2017 Reading Challenge: List

#1 A book recommended by a librarian : Dracula Vs. Hitler
#2 A book that's been on your TBR list for way too long : Ted Bundy
#3 A book of letters : Dracula
#4 An audiobook : Octopussy & The Living Daylights
#5 A book by a person of color : Push
#6 A book with one of the four seasons in the title : Bayou Autumn
#7 A book that is a story within a story : The Hobbit
#8 A book with multiple authors : Love in Vein
#9 An espionage thriller : The Night Manager
#10 A book with a cat on the cover : The Psychopath Test
#11 A book by an author who uses a pseudonym : Christine
#12 A bestseller from a genre you don't normally read : The Jane Austen Book Club
#13 A book by or about a person who has a disability : A Beautiful Mind
#14 A book involving travel : Tales of Travelrotica For Gay Men
#15 A book with a subtitle : Cannibal Serial Killers: Profiles of Depraved Flesh-Eating Murderers
#16 A book that's published in 2017 : Norse Mythology
#17 A book involving a mythical creature : Strange and Eerie Tales
#18 A book you've read before that never fails to make you smile : Llama Llama Hippity Hop
#19 A book about food : Hannibal Rising
#20 A book with career advice : How to Win Friends and Influence People
#21 A book from a nonhuman perspective : The Bees
#22 A steampunk novel : The Time Machine
#23 A book with a red spine : Love Poems
#24 A book set in the wilderness : The Last One
#25 A book you loved as a child : Wicked Witches
#26 A book by an author from a country you've never visited : Get A Life
#27 A book with a title that's a character's name : Lizzie Borden
#28 A book set during wartime : The Remains of the Day
#29 A book with an unreliable narrator : American Psycho
#30 A book with pictures : Atomic Blonde
#31 A book where the main character is of a different ethnicity than you : Uncle Tom's Cabin
#32 A book about an interesting woman : The Woman in White
#33 A book set in two different time periods : Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
#34 A book with a month or day of the week in the title : Three Sundays in a Week
#35 A book set in a hotel : A Room With a View
#36 A book written by someone you admire : D*U*C*K
#37 A book that's becoming a movie in 2017 : Murder on the Orient Express
#38 A book set around a holiday other than Christmas : Labor Day
#39 The first book in a series you haven't read before : The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
#40 A book you bought on a trip : Obedience to Authority
#41 A book recommended by an author you love : The Other
#42 A bestseller from 2016 : Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis
#43 A book with a family-member term in the title : Sons of Anarchy
#44 A book that takes place over a character's life span : To The Stars
#45 A book about an immigrant or refugee : Hannibal
#46 A book from a genre/subgenre that you've never heard of : John Dies at the End
#47 A book with an eccentric character : Drag Queen
#48 A book that's more than 800 pages : A Clash of Kings
#49 A book you got from a used book sale : Sliver
#50 A book that's been mentioned in another book : This Side of Paradise
#51 A book about a difficult topic : Lethal Lolita
#52 A book based on mythology : The Odyssey

Date Started: January 1, 2017
Date completed: December 27, 2017
Books finished in challenge: 52 of 52
Books finished in total for year: 90

2017 Reading: Wicked Witches

#25 A book you loved as a child

Okay, this is one of those books that I randomly thought of about a year ago and I could remember little bits of one part, but I didn't know the name of the book, the name of the story, the characters, the author. I know NOTHING. But I remembered the stupidest little details: the fact that it had a blue cover (dear God, help me) and one part where it talked about a witch having really red eyes because she would work by candle light late into the night. And that was IT.

It took almost an entire YEAR, but I finally tracked it down. I did everything I could think of! I went to lost book sites, discussion boards for librarians about older books, I asked every single one of my librarian coworkers, I googled the google out of google in every possible pattern I could think with what little info I could remember until one day I finally stumbled upon the cover.

And you know what I did? I immediately bought the damned book so that I could show everyone that I was NOT crazy and the book actually DID exist!

I must have made my mother read this book to me a million times because I loved it so much and pictures were amazing and a little frightening now that I look back on them...

