i can't really sing, so

As promised, back in action this May. I read a whole bunch. I "caught up" with my Goodreads Challenge and then some. And that's not even including all the rereads! I was the reread Queen this April and am still going strong-- I'm not going to blog about them, but I'm in the middle of rereading the Harry Potter series. I read most of the books each a couple times back in the day, but it's been at least since the summer of 2007 since I read any of them-- so that's a good 7 years ago. I forget if I wanted to wait 10 or what until I reread, but my husband and I have been watching the movies. I really felt a strong need to reread the books to "get straight" a lot of what the movie ruins/gets wrong. The deeper into the series I go, the more I notice the movie's lack of that UMPH that makes the books The Best. They really are so fucking good. But I digress. Back to what I read  this month outside of being in the throes of the HP series as the month ...

Opening Remarks I'm participating in two different self-inflicted reading challenges this year. The first is a number goal, based on Goodreads. I didn't meet the goal I set for myself last year, so I set the bar the same as I did in 2012 for this year-- 52 books. That's at least, when rounded out, one book per week, which I know I can handle, and I know I'll meet. I think it's a good LIFE goal for reading. At least one book every week, forever. Perhaps 52 will always be my goal, knowing most times I will meet and surpass it. Anyway, Goodreads doesn't always have the books I'm reading in its database, so the counting system there has slightly less books than my counting here. As usual, rereads don't count. Also, I ran into some " year round up counts " on book blogs, & I'd like to do one next year for this blog. The second challenge is one I found on tumblr, this , which is recommended-based for each month. The challenge in January wa...

This is a meme going around facebook. I like lists, but I also like annotating lists. I, in fact, have made annotated tracklists for mixtapes/CDs I've given to friends. So, this. Notably, this is in "no particular order". It also considers that I have been a "reader" since I learned to read. Ostensibly, this list should be much longer & books that have stayed with me have been edited from here. "Stayed with me" is sort of a hard designation. There are books I love, books I consider my "favorites" that aren't on this list. This is because sometimes I read something and love it, but the plot/characters/etc. go out the window when I think back on it. Often I can tell you why I know I love the book, but not much else about my own personal relationship with it. Does that mean it has "stayed with" me? Not so much as the books on this list, which I can relate facts about AND tell you why I loved it. I tried to avoid books that stic...