2024 Books/December Meme Day 5
Sun, Dec. 8th, 2024 04:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spiraliciousSnagged from dizzojay ages ago.
Day 5: Talk About Books This Year
I started the year in 4 book clubs. Now, I'm only in one. Funnily enough, the Pub Grub Book Club was the last one I joined, the one I heavily debated joining, and it's the only one I'm still in. It's run by the library, but is held at a local Lord of the Rings themed bar. We only read graphic novels and we vote on them from a list each month. In November, we had 2 books to discuss because we had a tie vote and just elected to read them both instead of picking between them. It technically has 12 members, but 5 of us show up consistently. It's a good number. They are also the reason I read Fourth Wing. Everyone else in group had already read it and strongly encouraged me to do so, with plans to discuss it after the next book club meeting. Unfortunately, the next book club meeting was cancelled do you the group leader having a family emergency.
The Freshly Written Book Club was a monthly book club at the library where we read books that had made best sellers lists and discussed if they lived up to the hype. It fizzled out on its own during the summer for several reasons. One being that it had been going for several years already and while it's normal for people to come and go as commitments change, no one was coming in to replace the members that were leaving. We had several books that were complete duds in a row, which made even more people lose interest. Also, this year, we had to change how we acquired books for book club and it caused massive delays in actually getting the books, to the point that we were never getting the books on time anymore and for the last meeting we actually met, we hadn't gotten the books in time enough to actually read them before the meeting.
The Haunted Book Club was an online book club being hosted by a YouTuber called Alt Knots. She is best known for being a spooky crochet/yarn/fiber arts influencer. The books were always interesting picks, but trying to keep up with book selection and the live discussion streams got to be too much for me. In order to stay on top of things, you had to be constantly monitoring her YouTube channel, her Instagram, her website, and her newsletter. I just didn't have the energy to be that invested and I have no idea if the book club is still going, but I do still follow her on YouTube and Instagram.
Roll for Reading Book Club died before it really got a chance to get started. We were supposed to meet every other month. Basically, there was a master sheet of fantasy books, each numbered, and we rolled a d20 to determine what book we were reading. We each read a different book and discussed it with the others at the next meeting. It was intentionally kept small, but this back fired because after someone moved and another member never showed up ever, we were down to 2 members and the library could no longer justify running it, as 1 of the members was library staff running it as part of his work schedule when he could have been put on other projects. We managed to have 2 book discussion meetings, and selected a 3rd book for each of us, we never got to discuss.
I'm also doingkingstoken's reading bingo, but I haven't updated my card since June, so I'm not sure how I am doing with it.
Our library did a Summer reading challenge this year. It was based on the number of books you read and you got enamel pins as prizes. (There was a random assortment to choose from.) You got one for signing up, you got one for hitting the halfway point, and one for finishing. You also got a bonus one for signing up on the first day. Your official tracker card also served as a raffle ticket for a gift basket when you turned it in. I had completely forgotten about that part and ended up winning! It was huge. It came in a Pizza Planet (from Toy Story) tote bag. Attached on the outside were 3 Pokémon enamel pins and a knock off brand tamigatchi. Inside was a zen magnet poetry kit, 2 different escape room games, 3 books, & 1 - 1000 piece puzzle of cats on a bookshelf.
Surprisingly, there was no Halloween reading challenge at the library this year. There usually is one.
Right now, the library is doing what they are calling the Golden Ticket Challenge. Your tracker this time looks like a little road map with gold scratch off spots. For every 30 minutes of reading, you scratch off a spot and have a chance at winning a prize (it says small or medium prize on the sheet and I know you pick them off a cart, but neither my mother or myself have claimed any of our earned prizes yet, so I don't know what they are). The end of the trail is 9 hours of reading, which then you can turn in your tracker for a large prize for finishing. You can claim your prizes as you go or all at once when you are done. On top of this, there are 30 golden tickets hidden in books and audio books throughout the library. If you check out a book with one in it, you get a special prize.
One of my main reading goals this year was to complete any ongoing series I've been reading. The only one I've come close to finishing is Lumberjanes, which I did focus on a bit more heavily, as it's the series' 10th anniversary. All I need is the last collected volume and I will have finished the graphic novel series. I've had it on hold for awhile, but it's still just marked as pending.
My Good Reads goal this year was 40 books. I haven't updated it in a few months, but I know I have surpassed it.
My main way of tracking books this year was with the Beanstack app. I do dearly love it, but it hard logged me out in September and after the first couple of attempts to log back in didn't work, I got too busy to deal with it and it kind of got back burnered. I will get back in & get it updated, but my stats are going to be way out of wack.