2017 Reading: To The Stars

#44 A book that takes place over a character's life span

George Takei is a fascinating person. He went through containment camps in WWII, he speaks 3 languages, he ran for office... He has done so many things other than just Star Trek and yet, that’s the only thing you really hear about. I think that’s just sad. 

I’m glad I read this book. It was full of great stories that are told only as he could, with that little bit of wit and you can just imagine his big smile while he tells all these tales of his life.

2017 Reading: Tales of Travelrotica For Gay Men

#14 A book involving travel

I read better fanfic on LiveJournal back when LiveJournal was a thing.

Meh. Not much else to say about these stories. Pretty horrible. There are only so many euphemisms for the male anatomy that you can use before it becomes utterly ridiculous. No joke, one part of the book referred to the penis as " a spicy chorizo." It was painful to read.

It reminded me of all those articles that you read in nude-y magazines, you know, the "you won't believe what happened to me" stories. Yeah, I don't believe them because that NEVER happens. This kind of stuff does not happen. I mean, if it does, more power to you, but come on! This is reaching just a little too far over the line.

But whatever. I'm done with it now and I can get rid of this book that has been sitting on my shelf for the longest time. Where did I even get this book? I don't remember buying it but I'm sure I did somewhere down the line, probably closer to my early 20's. Oh, how naive I was...

2017 Reading: Love in Vein

#8 A book with multiple authors

Yet another one that has been sitting on my shelf for the longest time waiting for me to pick it up. Although to be fair, I've owned this book since before the whole vampire thing exploded into the popular market and that's probably the reason that is sat as long as it did. But the pages smell divine.

Basically anything that Poppy Z. Brite deems to put his name on is alright with me. I know that there are no stories by him in this collection, but he chose them and since I like his writing so much and just the way his mind works, I trust his judgement when it comes to recommendations.

I like that some of these stories branched out into other types of vampires and lampas, not just the ones to drink blood and stuff. It gives them more variety and also expands the kind of stories that you can tell with them.

2017 Reading: A Beautiful Mind

#13 A book by or about a person who has a disability

There's a reason I studied English in college... I cannot math. At. All.

So, this book?

SUPER CONFUSING!

Also, if you have seen the movie and think it's a great story or whatever, then don't bother reading the book. Nothing is the same. Nothing. The movie might as well have been called something completely different and they should have changed the names. Part of me understands the need to create certain elements so that one can in some way at least a little bit understand what it's like with schizophrenia, but the rest of it? Nope. Just made up nonsense that has no bearing in the real story of what actually happened.

That being said, there were certain parts that were interesting to know about this person, but on the whole, I really didn't particularly care for this book. Most of it was all of the math and descriptions of things that had nothing to do with Nash (like the procedures of the Nobel committees, for example). The other part was how mad it made me that a movie was made seemingly by a person who never read the book or knew anything at all about Nash in the first place.

Hollywood.

2017 Reading: Strange and Eerie Tales

#17 A book involving a mythical creature

Short little book that has been on my shelf for a while. Contains three little stories that I must admit, I had never heard before. Nice and quick.

2017 Reading: Phoebe and Her Unicorn: The Magic Storm

I always like to read these when I can find them. They're cute, quick reads that make me smile.

2017 Reading: Llama Llama Hippity-Hop

#18 A book you've read before that never fails to make you smile

Since my nephew was old enough to really understand words, we have read this to him before bedtime every night. Over three years of that and it never fails to put a smile on my face.

2017 Reading: The Psychopath Test

#10 A book with a cat on the cover

This book was completely different than what I thought it was going to be. I don't really know what I had in mind, but this had a lot more to do with Scientology than I expected. I was not aware that Scientologists were very much opposed to the idea of psychiatrists and diagnosed mental disorders. It did, however provide some great insights into psychopathy.

I've read books on the subject before, but this one put all of that knowledge into perspective for me in terms of how many people identify as psychopathic and how many can be considered on the spectrum.

I was also happy to get the Hare Checklist. I honestly don't think that I would ever really look into the list to see if I could spot a psychopath in my everyday life. That's one of those things that I just don't need to know.

2017 Reading: Ted Bundy: Conversations with a Killer

#2 A book that's been on your TBR list for way too long

I think at some point I read, like, a third of this book and then I put it down and just never picked it up again. I don't know why and it's been long enough that I don't remember a single thing about it so starting over from the beginning would not be that big of a deal AND it would finally get it off my TBR list. Yay!

