Done Did The Dare!

UPDATE: 4/1/16

I MADE IT!

April has begun, and I made it all the way here without reading anything new since January. I've learned a few things:

1) I need to restrain my library habit. I had way too many books out, and it means I don't get a chance to read the stuff on my shelves.
2) Having a reading-loving son really helps. I got several cool books in the mail, and even bought a few, but it was much easier to withstand the temptation to buy them when I could hand them to someone else to read for me.
3) This is a terrible time of year for the dare. I'm trying to get through Cybils books, I'm filling out a Hugo nomination ballet, and Patricia Briggs seems to release in March most years. I'm going to more this dare to the end of the year (since it won't be officially hosted any more), and that will give me a chance to clear stuff up. It's all challenge reading back then anyway.

My final results:

Library Books:

1. Twin Spica 4, Kou Yagimuma
2. Silver City, Cliff McNish
3. Moomin's Winter Follies, Tove Janssen
4. Songs of Willow Frost, Jamie Ford
5. The Eighth Day, Dianne Salerni
6. Dick Francis's Refusal, Felix Francis
7. The Gospel of Loki, Joanne Harris
8. Dreaming Spies, Laurie R. King
9. The Heist, Janet Evanovich & Lee Goldberg
10. Rain Is Not My Indian Name, Cynthia Leitich Smith
11. Tarzan Alive, Philip Jose Farmer
12. An Apprentice to Elves, Sarah Monette, Elizabeth Bear 
13. The Veil, Chloe Neill
14. A Bride's Story 6, Kaoru Mori
15. Zero to Five, Tracy Cutchlow
16. Dead But Not Forgotten, ed: Charlaine Harris, Toni Kelner
17. Between Planets, Robert Heinlein (audio)
18. Kat, Incorrigible, Stephanie Burgis 
19. Canadian Summer, Hilda van Stockum
20. Blue Lily, Lily Blue Maggie Stiefvater
21. Time and Again, Nora Roberts
22. A Family of Readers, Roger Sutton & Martha Parravano
23. Time and Again, Jack Finney
24. Imperfect Sword, Jack Campbell
25. 100 Best Books for Children, Anita Silvey
26. No Vulgar Hotel, Judith Martin
27. Only a Kiss, Mary Balogh
28. The Kentucky Cycle, Robert Schenkken
29. Venus on the Half-Shell, Philip Jose Farmer
30. Radiance, Catherynne Valente
31. The Spies of Mississippi, Rick Bowers
32. Not Always a Saint, Mary Jo Putney

My Books

1. I Lived on Butterfly Hill, Marjorie Agosin
2. The October Country, Ray Bradbury
3. Waiting For the Party, Ann Thwaite
4. Cyrano de Bergerac, Edmond Rostand (Hooker translation)
5. Parallax, Alan Hirshfeld
6. Rob Roy, Sir Walter Scott
7. The Book Thief, Markus Zusak

My E-Books

1. Laura's Wolf, Lia Silver
2. Prisoner, Lia Silver 
3. Mercenary Instincts, Ruby Lionsdrake
4. A Stranger's Gift, Anna Schmidt
5. Republic, Lindsay Buroker

Start the Year With A Dare!

UPDATE: 4/1/16

I MADE IT!

***********************
This is really the last year James Reads  is holding his Dare, which challenges participants to read from the TBR piles only until April 1. This is a necessary event for me, although I usually spend it reading down my library pile and only have a few weeks to read the books on my actual shelves. This year looks like it will be about the same.

On the other hand, it's really about time I got control of the library pile. I should probably schedule a few mini-Dares in August and November to help as well. I bet my cats would step up for a button; they walked around my laptop and sniffed very suspiciously at Dakota's image.

