114 Books this year? Probably not

Yes, I am an avid reader. I love to read, and in fact it's one of my favorite things to do!

Because I am active on the Goodreads site (where members can post books they've read, want to read, and reviews, as well as find new books that interest them) I have happily accepted their reading challenges for the last three years.

How many books will you read this year? I was asked, each January. For 2011, since I was living in a rainy state which kept me inside for days at a time, I read a LOT. So I decided I could read 111 books.

And I did!

For 2012 - I similarly read 112 books, and for 2013, I chose 113 books!

Completed, and completed.

But I have to admit, last year I struggled. We had moved to an area with better weather, and I was outside hiking and gardening a lot, not to mention starting a new series of my own writing. So, instead of 113 actual novels, I filled in with lots of picture books from the library. (No this is not cheating, I decided. A book is a book.)

So this year, when Goodreads put the challenge up there for me to again accept, my first reaction was to go for 114 books.

But then, I decided I didn't really want the pressure (even though I was only competing with myself - lol.) I wanted to feel like I could dawdle over a book, cherishing it or reading slowly. Maybe I'd even take an entire month to finish something.

And I'm also busy writing more this year. My story The Winter Kitten is doing well on Amazon, and I am putting the finishing touches on a brand new one in the series, called The Springtime Cat.

So, no reading challenges for me this year. If I read 114 books, then so be it. But I hope to enjoy every single book that I do finish! And garden more. And hike more. And write more!

If you want to see what I'm reading on Goodreads, feel free to friend me there: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3421565.Linda_Benson

And stay tuned for details about my upcoming title: The Springtime Cat.

How Many Books do you usually read in a year?

Is This Cheating?

During the last few years, I've been a reading machine. Taking advantage of a great library system with loads of new releases (not to mention a state-of-the-art drive-up window) I became one of their best customers. I proudly signed up for the Goodreads Challenge for 2011 and 2012, and challenged myself to read 111 and 112 books for those years. Done!

     

   

Living in a rainy climate, I gobbled up books like crazy - usually averaging about two novels a week.

But wait! Something happened. After I signed up for the 2013 Goodreads challenge, and marked myself at 113 books for the year, I noticed I was getting more and more behind. The challenge told me so, with snide little comments like: At this rate, you are 2 books behind schedule. (No problem, I thought. Just read a little faster.) Then the messages got more serious: you are 3 books behind, then 4, then, *gasp* five!

Yes, we moved further south at the beginning of the year. Yes, we moved to a somewhat warmer climate, where I am outside more, fixing up our house, planting, weeding, rekindling my interest in native plants, falling into bed at night too tired to read. But soon I had several unfinished novels with bookmarks stuck in various places. More gardening books than I can possibly digest! Library books stacking up on my coffee table! E-books stacking up on my Nook, and I was too darned busy to read! How would I ever complete my challenge?

I know. I'd read picture books! Those count, right? So here I am, perusing the children's section at the library, gathering picture books by the armload, reading them (they only take a couple of minutes each) and then marking them on my Goodreads challenge. But I still can't catch up!

Now I am, gasp, seven books behind! Should I drop out? What if I don't make it?
(I really HATE to make a challenge for myself and then FAIL!) EEEKK!

2013 Reading Challenge

You have read 33 books toward your goal of 113 books.

33 of 113 (29%)

At your current pace, you're 7 books (7%) behind schedule.

 

 

But I've figured it out - whereas before I did most of my reading in the LOONNGG rainy winter, when it was too cold/miserable to go outside - now I might read a lot more in the summer, when it's too HOT to go outside.

I hope so. Otherwise, (although I do love novels) you might find me permanently camped out in the children's section of the library next December, reading picture book after picture book, until I finally meet my goal of 113.

That wouldn't really be cheating, would it?

P.S. If you are completing a Goodreads challenge, or if you just plain enjoy reading for fun, remember that Six Degrees of Lost is still on sale over at Amazon for only .99!

Hope you are enjoying whatever you are reading!

2012 National Book Award Finalists, or Why I Love My Public Library

Besides being an author, I am also an avid reader. And I use my public library A LOT. In fact, I LOVE my library. Why? Well, whenever I hear or see of a book that interests me, I usually do two things: 1) I search for it on Goodreads, where I get a summary and an idea of what people are saying about it, then 2) if it looks like something I might like to try/or read, I search for it in the online catalog of my public library, right from the comfort of home, and 9 times out of 10 they either have it in stock, or it's on order. Then, with a few simple clicks, the book will be available to me to pick up and read in short order. Sometimes, if it's a very popular book with lots of earlier holds on it, I might have to wait a while. But it's a fair trade for being able to keep up with my voracious reading/browsing/book habit. Because basically, all this is free. Aren't I lucky?

P.S. Go get a library card. Chances are, if you have a library, you can take advantage of this in your community.

But I digress. What did I do this morning? Well, I looked up all of the books that were nominated  as finalists for the 2012 National Book Awards, and ordered quite a few of them!