Ha! It's funny, but what Ted says about religion is kind of what I feel about it as well:

"[...] I believe in a higher power or force, which is 

above and beyond, perhaps, even our comprehension. 

The gods of the religions around the world are real in that 

they represent something that a man reaches out for, 

that's larger and more powerful than he. Unfortunately, 

those who do not fully comprehend that power, attempt to 

create God in man's image and clothe it. Man's urges and 

desires and passions in God end up being, us, a personality. 

Which seems totally foreign to reality." (pg 207)

2017 Reading: Get A Life

#26 A book by an author from a country you've never visited

Another book on the shelf that I have been waiting to get out of the running. I've read nearly all of his other books so I figured, why not this one, too? And Canada is somewhere that I have never visited. So there.

Having been to Comic Con a few times as well as some other fan convention similar to it, I can pretty much feel where he was trying to go with this book. It's completely different from a fan's perspective than it is for the celebrities. Though I can't tell you who has the better side of the deal (unless you're talking money-wise, and then it is DEFINITELY the celebs. Cons are EXPENSIVE AF!)

Hearing about him going around cons with a rubber mask was kind of hilarious.

2017 Reading: Lethal Lolita

#51 A book about a difficult topic

This was another one of those books that's been siting on my shelf for a while and I needed an excuse to check it off my list.

I can honestly say that I was not very aware of the particulars of this case, I mean, you hear the names and the headlines with clever quips, but I was just too young to get into it when this was happening. So, essentially, I went into this with little to no idea of the details.

Everyone contradicts everyone else! The only one who I am certain is telling the truth is Mary Jo! Everything else is completely and utterly muddled.

2017 Reading: The Night Manager

#9 An espionage thriller

Yeah, I chose to read this because Tom Hiddleston stars in the mini-series. What of it? I waited until I read it to watch the show and THAT was torture, trust me.

Okay, so the book was VERY slow going and there were parts that, I am ashamed to admit, I just skipped over because they were boring and had no bearing on the story whatsoever. There was all of this politics that made no sense (to me anyway) and that just took me away from the story of Jonathan. I wanted this to be exciting and adventurous, but much like with the James Bond stories, I was very disappointed.

I really hope they spruce things up in the mini-series because this book would no translate well otherwise.

2017 Reading: Ten Count Vol. 1

I was putting this one in the system at work and when I read the back cover I was pleasantly surprised to see our library getting yaoi. I haven't read a good manga in a very long time.

This one promises to be most entertaining... Assuming we can get the rest of the volumes without any trouble.

2017 Reading: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

I don't know why I picked this up. I guess that I just forgot that this was written my Fitz and I figured it was a quick enough read to get through without bogging me down.

Interesting concept. Maybe not enough for me to want to see the movie, though.

2017 Reading: Lizzie Borden

#27 A book with a title that's a character's name

I told you about my thing with killers, right? Well, this is another one that's been sitting on my shelf for a while and I figured I would check it off of the list.

2017 Reading: The Last One

#24 A book set in the wilderness

THIS BOOOOOOOOOOOOOK!!! OMFG!

I don't remember how I heard about this book, I think someone might have just seen it on the shelf (it's relatively new) and when I said I was looking for a book set in the wilderness they just told me about it. I AM SO GLAD THEY DID! I loved it!

At first I was a little weary because I don't really do the whole reality survival show thing (to be clear, I didn't really read the description before diving into this so I had no idea how it was going to turn out). But, as soon as that second or third chapter rolled around, I was hooked.

There was so much in this story. So much. What she did... What she HAD to do... Amazing. And heart-breaking.

I will definitely be suggesting this book to anyone who will listen.

2017 Reading: The Odyssey

#52 A book based on mythology

This is another one of those books that I was SUPPOSED to read in high school, but never did. You know, I honestly think our teacher just let us watch the movie and we never actually read it. We seemed to do that a lot at my school.

You know, if you were to cut out all of the literal word-for-word repetition in this story, it would go a LOT quicker. I swear, most of the book was just the same words over and over and over again.

