Remember some time back I said that I needed to tackle one of my longer books in my "to-read" list? Well, I finally started one of those around the first part of November. The book is "My Life" by Bill Clinton and is nearly 1,000 pages. It's interesting and I'm learning a lot but, as always, books like this are a slow read for me. I'm only managing to read about 30 pages each day. Also, I've been involved in other things - such as the FE in MC and other game sites having a lot going on - which means I'm not spending as much time reading. 

Anyway ... I had been reading it for about 5 days when I was notified that Libby had a book available for me. So I finished the chapter I was on in "My Life" and borrowed the book from the library so I could read it. It was the third book in a series by Karin Slaughter that I've been wanting to read. It's been quite a while since I read the second book in that series (Grant County) and was really glad to finally get this one. So I finished that in about 4 days and started back on "My Life."  About 4 days later I'm notified again that another book is available to borrow. So I stop "My Life" again - I'm up to about 250 pages at that point - and borrow the library book. This time it's "Fahrenheit 451" which I've been searching for at a decent price for a long time. That's a fairly short book and took less than 2 days. Back to "My Life" ... again. Now about a month after starting "My Life" I'm not quite halfway done - around page 470. At this rate I'm not sure if I'll finish it be the end of the year. Like I said, a slow read for me. But there might be hope because the nearest book on Libby is 18 weeks out. LOL

So far I've borrowed 4 books from Libby and read them. Another one came available but not for Kindle. I would have had to read it from my laptop and that's just not going to happen. So I sent that one back. I checked all the others on my "hold" list and they're available for Kindle. Right now I have 9 on the "hold" list. Two of those have "all copies have expired" but I left them there anyway. There was another one that had that same message, but apparently the library got another copy because now I'm 21st in line. 

So far, I like being able to get books from Libby. Especially ones which have been on my search list for years. I might not be able to get them right away from Libby but that's okay. 

Gotta run. 

The book "My Life" by Bill Clinton ... Wow! It took me a lot longer than I thought it would be read that one. I started it on Nov. 3 and finished it on Dec. 27. It was very interesting, but I just couldn't stick with it. As I said before, I was only reading about 20-30 page each day. Then a book through Libby became available and I stopped to read that novel. Then after reading another 130 pages of "My Life" again another novel became available through Libby. Read that and went back to the Clinton autobiography. After reading about 150 pages, I realized I needed a break and selected a novel that I already had on my Kindle. And that's the way it went. I would only read Clinton for about 4-5 days which was about 120-150 pages and then I needed a break away from it. I would then read a novel. The novels varied in length - 528, 194, 394, 483, and 353 - and would take anywhere from 2 - 5 days to complete.

I ended up reading 63 books last year. The shortest was 193 pages and the longest (Clinton) was nearly 1000 pages. In case you're wondering, goodreads.com keeps track of all this information as long as i enter the books I've read.

Libby - I'm really liking this. Yes, sometimes it may take a long time to get a requested book, but that's okay. I'm now on my 7th book borrowed through Libby and I started using it on Oct. 22. I'm able to find books I've been wanting to read for years but refused to pay the high prices. Right now I have 7 books on hold which range from 8 weeks to several months before they're available. I also had 3 books on hold which had expired - meaning the library no longer has a copy to lend. However, I discovered earlier that the library got a copy of one those books and it became available. So I'm leaving the other 2 there.

That's it for me. Reading a lot and not playing games as much. LOL

So, it's been a minute...

I wasn't reading a lot last year, for me, and my goodreads challenge reflected that. I didn't hit 100 for the first time since starting them. I did make it past my goal though.

I also had the fun of bringing all my old books to my place after my remaining parent passed away. I already needed another bookcase, now I for sure do! It was mostly YA thrillers from the 90s plus some hard covers I didn't want to drag around with me.

Also, does anyone else do the Kindle Challenges? For the last 3, it has yet to count the "Perfect Month" achievement. It irks me! I've given feedback, too.

As for currently reading, well... I think I have 8 or so books checked out and 5 or so via kindle unlimited but hardly anything is holding my attention. Most of those books are books I'm trying to read but I keep letting the loan expire. Ha. I think I'm gonna stick with mysteries for a bit. I'm burnt out on the not-so-great selections of other genres lately. Too many in the variety of the blurb sounds good, then you start reading and realize that was the only well written thing.

Side note, I've been super bored with the game lately. I probably have lost some more friends on both games, PC and tablet. Oh well!

~J (amsavs) said:

Also, does anyone else do the Kindle Challenges?

I'm not aware of these. Where do I find them?

I've also been very bored with MC ... and really pretty much most all games. But I'm still going into MC and gifting friends each day and maybe playing just a bit.