FICTION

FINALISTS:

Junot Díaz, This Is How You Lose Her (Riverhead Books, a member of Penguin Group USA, Inc.)
Dave Eggers, A Hologram for the King (McSweeney's Books)
Louise Erdrich, The Round House (Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers)
Ben Fountain, Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers)
Kevin Powers, The Yellow Birds (Little, Brown and Company)

NONFICTION

FINALISTS:

Anne Applebaum, Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1945-1956 (Doubleday)
Katherine Boo, Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity (Random House)
Robert A. Caro, The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 4 (Knopf)
Domingo Martinez, The Boy Kings of Texas (Lyons Press, an imprint of Globe Pequot Press)
Anthony Shadid, House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

POETRY

FINALISTS:

David Ferry, Bewilderment: New Poems and Translations (University of Chicago Press)
Cynthia Huntington, Heavenly Bodies (Southern Illinois University Press)
Tim Seibles, Fast Animal (Etruscan Press)
Alan Shapiro, Night of the Republic (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Susan Wheeler, Meme (University of Iowa Press)
 

 YOUNG PEOPLE'S LITERATURE

FINALISTS:

William Alexander, Goblin Secrets (Margaret K. McElderry Books, an imprint of
Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing)
Carrie Arcos, Out of Reach (Simon Pulse, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing)
Patricia McCormick, Never Fall Down (Balzer+Bray, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers)
Eliot Schrefer, Endangered (Scholastic)
Steve Sheinkin, Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World's Most Dangerous Weapon
(Flash Point, an imprint of Roaring Brook Press)
 

I love to sample all kinds of books, don't you?
Tell me, do you have a good library system where you live?

Addicted to Print?

For those of you who've been waiting to read my two newest books in print: Good News! I'll soon have some promotional, limited edition copies of both The Girl Who Remembered Horses and Six Degrees of Lost - hot off the press.
These promotional copies will be available through contests, book signings, or you can get them from me in person.

And there's a contest right now, over at Goodreads to win them. Three print copies of Six Degrees of Lost are up for grabs, and it runs through July 26th, 2012.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Six Degrees of Lost

by Linda Benson

Giveaway ends July 26, 2012.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Two print copies of The Girl Who Remembered Horses are available, and the contest runs through July 27, 2012.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Girl Who Remembered Horses

by Linda Benson

Giveaway ends July 27, 2012.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

I think you have to be a Goodreads member to enter these contests. If not, let me know. But Goodreads is a fun site, especially if you're an avid reader like I am.

Can't wait to read them? They're available right now in digital format (links on the right) and The Girl Who Remembered Horses is already available on Overdrive. Ask your favorite library to add it to their digital collection.

Good luck, everyone, and keep watching here for more chances to win a Print Copy of my two latest books!

Reading like a Maniac

Yes, folks, I've been reading like a maniac. Ever since I joined the Goodreads 2011 challenge, that is. If you remember from this post, I challenged myself to read 111 books in 2011. You can follow my progress on the chart at the bottom of my sidebar (on right) or by going to my Goodreads profile right here.

At the moment, I've read 53 books so far this year, and that will be 54 by this afternoon. Goodreads even leaves little comments on my chart. Right now it says: Awesome work, you're 20 books (17%) ahead of schedule!

Hey, who doesn't need little incentives to work harder? Besides, after our long dreary winter, it's been one of the coldest springs on record, so reading in front of a sunny picture window sounds better than braving the elements outside.

Plus, our wonderful library system lets me order books online, check them out and return them at our nifty drive-up window, and my stack of books to read usually stands at about 10-15.

Do you belong to Goodreads? (Feel free to friend me on there.)
Has the ability to track your reading progress made you read more?

A Horse Called Eagle

Or - why I love social networking. I belong to site called Goodreads http://goodreads.com/ and on that site, I recently listed a horse book I plan to read. It's by Pulitzer Prize winner Jane Smiley, and it's called THE GEORGES AND THE JEWELS. That's a strange name for a book - but I related to it, because apparently the main character's father sells horses (like my father did) and in an effort to prevent her from becoming too attached to them, they all get named either George (for a gelding or colt) or Jewel (for a filly or mare.) This book is now on the top of my to-read pile, and I'm anxious to dive in.

So - last week I get a message on twitter (a tweet) from a horsewoman named Natalie Reinert, mentioning that THE GEORGES AND THE JEWELS looks good. Natalie recently joined Goodreads, and friended me there (see how this works?) So I mentioned that once I owned a horse named Eagle, that my dad bought for me off a truck load of horses from Idaho. He was a flea-bitten grey, part Arab, and colored like the horse below. I loved his name - Eagle, and that's what I called him.

Sometime later I found out that the man unloading the truckload of horses called every horse Eagle that day. "Come on, Eagle. Easy there, boy. Whoa, son. Good boy, Eagle." Boy, did I feel dumb. But still, it was a good name.

So when I told Natalie that story, she messaged me back that she once owned a horse named - wait for it - Eagle, who arrived in Florida off a truck from Virginia. I know, small world, huh?

