Francesca's 2016 Plan That She's Definitely Not Going To Change At All!

[Francesca]

I finally completed Fangirl at the weekend. So much for my quick, light, easy read. Now that it's finished, though, I can concentrate on Fahrenheit 451. Hoping to finish it on Thursday by the latest and then I can start my next book which I hope to finish by the time I go on holiday next week but if not I can always finish it on the plane there. I'll be taking 4 books with me plus my iPad. I doubt I'll finish all 4 but at least I'm prepared if I do and it's nice to have the options there.

[Jody]

I loved Fahrenheit 451 - I found it a quick easy read so hopefully you will too!

[Francesca]

I'm definitely finding it a quick read! It's so interesting, it has me gripped!

[Tiffany]

Fahrenheit 451 is a great read. It's wild how some of the technology he puts in the story are so similar to what we use today.

[Francesca]

I've definitely noticed that! It's so weird!

[Francesca]

Well, I definitely had a great reading week! I managed to finish Fahrenheit 451 the night before I went away. I gave it 4 Stars. Then over the course of my holiday I read 5 books (one on the flight home). So I'm still behind on this challenge but for my own personal reading challenge that I set myself for this year, I am 6 books ahead of schedule! Wooo! The 5 books I read and the ratings I gave were:

Why Not Me? - 4 Stars.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower - 5 Stars.

We Were Liars - 2 Stars.

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe - 5 Stars.

Sour Candy - 4 Stars.

This morning I made a start on Let's Go Play At The Adams' which is already shaping up to be a good, scary read!

The only problem I have now is that I have a lot of reviews to catch up on!

[Jody]

Go Francesca! You're a gun. Isn't Perks amazing? I loved it so much when I read it last year.

[Francesca]

Jody wrote: "Go Francesca! You're a gun. Isn't Perks amazing? I loved it so much when I read it last year."

I absolutely adored it! I had read it once before but it was such a long time ago and I've watched the movie a few times, which I really like a lot, so I wanted to see if I still enjoyed the book as much as I did and I really did! If not, more so!

[Francesca]

Let's Go Play At The Adams' - 5 Stars.

It's definitely not a favourite book and I doubt I'll ever read it again but it deserves 5 stars, in the same way I gave 5 stars to The Girl Next Door last year, it was just such a great piece of horror.

Onto my next two reads which are The Angel Tree and Thirteen Reasons Why.

[Francesca]

I knew I wasn't going to get any reading done on Friday and Saturday as I was out both days but I'd hoped to do a lot of reading on Sunday and yesterday. Sadly, on Sunday I was very ill and just didn't feel up to reading (I wasn't able to concentrate fully). Yesterday I was much better but still didn't feel great so I read a lighter book and read Kindred Spirits which I ended up enjoying and I made a start on The Angel Tree although not a very big start. I hope this week and weekend fair better.

[Francesca]

So, I stopped reading The Angel Tree and put it aside. It's good and intriguing but I'm really not in the right mood for it at the moment. I'll come back to it at a later time.

I started On The Other Side which is cute but it's taking me a while to read. I like it but there's nothing really pulling me in to keep reading. I will though!

I'm halfway through Apeshit which is crazy and pretty funny. Horror comedies are usually a good choice for me.

I've also just started The Walking Dead compendium 1 and am loving it so far! I'm really glad it's very different to the show because otherwise I may have got bored and I get to enjoy them both as separate things. Although comparisons are still going to be drawn at times, I guess that's just unavoidable.

[Francesca]

Made another change so that I slip Jennifer Saunders' autobiography into my challenge. I'm listening to it on audiobook.

[Francesca]

I finished The Walking Dead, Compendium 1 at the weekend and made some more progress on On the Other Side which I'm hoping to finish by the end of this week. Once that book is finished I can concentrate on also finishing Apeshit and then I'll finally be back on track. I don't know why it's taken me so long to read these books but hopefully I can pick the pace up again a bit. Although, Autumn is a dangerous time because a lot of the shows I love come back on so we'll have to see how well I do!

[Francesca]

I finished both On the Other Side and Apeshit which both got 2 stars.

Currently still listening to Bonkers: My Life in Laughs and now also reading Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and A Monster Calls.

I'm not very fond of Cursed Child but I will finish it, I'm really liking A Monster Calls so far, and I'm enjoying Jennifer Saunders' autobiography.

Hoping my reading picks up and hoping I have better luck with my books, I seem to have had quite a few duds this year.

