MobileRead Book Challenges discussion
      2017 Individual Challenges
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    Christa's 2017 Reading Stuff Thread
    
  
   Series to continue
      Series to continueSandman Slim
Joe Pitt
Wayward Pines
Albert Samson
Series to start
Mountain Jack Pike
√ Miles Jacoby - started
Shell Scott
Doctor Orient
 Oh. no!! I missed it!! I wanted to be the first on all of the 2017 threads!
      Oh. no!! I missed it!! I wanted to be the first on all of the 2017 threads! Congratulations Mrs. J.! *grumble, grumble*
 Okay, starting to have some structure to 2017's reading. Will update when I've got The Weird Challenge fleshed out.
      Okay, starting to have some structure to 2017's reading. Will update when I've got The Weird Challenge fleshed out.
     Christa wrote: "Updated info on The Weird Challenge in post #3."
      Christa wrote: "Updated info on The Weird Challenge in post #3."OMG! This sounds awesome and hilarious! I'm going to be so busy reading your updates I might not get to mine!! lol
Wishing you an awesome 2017! :)
 I'm so full of cold, doped to the eyeballs in medication and a few glasses of red wine to ease the pain, that I don't understand a bit of your weird challenge. But that's what makes it weird :)
      I'm so full of cold, doped to the eyeballs in medication and a few glasses of red wine to ease the pain, that I don't understand a bit of your weird challenge. But that's what makes it weird :)Looking forward to the updates.
 LOLOL! Cold medicine and red wine? Oh dear. :D
      LOLOL! Cold medicine and red wine? Oh dear. :D I think I've just come up with Part 3... heeheehee!
Part 3: "You've just won a lifetime supply of wine!" - Find (or fabricate) a connection to alcohol for each book I read.
:D
 Christa wrote: "LOLOL! Cold medicine and red wine? Oh dear. :D
      Christa wrote: "LOLOL! Cold medicine and red wine? Oh dear. :D I think I've just come up with Part 3... heeheehee!
Part 3: "You've just won a lifetime supply of wine!" - Find (or fabricate) a connection to alc..."
*Snort!*
 Christa wrote: "LOLOL! Cold medicine and red wine? Oh dear. :D
      Christa wrote: "LOLOL! Cold medicine and red wine? Oh dear. :D I think I've just come up with Part 3... heeheehee!
Part 3: "You've just won a lifetime supply of wine!" - Find (or fabricate) a connection to alcohol for each book I read.
"
I'm sold!
*just off to incorporate a drinking challenge into my 2017 targets. That's what Christa meant. Right???*
 Christa wrote: "Origin: The ITAO list, copied shamelessly from Nyssa's thread. :D
      Christa wrote: "Origin: The ITAO list, copied shamelessly from Nyssa's thread. :DThe Alphabet List ... Also copied directly from Nyssa's thread, because I really am that lazy. "
ROFLOL!!
No worries, copy away ... umm, since you already have anyway! :D
 hahaha I didn't think you'd mind. :D But when I was copying the alphabet, I really had to laugh at myself for being too lazy to type it out myself.
      hahaha I didn't think you'd mind. :D But when I was copying the alphabet, I really had to laugh at myself for being too lazy to type it out myself.
     Christa wrote: "hahaha I didn't think you'd mind. :D "
      Christa wrote: "hahaha I didn't think you'd mind. :D "No, of course not.
And hey, if you find a Bahamian Author or setting before I do, please hook a sista up!
 Oh. My. Gosh.
      Oh. My. Gosh.Mondo Exotica: Sounds, Visions, Obsessions of the Cocktail Generation is available as an ebook! Not sure when that happened, but maybe now I'll actually read it. :D
 Must admit, given the title and (some of) your predilections, I thought it might be a different book altogether :)
      Must admit, given the title and (some of) your predilections, I thought it might be a different book altogether :)
     Orlok wrote: "Must admit, given the title and (some of) your predilections, I thought it might be a different book altogether :)"
      Orlok wrote: "Must admit, given the title and (some of) your predilections, I thought it might be a different book altogether :)"Yeah, I can totally see why you'd expect that of me. I would, too. LOL
HomeInMyShoes wrote: "I totally knew what it was about. Although I'm weird."
Yes, you're weird, and AWESOME. :)
I recently joined a different Ark server to play on, and the admin set me up with a Discord channel to play music on. I named my base "Martini Beach", I built a tiki bar, and I play exotica, lounge and standards over the Discord voice channel.
It feels like home. :)
 DoodlePanda wrote: "That sounds great Christa :D"
