reading

I happened across a couple different reading challenges today that caught my fancy. I hope to focus more on writing this coming year, which may mean less time for reading-wait, who am I kidding? I’ll make time for reading, I always do. Perhaps not enough time to complete the goals outlined here, but the challenge is always fun regardless.

The Book Riot 2015 Read Harder Challenge: http://bookriot.com/2014/12/15/book-riot-2015-read-harder-challenge/

The Official 2015 TBR Pile Challenge: http://roofbeamreader.com/2014/11/24/announcing-the-official-2015-tbr-pile-challenge/ This one even comes with the chance to win a $50 gift card to Amazon.com or The Book Depository!

If neither of those seems like your cup of tea, a search for 2015 reading challenges will turn up troves of others. So take a look, enjoy the holidays (and possibly stock up on gifted books), and then let a new year of reading begin!

In other news, I received my prize from author Andrea K. Host’s giveaway celebrating her 5,000 rating mark on Goodreads.com. I greatly enjoyed Host’s Touchstone Trilogy, and only owned it in eBook format – but no longer! There were three prize options to choose from (and a winner for each one), and I am now the proud owner of the galley copies of Touchstone, complete with personalized note from the author.

One of the other prize options through the giveaway was a copy (eBook or paperback) of every single one of Host’s books not already owned by the winner. As awesome as that would be to receive, I decided I would rather support her work by paying for it when I got around to reading more. Then when I saw the price for shipping two hefty galleys from Australia to the U.S., my timeline moved up and I wasted no time downloading her Medair duology 🙂 I look forward to reading it soon (as part of a reading challenge, perhaps?) Should you want to check out her work yourself, she currently has all of her eBooks on sale at $0.99 for the holiday season (http://www.amazon.com/Andrea-K-H%C3%B6st/e/B004F99RRY/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1418697065&sr=8-1)

Wishing you all good cheer and happy reading!

Since discovering the world of indie authors and self-published novels, I have made a point of trying to include plenty of these books in my reading. I also just this year discovered the existence of websites that advertise when eBooks are on sale for free. As a result, I have read a TON more books than usual this year, more than doubling my total count from last year! (Keeping track is easy thanks to Goodreads and its annual reading challenge). I have read 50 books so far this year, with a few more weeks to go.

Out of those 50 books, here are some of my favorites of the lot. (Note that, although these are books I read in 2014, a few were actually published in previous years)

TRADITIONALLY PUBLISHED NOVELS