Ringing in 2014

Well, Happy New Year, everyone! I trust you all are doing well.

I thought I would take this opportunity to point out that I, like many people, have set a resolution for myself. Fortunately, I started mine back in July of 2013, so I'm making pretty good headway with it. For those of you that remember, I had a moment back in July when I realized I had some unfinished books on my plate. While I didn't get to them all, I did complete a few. I even made a mid-year resolution to start reading at least 25 books a year, and for starting in July, I think I did pretty good for myself. Take a look:

Terry Pratchett:
1 Sourcery
2 Wyrd Sisters
3 Pyramids
4 Guards! Guards!
5 Eric
6 Moving Pictures
7 Reaper Man
8 Witches Abroad
9 Small Gods
10 Lords and Ladies
11 Men at Arms
12 Soul Music

Laurell K. Hamilton:
13 Affliction
14 Micah

Neil Gaiman:
15 Stardust

J. R. R. Tolkien:
16 The Hobbit

Richard Adams:
17 Watership Down

Seventeen books in five months -- especially when you remember I stopped in November to do NaNo -- is damn good if you ask me. I at least did well enough to keep myself motivated for the new year, and I'll be looking forward to seeing my progress for 2014.

How about you folks? Have any of you made pre-New Year's resolutions that you're following through with?

Even pros are afflicted by mistakes

I'm still brainstorming over ideas for the third edit of Uncertain Heirs, so I thought I would break over and do a book review of Affliction by Laurell K. Hamilton.

Reading achievement unlocked

I spent the holiday weekend doing what I said I would do: catch up on some reading. I finished The Hobbit (Finally!), read all of Micah in under four hours (New record!), and read through The Music of Erich Zann (Yay!). Aside from magically ripping a toenail off in my bed this morning, I had a fantastic weekend.

How about the rest of you: reading anything exciting for your holiday weekend? :)

Unfinished reading

I went through my books this past weekend, and found a few that I started reading, but for one reason or another did not finish:

• The Hobbit, for instance. I've had a bookmark in that thing since 2005, and I only ever made it to the wine barrel scene. I never made it to Smaug!
• Then there's the Da Vinci Code, which I'm about four pages in. I think I started it back the same year the movie came out -- when was that? Cripes, 2006! I must've started the book at the beginning of 2007, then.
• Micah is a book by Laurell K. Hamilton that fits into her Anita Blake series -- I bought it, but I never read it because I didn't consider it part of the series (I thought it was only a stand alone). I found out a few years ago it is part of the series. Whoops.
• The complete short stories of H. P. Lovecraft -- love those. I read them before bed because they're nice and short. I'd been reading those in the order they were written, and I left off at The Outsider. Next on that list will be The Music of Erich Zann. That puts me close to halfway through his list of short stories. After that, it'll be the novels.
• I started Around the World in 80 Days two years ago while working for a utility company, but I only made it 6% through (according to my Kindle).
• Then there's Black Beauty, which I'm halfway through.

I like reading the classic works, such as The Hobbit, Black Beauty, etc., because I think everyone should read those to be well-versed in the English language. Seriously, how much easier would Shakespeare and Chaucer (the two of whom high school students complain most about reading because "Oh, you can't understand them!") be to read if children read classics from the 1800-1900s in primary and middle schools leading up to Shakespeare and Chaucer in high school?

Ranting aside -- how about you folks? Any unfinished reading you've been itching to complete? Is there a reason you want to finish reading those stories, or did you abandon them because of how bad/boring/whatever they were?