kiwigirl reads. . . .

The Great American Read from PBS is an eight part series exploring the power of reading. 100 books were chosen as the top 100 most-loved novels in America. PBS conducted a survey asking Americans to name their favorite fiction novel and around 7,200 people participated.  You can find out more about the series, books and how they were chosen on the official website . Here is a list of the 100 books chosen: 1984 - George Orwell A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving A Separate Peace - John Knowles A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho Alex Cross Mysteries (Series) - James Patterson Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll Americanah - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie And Then There Were None - Agatha Chistie Anne of Green Gables - Lucy Maud Montgomery Another Country - James Baldwin Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand Beloved - Toni Morrison Bless Me, Ultima - Ruldolf...

Good news from one of my favorite authors recently. Chaz Brenchley has re-released his Northern Lights duology on Amazon. It's hard to believe but the first one - Dead of Light is 21 years old and the follow up Light Errant is 19 years old. They have snazzy new covers and all. Below is his post from Facebook which I have shared here. You can follow the link to the original. I reviewed Dead of Light a while back on this blog so you can also check that out here . Chaz Brenchley via Facebook: People, you won't believe this, but it's been twenty-one years since the first publication of DEAD OF LIGHT. (My baby's old enough to drink legally in America! Snf!) In due celebration of which, we have published new anniversary editions of both DEAD OF LIGHT and his nineteen-year-old baby brother LIGHT ERRANT, both with lovely new covers by Layla Lawlor. At the moment these are technically Amazon-only, because reasons. However, I do have epub and pdf editions ava...

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...

Just thought I would write a quick update, I have not been writing much here lately but that is nothing new. You will see however that I have been better in my reading this year so far, I am 31 books in to my Goodreads Reading Challenge of 50 books. I think this year I will be able to complete it. I am trying to make sure I put some time aside each week to do a bit of reading. I also recently took a course on Creative Writing though the Gotham Writers website, they have courses in New York but they also offer an extensive online catalog. I did the introductory course Creative Writing 101 which is just a six week course, very low pressure and basic for beginners or people just getting back into writing. I really enjoyed it, I was not really sure where to start or what to do so this was the perfect introduction for me. There was good information about lots of different writing styles and key ideas, there were weekly assignments but they were very small and I found them interesting...

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...

So I thought that I might start off by reviewing some of the books that I have read over the last few years. This way I can get started as soon as I have some time and don't have to wait until I have finished what I am reading now. If I am reading a series I will start with the first book in the series (even if it was a while ago) and perhaps make a note of the other ones I have read, this way if you are looking for something new to read you can see from the very beginning rather than half way through. I have been reading a lot of young adult stuff at the moment as I don't really have much time on my hands. These books are good because they are usually a bit shorter, also the content is usually pretty light which is nice when you just need a break. I live in Suwon, South Korea so it is sometimes a bit hard to get English books. There are places that sell them and you can buy online but I don't have as many as I do at home with access to the library. I did...

Hi, my name is Amy and I have started this blog to try and kick start my reading habits for this year.  I have become a bit lazy in the past couple of years and my reading has declined in favour of TV. I want to be able to keep track of what I have been reading, what I liked and did not like and share with you all what I find out. I read a wide range of books, really whatever catches my eye, I do however favor the fantasy genre in all its forms. For the past ten years or so since college I have been reading a lot of what has become know as Urban Fantasy.  Some of that blurs into Paranormal Romance and it is often hard to make a distinction but I usually divide it up by whether or not the romance is driving the action or if the romance is just a byproduct of the action. I have come to prefer the more action driven Urban Fantasy as they usually have a better storyline but I do read some of the romance ones.  I will say right here and now I have not read Twilight...