Update on 2018 Reading Challenges

I will be hosting my yearly challenges again in 2018. Those are ...

• the yearly challenge for the 13 Ways of Looking at the Lifetime Reading Plan perpetual challenge 
• the Read Your (Book) Shelf Challenge
• Book to Movie Challenge

I'm running behind because of the busy holiday season, but hopefully after I get packages mailed tomorrow and Christmas cards sent I will be able to sit down and work on posts for these challenges. I hope you'll bear with me. For details on any of the challenges, including my long term and perpetual challenges, you can check in the sidebar. 

If you're on Goodreads, my reading group, Lit Collective is being overhauled. You might be interested, as the book is sometimes considered a "project" book because of its length. 

Update on Anne Rice's The Mummy Read-Along #ReadtheMummy

I've learned that a few people who are reading along are already finished (you go, guys!) so since I'm behind, instead of having two discussions, we will have the final discussion on November 1st. That will give me time to finish it! I'm loving it. It's as good as I remember.

Talk to you on November 1st!

Anne Rice's The Mummy Read-Along #ReadtheMummy

 

I can't wait for Anne's new book, the sequel to The Mummy...Ramses the Damned: The Passion of Cleopatra! That's why I decided, way back when Anne announced that her and Christopher had written the book, I would host a read-along of the first book. I absolutely loved it when I read it years ago and it remains one of my top favorites of her books.

I'm a bit late with the schedule, but I hope you will still join me. My copy is 436 pages so I'm thinking we will read the first half, have a discussion, and then read the second half, and have a final discussion. It actually works out nicely for this book because it has a Part One and a Part Two.

I will post discussions here and we will have an event over in the Gather Together and Read Facebook page.

Schedule:

• Read Part One and join us for the discussion on October 16.
• Read Part Two and join us for the discussion on November 1st.

I hope you will join me! I promise you...this book is SO good!

Note: This read-along is also part of the Never-Ending Anne Rice Challenge. You do not have to be a challenge participant to take part in the read-along.

IT - #SummerofIT Read-Along Update

Sadly, the Summer of IT seems to have become the year of IT. I saw the movie on Sunday. AWESOME! Just to let you know...it's "Chapter One" so there will be a second movie. So, if you're halfway (or more) through the book (like me), you're okay to see the movie without really spoiling the book...I think. Anyway, I'm going to keep plugging away. If you're still reading along (slowly, like me), I hope you will join me to discuss when the time comes. I'll be sure to post updates periodically.

Thanks for bearing with!

The Never-Ending #AnneRice Challenge announces...The Mummy Read-Along #ReadtheMummy

Everyone knows I'm a huge Anne Rice fan (duh, the reading challenge might be a clue lol). She's my favorite author and she has written a sequel (with her son, Christopher Rice) to one of my favorites of her books, The Mummy, or Ramses the Damned. The new book is titled Ramses the Damned: The Passion of Cleopatra. So, I've decided to host a read-along of the first book in honor of the sequel's release in November. This will be a reread for me and frankly, I'm pretty excited. Rereading a favorite is always fun!

 The new book...squee!

If you would like to join us, leave a comment (and a link to your post, if you do one). I will have a post ready on October 1st with the reading/discussion schedule. Note: You do not have to be a Never-Ending Anne Rice challenge participant to join in on the read-along.

I hope you will join us!

IT - #SummerofIT Read-Along - Revised reading schedule

I'm failing so miserably at this read-along. Go figure. (This book is daunting) I'm trying to figure out a way to revise the schedule while still keeping it the Summer of IT. Here goes:

Previous schedule:

• Start reading on June 1st
• In June, read Part 1: The Shadow Before, Derry: The First Interlude, and Part 2: June of 1958 - Pages 3 - 433
• Discussion on Friday, June 30th - no set time. Just stop by here, or at the Facebook group event any time that day (or later on, if you get behind)
• In July, read Derry: The Second Interlude, Part 3: Grownups, Derry: The Third Interlude, and Part 4: July of 1958 - Pages 435 - 878
• Discussion on Monday, July 31st - no set time. Just stop by here, or at the Facebook group event any time that day (or later on, if you get behind)
• In August, read Derry: The Fourth Interlude, Part 5: The Ritual of Chud, Derry: The Last Interlude, and Epilogue: Bill Denbrough Beats The Devil (II) - Pages 879 -1138 (end)
• Final discussion on Thursday, August 31st - no set time. Just stop by here, or at the Facebook group event any time that day (or later on, if you get behind)

Parts 1 through 4 make up the bulk of the book so I miscalculated the time needed (at least for busy slowpokes, like me). The last section is only 259 pages so this reading schedule revision makes more sense.

Revised schedule:

• Read in June, July, and August 1 - 15 - Part 1: The Shadow Before, Derry: The First Interlude, and Part 2: June of 1958 - Pages 3 - 433
  
  AND
  
• Derry: The Second Interlude, Part 3: Grownups, Derry: The Third Interlude, and Part 4: July of 1958 - Pages 435 - 878
• Discussion on Wednesday, August 16 - no set time. Just stop by here, or at the Facebook group event any time that day (or later on, if you get behind)
• August 16 - August 31, read Derry: The Second Interlude, Part 3: Grownups, Derry: The Third Interlude, and Part 4: July of 1958 - Pages 435 - 878
• Discussion on Friday, September 1 - no set time. Just stop by here, or at the Facebook group event any time that day (or later on, if you get behind)

Reminder Discussion will take place in our Gather Together and Read group on Facebook.

I will also post a discussion post here on the blog for those who are not on Facebook.

Pardon our dust...and #SummerofIT update

This post will be cross-posted on all of my sites.

You may not have heard about Photobucket screwing over a ton of people with their new third party image hosting plan. (Read more here: http://nypost.com/2017/07/05/how-photobucket-is-now-shaking-down-its-users/) Basically, it means if you have a free account, you can no longer host your images without paying $400/year! So, all those clever grab codes I make for images and buttons...they have to be fixed with a new link from wherever the images are now being hosted. Luckily, I own two domains on GoDaddy so I get free image storage up to a certain amount and then I can pay extra if I need more (only $1.99/month). But with 7+ blogs/sites, it's going to take me a bit. I hope you will bear with me.

If you have any of my buttons on your site, I'm afraid you will have to delete and then come back by at a later date to grab the new code. There should not be any further problems in future. Fingers crossed.

I hope Photobucket crashes and burns for their underhanded tactics. I mean, I didn't even get an email notifying me!

Also, if you're looking for the first discussion post for the Summer of IT read-along, because of all this, plus some other personal issues, I'm behind. I'm hoping to have something ready by the end of the weekend...universe abiding! Thanks for bearing with me.