Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

Twilight is the first book in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Saga. This is the first book I have read by Meyer, although I do plan on reading The Host. I read this book before it became a movie, and I am glad that I did. Don't get me wrong I like the movie (mainly because of Taylor Lautner as Jacob), but the book is so much BETTER. I came across this book because of a girl at a facility I was at, and she was sitting on her cot reading this book. The cover is what caught my eye because for some reason when I was in high school I did not read as much, which is pretty weird being that I read all the time now. Anyways, I asked her what the book was about. This is what she told me, "A vampire. He falls in love with this human girl and they are like totally in love." I was just sitting there like that's just creepy, but that cover was so intriguing that I decided to give the book a chance. And here we are today.

The Summer I Died by Ryan C Thomas

Publication date: January 30, 2006

# of pages: 232

Genre: Psychological thriller & Adult fiction


The Summer I Died is the first book in Ryan C. Thomas' Roger Huntington series. This is the first book I ever read by Thomas and I don't regret it. The title sucked me right in. I'm like, "Oh my goodness!!! This sounds scary as a mother f***er." At the time I had seen  the book, it was free on Amazon's website for the Kindle edition. (I'm always browsing Amazon for free Kindle books). Even though it was free, I definitely would have paid for it. It is totally worth the $2.99 (Kindle price) it's listed at today.

The cover caught my attention as well. I mean who wouldn't be curious about a book with a man standing in some mountains while the sun is setting with an axe in his hand!?!? I was super intrigued. I was like, "Who is he going to chop up? And why?" Thomas writes in a way that leads you right in to the point where you don't want the story to be over.

January Challenge: Titled, Themed and Random

For the month of January, We Love YA Books is hosting a challenge that runs from January 1st to January 31st. We Love YA Books is a GoodReads group in which I am a member. This challenge is actually three challenges and you can decide to do one, two, or all three of them. I have decided to do all three of them. The three challenges are the Title Challenge, Themed Challenge, and Random Read Challenge.

The Title Challenge consists of taking a New Year's Resolution and spelling it out with book titles. The New Year's resolution that I choose is to "get more organized", I shortened it to "neater." The only book that I am sure that I will read for this challenge is Asylum by Madeleine Roux. So therefore, I'll be reading a total of six books for this challenge. I'm actually looking forward to this. I love trying to spell out words with book titles. I always end up reading books I wasn't planning on reading anytime soon and loving them.

The Themed Challenge consists of reading a certain amount of books that are first in the series. You can choose the amount of books you want to read for this challenge. This challenge is based on the fact that January is the first month of the year. I have chosen to read just two books for this challenge. I have started more than enough series that I haven't finished yet and I really don't want to add too many more before I finish some of the others.

The Random Read Challenge consists a random number generator and your GoodReads TBR shelf (or any other shelf you may want too you). First you decide how many books you want to read, then you use a random number generator to give you numbers for the amount of books you want to read. After that you go to your TBR shelf and look for the books that corresponds to the number picked for you. I'll use my choice as an example, just in case the way I explained this is a little confusing. I chose two books and went to random.org using the integer generator to get two random numbers. I got the numbers 602 and 1606. Next I took the numbers and looked for the corresponding numbers to the two books on my TBR shelf. For the number 602, I got the book Hideaway by Dean Koontz. For the number 1606, I got the book Tonight and Always by Nora Roberts.

So for the challenge as a whole I plan to read ten books.

2016 Listopia Challenge: I've Already Read It Part 1

For the 2016 Listopia Challenge, I've decided to read 48 books. I decided that I would post about the books I've already read with links to their reviews. I have chosen to split the post up into a series of post so no one has to scroll through a long list of books or just give up on going through the list. I know if it was me reading the latter option, I'd give up after about five books. My attention span just isn't that long. Therefore, I will be making posts that contain five books each until I have listed all the books I've read from the book list, Books That Everyone Should Read At Least Once. I hope you guys will enjoy this series of posts and find some books you'll want to read.