Of course, I get to have all my own exceptions. First of all, Cybils books don't count. If I wait until April to start reading them I'm doomed, and anyway the January reading is the most fun, before the winners are announced. Also, all book club books don't count. That means my Family Book Club, the elementary book club I help run, the monthly Friday club, the weekly Tuesday club, and the online clubs Vaginal Fantasy and Sword and Laser. Also, if I'm reading a tight series, I can keep ordering the next, especially in Manga where the story is continuous.

I'll keep three lists of the books I knock off my shelves: Library Books, My Books, and NOOK books. Library NOOK books count as Library Books, if you were wondering, and I know at least one of you had thought of that (Hi Kevin!).

Library Books:

1. Twin Spica 4, Kou Yagimuma
2. Silver City, Cliff McNish
3. Moomin's Winter Follies, Tove Janssen
4. Songs of Willow Frost, Jamie Ford
5. The Eighth Day, Dianne Salerni
6. Dick Francis's Refusal, Felix Francis
7. The Gospel of Loki, Joanne Harris
8. Dreaming Spies, Laurie R. King
9. The Heist, Janet Evanovich & Lee Goldberg
10. Rain Is Not My Indian Name, Cynthia Leitich Smith
11. Tarzan Alive, Philip Jose Farmer
12. An Apprentice to Elves, Sarah Monette, Elizabeth Bear 
13. The Veil, Chloe Neill
14. A Bride's Story 6, Kaoru Mori
15. Zero to Five, Tracy Cutchlow
16. Dead But Not Forgotten, ed: Charlaine Harris, Toni Kelner
17. Between Planets, Robert Heinlein (audio)
18. Kat, Incorrigible, Stephanie Burgis 
19. Canadian Summer, Hilda van Stockum
20. Blue Lily, Lily Blue Maggie Stiefvater
21. Time and Again, Nora Roberts
22. A Family of Readers, Roger Sutton & Martha Parravano
23. Time and Again, Jack Finney
24. Imperfect Sword, Jack Campbell
25. 100 Best Books for Children, Anita Silvey
26. No Vulgar Hotel, Judith Martin
27. Only a Kiss, Mary Balogh
28. The Kentucky Cycle, Robert Schenkken
29. Venus on the Half-Shell, Philip Jose Farmer
30. Radiance, Catherynne Valente
31. The Spies of Mississippi, Rick Bowers
32. Not Always a Saint, Mary Jo Putney

My Books

1. I Lived on Butterfly Hill, Marjorie Agosin
2. The October Country, Ray Bradbury
3. Waiting For the Party, Ann Thwaite
4. Cyrano de Bergerac, Edmond Rostand (Hooker translation)
5. Parallax, Alan Hirshfeld
6. Rob Roy, Sir Walter Scott
7. The Book Thief, Markus Zusak

My E-Books

1. Laura's Wolf, Lia Silver
2. Prisoner, Lia Silver 
3. Mercenary Instincts, Ruby Lionsdrake
4. A Stranger's Gift, Anna Schmidt
5. Republic, Lindsay Buroker

Clearing the Shelves! (Well, the floor, anyway)

Although I haven't been doing much reading this year, I have dedicated myself to the TBR Double Dog Dare, which means that I only read books that I already have. The first month or so is devoted to my towering library stack, which I really hope to bring down to a reasonable ten-fifteen or so. Then I hope to have time to read enough to fit all my books onto my TBR book cases.

Maybe next year I can work on fixing the double-shelving problem. Never mind, that's too far off -- no need to be chattering about pipe dreams when I don't even know if I'll be able to move on from library books to my actual creaking TBR books.

I started this Dare when I saw it on a link to James Reads Books. Ever year he claims it's his last time running it, so this year I forgot to check but wanted to do it anyway because it's a good way to start my literary year. But it turns out he's got a new icon and everything!

I'm going to keep two lists, one of library books I finish and one of books that are MINE and that I finish.