Anyway, Natalie gallops thoroughbred horses at Aqueduct race track in New York, she's a writer, and she has a fabulous blog. Read her post right here about the thrill of riding a horse out of the starting gate for the first time: http://retiredracehorseblog.wordpress.com/2010/09/29/the-break-from-the-gate/ Wow. I could never be so brave!

I am delighted to know Natalie, because we share a love of writing, reading, and horses. (Not to mention former horses named Eagle.)

Do you have a friend you've met through social networking, or a crazy story like that to share? Tell us. Or (gulp) have you, too, ever owned a horse named Eagle?

More on Goodreads

I wrote a blog post about Goodreads when I first joined about four months ago. I have to say - it has quickly become one of my favorite sites on the web.

It's social networking for Bookworms!

If you love to read, I bet you'll love Goodreads. When I first joined, I had a blast listing all the books I'd read (and I've read books forever and ever - well, since I was about three or four years old - so I haven't listed every. single. one.)

But here's how I've used Goodreads lately - to get great recommendations for new reading material. How do I do this? Well, I like to friend people who are avid readers, and who read in the genre I like. I have friended some of my favorite authors, librarians, book reviewers and book bloggers. Once you join, look around and find people with lots of books on their lists, and see what they're reading. If they read books in the genre you enjoy (for me, it's MG and YA. For you, it might be mystery, romance, non-fiction, whatever . . .) You can either friend them, compare books with them, become of a fan (of authors) or just follow their reviews.

I have found some great books to read this way, ones I hadn't heard about - even brand new ones that aren't out yet. You can also recommend books to your friends. It's awesome when I see someone else reading a book I just finished, and I wonder what they will think about it. It's a great way to share your love of books and reading.

I believe I am actually reading more since I joined. (For an author, this is a good thing.) When I finish a book, I can hardly wait to post it on Goodreads with my rating.

So if you're a reader, what are you waiting for? Try it out. You might like it.

If you want to friend me on Goodreads, click here to go to my profile page. You can see what I'm reading right now - Today, it's Woods Runner, by Gary Paulsen (and I'm loving it.)

And as I was typing these words, a Goodreads friend who blogs about books, and who lives clear on the other side of the country, sent me a message answering a question I just asked her about the name of a book. Yay for social networking across the web!

Do you love to read? Have you joined Goodreads yet? If you have, how has it worked for you? Please share your experiences. I'd love to know if you like it as well as I do.

Goodreads

I joined Goodreads yesterday. I'd heard of this site before, where you can list all the books you've read/are reading/hope to read, etc. etc. and I had actually clicked over to it several times, but never joined. Now, I'm a member.

I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do with it. There are so many different places on the Internet to "friend" people and join things that it all becomes overwhelming sometimes. Still, the idea of finding other people who have read the same book that I have is somewhat intriguing. I distinctly remember reading Life of Pi, by Yann Martel, when it came out several years ago. I wanted so badly to discuss that book with someone, and I could not find One Person who had read it yet. Argggh.


Now, I'll be able to find discussion groups, get ratings, and even offer my own two cents into what I think about a book. Not sure if I'll actually have time to write reviews or get that involved. I mean, it's hard enough to get all the books read that I have stacked next to me right now, besides writing my own.


But for now, as a brand new member of Goodreads, I am totally hooked trying to add to the 'my books" list; trying to remember all the books I've ever read (I mean how far back do you go - childhood? That's a LOT of books.) When I clicked on the children's list, I started adding, adding, adding, because I've worked as a children's librarian (which is where my love for children's literature became honed to a fine edge) and I was amazed how many books I have read in this genre. (And I barely touched the picture books.) Of course there are lots of horse books on my list. Lots of novels featuring ranch life (which I will cover in a further blog post.) And actually, quite a bit of recent fiction.


When you add books to your list on Goodreads, you can rate them. Five stars = It was Amazing. Four stars = I really liked it. Three stars = I liked it. I added a lot of books with Five Stars, because they were memorable, amazing, and they stood out in my mind. I sincerely doubt that I'll ever add any books with only one or two stars (I didn't like it, it was okay) because, let's face it, if I don't like a book, or if I think it's downright terrible, I won't even finish it at all. And this does happen.


Anyway, adding books to my list is addicting, distracting, and one more thing to keep me fooling around on the Internet and not working on revisions of my own manuscript. But it's fun. And now I'm working on this cool widget montage to go on my sidebar to show what I've read, so people will know that I love and appreciate books. Which is true. I do love books, and I love to read.

Are you on Goodreads? Do you use it much? Let me know of ways that it has worked for you.


Oh and Do. Not. Forget. (Have you noticed that this is a cool new Internet way of talking? You know, to emphasize something - you put a period after every word. As in O.M.G.) Anyway - Do. Not. Forget. You can still enter the drawing to win a copy of Riding Invisible, a brand new YA novel by Sandra Alonzo, until March 15th. I will draw the winner on March 16th. Good luck, everyone!