I've also come to the conclusion that next year will be my last year participating in the reading challenge. I've loved it and I'm still looking forward to doing it next year but I find I put far too much pressure on myself with it. My initial aim with it was to get myself back into reading as much as I used to be and it worked but now that I am, I'm finding it hard to have the restrictions and I want to be able to read what I want when I want again. (I know I technically still can but I'm not a very fast reader and I never complete the challenge which means I never get to the point where I can read more freely). I'm still planning to maybe hover round the boards and definitely am planning to stay in contact with everyone here.

[Jody]

I'm glad you'll still be around, Francesca! I am also losing the love for reading challenges, so I'll see how I go after next year.

[Amy]

I am feeling terrible as well, Francesca, that I am not going to finish mine which j was beyond excited about...I also want to try again next year. I am just trying to read some shorter books now to try and catch up. I vacationed too much this year and although you think you'll read while on it, I didn't at all. April, August and sept really killed me.

[Francesca]

I just find that I get myself unnecessarily worried and stressed about it and there's no need. So I'm going to attempt it next year and see how I get on, I'm going to give myself a few options for each category so I have more choice and I'm going to be easier on myself with the whole thing. If I end up getting fed up next year, I may still drop it but I'm hoping to see out next year and then that will be it for me and reading challenges. At least for a while.

[Francesca]

Jody wrote: "I'm glad you'll still be around, Francesca! I am also losing the love for reading challenges, so I'll see how I go after next year."

I will definitely still hover around the discussion boards and I'll definitely still be on goodreads and in contact with you all!

[Francesca]

Amy wrote: "I am feeling terrible as well, Francesca, that I am not going to finish mine which j was beyond excited about...I also want to try again next year. I am just trying to read some shorter books now t..."

I started the year well and managed to read a lot on my holiday but I haven't had a great few months and it's put me really behind on the challenge. I knew I wouldn't finish it anyway but I still find I get a bit frustrated with it. Reading should be fun and that isn't fun.

[Laura, Celestial Sphere Mod]

You definitely shouldn't pressure yourself to finish! I move around my choices so many it's kind of ridiculous. I probably end the year with 5 books that I originally planned on reading. I also am really behind and I may end up moving stuff around so that I can count some of the books towards ATY that I originally had on other challenges. Maybe you would feel less confined if you did multiple challenges and just took multiple years to finish all of them? I'm doing about 8 challenges right now but am only planning on finishing ATY. It allows me to jump around quite a bit without feeling stuck on any one challenge.

[Rachel]

Hang in there, Francesca! I also feel a bit pressured sometimes by the time crunch on finishing everything, but one thing that really helped me is building in as much flexibility as possible. I don't lock myself in to a single book for a prompt. I do make a list toward the beginning of the year because I get most of the books from the library, so I have to request them early in order to get them, but I'm totally open to changing my list. From what I've seen on discussion boards for a few challenges is that people often get most frustrated when they feel stuck with the books they chose way earlier in the year, so leaving yourself options for each prompt may help.

I also like Laura's suggestion of trying multiple challenges wtih a broader timeline. I'm currently doing 4 challenges, and it gives me enough room to shift things around and read from a whole bunch of different styles, formats, authors, etc.

Honestly, I think the time pressure is what gets to most people because we feel like we "have to" finish within the year. I know most challenges are designed with a timeline in mind, but it's not like we have a book police who are checking up on us to make sure we stay on track...or teachers demanding assignments about each book we read. I think easing up on the timeline might be refreshing!

[Francesca]

I'm pretty set that next year will be my last year for a set reading challenge, besides my own personal ones that don't have a time limit (i.e. read all Stephen King books, read all the books seen or referenced in Lost, etc.) and I'm happy with that decision. I'm definitely taking all these ideas on board for next year, though, and will definitely be putting less pressure on myself with it and giving myself multiple options per topic to choose from. I really appreciate all the encouragement here. We have such a lovely group of people on here which is why I decided that even though I won't participate the year after, I'll still be hovering around the group and the discussion boards etc.

[Francesca]

I'm out of my reading slump! Huzzah!

I finished A Monster Calls and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Parts One and Two. Onto my non-fiction book which is Everyday Sexism and only have a small amount of my audiobook left. Hopefully I can get a few more books read by the end of the year and leave it on a high. I have quite a while off work in December so it might be possible!

[Francesca]

Finished Bonkers: My Life in Laughs and gave it 4 stars.

Reading Everyday Sexism for my non-fiction book, and I, Robot for my 'book you've seen the movie of but haven't read'. Enjoying both a lot so far!