Friday 23 January 2015

Rethinking things

Which things am I rethinking? the casual reader might ask. Well, reading challenges as a matter of fact. I seem to have got myself much more tied up with them than I'd previously planned. I wanted 2015 to be a reading year that was more unstructured than 2014. Don't misunderstand, it was a fun year and I got a nice chunk of books off my tbr pile. But it was very structured, necessarily so because doing eight challenges requires a bit of organisation. I didn't want that for this year but somehow or other I seem to have got it. My own enthusiasm is to blame of course... I really can't resist a fun sounding challenge that I know I have loads of books for. I must try harder.

Consequently, I've decided to abandon a couple before I've even properly started. The two I won't be doing are, firstly, The Round the World one where I was planning to read a book from every country in Africa. Wonderful as this sounds there's no way I can realistically achieve this and trying is just going to stress me out. The other one is the Gentle Spectrums one which I only posted about a couple of days ago. The post will be taken down in due course.

So, onwards and upwards. Sort of literally because I'm enjoying books about mountains at the moment. At some stage I need to do a review of the delightful 'Victorian women travelling' themed book that I've just finished. I now have a real yen to visit the Tyrol region of The Alps!

Just to let people know, I've enabled comment moderation for a short time, but as I'm around a lot all comments will probably be dealt with fairly rapidly and it's very much a temporary thing.

~~~oOo~~~

9 comments:

Kailana said...

I go back and forth on reading challenges... Last year I joined some but then hardly read all year, so this year I am just avoiding them...

Val said...

Sounds very sensible after all who needs extra stress?
The mountain book sounds interesting ...long ago I read a book about Victorian lady climbers that was fascinating... one lady always took a teapot that she carried on her bicycle handlebars..others wore skirts over trouseurs and only took the skirts off to climb, others climbed in long skirts..and they did it well! It was a great book but I never noted the title down and the library got rid of it ! ahhhhhh!

BooksPlease said...

I had every intention of just doing 2 challenges this year and also got carried away and have joined 7! It's partly because I like making lists. I've been thinking of pulling out of some too, but just now I'm not sure which ones. I don't want to feel I'm reading to a timetable.

Kay said...

I just can't do challenges, even though so many of them sound fun. In order to keep this blogging thing going, I'm virtually certain that I will need to just flit from one book to the next and be free to abandon, hop around, and immerse myself as the mood takes me. Boy that was a long sentence. Good luck, Cath!!

Anonymous said...

I definitely support pulling back on some challenges to avoid stress! I did the same thing this year…I'm only doing one year-long challenge, and it's so freeing! I finally have time to re-read books too! It's weird to leave all the structure behind, and I do enjoy doing challenges, but sometimes you just need a break.

Peggy Ann said...

Cath, I know exactly what you mean! I did really good this year. I did join the Coyer challenge thinking it would be really easy but thought about it and withdrew. Just the Scotland Challenge for me. Happy carefree reading!

Cath said...

Kelly: I honestly don't blame you at all, but if I don't do one or two I tend to feel a bit lost. LOL

Val: Exactly.

That book you mention sounds rather good. I seem to be on a mountain kick at the moment so if you remember the title, shout. :-)

Margaret: It's so easy to get carried away. 'Reading to a timetable' describes it perfectly.

Kay: I love the sound of flitting from one book to another. It's what I'm doing at the moment... following my nose.

Youbookmeallnightlong: You do just need a break. And I too am rereading this year. At the moment it's the Narnia books.

Peggy: Thank you. I've just got three going although I will, as usual, do Carl's fantasy and halloween ones. Lot of these will be books I can double up on though, so most of the time I can please myself. It's so nice.

Susan said...

I was so tempted to join so many challenges, and have tried to keep to just the personal 50 classics in one year challenge, and Carl's challenges - I could never give those up! I'm already getting books for the fantasy one...I'm glad you cut out ones you don't feel comfortable doing. You are so right, reading is supposed to be for fun, for pleasure, for deep contentment, at least that is how I am reading now. And vicarious thrills as I will never go climbing mountains but do so enjoy reading about them.

Cath said...

Susan: I just realised I was being really silly... tying myself into challenges and obligating myself only to read certain books all through the year.

I couldn't give Carl's challenges up either. And like you have my books lined up ready to read. *This* year I really am going to read The Name of the Wind and Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (hopefully before it's aired on the TV...) Oh, and The Mad Ship!

You know, I *knew* I would someday end up with your 'mountain book' fascination. LOL!