Last year I ended up at 53 books, but I hardly read anything between May and August. This year my goal is 75 (but I'm secretly hoping for 100).
March update: I'm at 15 books on March 10th. If I continue at my current rate, I'm looking to exceed my 75 book goal. This week I started reading 3 books at a time: one real book, one audiobook, and one ebook (for breaks at work). We'll see how long that continues...
May update: I'm at 37 books as of May 13th! That's pretty awesome. I'd say I'm definitely on track for my goals. Haven't been doing the audiobooks as much cause I'm carpooling these days (you know, going green and all, *rolls eyes*). But I'm proud of the progress. Reading all those little Lemony Snicket books sure helped. I say they still count though!
August update: I guess I got burnt out after all that reading in May. I'm just finishing number 41 on August 16th. Class also got in the way... a lot. Still on track to do better than last year, if I get back in gear now. We'll see...

1. Room For Love, Andrea Meyer (*)
2. Going Home, Harriet Evans (***)
3. Confessions of a Shopaholic, Sophie Kinsella (*****)
4. Shopaholic Takes Manhattan, Sophie Kinsella (****)
5. Shopaholic Ties the Knot, Sophie Kinsella (*****)
6. Shopaholic and Sister, Sophie Kinsella (*****)
7. Shopaholic and Baby, Sophie Kinsella (*****)
8. A Hopeless Romantic, Harriet Evans (***)
9. The Loves of a D-Girl, Chris Dyer (*)
10. Heiress for Hire, Erin McCarthy (***)
11. Ransom My Heart, Meg Cabot/Mia Thermopolis (**)
12. The Bad Beginning, Lemony Snicket (**)
13. The Reptile Room, Lemony Snicket (**)
14. True Love and Other Lies, Whitney Gaskell (****)
15. The Wide Window, Lemony Snicket (**)
16. Born in Fire, Nora Roberts(**) - (Audiobook)
17. The Miserable Mill, Lemony Snicket (**)
18. Marked, PC & Kristen Cast (**)
19. Weekend in Paris, Robin Sisman (*)
20. Born in Ice, Nora Roberts (***) - (Audiobook)
21. The Austere Academy, Lemony Snicket (***)
22. The Ersatz Elevator, Lemony Snicket (***)
23. Born in Shame, Nora Roberts (**) - (Audiobook)
24. Betrayed, PC & Kristen Cast (*)
25. High Stakes, Erin McCarthy (***)
26. Love @ First Site, Jane Moore (**) - (Audiobook)
27. The Vile Village, Lemony Snicket (***)
28. The Hostile Hospital, Lemony Snicket (**)
29. The Carnivorous Carnival, Lemony Snicket (***)
30. The Slippery Slope, Lemony Snicket (**)
31. Bit the Jackpot, Erin McCarthy (**)
32. The Grim Grotto, Lemony Snicket (**)
33. The Penultimate Peril, Lemony Snicket (**)
34. Perfect Fifths, Megan McCafferty (*****)
35. The End, Lemony Snicket (***)
36. Chosen, PC & Kristen Cast (*)
37. Bled Dry, Erin McCarthy (***)
38. The Total Money Makeover, Dave Ramsey (****)
39. Sucker Bet, Erin McCarthy (***)
40. Macroeconomics, textbook (*)
41. Dead Until Dark, Charlaine Harris (****)
42. Living Dead in Dallas, Charlaine Harris (**)
43. Club Dead, Charlaine Harris (****)
44. Jennifer Johnson is Sick of Being Single, Heather McElhatton (**)
45. Dead to the World, Charlaine Harris (****)
46. Dark Lover, JR Ward (***)
47. Lover Eternal, JR Ward (***)
48. Lover Awakened, JR Ward (****)
49. Lover Revealed, JR Ward (****)
50. Freakonomics, Stephen Levitt (***) - (Audiobook)
51. Lover Unbound, JR Ward (****)
52.

( SYTYCD below the cut )

In other news...

-I got an iphone 3GS two weeks ago when it came out. And already, I'm not quite sure how I ever lived without it. I am in love. :)
-Is anybody on Twitter? Now that I can check it during the day with my iphone, I need to follow some more people, haha. Anybody have any favorite famous people they follow?
-They've been really ramping up my responsibilities at work, and it's kinda stressful. This lady who works in Cost Accounting is going on maternity leave in August, and they're training me to do her job. I don't have my accounting degree yet, so some of it is above my head, but I can do it all easily. I just don't understand exactly -what- I'm doing sometimes. It's definitely good for my career, but adding 80% of someone else's job to my already crammed responsibilities without taking anything away is pretty crazy. I don't have any time to do my own thing anymore.
-I haven't read a book besides a textbook in like a month. So sad!
-I'm taking cake decorating lessons this month, starting Monday. So excited!

