Bout of Books Challenge Day 3

A haiku inspired by The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro, my current Bout of Books read.

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, May 11th and runs through Sunday, May 17th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 13 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

Next week I will be participating in the Bout of Books read-a-thon. You can follow my progress on this blog, my instagram @Literatigeek or my twitter @Literatigeek . 

Brought to you by The Broke and the Bookish

May 5: Ten Books I Will Probably Never Read

When I was in school I hated the really vague "write something generally related to this topic" type assignments. I like my restrictions. I like to know what rules I can stay within. Due to this mentality surviving into my twenties I placed the restriction on myself to choose from the "Popular 100 Books to Read Before You Die Shelf" on Goodreads, specifically from the first two pages.

(As always; no particular order here, other than the order in which they appeared on the list.)

1.) Catch-22 by Joseph Heller: This is one of those books I missed out on reading during High School. I'm not 100% sure what this book is about, maybe one day down the road I'll crack the spine. As for right now, it's not anywhere near my TBR list. 

2.) Little Women by Louisa May Alcott: I feel like I should have a stronger desire to read this than I do. I have a vague memory of testing out the first book freshman year of high school but didn't really feel connected to it. Perhaps I'm past the age to read this one now.

3.) Ulysses by James Joyce: I dislike modernist writing and I dislike pretentious English Major boys with their head so far up James Joyce's behind they can't talk about any other author but him. Both these elements have led me to not want to go near this anytime soon.

4.) On the Road by Jack Kerouac: I'm beginning to realize most of my dislike of novels comes from having to hear about how amazing they are by pretentious English Major boys. To be honest, I don't care for the beat generation which I feel like is pretty strong in the pretentious English Major boys spectrum of acceptable novels to live by because they like the sense of purpose it gives their academic pursuit. Anyways, if someone can tell me the difference between this and Catcher In The Rye I might give it a chance.

5.) The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinback: I kinda feel bad for Steinback, by the time most kids reach high school they hate his guts. I read The Pearl, attempted Of Mice and Men; you do you Steinback but I'm gonna chill somewhere else.  (Another one I think I might have out grown.)

6.) The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown: Saw the movie, I'm good. (How did this get on this list?)

7.) The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom: I feel like I heard Oprah talk a lot about this book. Also, a lot of the girls in my high school who also read "A child called It" read this book and it was about the only books they read so that fact kinda drew me away from it. (That's another book I intend to never read. Also, did anyone else's high school have more copies of that book than students?)

8.) Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury: I swear, I saw other students reading this in high school and yet I was never required to read it. This one I'm a little closer to reading than the others just cause it actually intrigues me over the others, but at the moment it's not near my TBR pile and I don't know when I'll be in the mood for it. 

9.) The Call of the Wild by Jack London: I had to read Jack London for my American Lit class in college and this dude really likes wolves. I mean he really likes wolves. Someone should have checked into this. At this point, I'm pretty sure I just don't like 1900s Manly American Writers who like to compare stuff to trees.

10.) His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman: I WANTED TO LIKE YOU DUDE. But sadly he blasted C.S.Lewis and I haven't been able to forgive him. I found this out when I was still in the age range for these books and held onto that grudge long enough to grow out of it and now I know life without reading these books and it's pretty okay so I think I can survive.

What books do you think you'll probably never read? Any of the same? Any of these I should give a second thought to perhaps?

April Wrap up

By The Numbers

Books Read: 6
Books borrowed from the library: 7
Books bought: 2
Books on TBR shelf: 42
Books towards 2015 Reading Challenge: 15 of 50
Books towards Reading England Challenge: 2 of 39

The beginning of April, it was a lot easier to read considering I was unemployed. I'm still trying to figure out how and when I can read while having a full time job. Not going to lie, taking the bus every day does help with this. I can read while traveling to and from work. And on the plus side I've now figured out how to read on the bus and not get motion sickness. My next task is to figure out how to read during lunch.

April was tainted by one book in particular "The Greatest Traitor" was in a mood when I picked this book up. I had never heard of Roger Mortimer, I was in a biography mood and specifically historical british biographies. This book is taking forever and a day to finish. Nothing particularly interesting has happened yet, and the author feels the need to list at least 5 men (full names and titles) whenever he wants to tell you who's present as if you know who these obscure 1300s british lords are and will be able to remember them. I have made it to a chapter titled "Rebel" so I'm hoping stuff will go down now.

Additionally, this month I took part in my first read-a-thon. For my first experience I enjoyed it, and I look forward  to using this experience for my next read-a-thon, I learned a lot. I'm pretty sure it was due to circumstances I couldn't give it 100% this time, and plan to actively participate more in the next one. I also went to my first book festival. I really wish these two events hadn't been on the same day so I could appreciate them both more.

So, this month I found a new author I thoroughly enjoy and wish to read more of (Georgette Heyer), got rather good advice from a woman I look up to (Amy Poehler), realized I identified a lot more with a woman I wasn't aware I did (Mindy Kaling), cried over people I never met (We Two), gave a book a shot that I was weary of and ended up thoroughly enjoying it (Station Eleven), and finally read a classic I never had (The Great Gatsby).