Also, did people really used to treat each other like that? All "Welcome stranger whom we don't know, please eat with us and rest and only then tell us who you are and what's up. Of COURSE you're not a murderer or anything. Let my women rub oil on you and take some of my clothes and gold! Want a car to take you where you want to go? HERE!" Seriously, can we go back to that? I want to be welcomed into rich people's houses before they even know my name and give me free things.

2017 Reading: Billy Bloo Is Stuck In Goo, Eva and Sadie and the Worst Haircut Ever, The Wrong Side of the Bed

Okay, so this time I actually DID get to do story time for the kids! Granted, there were only three of them and one was scared of me, but STILL...

Yeah, I suck at dealing with kids, apparently. But these are the books that I read to them:

This one was adorable and there were lots of opportunities for me to use voices and accents, which I think went over well with the kids. Parents too, actually.

This one was also cute and also taught a little life lesson.

This one was very repetitive and I found myself getting tongue-tied while reading it aloud. That made it a little awkward but it was still a cute little story.

2017 Reading: Hannibal Rising

#19 A book about food

HA! See what I did there?

But, seriously.

I know a lot of people didn't like this book/movie for a number of different reasons, but the main one that I see over and over again is the fact that they don't like Hannibal killing for revenge. They feel it is somehow beneath him. The thing no one remembers is, it's ALL revenge. He kills people for being rude. So, it's revenge for his sensibilities or even the sensibilities of those people that he holds in esteem (see: Miggs' death after he disrespected Clarice, and also Paul Krendler). So for him to take revenge on the people who murdered and ate his little sister is not that far of a stretch. In fact, it makes more sense once you think about it.

This act that was brought upon him is so heinous that people don't even like to think about it and a person's natural reaction, however buried in morals it may be, is for revenge. I think that people just don't like to admit that Hannibal IS human and has human feelings. They prefer to think of him as a monster with no morals who kills at random on a whim and then tries to justify it with "manners."

This book shows you that he is indeed a human who has gone through something terrible and found a way, however misguided and amoral (to us) to deal with it. It is this act that set off a chain reaction to the events of the rest of his life and career, including his unique "tastes."

I enjoyed this book. It was fascinating to learn the back story and to see behind the mask, as it were, to this character.

2017 Reading: Please Destroy My Enemies

I saw this book come in and I thought it was hilarious. Cute little drawings with weird and disturbing messages. I love it.

2017 Reading: Bayou Autumn

#6 A book with one of the four seasons in the title

I was not the biggest fan of this book. I guess I'm too critical of my poetry but I didn't really see much that I really enjoyed. Everything rhymed (which is okay, unless it starts to get repetitive and cheesy) and every other poem ended with an exclamation point and they were all happy and bubbly... I guess I just don't like that type of poetry.

It's by a local author, so it's not really well known (I've had to add it to Goodreads and LibraryThing myself). I think I'll put it back out into the world so that someone else may find it and get joy out of it.

2017 Reading: Midnight Confessions

Very short read that I found at the library.

Hilarious.

2017 Reading" The Dinosaur That Pooped a Planet

I put this book in the library system the other day and I immediately knew that I needed to read it and take it home for my nephew.

I was not disappointed.

2017 Reading: Obedience to Authority

 #40 A book you bought on a trip

"Nothing is more dangerous to human survival than malevolent authority combined with the dehumanizing effects of buffers." (p 157)

I saw this movie about a year ago and I immediately (though, admittedly in a very inebriated state) bought the book and decided to read it. It is FASCINATING!

It really makes you think about the role that authority plays in our everyday lives. There is this section where they talk about the autonomous state and the agentic state and it just blew my mind to think of how much out brain adjusts to society as we are immersed in it.

Even if you have no idea what I am talking about and have no knowledge of psychology, I recommend at least watching the movie "The Experimenter." It was SO good!

2017 Reading: Labor Day

#38 A book set around a holiday other than Christmas

I honestly don't know what to say about this book. On one side, I thought this was an epic love story for the ages with chance meetings and instant connections with whimsy and feel good vibes. On the other side, OMG no. So much about this was wrong and weird. But then again... I don't know. I'm not one who really believes in the whole love at first sight thing, so maybe I'm just biased. I do know, however, that by the end, I was very happy that they found each other again, so maybe that says something about me.

