Technology & Book Challenges

Technology. Such a double edged sword in this day and age. I thought I’d had my moment of technological difficulties back in February. Alas, no. My computer decided to end the year with some hiccups.

So, once again I’ve been forced offline or reduced to hijacking a computer from a family member. Least this time I had some peace of mind knowing backs up were regular. The problem is fixed, but for how long. Well, how long is a piece of string?

Then, I finally get my computer back – Yay! To only have our household succumb to the storm season. Brisbane is a sub-tropical climate & though summer has been very slow to start, the tropical thunderstorms we’ve had have hit way above their weight. The whole household went offline. This was only finally rectified by Christmas Eve.

So, I’m tentatively saying out loud that I appear to be back in the electronic saddle & wading through the inbox of email, blog feeds, google reader etc.

Over the coming few weeks I’m looking at how I’m going to incorporate my blog with other aspects of my online life.

As well, deciding which Book Chick City challenges I’ll undertake in 2011. The ones I’ve done this year have been great for keeping me on track to read (& take note of what I have been reading). I’ve met the speculative fiction one, well & truly. 

The library challenge run here, not so much. Though I am mostly happy how many books I’ve borrowed (as I’m aware that due to the busy-ness of the year meant not as much reading as I’d like). 

Reading Challenge Specifics

For those of you interested in the how-to of the challenges here are the details below.

For the library challenge go over J. Kaye's Book Blog to sign up.

I've decided to aim for the Stepping It Up level (75 books). Given the amount of research and reading I do I think I should get there. Be interesting to see. 

For the spec fic challenge I'm going for the highest level - Obsessed. Given the majority of books on my TBR pile fall into this category I'd be surprised if I did not make this one.

Reading into the New Year

Wow. The first month of a new year has nearly passed me by. January always feels like that. One minute you’re looking at a calendar full of new shiny opportunities, next minute you’re wondering where in heck January went. For me it is summer, maybe that’s part of it. Like August in the northern hemisphere, January here is the month where lengthy school vacations occur (school in the process of resuming depending on which state one is in), everyone runs away for holidays/vacations and makes resolutions which most of the time don’t last past the first couple of weeks.

For me, New Year more often than not occurs around the Winter Solstice (Dec. 21/22). I feel a build up of energy and wonder what will be around the corner. By the time January 1 finally occurs, I’m already thinking of the year to come.

So, what is 2010 going to bring. Changes. A lot of them. They’ve already started happening and some I’ll post about. Another thing I’ve decided to do, in the interest of my online life is to commit to some reading challenges (if I ever work out how to set them up here). I’m always reading. My current TBR pile by the bed is hovering around the 75+ book mark (it’s down from about 90ish).

Without further ado these are the challenges I’m committing to as a reader for 2010.

The first is the Speculative Fiction Challenge. So much of what I read can be stored under this umbrella. I’m going with “Obsessed” . I found this one through Eleni’s Library (thanks Eleni).

The second reading challenge I’ve chosen is the Library one. I borrow a lot of books and make my librarians work hard. I don’t always use fiction and am curious to see the record grow over the coming year. This one I found through SuziLove & Eleni – thanks ladies….I think!

I’ve also set myself the challenge to aim for a blog post a month. That shouldn’t be too difficult….she says on the last day of January J