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I absolutely love this idea - it should definitely keep me on track for my reading in 2014 and give me even more of an excuse to tell my family I need some 'me' time! My challenge for 2014 will be two-fold - focusing on both the number of books read and doing a bit of a clear up on my TBR pile (which is now an entire bookcase)! Encouragement is greatly appreciated! Without further ado, here's my plan for 2014...

90 total books read - 101/90 complete
25 of these must come from my TBR & can be read in any order - 18/25 complete

1. The Husband's Secret - Lianne Moriarty ** read 09/24/14 **
2. How to Fall in Love - Cecilia Ahern ** read 2/20/14 **
3. Apocalypse Cow - Michael Logan ** read 03/31/14 **
4. Jack of Diamonds - Bryce Courtenay ** read 1/12/14 **
5. The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas ** read 7/20/14 **
6. Voluntary Madness - Norah Vincent ** read 6/29/14 **
7. Beautiful Ruins - Jess Walter
8. Dark Places - Gillian Flynn ** read 6/3/14 ***
9. The Beach Club - Elin Hilderbrand ** read 2/9/14 **
10. Love Anthony - Lisa Genova
11. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry - Rachel Joyce
12. The Choice - Nicholas Sparks ** read 1/3/14 **
13. I Never Promised You a Goody Bag - Jennifer Gilbert
14. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis ** read 8/19/14 **
15. A Field Guide to Burying Your Parents - Liza Palmer ** read 5/21/14**
16. Kite Runner - Khaled Hasseini
17. Cutting for Stone - Abraham Verghese
18. The Light Between Oceans - M.L. Stedman
19. The Expats - Chris Pavone ** read 10/16/14 **
20. Journey to the Centre of the Earth - Jules Verne **read 6/15/14**
21. The Dinner - Herman Koch ** read 7/31/14 **
22. Dust - Patricia Cornwell **read 11/09/14**
23. The Silver Linings Playbook - Matthew Quick ** read 8/31/14 **
24. The Glass Castle - Jeannette Walls ** read 2/28/14 **
25. Some Assembly Required - Anne Lamott ** read 4/15/14 **

Best of luck to everyone for 2014 - happy reading!

Good luck kassandra! :-)

Thank you Amber!

No prob. (gives a thumbs up)

The Kite Runner, and The Glass Castle are in my to-read-list too.
Good luck Kassandra :) enjoy.

You'll get plenty of encouragement here! Good luck. :)

Thank you Faye and Emad.

Emad, let me know what you think of the Kite Runner!

I will :) you too.

Good luck Kassandra! I can relate to big TBR piles...

I don't think my TBR pile will ever go down to a reasonable level - there are just so many fantastic books out there!

I'm so excited for the 2014 challenges to begin - I'm already eyeing up a few on my list with itchy fingers. Is anyone else excited to get started and join the challenge?!

I'm ready! Just got to figure out which one to start with. I got nightmare abbey as a group read for January and want to read the pearl too.

Nightmare Abbey sounds interesting, I will have to check into that one!

btw, good luck on the light between the oceans. I read that one when I joined the all about books book club back in august and that was their first fiction group read. It was a pretty good read.

I've heard great things about it so I'm a little nervous that it won't live up to the hype. I think I will move it up to a January read so I can get into it next week.

Looks like you've got an interesting list there, Kassandra. The Kite Runner is on my to-read list too, I read And the Mountains Echoed last August and it was incredible.

Hope you have great time finishing your list! Good luck!

Thank you Bouchra!

I've got my first book down for 2014. There are so many books that I want to get into right now! I think I'm going to hit the monthly challenge though and go for something historical...now to narrow down the choices :)

Good luck Kassandra - The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry is on my list too!

Thank you Lucy - hopefully we will both enjoy it.

I finished my second book today. It was a big one (720 pages) and I absolutely loved it! "Jack of Diamonds" by Bryce Courtenay - his last novel and a new 5 star rating for me. A wonderful read that had me in tears in a few sections. I was definitely sad to see that I had reached the end of this one.

Kassandra wrote: "I finished my second book today. It was a big one (720 pages) and I absolutely loved it! "Jack of Diamonds" by Bryce Courtenay - his last novel and a new 5 star rating for me. A wonderful read that..."

That's amazing. It's a very rare reading experience. Kudos for getting your mitts on such a complementary book.

Thank you Luffy!

Great reading, Kassandra! You've got a great list there. Can't wait to hear your views on some of those reads!

I might have to check out Jack of Diamonds due to your comments!

I hope you enjoy it Holly!

Just finished Bridget Jones' diary. I wanted to save it for next month's genre challenge but it was a loaner from a friend and she needed it back this week.

I've just finished up . This is my first 5 star of the year and I cannot wait to see the movie this weekend. It's a beautifully told tale.

A quick read for tonight - I just finished up Switchblade by Michael Connelly.

