Boxing Day

[cornerofmadness]

A day that disappeared so fast I barely knew what was happening. I managed to get some writing but barely. I
am struggling on that front today.

Sent out my thank yous and failed to call my insurance. That was my boxing day (that and laundry)

I did sign up for storygraph today (female run so that's nice). So far, it looks like the import didn't work and the graphics are blah but we'll see. (same name as here)

But it got me thinking about reading challenges and all that jazz. What are you all doing? I'm doing Popsugar challenge, Storygraph's onboarding challenge and on facebook Cloak & Dagger, alphabet challenge, and the literary destination challenge (read a book in all 50 states and other countries count too), and on goodreads 50 book challenge and the Mount TBR challenge.

Here in the blogs duckprintpress is having a challenge over on storygraph
The Duck Prints Press 2025 Queer Book Challenge! and my friend evil_little_dog has a challenge here. on LJ


The Haunted Minds Horror book club on FB has shortlisted Gasps, the horror anthology I'm in for an anthology award which is cool.


Mom randomly recorded Scooby Doo and the Gourmet and it turns out that two of the main characters were Bobby Flay and Giada de Laurentis and it was actually quite fun.

Since I didn't get to this yesterday

What I Just Finished Reading:

The Vanishing at Smokestack Hollow - true crime, not bad, no resolution because well the crime is unsolved so...


What I am Currently Reading:

The Lost House - icelandic noir arc, I want to slap this protagonist

Once Upon a Seaside Murder - fits a popsugar prompt and ...I want the protagonist to be the killer's next victim. I paid money (not much) so I want to finish it. If this was a library book it would be back by now. The sleuth is a snob, a bitch and even admits kindness is not something she does. Ugh.

Murder on Marble Row - a historical mystery set in NY, it's not bad. It was part of a gift last year book 6 in a series of about 2 dozen.



What I Plan to Read Next: working thru a bunch of mysteries to give them to mom (but I ain't giving her that seaside one...).

Comments

[used_songs]

I am terrible at keeping up with my storygraph account but I added you over there in case I improve.

[cornerofmadness]

Cool, thanks. I see you and hey now I have books...it took that long to import though I shouldn't be surprised.

[clavally]

Whoa, those are a lot of challenges! Do you do them all separately or do use one book to cover a few if it can be used for more than one?

I was thinking of doing one of the buzzwordathon challenges from Booksandlala on youtube. I keep watching her videos on and off and sometimes I enjoy them and sometimes she annoys me, but I liked the challenge she made. One was for finding things in the title of the book and one was for things on the cover. Should be fun to try.

[cornerofmadness]

I won't use one book to do two prompts on Popsugar BUT yes, if this works for this prompt on Popsugar I have no troubles using it to fill other challenges as I view them as all separate. So the one I'm reading now Once Upon a Seaside Murder (not good, do not recommend) will go for Pop's books on the cover, for O in the alphabet North Carolina on literary, for the Mount TBR since I own the book and cloak and dagger is less a challenge than it is a place to share ALL mysteries/true crime so I'd pop it in there too.

I haven't listened to that person on YT but go for it if the challenges move you. Word of advice is don't let it make you crazy. I did that with the 50 states one and I'm like WHY are you making yourself nuts? You're not getting a prize at the end of this.

[ysilme]

Good luck with your challenges! But how - and when - do you manage all of this? It's an ongoing miracle to me how some people manage to read so much while having a full-time job, tons of other things going on, and are regular writers as well. I seem only to be able to read a lot or write a lot, but not both at a time.
The only challenge I'm doing and keeping up with is WED, nothing else. I've learned long since that no matter what it is it's going to put pressure on me eventually, and I'm dealing badly with pressure when things get too much. I found the older I get the worse I'm dealing with pressure, and autistic me also can't just let something go but then pressures me about having failed something... *sigh* WED works as my brain accepted that as a tool not a challenge. But other than that - nope. I have several intentions, mainly about reading more and reading more uninterruptedly, also about writing, but I won't even put those into words for myself for the same reason. ;op

[cornerofmadness]

thanks and ha, keep in mind I live alone. I have no children and no significant other so my time is entirely my own.

Also One book might be used in ALL these challenges at once so it's not nearly as overwhelming as it looks. I'm working on Once Upon a Seaside Murder so it'll go for its popsugar challenge (which is the only o ne of these that is work) the O for alphabet, North Carolina for literary destinations, cloak and dagger because its a mystery so on and so forth.

But trust me I get it. The first couple times with literary destination I HAD to get all 50 states but I was able to sit down and say why? you ain't getting a prize. Read as many as you can, have fun mapping it and then it wasn't bad.

But I feel ya. My neurodivergence and depression get worse if I'm NOT busy (especially the depression) so I keep moving. What I can't do as I get older is read LONG books. I can't deal with over 400 pages much any more.

And this is meant to be fun not pressure so keeping yourself to one that doesn't pressure you is great (and WED keeps you writing so bonus)