So the time around holidays tends to be chaotically busy... and I tend to get frustratingly lazy.  Also, my attention has been drawn away from reading this month.

On that note, Merry Christmas to everyone!  Hopefully everyone is enjoying the holidays, a good book, a nice cup of something yummy, and keeping warm in your own little reading nook haven.

Anyway...  As the end of the year approaches, I had wanted to write a piece detailing all the books I've read this year as well as all the books published in 2013 that I managed to get my hands on this year.  I love writing and blogging, even if sometimes I have no idea what to blog about.  And I'm not the best writer, but I try to perfect if I can.

Simply put, I just really like sharing my thoughts, and since there are very few friends in my actual real life I can discuss books with, I chose to blog my book thoughts.  Thus far, it's been pretty satisfying.

2013 has been quite the year for me as a book worm.  Ever since the days of elementary school when I first started reading for leisure regularly, and then into my middle school years where I proclaimed to anyone who would listen that I wanted to read "every book in the library", I'd pretty much given myself the mission of becoming a Master Level Bookworm with "uber fantastic reading skillz!"

That dream is still a work in progress.

Starting in high school, I began making my reading lists, compiling titles such as Lord of the Rings, everything Michael Crichton and Dean Koontz, what was out for the Harry Potter series... and so on and so forth.  I always enjoyed English class reading assignments and I spent a lot of time allowing friends to randomly choose books for me to check out from the library.

But then college started and leisurely reading had to be put on hold in place of required reading of text books, essays, journal articles, research papers... the works.

And then college ended and now I have all the time in the world to read whatever I want to read.

And now I may begin to continue satisfying my Master Level Bookworm goals.

In 2011, I had just begun the task of going through my book shelf and reading all the books I owned.  In 2011, I also discovered The Hunger Games and a little book cataloging site called Goodreads where I then went to discover a way to find all sorts of books I would be interested in reading.  And also in 2011, I picked up my first e-reader, thus making it so much easier for me to find and purchase books with the simple click of a button.

2012 was a good year in fiction land for me, but still not quite as satisfying as it could have been.  After the discovery of online book communities and social networking dedicated to books as well as several different book cataloging websites and the convenience of e-books, however... I've managed to go from reading 27 books in 2012 to having completed more than 100 books in 2013 -- 101 to date.

Sure... some of those books might have been short stories.  But at least one of them was a two book volume and three of them were extremely long length novels totaling up to 700 pages and more.  Nonetheless, setting aside the short stories, I still feel extremely accomplished in the number of books I've read, the number of reviews I've written, and the many number of books I will be planning to read soon.

Since this blog post would be immensely longer (than it already is), and I know I have a tendency to ramble on in a nonstop fashion, I'm not going to mention every book I've read this year (especially since I've read upwards of 100 books, and yes, I'm proud of myself for that).

Instead, I'm just going to talk about the end of the year and how I'm going to wrap things up for 2013, including the most recent books I've finished and the current books I'm reading.  If I feel like it later, maybe I will write a post about the books I've read this year, emphasizing the ones I especially liked the most and the books that were the biggest disappointments.

But until then, here's the end of year wrap up and random thoughts.

***

So I know I've yet to write anything more about The Scorpio Races that had been the first mini book club pick for me and my BFF.  It just so happens that I've been extremely lazy and extremely busy and extremely distracted all at the same time.

Reading other books, watching some old Asian television reruns, and generally being lazy and sleeping in on cold days has been quite routine for the past couple weeks.  Winter time and end of the year holiday ish does that to me.  That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

Nonetheless, here's a quick update about the second book that BFF and I chose for our December book (we've decided to choose one new book each month for our mini book club funsies!).

Heart's Blood was BFF's choice.  Although, once again, I have a feeling she's more interested in the aspect of having a book club read-a-long more so than the actual book we're reading.  She had very quickly nodded to two other books with: "Yes.  That one, we're reading that one," up until I finally caved and gave a finality to the choice.

I... may or may not be a bit stubborn about the books I personally want to read.  And since Heart's Blood is a fairy tale retelling based on Beauty and the Beast as well as a book I'd been interested in for some time now, I may have been a bit more willing to say yes to this choice.

I promise, next time I will more readily agree with what BFF wants to read.

Anyway, onto Heart's Blood:

I had a little trouble getting into the book from the beginning until Caitrin joined the household up on the Whistling Tor.  And so it took a little longer for me to finish our initially agreed upon five chapters of reading before our first book club session.  And even then, with all my distractions, I ended up a bit behind.

And so we didn't quite have a book club session so much as we just sat back and agreed that maybe we should finish the entire book before the end of the year and then find some time to sit down and discuss it in all its glorious entirety.  

However, the main point we both hit on for Heart's Blood is that, despite having fairly neutral feelings for the characters so far, we both absolutely LOVE way that the book is written, for one, and the way the setting, atmosphere and descriptions are given.  The way that the fortress of Whistling Tor is described and the feel of the entire village and community: the library, the garden, the hall of mirrors, the village at the bottom of the hill...  The way it's written is just so beautiful!