      DoodlePanda wrote: "That sounds great Christa :D"It really is. I paint everything pink and blue, but I plan to add more colors later for that "tropical" feel. :) It's a nice way to escape, and everyone one the server is really nice, too. I even run rescue ops when newbs' thatch houses are being attacked by mean dinosaurs. :D
 So... this ukulele thing has really knocked my reading off course. I'm still reading, but not any of the things I was thinking I was gonna be reading. :D
      So... this ukulele thing has really knocked my reading off course. I'm still reading, but not any of the things I was thinking I was gonna be reading. :D
     Oh, and I now own one of these:
      Oh, and I now own one of these:https://kalabrand.com/products/mk-ss-grn
and one of these:
https://kalabrand.com/collections/zir...
 Definitely the surf green. Definitely. Although the dark one does look nice.
      Definitely the surf green. Definitely. Although the dark one does look nice.Welcome to the wonderful time-sucking world of music. It will suck up all your time and if you are a gear hound all of your money as -well. I have thankfully passed through most of the GAS (gear acquisition syndrome) issues, but what to learn can still suck away large portions of my life.
So what are you learning to play?
 Christa wrote: "Oh, and I now own one of these:
      Christa wrote: "Oh, and I now own one of these:https://kalabrand.com/products/mk-ss-grn
and one of these:
https://kalabrand.com/collections/zir..."
Did you buy BOTH?
 Haha yes, I bought both. The Shark (which I named Jabberjaw) arrived last Sunday and I ordered the Ziricote (named Delilah) from Mim's Ukes on Wednesday. :D She got here Friday.
      Haha yes, I bought both. The Shark (which I named Jabberjaw) arrived last Sunday and I ordered the Ziricote (named Delilah) from Mim's Ukes on Wednesday. :D She got here Friday.Homey, I've been a musician for most of my life. But I quit. Long story, but there was both emotional baggage and physical limitations that were an increasing problem. Then the uke started to invade my subconscious. Started having dreams about them and then I started seeing them everywhere. So I figured I should at least try, since Jabberjaw didn't cost that much.
Well, it took me less than a day to fall in love. No physical pain (aside from having to build calluses again for the first time since I was like 10) and no emotional pain - the uke is completely foreign to me so I have no previous associations for it to get wrapped up in. It doesn't remind me of bad things like guitars and keyboards do. It's friendly and happy and makes a wonderful sound.
I've been singing more in recent days than I have in probably the past 10 years. Stuff I never tried to sing / play before. I'm starting all over, and since I have no pre-established "walls", if I want to try to play something, I just fucking go for it. :D I'm doing things I didn't think I could do. Now, my physical issues still exist, so I don't know if I can get into fingerstyle picking because I don't think the joints of my right hand are up to the task, but you know what? I'm still gonna try to learn and see what happens.
So what have I been playing / singing? Elvis. Sonny Burgess. Frank Sinatra. Dean Martin. Ella Fitzgerald.
I was singing Love Me by Elvis in C, which was too high, because I can't yet get all the chord shapes quickly when playing in A or Bb, but my second time through, I realized I was hitting all the notes anyway. Not perfectly, of course, but still. With practice... (original Elvis version, for reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTMm4...)
I'm very happy. Very, very happy. Which makes sense, because I'm playing the friendliest instrument in the world. :)
Books mentioned in this topic
Motional Blur: A Novel (other topics)Trouble Is My Business (other topics)
The Long Way Down (other topics)
The Ceiling Man (other topics)
The Ceiling Man (other topics)
More...


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


 
Okay. So. Um... Oh, right.
There are a few books from last year's "really want to read" list that I didn't get to so let's put those down.
Mondo Exotica: Sounds, Visions, Obsessions of the Cocktail Generation - rather dense non-fiction tome, so will be an ongoing read.
Cult Vegas: The Weirdest! The Wildest! The Swingin’est Town on Earth!
LIFE The Rat Pack: The Original Bad Boys
New items for the "really want to read" list:
Elevator Music: A Surreal History of Muzak, Easy-Listening, and Other Moodsong; Revised and Expanded Edition
In case anyone is wondering why I list a few things separately like this, it's because they are only in physical book form and I read very few physical books these days. So it's sort of like a special thing. Not necessarily in a good way, because I'd MUCH rather have e-versions.