2014 Book Challenge

Somehow, I only discovered the beauty that is Goodreads at the beginning of this year. (Obviously I have been living under a rock.) I wanted to do the challenge, but I know myself, and I didn't want to set my goal too high. I initially set it for 20 books. That's just a little more than 1.5 books per month, and it seemed like a good goal for me. I like reading, and when I get caught up in it, I do a whole lot of it. But then sometimes I go months and months without reading at all.

I'm happy to say that I've already reached my 20 book goal, so I bumped it up to 30. (Of course, a bunch of them were graphic novels, so they shouldn't hold too much weight, but still...) I'm still two books ahead of schedule, but I have a feeling that this Harry Potter marathon is going to ruin that. I'll have to find some quick easy reads when I get done with it. Haha.

Here's what I've read so far:
1. Trading Up by Candace Bushnell - 1/5 (It was so awful that I can't believe I finished it. I just kept thinking it had to get better, and it never did.)
2. London is the Best City in America by Laura Dave - 4/5 (Quick, easy read. Cute story.)
3. Nameless by Lili St. Crow - 2/5 (This book made no sense. It felt like I was coming into the middle of a series without having the background from the earlier books in the series, but this is the first one. I got about 3/4 of the way through it before reading reviews that said everyone else felt the same way and it never got better, so I stopped reading it.)
4. Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah - 3/5 (This book was just okay to me. It was a good story, but definitely not my favorite of Kristin Hannah's books.)
5. Panic by Lauren Oliver - 4/5 (To be honest, I'm surprised that I only gave it 4/5. This was a book that I couldn't put down. It was a really interesting and different story - not your regular old YA book.)
6. Magic Hour by Kristin Hannah - 5/5 (This was another really unique and interesting story, and another one that I couldn't put down. It was so good.)
7. Nil by Lynn Matson - 4/5 (This was kind of a weird story. It was sort of a cross between Lost and The Maze Runner, but I love both of those things, and I enjoyed it. Again, not your typical YA.)
8. The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson) by Rick Riordan - 4/5 (I have seen the movie, and I'm sorry that I didn't read the book(s) beforehand. I did really enjoy it, though, and I will get to the rest of the series eventually.)
9. Silver Girl by Elin Hilderbrand - 5/5 (This was a book that I could not relate to in any way, and I think that's why I liked it. It is realistic fiction, so it's definitely something someone could relate to, but not me. It was my first Elin Hilderbrand book, and I definitely want to read more.)
10. Dragon Hunt (Warcraft: The Sunwell Trilogy) - 3/5 (This was a graphic novel, and I really had to force myself to read it. I suck at comics, so it was hard, but I know so little about Warcraft lore, and I wanted to learn. I ended up taking the second two books back to the library without reading them. :/)
11. The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks - 4/5 (I only gave it 4 stars because it redeemed itself in the end. It was a solid 3 for 75% of the book. The way the book was written was kind of annoying to me, but the story was okay. Definitely not Nicholas Sparks' best.)
12. The Walking Dead Volume 1 by Robert Kirkman - 4/5 (Back to the graphic novels. These were easier (but still not easy) for me to read because the artwork was better. It was interesting to see how different it is from the tv show, and that kept me reading.)
13. The Walking Dead Volume 2 - 4/5
14. The Castaways by Elin Hilderbrand - 4/5 (This book was also completely unrelatable to me, and I kind of hope all of Elin's books are this way. Parts of it were pretty heartwrenching, but it was a good book.)
15. The Walking Dead Volume3 - 4/5
16.The Walking Dead Volume 4 - 4/5
17.The Walking Dead Volume 5 - 4/5
18. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - 5/5
19. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - 5/5
20. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - 5/5

I really didn't intend to post reviews because I thought I wouldn't remember the books well enough, but it turns out I did. haha.

I am really trudging through Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I picked it up a week ago, and I'm only on page 85. Out of 734. At this rate, it will take me two months to get through it! It's not that I don't like it or don't want to read it. I think it's just that every time I pick it up, I read a page and then I space out thinking about how long it's going to take me to finish it. So stupid! I really need to focus. I also need to start reading at home because, right now, I'm only reading on my lunch breaks. Part of me feels like I should take a break from HP, but I have a bad feeling that if I take a break, I won't ever go back to it. However, I have 28 books currently on my to-read list, many of which are the first in a series, so I need to just get on with it!

And on a final note, I can't leave here without saying something about Robin Williams. I absolutely loved him - but then who didn't? I didn't know until today that he and Christopher Reeve had been close, but a comment I saw from someone this morning really got me:

Peter Pan and Superman flying together again.

I'll never forget the first time I saw Hook. It must have just come out on VHS, and I watched it at my parents' friends' house. It was so exciting and scary and wonderful. I saw both Mrs. Doubtfire and Jumanji in the theater with my grandma. I saw Patch Adams in the theater with my aunt. And I will definitely never for the One Hour Photo debacle. My two best friends and I were hosting French exchange students who spoke very little English. We had decided to go to the movies and let them choose the movie. They knew Robin Williams, and they chose One Hour Photo, thinking it would be funny and they'd be able to understand it fairly easily. After we left the theater, none of them spoke for the rest of the night. Definitely not what they were expecting!