MY TBR STACK:

1. Wide Open, Deborah Coates (NOOK)
2. The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens
3. Decider, Dick Francis (sorta. I pulled all the Francis's out to reread before March book club, so this gets it off my floor.)
4. Hawk, Steven Brust (sorta. I borrowed this from my brother ages ago; now I can return it.)
5. Blood and Betrayal, Lindsay Buroker (NOOK). NOOK books don't help my shelves much, but I do feel better when I read what I've bought.
6. The Danger, Dick Francis (another Francis stacked on the floor)
7. Shadows and Dreams, Alexis Hall (NOOK)
8. How To Tell If Your Cat Is Plotting to Kill You, The Oatmeal
9. Why Pro-Life? Caring For the Unborn & Their Mothers, Randy Alcorn (NOOK)
10. Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins
11. The Jury, Stephen J Adler
12. What the Dormouse Said, Amy Gash (ed)
13. NERDS, Michael Buckley

LIBRARY BOOKS (all checked out/reserved before Dec 31, 2014):

1. A SEAL Wolf Christmas, Terry Spear
2. The Waking Dark, Robin Wasserman
3. A Love That Multiplies, Michelle &Duggar
4. The Given Sacrifice, S.M. Stirling
5. Undercity, Catherine Asaro
6. There's a Boy In the Girl's Bathroom, Louis Sacher
7. Ambassador, William Alexander
8. Sammy Keyes and the Kiss Goodbye, Wendolyn Van Draanen
9. Capture the Flag, Kate Messner
10. Rose Under Fire, Elizabeth Wein
11. Zero Day, David Baldacci
12. Not Quite a Husband, Sherry Thomas
13. Ardeur: 14 Writers on the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Series, ed. Laurell K Hamilton
14. Across the Universe, Beth Revis
15. Shiver, Maggie Stiefvater
16. The Shadow Throne, Jennifer Nielsen
17. The Escape, Mary Balogh
18. Slow Reading in a Hurried Age, David Mikics
19. Out of the Easy, Ruth Sepetys
20. Archangel's Shadows, Nalini Singh 
21. On Immunity, Eula Biss
22. Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant, Roz Chast
23. The Blood of Tyrants, Naomi Novik
24. Weeping Willow, Ruth White
25. The Stranger, Rachel Manija Brown & Sherwood Smith
26. Possession, J.R. Ward

Raising the Stakes On the Impossible

I've tried twice, and failed twice, but this year is going to be my year! At least I hope so, since I gather that CB, the host of the TBR Triple Dog Dare is retiring after this year.  That's the excuse for recklessly breezing past Triple Dare to go straight for the high-stakes Triple DOG Dare, a dare to refrain from buying or obtaining new books for the first three months of the year. Several of those months have the legal maximum of 31 days, you know.

I've already walked past (well, was dragged by my nephew past) an enticing street library, and made a solo trip to the library where I checked out my holds and shut down my library card before looking over the QuickPicks for adults and children. So far so good. I feel strong! (The fact that I'm writing this on the 2nd day of the year is not lost to me, but I'm getting my morale up.)

Also luckily for me, you can set your own exceptions. So I can reserve anything I need for the Cybils Finalist Challenge, although to stay in the spirit of things I'm going to concentrate on picture books for the first few months. I'll also keep rotating a book from my TBR list and from the 2012 Best of the Best Lists in my reading piles. And my Reading My Library Quest continues, but I'm about to move into non-fiction picture books so again that works with the spirit of things. I think I actually own most of the next few book club books, but again those would be exemptions.

