This weekend we had the first meeting of our book club. Molly, Letty, Marcia, Gracia and I all met to discuss books, drink wine and apple cider, share snacks, and talk life in general.

Molly, Letty, Marcia and I all went to high school together. Gracia is Letty and Marcia’s cousin. We had a lot of catching up to do and re-acquainting ourselves. We had a great time chatting while snacking and enjoying some refreshing beverages. I don’t drink alcohol, mainly because of my medications but I also just don’t like it. I’ve never gotten into drinking wine. The ladies enjoyed some red wine, it must have been good they were all raving about it, and I had some delicious apple cider. I’ll get the wine information from Molly and let you all know what it was.

We talked about our reading habits, our favorite genres and some recommendations as to what we should read. We decided to read Dating a Cougar by Donna McDonald, this is the first book of the Never Too Late Series. When we finish this book, we’ll move on to The Hunger Games trilogy. We spent some time downloading books onto our iPads and smartphones. Luckily our first selection is available for free on Amazon for the Kindle.

Dating a Cougar and chilled apple cider

Our next meeting is on March 17th and we’re hoping to have read the four books by then. For now, we’re going to meet monthly and keep each other updated via Twitter. Oh! I almost forgot to tell you. We named our book club “Reading and Winen” since we have a dual focus of books and wine. Our first meeting was seven hours, I think most book club meetings take about two hours but four bottles of wine later we lost track of time.

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Do you belong to a book club or share reading with friends? Do you have any recommendations for what we should read? Let us know in the comments.

Hello everyone! We’ve had a lot going on with the family. My husband’s grandmother is in the hospital right now, any good thoughts you can send her way are greatly appreciated. Things seem ok right now and I hope things can continue on a positive path. Thanks!

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During the month of January I read 16 books. I’m definitely more than halfway to my goal of 25 books for 2012. Once I get to the 25 books I’ll definitely increase my 2012 goal.

Fifteen books were from the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich. I have thoroughly enjoyed the series so far. The situations that Stephanie Plum seems to find herself in are hilarious. Let me tell you, I would love to have Joe Morelli or Ranger available to rescue me any time. swoooooon

My friend, Molly, and I went to watch One for the Money at the theater on opening day. The movie was ok, as far as movies go. However, I was very bothered that the movie didn’t accurately represent the book. They changed a lot of the plot and the details of the characters. In all honesty, if I would’ve known I would’ve waited for the DVD. I also didn’t think some of the actors were right to portray the characters. Oh well… it was a nice time out.

I’m super excited that we are finally going to be starting our book club this weekend! We are going to be brainstorming ideas for our book club format, books to read, meeting frequency, and so on. Stay tuned for what we come up with…

Do you participate in a book club? Let me know in the comments what works for your book club. Or if you’d like to participate in a book club, what are you looking for in a group?

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I call it DEAR Monday because when I was in elementary school the reading time during school was called Drop Everything and Read or DEAR. I also found that I would complain a lot about another Monday coming along and I decided to be nicer to Mondays. Mondays are the days I come to my little corner of the Internet and write about what I’ve been reading or plan to read.

Last week I posted asking opinions on what I should read next, considering I had just finished a book that was not on my original pile of books to start read in 2012.

I’m sure you’re all on the edge of your seats waiting to know what I decided to read… drum roll please… Last week I read Two for the Dough, Three to Get Deadly, and Four to Score by Janet Evanovich. Not one book but three books.

What can I say? I decided to go with the momentum of reading the first book in the series. I have enjoyed the Stephanie Plum stories very much. Like I was telling my husband, as I read these I think to myself that some of the situations can only happen to Stephanie Plum. I like the characters, the stories crack me up and they are quick reads for me.

The other good thing about continuing with the momentum of the Stephanie Plum series is that reading these has brought my 2012 total books read to 5 out of 25, for 20% complete. According to Goodreads, I am 4 books ahead of schedule towards my goal.

2012 Reading Challenge

SimplyGabrielahasread 5 books toward her goal of 25 books.

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5 of 25 (20%)

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With this considered I may revise my goal and aim for the 52 books in 52 weeks, we’ll see at what point in the year I get to 25. I won’t decide until I make it to 25 total.

What did you read last week?

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I call it DEAR Monday because when I was in elementary school, yes I know that was in the last millenium, the reading time during school was called Drop Everything and Read or DEAR. I also found that I would complain a lot about another Monday coming along and I decided to be nicer to Mondays. Mondays are the days I come to my little corner of the Internet and write about what I’ve been reading or plan to read.

I call it DEAR Monday because when I was in elementary school, yes I know that was in the last millenium, the reading time during school was called Drop Everything and Read or DEAR. I also found that I would complain a lot about another Monday coming along and I decided to be nicer to Mondays. Mondays are the days I come to my little corner of the Internet and write about what I’ve been reading or plan to read. Here’s the first one for 2012!

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A couple of real-life friends on Twitter and I are trying to get together a book club. I know that will definitely help me read more. We’re definitely in the beginning stages: figuring out what to read and when to meet? I hope we decide on books ahead of time so I can try to get them from PaperBackSwap (if you sign up using this link I get a book credit). I love using that site to declutter books I’ve read in exchange for books that I want to read. The only drawback has been that sometimes I wait for a very long time before a book becomes available. I have plenty of books to read already so that usually hasn’t been a problem.

