Challenges:
101 Fantasy Challenge (Month): 0
101 Fantasy Challenge (Year): 0
Grand Total since 2009: 6
~~ & ~~
Georgette Heyer (Month): 0
Georgette Heyer (Year): 1
Grand Total since 2008: 5
~~ & ~~
In Death (Month): 0
In Death (Year): 1
Grand Total since 2010: 1
~~ & ~~
Reading the RITAs (Month): 0
Reading the RITAs (Year): 1
Grand Total since 2011: 3

Totals (Monthly/Yearly)

Total Read (Month): 10
Total Heard (Month): 0
Grand Total w/o Audiobooks (Year): 25
Grand Total w/Audiobooks (Year): 25
~~ & ~~
Total Audio Hours(Month): 0
Total Audio Hours (Year): 0h, 0m
~~ & ~~
Total Pages Read (Month): 3,563  3,558
Grand Total w/o Audiobooks (Year): 8,256
Grand Total w/Audiobooks (Year): 8,256

Note: Due to the excessive amount of spam, I’ve added a password plugin. Please don’t let that discourage you from commenting.

help