I can honestly feel myself being drawn to the fortress itself and yearning to be in Caitrin's place, as a scribe in that neglected library where I would do nothing but sort, translate, transcribe, and pretty much fix up the entire area.  It sounds really attractive, in my own nerdy way.

I'm glad we selected this book.  Despite not quite getting into the story itself, I'm still finding myself enjoying it a lot.  And hoepfully I'll continue to enjoy the rest of it as I have plans to read more books by Juliet Marillier after this one.

I'm going to openly admit that the only reason this book landed on my 'To Read' list was because I found out that J.K. Rowling was the author behind the pen name.  Of course, I'm not saying that this book would have never landed on my 'To Read' list at all.  The words 'private investigator' and 'murder mystery' typically find their way to me one way or another and I'll find myself contemplating the book eventually.

It just happened to help propel things that I love the way J.K. Rowling writes.

As far as The Cuckoo's Calling is concerned, I'm finding it quite enjoyable so far.  The introduction of the suicide, the characters, and the possible murder mystery are paced smoothly.  The writing is great, though I feel like I'm seeing a distinct difference from the way Harry Potter was written -- which would be a given considering the fact that Ms. Rowling is going for a different genre and target audience altogether anyway.

To be honest, had I not known that Robert Galbraith is J.K. Rowling, I probably wouldn't have made the connection.  Then again, it's not like I'm some sort of literary book genius either; I don't always pick up specific writing style habits from favorite authors.

Nonetheless, after a long wait to check this book out from the library, I finally got it and will see how the rest of the story fairs.  I'm sure I'll enjoy it since it's got a lot of my favorite elements at play.  Just as well, it seems fast-paced and to the point, though the crime/murder mystery aspect and the characters don't seem all too unique.

Here's hoping for a great experience from one of my favorite authors in an entirely different genre!

Book Week Scotland -- Quiz: Who are you in Fiction?

Well this was certainly unexpected.  I never pegged myself for a Hermione, but I guess I kind of like the results.  She DOES happen to be one of the few female characters in young adult fiction whom I admire and love.  One of my favorites, in fact.

Not bad.

I see that there is supposed to be a third book to the series, but there isn't a definite publish date yet, so I'm just going to base my opinions on the first two books.

I haven't been in the mood to write any reviews lately, but a couple opinions popped into my mind while I was reading My Unfair Godmother.  And despite the fact that I read the first book, My Fair Godmother a while back, some thoughts are still fresh in my mind.  Nonetheless, this post will include a short blurb for each book... well, just because I don't like structure anyway.

As a series overall, these books can be read individually and out of order and everything will still make sense (as much sense as the series' world logic allows us anyway).  My personal opinion of the My Fair Godmother series is pretty straight forward: light and breezy cute romance; but at the same time, frustrating as heck.

Both books took me a little while to actually get into.  Character introductions and a development of character empathy is really not the strong point of either book considering I hadn't been able to relate with either of the books' main characters or even side characters.  They are simply NOT likable characters -- at least not at the beginning.  By the end of the book you're admittedly in the "Okay, you guys aren't SO bad" camp even if you don't really fall in love with them.

I believe the phrase is, "I tolerate your existence because the book was still enjoyable enough for me to finish it without too many complaints."  

Or something like that.

ANYWAY...  a good twenty-five to thirty percent into the book and you're simply reeled into the fairy-tale-esque adventure and magic scenery of the telling.  I couldn't possibly tell you why I got hooked (it was probably the adventure and the elements of fairy tale), but it happened despite all the moments where I rolled my eyes or had to question my own suspension of disbelief.

At the very least, both books were rather fast-paced.  And if you can manage to ignore the moments of head-desking frustration, then the books are actually pretty cute and not to be taken too critically in analysis.  And maybe that's why I managed to enjoy reading the stories even if I had so many issues with the books as entire literary entities.  I simply turned off my over-analytical thought processes and told myself that I wasn't even going to bother writing any reviews or opinions.  I would read and enjoy and be entertained.

Then I finished reading My Unfair Godmother and decided that I couldn't just let things be as is.

And I then ask myself, "Why do I hate myself so much?"

Anyway, moving along...

Both books center around a rather originally created setting and world where our resident Fair Godmother (not a typo), takes on extra credit projects among mortals in order to earn her way into Fairy Godmother University so that she can become a full-fledged Fairy Godmother.  Unfortunately, Chrysanthemum Everstar is (in my most humble opinion) the MOST air-headed, selfish, inconsiderate, incompetent, and stupid fairy creature I've ever had the pleasure of reading about... well, maybe not that extreme, but her antics, rather than being humorous or amusing just strike me as frustrating.  No wonder she's having trouble gaining admission into university.

Nevertheless, we get to see her in both books, bumbling our heroine through three wishes which seem to keep landing them in a fictional fairy tale Medieval setting that she didn't ask for.  Adventures ensue.