I used my history on my library account to help make this list, as my physical tracking of my reading after June is a bit spotty, so there are possibly some non-library books missing, but the complete list should actually be pretty complete.
Complete List
Lumberjanes vol 11: Time After Crime by Grace Ellis and Shannon Watters
Lumberjanes vol 12: Jackalope Springs Eternal by Shannon Watters, Kat Leyh, & Maarta Laiho
Lumberjanes vol 13: Indoor Recess by Kat Leyh, Maarta Laiho, & Shannon Watters
Ice Cream Man: Sundae Edition Book 1 by W. Maxwell Prince
Mary Shelley: The Strange True Tale of Frankenstein's Creator by Catherine Reef
Nimona by ND Stevenson (Pub Grub Book Club)
The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz (Freshly Written Book Club)
The Writing Retreat: A Novel by Julia Bartz (Haunted Book Club)
A Guest in the House by Emily Carroll (Pub Grub Book Club)
Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree (Haunted Book Club)
The Hive and the Honey by Paul Yoon (Freshly Written Book club)
Starter Villain by John Scalzi (Freshly Written Book Club)
Resident Alien Omnibus vol 1 by Peter Hogan (Pub Grub Book Club)
The Bad Ones: A Novel by Melissa Albert (Haunted Book Club)
The Keeper of Hidden Books by Madeline Martin (DNF) (Freshly Written Book Club)
My Favorite Thing is Monsters vol 1 by Emil Ferris (Pub Grub Book Club)
Chivalry by Neil Gaiman & Colleen Doran (Pub Grub Book Club)
A Broken Blade by Melissa Blair (Roll for Reading Book Club)
The Only One Left by Riley Sager (Freshly Written Book Club)
They Were Here Before Us: A Novella in Pieces by Eric LaRocca
A Magic Steeped in Poison by Judy I. Lin
Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree
The Fox Maidens by Robin Ha (Pub Grub Book Club)
The Wizard Hunters by Martha Wells (Roll for Reading Book Club)
The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories by H.P. Lovecraft
Family Style: Memories of an American from Vietnam by Thien Pham
The Legend of Auntie Po by Shing Yin Khor
I Survived Capitalism and All I Got was This Lousy T-shirt: Everything I Wish I Never Had to Learn About Money by Madeline Pendleton
Heartstopper Vol 3 by Alice Oseman
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang (Pub Grub Book Club)
Starlight Enclave by R.A. Salvatore (DNF) (Roll for Reading Book Club)
Faint of Heart by Kerilynn Wilson (Pub Grub Book Club)
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
Moonstruck Vol. 3: Troubled Waters by Grace Ellis
Batman. Last Knight on Earth by Scott Snyder
The Dark Maidens by Rikako Akiyoshi
Lore Olympus Vol 1 by Rachel Smythe (Pub Grub Book Club)
Banned Book Club by Hyun Sook Kim (Pub Grub Book Club)
Can I Recycle This?: A Guide to Better Recycling and How to Reduce Single-Use Plastics by Jennie Romer
Safe and Sound: A Renter-Friendly Guide to Home Repair by Mercury Stardust
Cosmoknights Vol 2 by Hannah Templer
Nick & Nora's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn & David levithan
Dragging Mason County by Curtis Campbell
I Hate Fairyland: The Whole Fluffing Tale. Compendium One by Skottie Young (Pub Grub Book Club)
Lumberjanes: Bonus Tracks
Lumberjanes: Campfire Songs
Lumberjanes Vol 14: X Marks the Spot by Shannon Watters, Kat Leyh, Dozerdraws, & Maarta Laiho
Lumberjanes Vol 15: Birthday Smarty by Shannon Watters Kat Leyh, AnneMarie Rogers, & Maarta Laiho
Lumberjanes Vol 16: Mind Over Mettle by Shannon Watters, Kat Leyh, AnneMarie Rogers, & Maarta Laiho
Ongoing
The Anxiety First Aid Kit: Quick Tools for Extreme, Uncertain Times by Sally M. Winston, Rick Hanson, Martin N. Seif, Catherine M. Pittman, David A. Carbonell, Matthew McKay, Elizabeth Robbins Eshelman, MArtha Davis, & Elizabeth M. Karle, Mlis
Queer Ducks (and Other Animals): The Natural World of Animal Sexuality by Eliot Schrefer
Goblin Mode: How to Get Cozy, Embrace Imperfection, and Thrive in the Muck by McKayla Coyle
A Feast of Ice and Fire: The Official Companion Cookbook by Chelsea Monroe-Cassel & Sariann Lehrer
This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Mushrooming: An Illustrated Guide to the Fantastic, Delicious, Deadly, and Strange World of Fungi by Diane Borsato
Knitting for Dummies by Pam Allen
Complete blank meme in box
dizzojay ages ago.Day 5: Talk About Books This Year
I started the year in 4 book clubs. Now, I'm only in one. Funnily enough, the Pub Grub Book Club was the last one I joined, the one I heavily debated joining, and it's the only one I'm still in. It's run by the library, but is held at a local Lord of the Rings themed bar. We only read graphic novels and we vote on them from a list each month. In November, we had 2 books to discuss because we had a tie vote and just elected to read them both instead of picking between them. It technically has 12 members, but 5 of us show up consistently. It's a good number. They are also the reason I read Fourth Wing. Everyone else in group had already read it and strongly encouraged me to do so, with plans to discuss it after the next book club meeting. Unfortunately, the next book club meeting was cancelled do you the group leader having a family emergency.