I was not very happy with the lack of quotation for dialogue. That got very confusing very quickly.

But hey! Now I can watch the movie. Mmmm, Josh Brolin...

2017 Reading: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

#39 The first book in a series you haven't read before

I had heard really good things about this book. I've seen the original Swedish movie but not the more recent American one. I was also told that it was hard to get through because it was translated from Swedish and sometimes translations can come out a little weird, but I didn't find that to be true. It was very engaging and I was intrigued.

The only thing I felt was a little bit difficult was keeping up with the names of all the people in the Vanger family. I literally had to make myself a chart so that I could reference it while I read. Even then, I was still a little confused, but I got over it really quickly.

I don't think I'll be in too terrible a hurry to read the rest of them just yet, but I definitely want to at some point.

2017 Reading: Atomic Blonde

#30 A book with pictures

MY WIIIIIIIIFFFFFFFEEEEEEE.....

There was a little bit of German in here that I didn't understand (I understood some of it, but I'm not fluent or anything) so that threw me off. It was also set during the Cold War (which is also something that I don't know a lot about), but I could follow the logistics pretty well.

I'm interested to see how they are going to turn this into a film, especially if they plan to set it in modern day (which it looks like they did). Either way, going to see the movie because I am going to marry Charlize Theron someday.

2017 Reading: What I Hate

This book was so funny. I admit that I picked it up simply for the cover art, but I ended up really liking it.

2017 Reading: Hannibal

#45 A book about an immigrant or refugee

I love this book. I think the one thing I liked the best about it was that it was able to surprise me with the ending. I had only seen the movies before and all the other ones have been very true to the story, but this one was just a bit different. All I had ever known was the movie ending so when this one ended, it was a PLEASANT surprise.

I this makes for a much better ending for Clarice and Hannibal.

Also, I like that we get to see into some of the weakness of Hannibal in this. I know that in the prequel, we go into even more detail, but in the books before this, you get this image of Hannibal that hardly seems human because you lack a story. To know a little bit more about what makes him the way he is, what he has gone through in his life before we meet him in Red Dragon, is so interesting and just seems to whet the appetite (HAH, see what I did there?) to know even more and I think that gets everyone ready for the next book which just so happens to be his origin story.

2017 Reading: Sons of Anarchy (Collector's Edition)

#43 A book with a family-member term in the title

It's no secret that I LOVED this show. I mean, come on... It's Hamlet on motorcycles. What's not to like?

But seriously, I loved seeing inside the show and some of the thoughts of the show-makers including the creator himself. I had no idea how much minute detail went into the though-process of the show and all of the props-costumes-tattoos-etc. It boggled my mind how much prep work went in to each episode and how much the actors had input into the running of the show.

I think Kurt Sutter is brilliant. He knows what he wants form the very beginning and he gets there without compromise. He is the end-all-be-all of decisions (even the tiniest ones) and it all adds up to this gargantuan opus that will last a very long time.

Now I wanna go watch the show again.

2017 Reading: The Hobbit

#7 A book that is a story within a story

I don't get it. I honestly do not get the appeal of this book. It was short and dry, with little to no descriptions... The characters were flat and/or non-existent... How did they make 3 movies out of this?!

I am not a fantasy person, I have never claimed to be. If this were the first book I picked up in the genre (as it was for most people) I would have never picked up another fantasy book again because I got nothing out of it. I like my books to pique my imagination and paint pictures of the action in my head, but this book did nothing. And then it was over.

I've also never seen the movies (see: not into fantasy) but I have seen enough to know that they had to just make shit up for most of it because there is NOTHING to work off of in this book.

Good on you if this is your thing, but I just don't get it.

2017 Reading: The Time Machine

#22 A steampunk novel 

Steampunk and fantasy are not really my thing so I went through this as quickly as possible. I like the idea of time travel and things of that nature, but this was very dry and just not something that I would normally read. Then again, I suppose that is the purpose of the reading challenge, so all is right with the world.

Pretty sad book, but not the saddest I have ever read in the genre of time travel.