1. Paradise, Toni Morrison
2. Conspiracy, Lindsey Buroker
3. Unspoken, Sarah Rees Brennan. OK, this is a bit of a cheat since it's a reread, but I read part on my NOOK, and that's an old, unread TBR book.
4. Forbidden Rose, Joanna Bourne
5. Untold, Sarah Rees Brennan
6. Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins
7. The King's Name, Jo Walton
8. The Second Spy, Jacqueline West
9. Fierce Reads Anthology (Tor.com) NOOK
10. Attitude, Robin Stevenson
11. Shadows, Robin McKinley
12. Almost a Bride, Patricia McLinn NOOK
13. Who Stole Grandma's Million Dollar Pumpkin Pie, Martha Freeman
14. The Robe of Skulls, Vivian France
15. The Prize in the Game, Jo Walton
16. Welcome to the Ark, Stephanie Tolan
17. Thousand Pieces of Gold, Ruthanne Lum McCunn
18. Love Bites (My Sister the Vampire), Sienna Mercer
19. The Dragon and the George, Gordon R. Dickson
20. Keep Me Forever, Marlene Darcy
21. Nory Ryan's Song, Patricia Reilly Giff
22. The Raven Boys, Maggie Stiefvater

These don't really count because they are rereads, but rereads of books I own:

1. Tarzan of the Apes, Edgar Rice Burroughs
2. Return of Tarzan Edgar Rice Burroughs
3. The Great and Terrible Quest, Margaret Lovett

I MADE IT !!!!! I MADE IT!!! SUCCESS!!! VICTORY!!! HOOOOOORAY!!!!!!

Most Challenging of All

And it's not even a challenge -- it's a DARE. Worse than that, a TBR Double-Dog Dare, hosted by Ready When You Are, C.B. This year I'm going to make it! Not like last year, when I fell in the last week or something.  I learned about this incredibly tough event from Teacher Ninja, and this year I'm pumped, I'm psyched, I'm hoping to finish the twenty books I started last August and somehow never finished.

The gist of the Dare is to not acquire new books. I shall read from my shelves. Everything on hold at the library or in the mail counts as in my possession, btw.

I'm also going to allow myself any book club books (from my evening club, my elementary school club, my family club, or Vaginal Fantasies). And of course I can get books for the Cybils challenge, although I will limit myself to two of those at a time (and any picture books I can get my hands on). It goes without saying that I can continue to work through my Goodreads TBR list, again two at a time (one in the bag, one on the waiting shelf).

Needless to say, if I  run out of unread books on my NOOK, then it's open season because obviously you win the DARE if you read all your books, right? And library books that I started on my NOOK but which expired don't count either.

One result of this challenge is that I should manage to tame my library account, which is starting to spiral up a bit. Oh, that reminds me of another exception -- I'll still check out books for my kids. I just won't sneak over and read them. OK, that's all the exceptions I can think of for now.

To cheer me on, I'll list here the books I finish that come from my shelves (no library books).

1. The Catholic Church In the Modern World, E. Haley
2. Princess Academy: Palace of Stone, Shannon Hale
3. Ecstasia, Francesca Lia Block
4. Smart But Scattered, Peg Dawson
5. Using the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics With Gifted and Advanced Learners, Susan Johnson
6. Holes, Louis Sachar
7. Killbox, Ann Aguirre (NOOK)
8. The Borrowers Afield, Mary Norton
9. Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafon
10. Twenty and Ten, Clare Bishop
11. Gone, Michael Grant  (and here I cheated)
12. Steel's Edge, Ilona Andrews
13. King of Attolia, Megan Whelan Turner (reread)
14. Soup's Hoop, Robert Peck
15. Alanna, Tamora Pierce (reread)
16. In the Hands of the Goddess, Tamora Pierce (reread)
17. The Woman Who Rides Like a Man, Tamora Pierce (reread)
18. Lioness Rampant, Tamora Pierce (reread)
19. Bloody Jack, L.A. Meyer
20. The Tunnel of Hugsy Goode, Eleanor Estes
21. The Serpent's Shadow, Rick Riordan

Girl Who Reads: Among Others

I read Jo Walton's Among Others back when it first came out, and then again when the paperback release arrived (I got both). I wanted to think on it for a little before I came to a reaction, and then of course it got lost under a pile of other books I had finished. As Jo Walton writes a column at tor.com solely based on books she re-reads, it seems appropriate that this post comes out the second instead of the first time that I read her autobiographical book.