The Freshly Written Book Club was a monthly book club at the library where we read books that had made best sellers lists and discussed if they lived up to the hype. It fizzled out on its own during the summer for several reasons. One being that it had been going for several years already and while it's normal for people to come and go as commitments change, no one was coming in to replace the members that were leaving. We had several books that were complete duds in a row, which made even more people lose interest. Also, this year, we had to change how we acquired books for book club and it caused massive delays in actually getting the books, to the point that we were never getting the books on time anymore and for the last meeting we actually met, we hadn't gotten the books in time enough to actually read them before the meeting.
The Haunted Book Club was an online book club being hosted by a YouTuber called Alt Knots. She is best known for being a spooky crochet/yarn/fiber arts influencer. The books were always interesting picks, but trying to keep up with book selection and the live discussion streams got to be too much for me. In order to stay on top of things, you had to be constantly monitoring her YouTube channel, her Instagram, her website, and her newsletter. I just didn't have the energy to be that invested and I have no idea if the book club is still going, but I do still follow her on YouTube and Instagram.
Roll for Reading Book Club died before it really got a chance to get started. We were supposed to meet every other month. Basically, there was a master sheet of fantasy books, each numbered, and we rolled a d20 to determine what book we were reading. We each read a different book and discussed it with the others at the next meeting. It was intentionally kept small, but this back fired because after someone moved and another member never showed up ever, we were down to 2 members and the library could no longer justify running it, as 1 of the members was library staff running it as part of his work schedule when he could have been put on other projects. We managed to have 2 book discussion meetings, and selected a 3rd book for each of us, we never got to discuss.
I'm also doing
kingstoken's reading bingo, but I haven't updated my card since June, so I'm not sure how I am doing with it. Our library did a Summer reading challenge this year. It was based on the number of books you read and you got enamel pins as prizes. (There was a random assortment to choose from.) You got one for signing up, you got one for hitting the halfway point, and one for finishing. You also got a bonus one for signing up on the first day. Your official tracker card also served as a raffle ticket for a gift basket when you turned it in. I had completely forgotten about that part and ended up winning! It was huge. It came in a Pizza Planet (from Toy Story) tote bag. Attached on the outside were 3 Pokémon enamel pins and a knock off brand tamigatchi. Inside was a zen magnet poetry kit, 2 different escape room games, 3 books, & 1 - 1000 piece puzzle of cats on a bookshelf.
Surprisingly, there was no Halloween reading challenge at the library this year. There usually is one.
Right now, the library is doing what they are calling the Golden Ticket Challenge. Your tracker this time looks like a little road map with gold scratch off spots. For every 30 minutes of reading, you scratch off a spot and have a chance at winning a prize (it says small or medium prize on the sheet and I know you pick them off a cart, but neither my mother or myself have claimed any of our earned prizes yet, so I don't know what they are). The end of the trail is 9 hours of reading, which then you can turn in your tracker for a large prize for finishing. You can claim your prizes as you go or all at once when you are done. On top of this, there are 30 golden tickets hidden in books and audio books throughout the library. If you check out a book with one in it, you get a special prize.
One of my main reading goals this year was to complete any ongoing series I've been reading. The only one I've come close to finishing is Lumberjanes, which I did focus on a bit more heavily, as it's the series' 10th anniversary. All I need is the last collected volume and I will have finished the graphic novel series. I've had it on hold for awhile, but it's still just marked as pending.
My Good Reads goal this year was 40 books. I haven't updated it in a few months, but I know I have surpassed it.
My main way of tracking books this year was with the Beanstack app. I do dearly love it, but it hard logged me out in September and after the first couple of attempts to log back in didn't work, I got too busy to deal with it and it kind of got back burnered. I will get back in & get it updated, but my stats are going to be way out of wack.
I used my history on my library account to help make this list, as my physical tracking of my reading after June is a bit spotty, so there are possibly some non-library books missing, but the complete list should actually be pretty complete.
