2020 Reading: Jumanji

Another one that I should have read last year, but never got around to. This one would have been "#39 A book revolving around a puzzle or game" from 2019, because when you think about a book revolving around a game, the first thing you think about is Jumanji.

2020 Reading: Sharp Objects

#38 A book by or about a journalist

There is just something about Gillian Flynn's writing that I love. Maybe it's because it's so real and gritty without being cliche. Maybe's its the amazing story lines that are so new and unlike anything I've ever read before. Either way, I love her books.

This book was amazing and once I got in it, I could not put it down. I really want to read more from her in the future.

2020 Reading: Vintage Murder

Fifth book in the Detective Inspector Alleyn series. This title was on my reading challenge list last year and I never got to it. It was meant to be #4 A book you think should be turned into a movie. There are at least two books after this that are in this year's list so I knew I wanted to finish this one before I started the others. I like to read things in order.

I like these books very much. They remind me of a more light-hearted Sherlock story, with twists and turns and surprise endings and things. It's also fun to picture the voices in my head as I read. When Benedict Cumberbatch did some of the audiobooks, he did the most wonderful voices and I know that I shall think of them for every book. Especially the next one because that's the first audio he recorded.

2020 Reading: On the Shortness of Life

#19 A book with only words on the cover, no images or graphics

This book was actually very interesting when I really got into it. It's just a series of essay-type ramblings, but the subject matter is fascinating. Seneca speaks of life in terms of what one person is able to do. He stresses the need to not work too hard so that you miss life, but also not to waste it by doing nothing. There was a passage that stuck out to me:

'Where is the 

need,' I ask, 'to compose something to last for ages? Why 

not stop trying to prevent posterity being silent about 

you? You were born to die,  and a silent funeral is less

bothersome. So if you must fill your time, write some-

thing in a simple style for your own use and not for

publication: less toil is needed if you study only for the 

day.' (p 71)

Something about that resonated with me. It made me feel better about writing and just creating in general because it reminded me that I should do it for me and no one else. Sometimes people should be reminded of that. It might make things much happier.

2020 Reading: Raising Dairy Goats

#18 A book on a subject you know nothing about

I asked a fellow librarian friend of mine what I should read for this challenge. It was difficult to come up with an answer because being the information grazer that I am, I know a little bit about a lot of things so finding something that I know nothing about was hard. She chose this and I had to admit I knew nothing about the practice. Now though, I know enough to know that I could never personally run a farm of dairy goats. And that is fine with me. That being said they are still cute and adorable.

(For those interested, when she asked me what she should read for this prompt, I sent her down the road of serial killers, of course.)

2020 Reading: Workin' It!

#36 A book with a pink cover

I still maintain that I want to be RuPaul when I grow up. I just wish I had the confidence and drive to pull myself up like he did. This book was full of gorgeous pictures and a little witty commentary and I was a pleasant read.

2020 Reading: Cartoons of WWII

#24 A fiction or nonfiction book about a world leader

Ever since I was in my early years of college, I have been fascinated with the propaganda campaign during WWII. One of the classrooms we used (I think it was the one for public speaking) at my Community College had all of these reproductions on the wall of German Nazi propaganda posters along the wall. I remember looking at them and thinking they were the greatest things ever and some of them were really well illustrated.

This book just gave me more of that to a bigger extent. It's fascinating to look back on that time and see what tactics either side used to sway the opinion of the masses.