It's even better the second time around, and I liked it a lot the first time.  It's about a girl turning into an adult who has spent a lot of time with books and in her imagination.  She's also faced great losses and experienced real magic. Now she is learning to live in a new and alien place where she clings to her reading as the only part of her previous life still available.  She's uneven and judgmental and clever and moral in a way that seems very true to life of passionate teenagers.

I remember thinking that the magic plot didn't integrate completely with the school and boyfriend plots, but on a reread I disagree with myself and found them to interweave well.  The danger from her mom and her dead sister echoed the problems with her aunts and her social awkwardness, and I liked how the men (dad and Wim) rallied to her when she returned from defeating the women (mom, and what the fairies wanted to make of her sister).  Of course, she didn't need them, but they were ready to offer. I also liked Mor's faults; her stubborn and often unpleasant contempt for the girls at school who don't like her; adolescents who can't win often furiously reject the game.

I still can't handle the sexual advances from her dad on her first trip with him; Mor's intellectual response makes bizarre sense but I don't really see the emotional aftermath reflected.

Rebel Flyers: The Girl Who Could Fly

When I saw Victoria Forester's The Girl Who Could Fly on the shelf during my Reading My Library collection run, it looked familiar.  I thought it was on my TBR list, so I congratulated myself on shooting two birds with one library card, but actually it was familiar because I had ordered it from a school book order some months earlier.  Well, technically it was my kid's order, but I'm fairly sure the hand on the pencil was mine. The fifth grader especially is of the opinion that we have plenty of books already.

So technically, can I move my copy of the book out of my TBR pile and count that? Hmm, ethical challenges for my reading challenges.

Anyway, Forester's book is about kids with superpowers and the government conspiracies against them, so YAY!  Pulling it down a bit was Piper's homespun accent and naive pollyanna-ish demeanor, but as long as the scientists kept messing with the magic kids I kept turning pages.  After a bit of a soggy middle, the final action scenes and split second plot worked really well, and I even enjoyed the happy-ever-after bits.  The door is open to a sequel, and if I convince my older son to try this book he'll probably make sure we find it.  The cover doesn't really appeal to his geeky soul; it's soft and flowing rather than stark and conspiracy-ish.

Also, I'm cranky that I can't identify Piper's home state.  West Virginia? Kentucky mountains? Argh!

Rational Love: Christmas Angel

If two people make a sound and reasonable decision to unite together in a plan of matrimony, secure in the knowledge that they can be good friends and helpmeets without going near that icky thing called love, and those two people are in a romance novel, can anyone predict the ending?  Jo Beverley's Christmas Angel doesn't pretend that the suspense lies in the HEA, or even in the skating rink smooth path to that destination, but rests the story in the slow unfolding of both Judith and Leander's trust in themselves. Luckily they (and we) are easily distracted from the pip-squeak forces pulling them apart -- how embarrassing to be the first one to admit that you've accidentally fallen in love with your spouse despite all promises?

So a lot of this book dashes back and forth from the shadowy menaces of both their families.  Her side is much less talked about but ultimately more sinister, while his side is a giant shadow form cast by a tiny and cute little mammal. This is a cosy story about two adults in an imaginary world who build a new family together despite having precious little experience in how to do that.  It's one of Beverley's Rogue books, about a group of fifteen or so very close friends and the women they marry.  I find that conceit charmingly implausible -- who has fifteen best friends? -- but it gives a nice umbrella to her wish to tie all these books together.

I do think the title is silly; yes, Christmas happens, but it's not that important to the story except as an excuse to make Leander try Judith's homemade wine. "The Poet's Bride" or "The Diplomat's Seduction" or "The Bereaved Angel" would all have at least something to do with the story.

