Reading Challenges - Update for Short Challenges

Here's a post of all the Reading Challenges I'm doing for 2016. This current post is just an update on the ones that have a time limit. 

Tower Teams IV: Tower Teams is OVER! A winner was crowned yesterday (1/24/2016).  For those who don't know, The Tower Teams challenges are hosted/ organized through Novel Books and Reading Challenges group on Goodreads. The goal is for a team to get to 25,000 points, gathered by reading books that fit in certain categories or criteria.

Our team came in 4th for most improved, whatever that means, and 14th (which was the middle) for the overall point score. It was a lot of fun and super challenging to keep up with all the activity in the group. The challenge is full of mini-challenges and Book of the Month participation. It was crazy. I had originally volunteered as team co-captain but had to step down because I had no idea what was going on. 

Because there were so many categories and you get points based on the number of pages you read, regardless, I just focused on reading the books I wanted to read and they almost always counted towards something. This must have been an okay strategy, because I basically came in second within the group. We had one chick we was a rock star. For example, I read 46 books as part of the challenge (tied with two other teammates). The Super Star read 75 books. I also read the second highest number of pages and got the second highest number of total points. It was a totally fun reading group and I might participate in another one.

14n4 - This is the Facebook Challenge group that I "run." It's a challenge to read 14 books in 4 months. January is the third month, so February is the last month to finish all the categories. I've got 4 books to go to complete the challenge I think, because I FAILED to read the book club book that would have counted as my Memoir book. I also have left: a book with Fall or Winter in the title and a microhistory. I refuse to read that one about Salt. I CANNOT!

Book Review: Ready Player One by Earnest Cline (#NaBloPoMo)

Internet search for pictures suggest that this might be on the road to becoming a movie. I wish I had already written about the rage that happens in my brain when books I like become movies so that I could just link to that here... but I have yet to do so... but trust and believe I will shave my left labia before I watch another movie based on a book that I liked. Too much? I'm fricking serious. But, getting to the getting on.

This pic is amazing. I found it via general search. Let me know if you know who I should credit. #TeamAech

If you were a full on computer/ gamer geek in the 80's you will like this book. If you were a little bit of a nerd in the 80's and geek out over tech now, you will like this book. If you think that nerds or geeks are ridiculous and should grow up and get real jobs, this is probably not the book for you.

Ready Player One, basically, is about a reclusive man on the Autism Spectrum who is OBSESSED with 80's pop culture and creates a video game and becomes rich. Then Sheldon (that's not really his name) creates a simulated world that allows people to work, live, and connect in a virtual world (the O.A.S.I.S) all the time. Then the man dies. He hides virtual prizes ("Easter Eggs" for you egg-heads) in the virtual world and promises in his will that whoever finds the Egg gets his fortune and control of the OASIS. This takes years and hell breaks lose when the contest begins in earnest. 

Now, geeks everywhere can relate to the fantasy that they can create and live exclusively in a world of their creation, with an avatar of themselves that conforms to their desire. You can mute bullies, hide your screen name, and jump virtual worlds. The social commentary bit, of course, is that the real world is going to hell in a hand basket and no one really cares because they've got the fake world to escape into. There's also a brief reflection on how we choose what our "Face" is based on how people will treat us based on appearances. There was no time to follow this thread further, but it was a nice touch. 

Our main dude, obviously, faces some obstacles, overcomes most of them, and learns a lesson. There's one female that the MC knows (who knows about anyone else, since avatars hide your real self) and since she's a gamer and hardcore Egg hunter, they are all about each other. But what about when they meet in person, blah blah blah. 

The book is well written and held my attention. Full disclosure, I was a gamer/ geek's girlfriend, not a hard core gamer myself. So I "got" some of the references and followed along with no problem. But like I said, if you didn't live at all in the life, you might feel a little above it all. This was a solid 4 stars. 

Selling point: Will Wheaton narrates the audiobook. Yesh. Mr. Wheaton is, in my opinion, our nerd leader. 

Getting to Know You- Goodreads Challenge Post (#NaBloPoMo)

As you know, I am participating in National Blog Posting Month. It's been going pretty well so far! It can be kind of a struggle to come up with a topic to write about every single day, though. I'm one of those people that has genius conversations in my head and then can't remember any of the plan once I get in front of the computer monitor.

So, I've decided to cheat a little and take a series of questions from one of my Book Challenge groups and make a post. This is for the Tower Teams Group: Team Bastet:

*****Get to Know You Questions:*****

1.What's your favorite book this year?

Books I loved this year were The Book of Speculation, Everything I Never Told You, and A Tale for the Time Being. Each of these was beautifully written and left me thinking about the characters and the stories for weeks after finishing them. I was also blown away by Anna Dressed in Blood, a book on a list for people who like the show Supernatural, which I do.  

2.Who is your favorite author? 

That's a tough one. There are few authors that I like equally across all of their books, if I read a bunch of them. But, I think it's Maggie Steifvater. I love her internet presence. I've always loved Chuck Palahniuk and Neil Gaiman, too, but not always for their authoring. 

3.Do you read multiple books at a time?

I almost always have two books in progress. One is a traditional, paper book that I read before bed, while waiting in the car, etc. The other is an audiobook that I have for the car rides to and from work or in between work locations. Audiobooks have saved my life. 

4.What is your most anticipated book release of November? 

No idea. I'm going out for surgery in two weeks so my plan has been to not buy or borrow any more books so that I am forced to read books that I already own during recovery. I currently have 14 books checked out from the library and 14 days until surgery. So I don't think I'm going to make it.