Complete List
Lumberjanes vol 11: Time After Crime by Grace Ellis and Shannon Watters
Lumberjanes vol 12: Jackalope Springs Eternal by Shannon Watters, Kat Leyh, & Maarta Laiho
Lumberjanes vol 13: Indoor Recess by Kat Leyh, Maarta Laiho, & Shannon Watters
Ice Cream Man: Sundae Edition Book 1 by W. Maxwell Prince
Mary Shelley: The Strange True Tale of Frankenstein's Creator by Catherine Reef
Nimona by ND Stevenson (Pub Grub Book Club)
The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz (Freshly Written Book Club)
The Writing Retreat: A Novel by Julia Bartz (Haunted Book Club)
A Guest in the House by Emily Carroll (Pub Grub Book Club)
Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree (Haunted Book Club)
The Hive and the Honey by Paul Yoon (Freshly Written Book club)
Starter Villain by John Scalzi (Freshly Written Book Club)
Resident Alien Omnibus vol 1 by Peter Hogan (Pub Grub Book Club)
The Bad Ones: A Novel by Melissa Albert (Haunted Book Club)
The Keeper of Hidden Books by Madeline Martin (DNF) (Freshly Written Book Club)
My Favorite Thing is Monsters vol 1 by Emil Ferris (Pub Grub Book Club)
Chivalry by Neil Gaiman & Colleen Doran (Pub Grub Book Club)
A Broken Blade by Melissa Blair (Roll for Reading Book Club)
The Only One Left by Riley Sager (Freshly Written Book Club)
They Were Here Before Us: A Novella in Pieces by Eric LaRocca
A Magic Steeped in Poison by Judy I. Lin
Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree
The Fox Maidens by Robin Ha (Pub Grub Book Club)
The Wizard Hunters by Martha Wells (Roll for Reading Book Club)
The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories by H.P. Lovecraft
Family Style: Memories of an American from Vietnam by Thien Pham
The Legend of Auntie Po by Shing Yin Khor
I Survived Capitalism and All I Got was This Lousy T-shirt: Everything I Wish I Never Had to Learn About Money by Madeline Pendleton
Heartstopper Vol 3 by Alice Oseman
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang (Pub Grub Book Club)
Starlight Enclave by R.A. Salvatore (DNF) (Roll for Reading Book Club)
Faint of Heart by Kerilynn Wilson (Pub Grub Book Club)
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
Moonstruck Vol. 3: Troubled Waters by Grace Ellis
Batman. Last Knight on Earth by Scott Snyder
The Dark Maidens by Rikako Akiyoshi
Lore Olympus Vol 1 by Rachel Smythe (Pub Grub Book Club)
Banned Book Club by Hyun Sook Kim (Pub Grub Book Club)
Can I Recycle This?: A Guide to Better Recycling and How to Reduce Single-Use Plastics by Jennie Romer
Safe and Sound: A Renter-Friendly Guide to Home Repair by Mercury Stardust
Cosmoknights Vol 2 by Hannah Templer
Nick & Nora's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn & David levithan
Dragging Mason County by Curtis Campbell
I Hate Fairyland: The Whole Fluffing Tale. Compendium One by Skottie Young (Pub Grub Book Club)
Lumberjanes: Bonus Tracks
Lumberjanes: Campfire Songs
Lumberjanes Vol 14: X Marks the Spot by Shannon Watters, Kat Leyh, Dozerdraws, & Maarta Laiho
Lumberjanes Vol 15: Birthday Smarty by Shannon Watters Kat Leyh, AnneMarie Rogers, & Maarta Laiho
Lumberjanes Vol 16: Mind Over Mettle by Shannon Watters, Kat Leyh, AnneMarie Rogers, & Maarta Laiho
Ongoing
The Anxiety First Aid Kit: Quick Tools for Extreme, Uncertain Times by Sally M. Winston, Rick Hanson, Martin N. Seif, Catherine M. Pittman, David A. Carbonell, Matthew McKay, Elizabeth Robbins Eshelman, MArtha Davis, & Elizabeth M. Karle, Mlis
Queer Ducks (and Other Animals): The Natural World of Animal Sexuality by Eliot Schrefer
Goblin Mode: How to Get Cozy, Embrace Imperfection, and Thrive in the Muck by McKayla Coyle
A Feast of Ice and Fire: The Official Companion Cookbook by Chelsea Monroe-Cassel & Sariann Lehrer
This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Mushrooming: An Illustrated Guide to the Fantastic, Delicious, Deadly, and Strange World of Fungi by Diane Borsato
Knitting for Dummies by Pam Allen
Complete blank meme in box