Well, gotta run! Ttyl!

Anybody watching SYTYCD this season? unicornhime? You are right?

( Vegas Week Comments... )

Well, now that my rant is done, I better go read my business law textbook. I'm back in school again, getting a second degree, this time in accounting. Have I mentioned that here? I'm taking 3 classes this summer in addition to working full time. What was I thinking?

How are you all?

Lily on Gossip Girl really really annoys me.  Why are they giving her, of all characters, a spin-off?  Ugh.

And all the Rufus/Lily drama is getting old.

And Blair and Chuck need to get back together already.

That is all. 

Stolen from unicornhime

1. Do you prefer to read hardcover or paperback books?
-Paperback, but only because they fit in my purse easier.  Never leave home without a book!  Yes, I'm a real life Rory Gilmore.

2. Do you have a favorite place to read in your home?
-My bed, definitely.

3. Do you have a favorite place to read away from, or outside of, your home?
-I read in my car in the mornings before work (while parked in the parking lot, waiting for 8:00 to come)

4. Do you snack while you read? If so, favorite reading snack?
-No, I'm not a very good multi-tasker when it comes to reading.

5. Do you tend to mark your books as you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you?
-Honestly, it horrifies me.  I'm OCD, I can't help it.  I did write in some text books in college, but it was pretty painful to do so.

6. How do you keep your place while reading a book? Bookmark? Dog-ears? Laying the book flat open?
-Dog ears?!  No way!  I usually use the receipt from when I bought it or something.  Currently, I'm using a doctor's excuse that I didn't actually need to give to my boss.  

7. Fiction, Non-fiction, or both?
-Mostly fiction.  Ok, all fiction.

8. Hardcopy or audiobooks?
-Mostly hardcopy.  I do listen to audiobooks a lot, but only certain ones.  If it's a book I've been anticipating or a book I'm expecting to love, I have to read the hard copy to get the full enjoyment.

9. Are you a person who tends to read to the end of chapters, or are you able to put a book down at any point?
-End of chapters.  Sometimes at night I fall asleep in the middle of a chapter, but never intentionally.  I will stop at those scene change breaks in the middle of chapters, though.  They are like mini chapter ends anyway.

10. If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop to look it up right away? Write it down to look it up later? Just try to infer what it means from the rest of the sentence, and keep going?
-These days it doesn't happen very often in the types of books I read, and when it does I can usually figure it out from the rest of the sentence.  When I was young I kept a dictionary by my bed for just that reason.  (I was a nerd, ok? haha)

11. What are you currently reading?
-Umm... this random chick lit book I picked up at the used book store - Adventures of an Ice Queen, a Nora Roberts audiobook - Born in Ice (I swear I'm not a Nora Roberts fan!), and I'm in between books on the House of Night series and the Series of Unfortunate Events series.

12. What is the last book you bought?
-I traded books at the used book store this weekend, and one of the ones I got was the aforementioned Ice Queen book.  The last ones I bought were the Vegas Vampire series by Erin McCarthy.  I haven't started those yet.

13. What is your all time favorite book?
-Atonement by Ian McEwan.  I loved it long before the movie.  It's one of those books that just absorbed me into it and completely shook me up.  On the complete opposite end of the scale, I love all of Sophie Kinsella's books and all of Meg Cabot's adult books (not a princess diaries person at all).

14. Are you the type of person that only reads one book at a time or can read more than one at a time?
-I always have a physical book going, 80% of the time I have an audiobook for my commutes, and an e-book for breaks at work when it isn't practical to get my real book out.

15. Do you like re-reading books?
-No.  I just can't do it.  Sometimes if I really love a book I'll do it, but that is rare (I've only even read Atonement the once).  Or sometimes if there's a sequel coming out and it's been a while since I read the previous books.  I will read my favorite scenes a few times, though.  </lj>

In my pms-y post yesterday, I completely forgot to mention one of the good things that has happened since I last posted:

I just bought a new car! It was actually two weeks ago. It was a completely terrifying experience. But worth it. I got a navy blue Nissan Altima. It's gorgeous. And it's all mine. I love it.


