Required Reading: July

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Everyone’s been saying this now, but of course I will say this again: look, it’s July. It’s the third quarter, it’s the second half of the year. Where is time going?

Anyway now, as opposed to my Required Reading for May challenge, June wasn’t so good. I’m not exactly sure what happened, and to think scaling down to two books will help me finish reading all in a month. But nooo, I ended up reading other things, so Noli Me Tangere and The Book Thief remained just…started. Not exactly untouched. I started on them, but somewhere along the way, I stopped.

I did read many good books this month…so it’s not waste month, of course. I guess this goes to show how I feel about books with more than 500 pages. Heh.

So let’s start anew. Hello again, July!

Required Reading: July

I was consulting my Required Reading list for July that I kept in my planner and saw that there was no set theme again. I was lining up my books again and I realized that if I had a fantasy month, then I should have a contemporary month, right?Celebrate realistic YA with The Contemps!

So here we go:

  1. The God Box by Alex Sanchez
  2. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
  3. Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers
  4. What My Mother Doesn’t Know by Sonya Sones
  5. Dark Blue by Melody Carlson

Oh gasp, look — five books? Well I figured this should be easier now, especially since I love contemporary fiction, and one of the books is a book in verse (I’m starting to like them very much now!). I am going to be on night shift for this month, too, so I’m hoping that that would help me read more whenever I find free time.

Or I could just keep on trying, you know. :)

If you’re interested in participating in this challenge, here’s a rule recap:

  • The books should be read within the specified month
  • These books should be in my TBR and not yet to be acquired
  • These books cannot be used for any other reading challenges I am participating in.

Leave a comment so I can put you on the round up! Happy July everyone! :)

Required Reading: July round up!

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Required Reading: June

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May was a little forgiving compared to April when it came to work, so I was able to read faster than I usually do. That, and the books were, well, awesome, so it made for a very good reading month.

Of course, I still didn’t finish all on time, as I only finished the fourth book for my Required Reading challenge yesterday. Still, I think I made pretty good, and none of the books I chose to read last month were a drag.

So, Required Reading for May recap!

  • The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner – introduced me to the wonderful world of Sounis, Eddis and Attolia, and my new favorite lead character, Eugenides. :)
  • The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner – this further made me love The Queen’s Thief series. I can see here why the people who recommended this series to me love it so much. :)
  • The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner – this sealed the deal for me in the series. MWT = genius.
  • Mistwood by Leah Cypess – I finished this yesterday and it was pretty good, although all the conspiracies kind of bewildered me a bit. It may be not the best mood to read this after I’ve read the MWT novels I’ve had on hand — expectations are a bit higher. Still, it was pretty good. Review to come this week. :)

I think this may be my most successful month as far as this challenge is concerned. :)

On to June!

Required Reading - June

I will do a little variation this month, because when I first made my list for June books, I realized that all of them are a bit of a heavy reading, and I know for sure I won’t be able to finish all, So, instead of choosing four books, I’m only going for two.

Rules recap!

  • The books should be read within the specified month
  • These books should be in my TBR and not yet to be acquired
  • These books cannot be used for any other reading challenges I am participating in.

I’m also bending my third rule a bit because one of the books I chose this month passes for my local book challenge. I can afford to bend it, right? Right.

The theme for June is revolution, since we celebrate the Philippines’ Independence Day this month. :) See why I mean it’s a pretty heavy subject? The books:

  • Noli Me Tangere by Jose Rizal – For my non-Filipino readers, Jose Rizal is the national hero of the Philippines. Noli Me Tangere (or Noli) is required reading for us during high school, but we didn’t actually read the novel back then — we were reading a summarized version of the book (which we had to summarize further — go figure). I liked Noli’s story, so I want to read it in its full glory. :) June 2011 is his 150th birthday, so I figure it’s also just right.
  • The Book Thief by Markus Zusak – By revolution, I remember war. The Book Thiefis set in WW2, so this should fit the theme quite well. :)

I also have a back-up book, just in case I end up having more time, or I’m having a particularly good reading month, too.

  • Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly – French revolution. Enough said.

Pretty thick books up ahead. And I have some books I still have to finish reading. Let’s see how well June goes. :D

 

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Required Reading: May

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And just like that, April has come and gone. WHAT. Why are the 2011 months just flying by? :o

April was a busy month but it was busy for work! Gah, I am still buried in a ton of work right now, but of course I am procrastinating by blogging. :P I thought the reading for April was quite good, though, especially since I got a long break during the Holy Week, and I was also sick almost half the month so the lack of gym time became reading time. Not bad, I guess?

So what happened for Required Reading for April?

As expected, I only got to finish reading three books:

  • The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis – perfect Holy Week reading. Kind of creepy, but true to C.S. Lewis style, definitely thought-provoking.
  • BoneMan’s Daughters by Ted Dekker – not as good as the old Dekker ones I love.
  • Losing Faith by Denise Jaden – very quick read, entertaining, but it kind of lacked a bit of the tone that I was expecting it to have.

Like what I predicted, one of them will take a bit of time to finish Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light by Mother Teresa, edited by Brian Kolodiejchuk because it’s non-fiction and it’s not really for quick reading. It’s a very good read so far, and I think when I’m done with this, I’ll hunt around for other biographies because they’re fun. I think I’ll be taking my time with this one, though.

It’s not a bad month, as I’ve actually finished the three books early on, giving me room to read other books within the month. :)

And now, we go to Required Reading for May!

Required Reading: MayAgain, the rules (note to self: create a separate page for this soon):

  • The books should be read within the specified month
  • These books should be in my TBR and not yet to be acquired
  • These books cannot be used for any other reading challenges I am participating in.

