I AM A GREEN READER

 I took the Read Your Color quiz and I am a green reader (scored 45%)

Based on the concept or theory developed by Steven Reese that explores how readers, think, feel, process thoughts, enjoy or dislike books. "Our quiz is designed to get beneath the surface of your reading preferences — not by asking about favorite genres, but by exploring how you think, feel, and approach stories. We’ve blended insights from reader psychology, narrative theory, and thousands of book reviews and patterns to create a system that helps you find books you’ll actually finish — and love." Courtesy of https://www.readyourcolor.com/how-it-works-
Reese started posting last April and has shared books recommendations based on these six color categories. I went through his posts (the ones not behind a pay wall) to pull out the recommended GREEN books - see the titles listed below. The results were interesting as majority of them are nonfiction. On an annual basis I would say about 25% of my reading is nonfiction titles. Out of this 45 titles recommended for green readers, only a handful are fiction. I will see how well I engage with this list throughout the year. 

I OWN three of these titles, have three on my TBR and have only READ one. Am I really a Green Reader?

The Green List

1. The Gulag Archipelago (abridged) by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1973)

2. Neptune’s Fortune by Julian Sancton

3. Among the Bros: A Fraternity Crime Story by Max Marshall

4. Attensity! by The Friends of Attention

5. Why We Drink Too Much by Dr. Charles Knowles

6. A Flower Traveled in My Blood, by Haley Cohen Gilliland

7. The Sea Captain’s Wife: A True Story of Mutiny, Love, and Adventure at
    the Bottom of the World by Tilar J. Mazzeo

8. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand) OWN

9. True History of the Kelly Gang (Peter Carey)¹

10. Redeployment by Phil Klay

11. Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann OWN

12. This Is Your Mind on Plants by Michael Polla

13. Judgment at Tokyo by Gary J. Bass

14. Capitalism: A Global History by Sven Beckert

15. Bottle of Lies:The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom by Katherine Eban

16. The Finest Hotel in Kabul by Lyse Doucet

17. King of Kings by Scott Anderson

18. The Great Contradiction by Joseph J. Ellis

19. 1929 by Andrew Ross Sorkin

20. How Infrastructure Works (Deb Chachra)

21. The Patriarch — David Nasaw

22. Cloudsplitter (Russell Banks)

23. The Age of Diagnosis by Suzanne O’Sullivan

24. The Known Citizen: A History of Privacy in Modern America by Sarah Igo

25. On Immunity: An Inoculation by Eula Biss

26. This Republic of Suffering by Drew Gilpin Faust

27. The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean

28. War Trash by Ha Jin

29. When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamín Labatut

30. The Face of Battle by John Keegan

31. American Pastoral by Philip Roth (1997)

32. The Cold Millions by Jess Walter OWN

33. The British Are Coming by Rick Atkinson

34. On Consolation by Michael Ignatieff

35. The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel – Douglas Brunt

36. Cue the Sun! – Emily Nussbaum READ

37. Work – James Suzman

38. Abundance – Ezra Klein

39. Some People Need Killing – Patricia Evangelista TBR

40. The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson TBR

41. The Tiger by John Vaillant

42. The Sirens Call by Chris Hayes

43. Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams

44. The Prosecutor by Jack Fairweather

45. Everything Is Tuberculosis by John Green TBR

The 2020 Black Lit Challenge - Black History Month

I am very excites for Black History Month 2020. There are so many amazing reading challenges on Instagram it was hard to decide which do join. I decided to join in on The Black Lit Challenge. 

This is a new challenge for 2020 created by Seji of @theartisangeek for Black History month (BHM). It is a great challenge to encourage readers of black lit or people just interested to participate. I think this is a great way to get more people of color (primarily of African descent) to read books by black authors world wide. 

Image courtesy of @theartisangeek

She also created a very extensive Black Literature Compendium (a database) to make finding books and authors very easy. She also suggested on her YouTube channel that 1 book could satisfy the first 4 prompts. The bonus prompt will be announced closer to BHM.

Just a heads up that before the 21st century means and book before or between January 1, 1901 - December 31, 2000.

Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson; covers all 4 prompts.

Ina's suggestion is Kingdom of Souls by Rena Barron.

Disclaimer: Images courtesy of amazon.com 

400+ Reading Challenge

I was invited by Debrasbookcafe to join the 2012 Big Book Challenge on Goodreads. The main rule is that the book should be 400+ pages, you can read any number, in any format but the pages must be 400+.

This was my original list of books for this challenge: Stones of Summer (581 pages), World Without End (1014 pages), Hunger's Bride (1323 pages) and The Historian (642 pages). What was I thinking with the exception of the 1st and last the other two are humungous 

Instead I've completed Divergent, City of Bones, and City of Ashes. I am currently reading City of Glass (576) and a V.C Andrews bindup of 848 pages. 

Divergent was amazing and I am waiting until the sequel Insurgent comes out in paperback. So far books 1 and 2 of the Mortal Instrument series are good with the exception that I have some issue with Clary, she truly annoys me but more on that when I review the series (hopefully).

2012 Reading List

For 2012, I planned not to participate in any challenges as they are a lot of pressure. So I was just going to read the over 100 books that I have not read yet and not purchase any more for the year. Okay this has already failed as I bought a couple books for Christmas ( although it was a gift), just pre-ordered B&N paperback edition of Divergent by Veronica Roth (Good Reads book of the year), have my eye on the entire Laura Lippman series (a lot sale on Ebay) and the one or two books I'm missing from my Kathy Reichs 'Bones' series.

I need to stop buying stuff!!!!!!

Anyway I got an invitation from Debra's Book Cafe to participate in the 2012 Big Book Challenge. I figured I'd give it a shot because I would not have to purchase any thing and it would give me an excuse to dust these giants off. So I chose 4 books to tackle over the coming year, because I want to read other books too, some people have more but I figure I can read one every 3 months. They range between 581 to 1323 pages (at least the editions I have). 

Images from GoodReads and Google

In 2012 I also plan to read Harry Potter for the very first time, I have the UK version with the 'adult' look. Basically I don't like the covers of the regular HP books, too childish for me, so I search far and wide (Amazon UK) and found the most gorgeous binding of the books. The story is still the same but the presentation is sexy. More pics when I actually read and blog about them. They are so sophisticated the collection gets its own shelf.

I also decided to read books with either an elephant on the cover, or in the title or both. I love elephants!!!! Below are to books I am currently reading:

Images courtesy of Good Reads

See you in the next post!

3 books in 23 days

The year is quickly coming to an end, as a result I had to alter my reading goal for the year from 50 to 30. Although I reduced it I'm pretty glad I even got to read one book. So can I read 3 books in 23 days? We'll see...

Mailbox Wednesday #4

This is a bit late but here's another what I got in my mailbox

The Book Thief and Fallout (#3 in the Crank series, I'm currently reading this but I just can't get into it as I did for the first two).

Both for challenges I'm participating in (1) Immigration and (2) Chinese Lit challenges. Currently reading Brooklyn (review to come)

Across The Universe was for last month's Chapters Book Club. It was a good read I thought I wouldn't enjoy it since it's YA but I did, I wonder if this will be a series because I want to know 'did they ever make it to CenturiEarth? 

The Hunger Games Trilogy, I'm so excited to read these before the movie comes out.

Mystery & Suspense Challenge 2011

Just signed up for this challenge because it's on probably what's my favorite genre. This challenge Book Chick City's 2011 Mystery-Suspense-Reading Challenge from January to December 2011 and requires that one reads a minimum of 12 mystery & suspense novels in 2011. I know I'm going to really enjoy this one, and it's worth checking out.