I seem to be slowing down now at the end of the month. Work has really increased so I'm doing a lot of overtime. It's getting really frustrating because I'm so motivated to read at the moment and knock some great books off my list. Work just gets in the way :)

Kassandra wrote: "Work just gets in the way :)"

I agree! I had a nice three-day weekend last weekend and I read during most of it. I hated going back to work on Tuesday knowing I wouldn't have the whole day just for reading. :)

Kassandra, I'm feeling the exact same way. Reading has tailed off completely.

Kassandra I know what you mean! It's past 10pm and I'm sitting on the sofa catching up on work I haven't had time to do whilst AT work... when all I really want is to be lying in bed with Gone Girl!

Inkeri - a 3 day weekend of reading sounds amazing. I hope you get to do that again soon!

Holly - I think I'm going to actively schedule some time in my calendar to read. That way, I know that I'm not going to get distracted with work. It sounds strange to schedule a meeting with yourself, but I think it might work. Maybe you could try that? The other option is to go around trying to get sick so that I can have a sick day full of reading!

Iasa - I'm sorry you're underemployed but use the time to get some valuable reading done. It always makes me feel better!

Ola - that's exactly how I'm spending my night tonight too, unfortunately. I hope you're able to finish up the work sooner than later to get some Gone Girl in!

Just finished Wild by Cheryl Strayed and I expected to hate it. Surprisingly, I enjoyed it!

I finished Sycamore Row tonight and loved it. I will have to update my personal challenge stats tomorrow because it won't let me edit the challenge on the mobile app. I'm really struggling with this mobile app for these types of restrictions and really hope that GoodReads enhances the app soon!

Hey Kassandra, I see you've read Labor Day. That was the first book I read this year and I loved it as well, I'm excited for the movie!

You have things on your tbr list that I'm very curious about but I don't be able to get through them this year, but good luck!

Thanks Danielle! I'm really excited for the movie as well. I'm trying my best to do a review of everything I read this year so if you're interested in some from my list, a review will be for viewing as well.

Kassandra wrote: "I absolutely love this idea - it should definitely keep me on track for my reading in 2014 and give me even more of an excuse to tell my family I need some 'me' time! My challenge for 2014 will be ..."
Good luck even though it is a little late!!

Thank you Lexie, I really appreciate that!

I've heard so many good things about John Green so when I was at my local bookstore tonight, I decided to pick up one of his books. Despite the popularity of The Fault in our Stars, I decided to go with An Abundance of Katherines. I've just started it, but I'm really enjoying it. I can't believe I've missed out on his writing for this long!!!!

Kassandra wrote: "I've heard so many good things about John Green so when I was at my local bookstore tonight, I decided to pick up one of his books. Despite the popularity of The Fault in our Stars, I decided to go with An Abundance of Katherines. I've just started it, but I'm really enjoying it. I can't believe I've missed out on his writing for this long!!!! "

I loved that book! It really makes you think in a different way and I LOVE that!! It is definitely not you typical book!! But I think that is what makes it so good!! I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did!

Thanks Lexie, I'm really excited to read it now after your endorsement!

It looks like you are well on your way to meeting your goal. I hope your January reading was great and your February reading to be even better.

Thanks Rob - I had a pretty good month in January. I have a few quick reads planned for Feb and then the rest of the time will be dedicated to the Count of Monte Cristo so we'll see how the month ends up!

My plan for Feb (this is mainly a reminder to myself so I don't forget, but feedback is always welcome!):
How to Fall in Love
An Abundance of Katherines
The Fault in Our Stars
The Count of Monte Cristo
The Last Letter from Your Lover
The Perks of Being a Wallflower

This is a rough plan, and I reserve the right to make changes to it! For now, I think that will keep me on track and will hit a few of our challenges as well. I was going to aim for 8 but it's going to be a busy month and I'm anticipating that the Count will take me 2 weeks or so.

I have to say, although there is a lot of romance/chick lit on here (which are not usually my first choices) I'm REALLY EXCITED about this list!

It is a beast! It's unlikely that I will actually get through it in two weeks (unless I catch some sort of virus that allows me to do nothing but read) but it's a goal. To accomplish it, I think I'm going to have to break my rule of trying not to read more than 1 book at once - otherwise, I won't be able to move to anything else if the Count starts dragging.

I hope you like the Perks of Being a Wallflower!

I finished up An Abundance of Katherines today for my first read of February. I loved it!!! I'm definitely going to have to read multiple books at one time this month; there are just too many things that I want to read as part of the challenges to read one at a time. Hopefully it works out!

I have trouble with that too. I've been trying to read Treasure Island alongside a couple of other books in January and I just haven't gotten anywhere with it! I think I'm going to make a goal of reading 10 pages from it every day in addition to my other books. It's not very much, but at least it will keep me on track to finish it this year ;)

I know what mean Iasa; my TBR pile has grown exponentially since joining this group.

I just finished The Perks of Being a Wallflower and really enjoyed it. What great characters!