I am truly excited for the books I chose this month. They’ve been sitting pretty on my shelf since last year and I know people have been bugging me to read them. :D I realized it’s also just right, too, especially since I’ve been reading one contemporary novel after the other in the past weeks. This month’s theme is fantasy. The books!

I don’t really know why I’ve been putting these off, but I know people have been bugging me to read these, especially the first three books (ahem, Chachic! :) ). LOL, well now I am going to read them and I am excited because as much as I enjoy contemporary, I think I need a little bit of magic in my reading now. :)

What about you? What books are you lining up to read this May? If you’re planning to participate in the challenge, leave a comment so I can link you up. :)

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Required Reading: April

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Wow, look at where March went. My favorite month always ends too soon.

However, that means it’s time for another Required Reading post. :) Once again, here are the rules (one day I will make a separate page for this):

  • The books should be read within the specified month
  • These books should be in my TBR and not yet to be acquired
  • These books cannot be used for any other reading challenges I am participating in.

But first, how did I do for March?

Despite my busy-ness for March (you would not believe how much we raaaaageeeed! at work the past month), I was able to do a bit better for this mini-challenge. I think I was more than determined to get through all the books? That, and I find that I had a lot of waiting time during the past month, especially when you had to sit for six hours straight in the salon chair for a hair rebond treatment). Here are the books I finished and reviewed:

  • The Rise of Renegade X by Chelsea M. Campbell – such a fun read. :) I love Damien.
  • Storm Front by Jim Butcher – another book with such a fun hero voice. Finished this one real quick while waiting for my hair to dry before my birthday party. :D
  • Being Jamie Baker by Kelly Oram – not exactly what I expected, but still enjoyable.

I still didn’t get to finish all four books for March, but I’m halfway through the last book (A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly) now and that’s so much better than how I did last February. :)

I think my problem with the books I pick for this challenge is I always pick books in print. I can usually juggle reading two books at a time if one of them is an ebook. However, 3 out of 4 books I chose are in print, and I find it hard to read two print books at the same time. That, and March had two releases I was really excited about, books that made me drop everything else I was reading just so I can read them. But still, it’s a pretty good month, IMHO.

Now for my Required Reading for April!

Required Reading: AprilThe month of April usually means two things for me: the start of summer and Holy Week. Last year’s Holy Week barely touched April, but this year, Holy Week is right smack in the middle of the month. I usually go offline during that week and pick a slightly difficult book to read because not being online means I have more time to tackle a hard-to-read book.

I would pick summery books this month, but Holy Week has more bearing for me than that, so this month’s Required Reading theme is all about faith.

This is a pretty varied selection of books. Ted Dekker is usually a pretty fast (although far from light) read. I was browsing through The Screwtape Letters and it’s a short book, but knowing Lewis, it’s not going to be an easy read, either. Losing Faith is YA Contemporary, which should be a welcome break, and I’ve been looking forward to this one for a while now. The hardest, I think, would be Mother Teresa’s book. It’s my first non-fiction for a while, and I have a feeling I will cry with this book. I think I’ll reserve this one for Holy Week, when I’m offline.

I’m actually quite excited to tackle these books. :) I’m sure it won’t be easy, but if there was anything I learned about my faith in the past years, I know it’s been anything but. :)

What about you? Any specific books you’ve lined up for this month?

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Required Reading: March

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Hello March! :) March is my favorite month of the year — can you guess why?

I started Required Reading last February in an attempt to tackle my Mt. TBR into (semi) submission. This is a small reading challenge were I pick four books as priority books to be read within the month. They should follow some sort of theme if I can find one, but there could also be no reason for that. The only rules for this mini-challenge are:

  • The books should be read within the specified month
  • These books should be in my TBR and not yet to be acquired
  • These books cannot be used for any other reading challenges I am participating in.

So how did I do last February?

The truth? Some kind of miserable. I may have had encountered some sort of reading slump right after I finished reading Emma and my brain refused to read at its normal speed. Out of the four books I listed last month, I only finished two on time:

  • Delirium by Lauren Oliver
  • Seventeenth Summer by Maureen Daly (review to be posted later this week)

I’m still reading Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis and there’s no hope for me starting Something Borrowed yet. So…in terms of quantity, I kind of passed, but it was such slow reading that it nearly drove me out of my mind. This makes me wonder if setting specific required books to read is more detrimental than just reading whatever comes to mind first.

Ah well. But I’m not one to back out from a challenge I set for myself, and I still want to conquer my Mt. TBR somewhat. So even if February’s challenge results weren’t really that good (hey, February was a short month!), I’m still doing this mini challenge.

Yeah, I can be a bit masochistic sometimes. That doesn’t mean I won’t ever read Something Borrowed anyway — the movie is coming soon, and what better time to read the book than before watching the movie, right?

But I digress. It’s a new month, so it’s time to move on! It’s time for Required Reading for March!

Required Reading: March

Truth be told, I am not entirely sure what theme I’m going for this month. The ones on my list don’t really have a central theme to it, except that two books I got there are for free (one won and one gift) and the two others I got for myself as rewards. I was thinking of making the theme about “heroes”, but I’m not sure if one book fit that theme. So…let’s go back to the gift theme instead. This is my birth month, after all. :)

thanks, weheartit

And there you go. I don’t know if I’ll be able to make the challenge this month. Let’s see if my birth month will be favorable for my required reading. Maybe I should give myself a reward if I read all four…like disney jewelry perhaps? …Nah.

So, how about you? Any books you want to bump up your TBR this month? Books you must read, no matter what? Do share! :)

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