kiwigirl reads. . . .

Good News! This year I did it, I reached my goal of 50 books for the Goodreads Challenge! I actually went over it by one, so even better.  You might remember in 2013 I was a bit disappointed because I only managed to get to 45. I was so close.  I definitely think I've made a good effort in the past year, I also re-read a few old books and tried some short stories, these ones I didn't count in my overall numbers so I know I read even more than what I set out to do. I have set my 2015 goal to 50 again. I only just reached it so I don't want to push it too much and not be able to achieve the goal. I think 50 is a good number to ensure that I don't get too far off track and just spend all my time watching TV.  My friend sent me this list from the website 9gag.com . I think it sounds like fun so I might try and fit my books into this also. I have put a copy of the list from the website below in case you are interested. The link to the arti...

It's officially November which means it is the first day of National Novel Writing Month (Well it is here in South Korea, you might have to wait a few hours if you live on the other side of the world). I have written about this for the past two years. It's a time for you to challenge yourself to write that novel that you have been thinking about forever. All over the world people are committing themselves to the challenge of writing 50,000 words. There are huge online communities in different areas that are set up to make the solitary life of writing a bit more social. They have write-ins at local cafes, word games both online and in meetup groups and many other activities aimed at socializing but also getting your word count up.  If you have never heard of it before I would suggest you check out their website . It has all the information you need. You can find out if there is a writers group near you (there probably is) and get started. If you have al...

Well, I am disappointed to report that I did not quite reach my goal for 2013. And while I am sad about this as I was really close to getting to 50 books, I am still pretty happy to get what I did done. My final count for the year was 45 books. Considering that most of these were read in November and December I think I did OK. I was really pushing it at the end, the last book I read on the 31st and I read it in one day because at that stage I knew I was not going to make it to 50 books so I at least wanted to make 45. So I have made the same challenge for this year. I am sticking to 50 books again, I think that a good number and I am starting earlier. I think I started in March last year so this gives me more time to get orgainsed and hopefully get a jump on things. I do have two books I have not finished from last year that I need to finish quickly as they do not count towards my 2014 goal.

This year I started off the year knowing that I was not going to be very good at keeping up with my blogging, it's really hard to keep the momentum running from the initial start up of the blog when it's all new and exciting. That being said I knew I wanted to keep it going and I hope that I can continue to blog about the books that I love when inspiration and time permits. Knowing how bad I had been at the reading challenges last year I decided to only do one this year and that one was just the Goodreads Reading Challenge where you set yourself a goal. I even made it a much more realistic goal than the 100 of 2012 which of course I did not even get anywhere near. I settled on 50, thinking that would be an easily achievable number, when I think about how many books I used to read in a year this is laughable but with the invention of TV on the internet I have to say my dedication to books is not what it used to be. At the start of this month I was startled to realize tha...

Well it's November again and as such time for NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month. This is the time when people all over the world challenge themselves to write 50,000 words. If you are interested in finding out more you can visit the website at www.nanowrimo.org . Best of luck to those involved for 2013 and if you did not get a chance to do it this year why not start thinking about it for next year.

As many of you know - today is the day.   November 1st is the day that National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) begins. Thousands of people around the globe will be busily typing or writing away, filled with optimism for the coming month. Many will fall by the wayside, as the days turn into weeks and the inspiration fizzes out or life intervenes, to mention but a few tales of the unfinished. The goal is to write 50,000 words - it's a huge task and one that only a few achieve.  But even if you don't reach your goal at least you took part and you might have the start of something great. If you are not doing NaNo this year but it sounds interesting, be sure to check out the site and see what goes on.  Maybe you might be inspired to try it out in 2013. For those who are participants this year - best of luck.  If you feel like sharing your tips and or any other feelings about NaNo please do so in the comments.  I would love to hear from yo...