The Reading Games: March Update/April Reading Goals

So we decided to hold a little contest among ourselves to each set a number of books we'd like to read every month. Anyone meeting her target number would receive a sticker on our poster board tracker. Well, here's what the board looks like after updating for March:

So I'm posting solo this month because Ally and Melissa are both loaded with school work, as usual, lol. Woohoo—I made my reading goal for the first time this year! OK, so it was set rather low to begin with to 2 books, but I made it!

There was a bit of protest when I went to claim my sticker for the board for March. Both Ally and Melissa were a tad upset that I made my goal and refused to hand over the sticker, even after I threatened to publicly shame them on the blog, as I'm now doing. XD In the end, I wound up taking matters into my own hands. I didn't have any stickers, so I used a stamp instead to mark this momentous occasion. I wasn't joking back in January when I said that all three of us are very competitive, LOL.

I feel like I'm setting myself up for failure with my April reading list since one of my intended books is pretty hefty, but I'm dying to read all three of these books ASAP:

Lee's April Reads:


A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab
Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare
The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater

I'll report back next month with how I did and what I hope to read in May, and with any luck, Melissa and Ally will have some reading time again by then!

The Reading Games: February Excuses Post/March Reading Goals

So we decided to hold a little contest among ourselves to each set a number of books we'd like to read every month. Anyone meeting her target number would receive a sticker on our poster board tracker. Well, here's what the board looks like after updating for February:

That's right. Still no stickers on the board for anyone, plus we're a little late posting this update, lol. And so we all find ourselves writing another excuses post for February.

Ally: Another month, another failed attempt at my reading challenge. It's sad to say that I failed my set goal of reading one book for the month of February. Besides the typical and probably expected excuses of college, work, and other life responsibilities, I am seeing that I have a hard time finding the motivation to read. I'm in a sore spot right now, where reading isn't the escape that it used to be for me. I think a large part of that is because of the time commitment you have to put into reading. If you're reading, you aren't doing anything else—the book has your complete attention. I feel super guilty if I spend my time doing anything that I can't multitask with another project. Life is so stressful and busy right now but reading is something that I loved, so hopefully March will be a better reading month for me.

Lee: Once again, I came very close to making my goal and fell 1 book short—GRRRRRR!!! I went into February still reading a book I'd hoped to finish in January, so that already put me a little behind for February. I'm confident that I'm going to read these 2 books in March AND get my first sticker on the board!

Lee's March Reads:

Shimmer by Paula Weston
Tell the Wind and Fire by Sarah Rees Brennan

Melissa: Well, this is awkward . . . I’m ashamed to admit that I did not complete my monthly challenge for the second time. I really thought I would be able to handle one book, but this month was pretty eventful. On top of my awful homework load and depressing work schedule, I finally bought my first car! Whoop whoop! I named her Lucy (and yes, that is a Beatles reference! XD). This upcoming month, I hope to get around to reading The Girl From The Well because it looks soooooo good! Happy reading! ;D

We'll report back next month with how we did and what we hope to read in April (*ahem* The Raven King *ahem*)!

The Reading Games: January Excuses Post/February Goals

So we decided to hold a little contest among ourselves to each set a number of books we'd like to read every month. Anyone meeting her target number would receive a sticker on our poster board tracker. Well, here's what the board looks like after updating for January:

Yep, no stickers for anyone because we all fell short of our goals. Hence, we've all written excuses for our failure:

Ally: Unfortunately, I did not reach my reading goal for this month. I had set my goal to read three books and I only managed to read about half of one book. I'm super embarrassed about my lack of reading so I'm going to hide behind some excuses lol. A new semester of classes started for me this month and I've been struggling to stay on top of my new workload. I'm also in the process of transferring to a new university, which has also been a time monopolizer. Next month I'm going to set my standards lower and try to read one book. Hopefully I can at least accomplish that lol.

Ally's February Reads:

Palace of Mirrors by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Lee: I came very close to making my goal of three books, but alas I came up one short—I'm still in the process of reading Passenger by Alexandra Bracken. Most nights I just found myself too exhausted to read; I'd try but I'd fall asleep after reading a few sentences. This was totally not the fault of any of the books I read; my body simply refused to cooperate with staying awake. We also finally had a stretch of cold weather and it put me in the mood to knit, which also cut into my reading time. But I did knit two scarves! I'm aiming for three books again in February.

Lee's February Reads:


Truthwitch by Susan Dennard
Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton
Into the Dim by Janet B. Taylor

Melissa: Welp, I probably should have seen this one coming. Needless to say, I did not meet my monthly reading goal. I was delusionally ambitious and thought I would somehow be able to read four books in addition to allllll of my other school related reading. I did finish The Fifth Wave and The Infinite Sea, both of which I enjoyed immensely. Two out of four isn’t too shabby. On the plus side, thanks to all of my school books, I’m ahead on my Goodreads Reading Challenge for this year! Whoop whoop!

Now that I have more realistic expectations of my free time, I think I will set this month’s reading goal a bit lower. This month’s reading goal is only one book, The Girl from the Well by Rin Chupeco. I was going to add in my school books to my goal, but I thought that might be cheating. I will get my sticker this month!!!! Happy reading!

Melissa's February Reads:

The Girl from the Well by Rin Chupeco

We'll report back next month with how we did and what we hope to read in March!

The Reading Games: January Kickoff

The three of us got together on Christmas Eve to have a little meeting about possible ideas for the blog for 2016. Something that we ended up discussing was how we all want to read more in the new year, and Ally suggested that we have a little family contest among ourselves to motivate us. And so The Reading Games were born!

Each month, we're going to make a list of the books that we're planning to read in that month. For every book read, we get a sticker on the sweet poster board tracker that Melissa and Ally created:

EDIT 1-3-2015: After checking with Ally, we only get the sticker for the month if we read ALL of the books we said we would in that month. This is to motivate us to complete our reading lists for the month. Ally and Melissa also inform me that we don't have enough stickers to award one sticker for each book read. XD

Whoever racks up the most stickers at the end wins a prize (plus bragging rights): we're all kicking in a few dollars for a new book to go to the victor. We'll be making progress posts at the end of each month and then also posting the new reading lists for the beginning of the month.

Our January reading lists are:

Ally:

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Palace of Mirrors by Margaret Peterson Haddix
The Isle of the Lost by Melissa de la Cruz

Lee:

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys
Chase Tinker and the House of Mist by Malia Ann Haberman
Passenger by Alexandra Bracken

Melissa:

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey
The Infinite Sea by Rick Yancey
The Dark Days Club by Alison Goodman
Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined by Stephenie Meyer

This should be very interesting, as we're all highly competitive people lol, but it's also going to be a lot of fun. We'll report back at the end of January with how we did!