Monday, August 3, 2015

July Recap

And my July reading slump continues.  This is annual.  I only read 5 books in July.  Seriously 5.  I knew I was slumping but that’s a bigger slump than I though.  I did one review post of two mini books reviews.  So at least it wasn’t a review goose egg month.

Books Read

Paperweight by Meg Haston
Bully by Penelope Douglas
Up in Smoke by Tessa Bailey
Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover

Between the Notes by Sharon Huss Roat

Challenge Update

Shockingly, I made no progress for the Read Harder Challenge from Book Riot this month.  In total I have 16 complete out of 24, but everything left is proving very challenging.  I started (slowly) reading All the Light You Cannot See by Anthony Doerr and The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith so hopefully I’ll be able to check off two more categories in August.

On My Blog Roll

Vox.com has had several articles lately on how we view meat and the ethical consequences of meat consumption.  I’ll never be a vegetarian – I’m a 34 year old who struggles to eat vegetables – but I still found these really thought provoking.

What’s the difference between eating pork belly and puppy belly? Not much.

Why eating eggs causes more suffering than eating beef

The Dorito Effect: Healthy food is blander than ever — and it's making us fat

Emily Henderson is always good and this month had an bookish post.

DIY ‘BOOK’ BOOKENDS

In Other News

I rewatched Jurassic Park a couple weeks ago and came away with two observations: the soundtrack is iconic and it’s too scary for me. Yes I’m pathetic.

Lot of purging of excess stuff lately.  I’ve taken several loads to Goodwill lately and Salvation Army is coming for bigger stuff today. 

I’m still traveling for work and the town we’re in now has quite a few antique shops.  I hit one of them over lunch last week and found some really interesting pieces.  Hopefully I get a post with pics up soon.  AND I only bought a set of candlestick holders.  I need to NOT replace all the stuff I’m purging.  At least not right away.

 

3 comments:

  1. Ha! I was super proud to read 5 books in July after how slow I've been the last couple of months. I'm also stuck at 16/24 Read Harder tasks. I think I might finally get through a microhistory this month, though, as I bought a Mary Roach book when all her stuff was on sale on Audible. Some of the other categories, though... I just have no motivation to get to.

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    1. Most years 5 in a month wouldn't be bad. I've just been reading like crazy this year so I was kinda thinking my slump month would be 7-8. I'm still comfortably ahead of my goal pace.

      I'm really enjoying "All the Light We Cannot See" which is helping because I was STRUGGLING for an award winner from the last decade. It's amazing that some of the categories I didn't think would be that hard I just haven't found anything I'm excited about. Book of short stories should be easy and book that takes place in Asia shouldn't be that difficult either.

      What do you have left? I might do a Challenge update post with what's done vs undone.

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    2. I keep meaning to a challenge update post, but it just turns out boring every time I try to put it together. I'm still missing Author Under 25, Author Over 65, Author of Opposite Sex (I've read 3 books by men, all for other categories, this year), Microhistory, Sci-Fi (which I used to read all the time), Award Winner, Book in Translation, and Book Written Before 1850. Mostly I'm having a hang up with anything that is an "old" book or an "award winner" which are categories I always struggle with. I've had so many blah books recently, I've been trying to not force anything. And the hard topics feel like forcing it.

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