Anybody else watching American Idol this year? I think the top 13 is pretty good overall, even if last night wasn't so great. I like almost all of them.

I haven't made a real post since last September, so I figured I should prove that I'm still alive. I do still read my flist everyday, so I haven't gone far. I'm just not good at posting regularly. I think the real problem is that I started this particular LJ a couple years ago when I wanted to join all the Twilight communities. And I'm pretty much over Twilight now since the fandom has been overtaken by over-eager preteens who are way too obsessed with Robert Pattinson for their own good and since Stephenie Meyer way too self-obsessed for her own good. So, yeah...

Anyway, here's the quick rundown on things:

-I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism. My poor thyroid was/is extremely out of whack. It has pretty much stopped working completely (or so it seems). To give you an idea of what I mean, your TSH levels (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone) are supposed to be between 0.2 and 2.4 (approximately) and mine was at 93 when I was diagnosed. No, I did not leave out a decimal point. We've got it down to about 31 now, but that's still insanely high. We're hoping that this explains the strange dizziness I've been having since August.

-I have been reading constantly. If you need a chick lit book recommendation, let me know. Believe me, I think I've read half of the genre. I kept a list of what I read last year on this journal and I'm doing it again this year. Last year I ended up at 52 books, which wasn't that great. This year I'm at 16 so far, so I'm on track for my goal of 75-100.

-I'm considering going back to school to get my masters degree. In accounting... Yes, BA in English to Masters in Accountancy. Sounds logical, right? Ugh... I don't know... I want to go back and I don't at the same time. It will feel like I'm giving up my dreams of working in publishing.

-But, I always have my writing, even if I don't become an editor. I have two - maybe three - novel ideas in progress. One is a YA novel that I just came up with the other day. I'm really excited about it. The other two are chick lit novels (cause I'm such an expert in the genre). Now I just have to find some motivation and actually write them. If anyone wants to hear more about the ideas, let me know. I like to bounce the ideas off people.

-We got a new kitten in December! Her name is Lucy, and she is the best cat we have ever had. Lol.. she was sleeping next to me, and as I typed that last line, she woke up and looked at me, as if she knew I was writing about her all of a sudden. Now she's asleep again. Silly girl. I'll have to post a picture sometime.

-This weekend is Destination Imagination, so a bunch of people will be coming up to stay in my little house. I feel guilty, but I hate it when everyone stays here. I hate having to entertain people. I am such a hermit. I love my friends, but I also love my space. Does that make me a horrible person? Luckily, it's only one night. And DI is lots of fun, so it'll be worth it.

-I mentioned my disillusionment with Twilight. I still like the story. The books were good, even if Stephenie Meyer is a crap writer. I just got upset with her about the whole Midnight Sun fiasco... and I never could really get past BD (As a result, I still haven't been able to read The Host, even though it's been sitting on my bookshelf since it came out). And I like to read the fanfic from time to time. And I still have the main communities on my flist. I just kind of got over the whole thing when 90% of the teenage girls in America (and beyond) suddenly became fans. And the movie kind of ruined ruined the fandom for me, too. (Don't throw things at me - I know that's not the popular opinion.)

Well, I better quit now before you all think I'm some really negative person and start unfriending me, haha. I'll try to post more often with happier things, but no promises! I'll still read your stuff, though! :)

Because a couple people on my f-list do this, and b/c on my other LJ I watch the 50bookchallenge community, I decided to keep track of my books/movies of 2008 here in one place.

*Please note that I am going through a rather random phase with my reading... I'm not usually this much of a teen lit/chick lit reader...

( Read more... )

I finally get to post this fic I wrote for heroinexchange! It basically got no love over there (not even from the person I wrote it for), so maybe it'll do better when I post it other places.

Title: Playing School
Author: choosetodream
Disclaimer: "Twilight" and all related characters belong to Stephenie Meyer.
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: 1823
Summary: Edward and Bella relieve a little sexual tension before the wedding as Edward tries to give Bella lessons in a couple of his favorite activities. No BD spoilers.
Author's Notes: Also posted here at fanfiction.net with my other fic.

( Playing School )

Today was very stressful. You know those days that are supposed to be slow and laid-back but end up with a million things coming at you? Yeah, that was today. Nothing awful, just work stuff. We're approaching the end of the quarter, so things are getting crazy. (I work in accounting for a (almost) billion dollar company, for those new to my flist.)