I didn’t meet my reading goal for 2011. I had intended to read 25 books and I read 15. Apparently, a lot of things got in my way of reading very much last year. (Ha! I remembered that 2011 was last year and not this year) My goal for 2012 is 25 books. I hope that I have a better chance this year, I’m starting out with a stack of books to read already – a nice mix of fiction and non-fiction.

The first 9 books on the list

The books that I already have on the to-read list:

1. At Knit’s End: Meditations for Women who Knit Too Much by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee – The Yarn Harlot – I’m planning on one a day
2. Meditations for Women who Do Too Much by Anne Wilson Schaef – I’m planning on one a day, since they’re dated
3. Short Girls, a novel by Bich Minh Nguyen
4. A Weekend to Change Your Life by Joan Anderson
5. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
6. Knit in Comfort by Isabel Sharpe
7. A Delicate Balance: Living Successfully with Chronic Illness by Susan Milstrey Wells
8. Stop Being Your Symptoms and Start Being Yourself by Arthur J. Barsky, MD and Emily C. Deans, MD
9. The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron

I hope to be much more successful this year with my reading goal. I’ll definitely be keeping track of it all on goodreads and I’ll keep writing about reading on Mondays.

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What are you going to be reading in 2012? Do you set a reading goal? Would any of you be interested in participating in a linky party? Let me know in the comments and I’ll get one set up.

Oh boy! I’ve realized that it’s the 5th of December and that means there are only 26 days left in the year. I’ve read 15 out of the 25 books that I set out to read this year. That’s 60%. While that’s good, I mean at least I’ve been able to read 15 books this year, I’m not sure I’ll make it to my goal of 25 books. There is just not enough time.

What with the holiday preparations, the handmade gift making, the store bought gift buying, the decorating, the cleaning, the decluttering, and all while trying to take time to find enjoyment in the day to day I just don’t see how I could possibly read 10 more books this year.

I know some people listen to audiobooks while they do other things like commute, knit, etc but I haven’t found that to work for me. I get distracted visually so I end up not hearing the actual book and then I’d have to rewind back to where I was paying attention and then try to concentrate. Besides that, I really enjoy turning the pages of an actual book. I do have an iPad but I mainly use that to carry my knitting patterns around. I have downloaded some books onto it but I haven’t gotten around to reading them. See? There’s that not enough time thing coming up again.

I know for sure I will read at least one more book and post a review here before the end of the year. I met the author earlier this year and agreed to read her newly released book to review here.

Do you set a yearly reading goal? Are you able to read during this month? Let’s talk about it in the comments.

In the past two weeks I finished Jen Lancaster’s My Fair Lazy and read A Year by the Sea by Joan Anderson, bringing my grand total for 2011 so far to 15. I’ve got just about 6 weeks to read 10 more books if I want to make my goal for the year. I wonder if I can read some kids’ board books for them to count. No, I don’t really think they’ll count… Well, maybe a little. But no, I won’t really read kids’ board books just to reach my goal. I’ll only be cheating myself, I know.

The two books I just read are written in very different styles and the authors have very different voices. Even though Joan Anderson’s book was much shorter than Jen Lancaster’s book I feel like it took much more effort to get through it. There was something about the descriptions that Anderson used that made it feel a bit more of a sluggish read. I enjoyed the book, it was definitely a book to make me think and while the detailed descriptions definitely helped with the imagination factor that I used to create the scenes in my head I’m not sure all those words were exactly necessary. I remember one of my high school English teachers used to tell us to think of writing as if we had to pay a nickel for every word we used. I know I’m a wordy writer – well, duh! I write words but you know what I mean – but I do go back and take out extra unnecessary words often. I promise, I really do. If you don’t believe me ask my thesis chair from graduate school…

Every year I give myself a challenge to read a minimum number of books, the past couple of years I have set a very do-able goal of reading just one more book than the year before. This year my goal is to read 25 books and I’m using Goodreads (link to my profile) to keep track. So far I’ve read 13 books towards my goal, just over half.

At this point, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to make my goal. I’m almost finished with book #14, I’m reading My Fair Lazy by Jen Lancaster. I love reading books by Jen Lancaster because she cracks me up. I got this book in the mail last week and as soon as I opened it I started reading it. I was laughing out loud while reading in my car waiting to pick up my younger son from school. Some of the other parents turned to look at me like I was crazy. I guess they don’t really know me yet.

I was reading in the waiting room at my acupuncturist’s office today and I was giggling quietly to myself. At least I had the presence of mind not to cackle like I have while reading this book. One of my favorite things about reading Jen Lancaster is that she writes like I think a lot of the time. This one especially because her subtitle is “A reality television addict’s attempt to discover if not being a dumb ass is the new black, or a culture-up manifesto” – I have to say I have been watching quite a lot of reality TV lately so I can relate to her references of The Real Housewives and other similar shows. I also loved reading the chapter on her visit to San Francisco.

What are you reading? Do you have a goal of books to read during 2011? If you click on View Books in the Widget you’ll be able to see what I’ve already read this year.

DEAR stands for Drop Everything And Read and Mondays are the day I like to write about what I’m reading.

2011 Reading Challenge

SimplyGabriela has read 13 books toward her goal of 25 books.

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13 of 25 (52%)

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