I mentioned borrowing books from the library through Libby in my other post. A book became available on the 6th and I went ahead and borrowed it because I knew I was going to be finishing my current book in just a couple of days. Sure enough I was actually able to start it on the 7th. Then the very next day another book - which showed it would be 8 weeks before it was available - became available. I had to pass that one on to the next person since I had just started the other one which was over 500 pages. It turns out maybe I should have gone ahead and borrowed it because I finished that 500-page book last night. That was really fast for me. 

It's under Reading Insights. I usually have to access via the "more" option. It's usually for 3 months. Some achievements aren't revealed until later. Things like reading a pick from the editor's list (you can usually click on a link so you know what counts) or reading something in kindle Vella. There's also one for reading for a week, Sun- Sat I believe, not just 7 days in a row. 

I haven't used Libby. I've tried other services my library offers like hoopla. I was hoping to find a book my library didn't currently have but no luck there either. I haven't used it in quite some time. 

Do you feel like longer books seem to go faster when you're drawn in? It feels like I'm reading faster but I don't know that I actually am. It feels like most of the books I try lately, especially kindle unlimited ones, I end up only reading a chapter at a time. I had to stop the one I tried to read earlier this month because the characters were supposed to be older but the way the author wrote them made them seem like 15 year olds. ‍?? I think I'll try whatever's due to expire next from my loans. I think it's book 1 from a mystery series I've checked out like at least 3 times now. I saw a later book on the "just added" list which is how I became aware of it. 

~J (amsavs) said:

Do you feel like longer books seem to go faster when you're drawn in?

Definitely for me. The one that I just finished so fast was because it was the second in a series and I had really been wanting to get hold of it for about a year.

I don't have Kindle Unlimited because I don't want to have to choose a book from something like that. Although sometimes when I'm checking Amazon for a book on my "want to read" list, I'll see that it's part of Kindle Unlimited. But so far, I'm not convinced it's worth the cost. I'm afraid it would cause me to feel like I need to choose books from that "list" instead of books I know I want to read due to the author, or they're part of a series, etc.

I see where the Reading Insights is only available on the app on your phone and not actually on the Kindle itself. I'll have to check that out.

I read that book last night. I didn't realize it was just over 100 pages! The author spent a lot of time setting up the main character's background, so the mystery part was super quick. Undecided if I want to continue the series. 

Ah. I can justify the price based on how I usually read. I figure if I read at least 2 books a month it's worth it. When something like picking a book from a best of,  or editor's list pops up, I usually look for what looks good, and then if it's a part of kindle unlimited. If it's not then I try my library. Which is what I had to do this time, and the added bonus of a few people on the wait list. I haven't had a kindle so I'm not sure what differences there are between it and the app. 

I forget if I mentioned it, but my library does challenges through beanstack. Not sure if all libraries do that. The hard part for me is remembering to keep track of how long I read at a time so I can log the minutes. 

~J (amsavs) said:

I haven't had a kindle so I'm not sure what differences there are between it and the app. 

I've had a Kindle since 2011 when a friend gave it to me as a birthday present. I didn't get my smartphone with the app until much later. I prefer reading on the Kindle because it's much larger than the smartphone. However, if I'm out somewhere and having to wait I'll pull out the smartphone, open the Kindle app and start reading.

I hadn't heard of Beanstack but will check it out to see if my library uses/has it. One of the things I found that motivates me to read more is tracking how much I've read daily in goodreads.com. 

I've put the app on my phone a few times but I don't like using the small screen either. 

My library gives out prizes sometimes with the challenges. I have yet to collect one though. It's a nice thought but it's usually things I can't use. Like around Halloween it's candy, or part of the winter one was hot chocolate mix. I unfortunately have to make that from scratch, as the store that had a brand I could actually use, stopped carrying it. 

Goodreads is the reason my reading is out of control. I'm also tempted to add all the books I brought over. But it would also skew the recommended to YA. And it's close to 200 books I think. But it would be neat to see my total closer to what I've actually read. Decisions!

Next up for me is still chipping away at the books I've checked out. I've got 2 that have a little more than 24 hours left. 

As I said once before, I've really been in the mood to read more and play games less. So here it is the 27th of January and I've already read 8 books in this new year. All but one of those have been novels ranging in length 353-450 pages. The one non-fiction I read was Unbelievable: My Front-Row Seat to the Craziest Campaign in American History by Katy Tur who was a reporter for NBC News at the time of the campaign and now is on MSNBC.

With 5 days left (that's counting today) in this month I know I could easily finish another novel before the end of the month. However, since the last 4 books have been fiction, it's time for some non-fiction. I decided to tackle Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch by Sally Bedell Smith. I've had this on my Kindle for over 4 years but hadn't read it because I wanted to first read another book about Queen Elizabeth II - Young Elizabeth: The Making of the Queen by Kate Williams. However, I haven't been able to find that one at a discount and it's one of those that has expired in Libby. 

I hope this one is good.