Anybody else here Gossip Girl fans? It's one of my many guilty pleasures. Last year I watched just because one of my real life friends watched it, but, of course, I got addicted. It's a ridiculous show, but you just can't help but love it. Monday's episode was really good, I thought. I can't decide if I ship Chuck/Blair or not. It seems like pretty much everyone else does. I really like Nate/Vanessa. I think they're really sweet together.

I've been reading a lot lately, especially since Breaking Dawn. I think I'm still trying to recover from BD. Maybe if I read enough good stuff, I can forget it happened. ;-)

Hmm... I really didn't have very much interesting to say today... I'll try to do better next time. :)

Oh. My. Goodness.

I know most of you probably care nothing about college football, but I am from the South... and we do...

Auburn just (barely) beat Miss St. with a score of 3-2. 3-2!!! What kind of score is that? Our offense was pretty much non-existent. (Our being Auburn. I graduated from Auburn, for those of you new to my flist). In fact, their two points were pretty handed to them by our offense. Ugh. Next week against LSU is not gonna be pretty.

Any other college football fans out there? unicornhime, your team certainly did well today!

Now it's time for Wisconsin v. Fresno St...

Yay, new friends! Or, at least, a new friend! I just did my first friending meme ever. I love new LJ friends. :D

In other news, I've decided I'm going to do NanoWriMo this year. I've said that before and never even started, but this year I mean it. I'm very excited! I've already got an entire concept complete with multiple story lines and a few good characters. I'm a major planner when it comes to writing, so I'm very glad I still have a month and a half to get my act together and really get an outline ready. Then it'll just come down to actually writing the thing. You will all have to hold me to it!

Did I mention that I went to the Auburn game this weekend? I did. I really, really miss living there. It's always bittersweet going down there. So many good memories, but then I have to leave again. *sigh* The football game was fun. Our offense needs some work, but I think we'll have an ok year. We have our first SEC game this week, so we'll see how that goes... kcmrgn213 and I are looking for tickets to one of the big games so we can go again... we're just hoping we don't have to pay more than $125 or so. Ugh... I miss the days when games were free for me!

Wow, is it really this late? I should get to sleep...

I had to do a quick post to say that the fic written for me in heroinexchange was posted today! It's absolutely wonderful (if you like a nice, steamy E/B fic, as I do), and it is exactly what I requested - except better than I imagined it.

You should all go and read it and give the writer some love b/c she definitely deserves it. XD


Punishment?


My second favorite part of these exchanges (the first favorite being getting my prompt) is trying to figure out who wrote what, and I think I have a pretty good guess at mine, so it'll be fun to see the list in a few weeks. :)

I just hope my recipient likes the fic I wrote as much as I like this one.

Wow, it's been a while since I posted! I think the last was Breaking Dawn reactions or something. Here's some random life stuff that's been going on:

-Our cable company went out of business! We had old school cable, complete with all of about 40 channels. As of right now, no cable company is replacing them, so we were kind of up a creek. So, we got satellite: Direct TV. It was actually just installed today. And it took forever. The guy came while I was at work at like 11am, and he just left about half an hour ago (8:30pm). I'm so excited, though, because I have DVR now! Even in Auburn when I had digital cable with half a billion channels, we didn't have DVR or anything, so this is really cool.

-I've been really sick lately. I somehow ended up with an inner ear infection, and let me tell you, it is NOT fun. I've been really dizzy and have had massive headaches. Hopefully, it's just the inner ear infection... the doctor told me it was that or I'd had a stroke. So, yeah. I'm just hoping to feel better soon.

-If anyone reads chicklit, as I sometimes do, let me recommend an author: Ellen Shanman. Her first book is really amazing. One of the best chicklit books I've ever read. Her second book just came out, and it's good, too. Go, read!

-My mom is going back to school to get her Bachelor's degree. Right now she just has two Associate's degrees. Her first class is and English one to finish off her last few hours of core stuff. It's called Major Authors II. It's an online class, and it's seriously going to be the easiest thing ever. Her tests are multiple choice and she doesn't have to right a paper. And she's worried. *rolls eyes* It's gonna be a fun semester... Luckily I've read a good bit of the stuff she has to read. And I let her borrow my anthologies so she didn't have to buy her book.

OK, that's enough for now... I have to go do a final read of my heroinexchange story to make sure it's not awful. I had the outline for the story for weeks, but I just could not write the thing. I'm just glad it's done now.