1. Pretty Little Liars (Pretty Little Liars #1) by Sara Shepard

Current list position: #3681 (tied with other books) 
 
Average rating: 3.93

Length: 286 pages

Genre: Young adult, Mystery & Contemporary

My review: Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard


2. City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments #1) by Cassandra Clare
  

Current list position: #369

Average rating: 4.12

Length: 485 pages

Genre: Young adult, Fantasy & Romance

My review: City of Bones by Cassandra Clare


3. Dreamcatcher by Stephen King

 Current list position: #3092 (tied with other books)

Average rating: 3.54

Length: 688 pages

Genre: Horror, Science fiction & Thrller

My review:


4. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer 

 Current list position: #75

Average rating: 3.56

Length: 498 pages

Genre: Young adult, Fantasy & Romance

My review: Twilight by Stephenie Meyer


5. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

 Current list position: #73

Average rating: 3.68

Length 122 pages

Genre: Classics

My review:

Dreamcatcher by Stephen King

Publication date: March 1, 2002
# of pages: 688

Genre: Science fiction

Dreamcatcher is the first book I have ever read by Stephen King. There is a movie based on this book; it is also titled Dreamcatcher. For me the title of this book suggested something different. I don’t know exactly what I was expecting, but it wasn’t what I got. I read a lot of reviews about this book prior to reading it, and most of them were not good. Half of those reviews are the reason I picked this book out of all the other Stephen King book to start with. I figured if I even remotely like this one, then I should like his other ones. However, I’m still not too keen on reading his book, It. I just don’t think that will ever happen because the movie scared the s*** out of me as kid and to this day I’m still afraid of clowns. They’re creepy.

Challenges & Ideas for 2016 Part 6

Hey guys. I was more busy yesterday than I expected, so as a result this post is a day late. Sorry guys. Today is the first day of a new year: 2016. I'm little excited and then I wish last year would have just slowed down a little bit. My birthday is in a little over three months. I'll be 24 and would prefer for the time to not move so fast as I'm not trying to be older any faster. I would like to linger in my year. You know I want to feel like I've been one age for a long time instead of feeling like my birthday was just here not that long ago and somehow it has crept up on me. I wish I hadn't sad how much I wanted to grow up when I was kid; I'd prefer to go back to those days.

So back to the topic here. One last challenge that I know for sure that I want to do in 2016 (there may be more as the year progresses) is the From Fiction to Reality Challenge. This challenge is hosted by a GoodReads group that I am a member of called 2016 Reading Challenge. I really love this group as they host a lot of challenges which helps me to stay on track with my goal for the year. I'll probaby go through the challenges they have up this weekend, so there most likely will be more challenges for me to participate in and post about. They have monthly, quarterly and yearly challenges. This challenge is a yearly challenge.

Challenges & Ideas for 2016 Part 5

It's day 5 of my challenges and ideas for 2016 posts. Only one more day left, then we'll be counting down the seconds to the ball drop and the start of 2016. Is everyone exited for the new year coming? I still can't believe how fast this year has went by; everything seems to have happen in a blur.

So this year, I've read 102 books. I had set a goal to read 100 books in 2015. I was so excited when I got to 100 and then read book 101. I didn't think I was going to make it to 100 because I only read like one to three books for about three consecutive months. I felt very accomplished when I close the gap of how many books I was behind by, then actually got ahead of schedule. Last year, I didn't make it to my goal of 100 books; I had only read 76 books. Which is much more than all the books from all the collective years before 2014.

In 2016, I want to read 150 books. I'm hoping that if I read as many books as I did some months this year next year, I'll make it to 150 books. I'm glad that I found the site GoodReads in 2013 because it definitely helps me keep track of the books I have read. Does anyone have a certain amount of books they want to read in 2016? How many books did you manage to read this year? And was the amount you read higher or lower than what you expected?