2017 Reading: The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

A friend from the library showed me the short film that started this book and I thought it was delightful.

2017 Reading: The Woman in White

#32 A book about an interesting woman

Okay, so the thing about this book is, it's really interesting!!! Like, I was intrigued from the very start.

But...

It takes so long to get through. We're talking 569 pages of the tiniest type imaginable, and though there is really not a lot of flowery descriptions of unimportant things (this book actually does get right down to the point and doesn't talk about things it doesn't have to for the narrative), it is still in the type of language that tends to carry on and on.

Despite that, however, I enjoyed this book.

2017 Reading: Norse Mythology

#16 A book that's published in 2017

See, I told you I would pick up any book about Norse Mythology.

I was kind of expecting this to be more of a story based book, but it was actually more of just a facts dump. I pretty much already knew all of the information that was presented so that made me a little disappointed, but I still like reading anything I can about this subject.

There were some modern turn-of-phrases and some dialogue that he threw in there, but mostly it was just facts. Still, fun read.

2017 Reading: Drag Queen

#47 A book with an eccentric character

If there are ever eccentric characters, drag queens fit the bill.

I had no idea what to expect from this books, but I was delightfully surprised. It was funny and engaging and once I really got into it, I didn't want to stop.

Also, it made me remember that I need to catch up with the latest season of RuPaul's Drag Race soon.

2017 Reading: Dracula

#3 A book of letters

So, why in the hell do most movie depictions of Dracula (look at you, Coppola!) portray Lucy as this attention whoring slut-bag? Seriously, she was the nicest most sincere and innocent character. I just don't get it. But, whatever.

So, pretty much little to no actual Dracula in the book. I guess it was okay. I wonder where everyone got this idea of a charismatic, sexy goth man that is Count Dracula, when in actuality, there's hardly a description of him at all and NO mention of interaction with females except to feed and even that is not described in any kind of depth.

Where's the Gary Oldman stud-muffin in purple glasses seducing everyone in sight? Where's the Gerard Butler in the long flowing coat, giving lopsided smirks to unsuspecting scantily clad women in record stores? Where is Frank Langella with his soft lighting and soft-core porn? Christopher Lee with his intense stare? Bela Lugosi with his charming accent and witty compliments?

2017 Reading: Three Sundays in a Week

#34 A book with a month or day of the week in the title

I know this was a very short story, but it was the only thing even remotely interesting that I could find with a month or day in the title. Plus, Edgar Allan Poe. Come on.

Funny little story with a funny little ending. Short and sweet. A nice way for me to try and catch up to my goal.

2017 Reading: Treasury of Norse Mythology

I will pretty much pick up any and all books about Norse Mythology that I find.

Especially ones that actually say that Odin was a douchebag. Which he was. The end.

2017 Reading: The Bees

#21 A book from a nonhuman perspective

I loved this book. I honestly could not point out one specific thing that makes me love it. I just love it.

And it blew my mind that this all took place in such a short amount of time. Like, I know on some scientific level that bees only have a certain lifespan, but this book read like it was set through years of this one bee's life even though it only last about 6 weeks or less.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone willing to pick it up.

2017 Reading: Christine

#11 A book by an author who uses a pseudonym

It never said that this had to be one of the books that he wrote UNDER that pseudonym. HA HAAAA!!!!! Loophole.

Once I got into it, I really enjoyed this book. I tend to have fun with Stephen King's writing (though I have book told that after the accident, his style changed and luckily I haven't encountered any of that writing yet).

Part of me was a little disappointed that the spirit making the car run was that of an angry ghost instead of the car itself. I don't know why, but I think that might have been more terrifying. Not human.

Now I would like to see the movie and see how it measures up since I haven't seen it before.

2017 Reading: 5 Children's Books

There was a slim chance that I was going to have to step in a do an impromptu story time today so I had to bone up on the things I would be reading. All of these were adorable. Except Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs... which was quite disturbing.

2017 Reading: Love Poems

#23 A book with a red spine

So, I had to physically make myself sit down with no distractions just to finish this book.

Now, I'm all about free verse poetry, but there is a line. There's a line where it stops being poetry and turns into ramblings with no punctuation or capital letters.

I'm glad I'm done with this.