May the Fourth: Darth Paper Strikes Back

It's a warm cosy feeling when I can get many things done by reading the same book.  I read our family book club selection for January.  I knocked off a Cybils Middle Grade fiction finalist, I cleared off a book I bought last year but haven't gotten around to reading, and I had a good time doing it all by reading Tom Angleberger's Darth Paper Strikes Back.

I bought this at the same time I got Angleberger's first book, The Strange Case of Origami Yoda, and my kids rushed through both books with enthusiasm but I am more easily distracted and never got to Darth Paper.  Both book use the same technique of having Tommy compile many classmate's responses in his casebook, which gives an excuse for a lot of fun paper art and smudging and also for the cartoons and side comments all over the text, which makes my graphic novel loving kids happy.  I felt that the stakes were raised higher in this book, since Dwight faces expulsion, but I suspect my kids found Tommy's worries about public humiliation just as jeopardising. There was also a bigger sense of character this time around, with Tommy having to put himself forward more both in decision making and in actions.

The school bureaucracy comes off very poorly -- I'm glad our middle school has a much higher standard of administrators than these kids face.  But the ending is emotionally satisfying if a bit intellectually hard to justify.  I'm looking forward to the family discussion tomorrow night, so I can ask if Harold rates as a good guy or a bad guy.

Toughest Challenge of All: TBR Double-Dare

This could be the scariest challenge of all; that must be why C.B.'s  TBR Double Dare isn't really a challenge, or even just a single dare.  The Double Dare is to only read books my possession on January 1st, and the dare lasts until April 1st.  Nothing new from the store or the library for months and months.  Luckily for me, anything currently on my holds list at the library counts as "in my possession."  

Also luckily for me, you can set your own exceptions.  I already used that rule to check out a few books for my son's school report, since his card is disabled until we pay some of the fines. And I'm giving myself another exemption for Cybils Challenge books; I consider them all preloaded on my library hold list and as I read one from each category I order up the next.  I am requiring myself to read any I have in my possession first, but it looks like that only applies to one book.  And I'm sorta cheating on the Scholastic catalogs from school; I'm not ordering any for myself but if the kids pick the ones I've circled and labeled LOOKS LIKE A GREAT BOOK, well, that's just supporting their reading, right? I probably won't get to read them until after April anyway.  

Also, I have a life-time goal of reading a book from each shelf of my library; I think I'll exempt that as well.  I also attempt to read a book from my TBR list each week, but instead of working from the start down and using the library I'll hunt out any books I have in my possession.  If I run out, I'll probably exempt those as well.  Prior lists take priority, after all.  I may not run out until I flunk out of the challenge anyway.  The challenge anticipates that few will make the distance; part of the instructions involves returning to check in when I fall off the wagon.  We'll see how long I last.

(I'm only listing books that I own, not library books, since the latter disappear from the pile whether I read them or not.)

1. Darth Paper Strikes Back, Tom Angleberger
2. The Red House, Edith Nesbit (NOOK)
3. The Terrorists of Irustan, by Louise Marley
4. Twenty Palaces, Harry Connolly (NOOK)
5. The Secret Duke, Jo Beverley
6. A Lady Awakened, Celia Grant
7. Because of Winn-Dixie, Kate DiCamillo (reread)
8. Alvin Ho, Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things, Lenore Look
9. The Maze Runner, James Dashner (technically belongs to my kid)
10. Christmas Angel, Jo Beverley
11. Traveling Mercies, Anne Lamott
12. (The Girl Who Could Fly, Victoria Forester). Well, I read the library copy but the cover looked familiar, so I checked my TBR shelves and there it was!
13. Amulet of Samarkard, Jonathan Stroud (the graphic novel)
14. The End of Racism, Dinesh D'Souza. I think I've had this book for a decade.

BAM! The library had the newest Elizabeth Moon ready for my NOOK, no waiting, no will power, and I fall short by one week of the challenge.  Oh well, I mostly tamed my library TBR stack.

1. The Android's Dream, John Scalzi
2. The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, Jacqueline Kelly