How to Train Your Dragon – And Then She Kissed Him

We’re through the first quarter of the year, fellow readers. Are you a quarter of the way through your TBR Challenge?

I’m not, but I’m starting to gain some ground. I’ve taken to listening to audio books while I’m playing Solitaire or crocheting something easy (I only started a few months ago, so I don’t make things with elaborate patterns). That’s gotten me through three audio books that have been waiting patiently for a couple of years for my attention: The Clockwise Man (a Doctor Who novel), and the first two installments of Cressida Cowell’s How To Train Your Dragon series (which are nothing like the movies, but read beautifully by David Tennant).

That makes me just 1/12 of the way to my target of 36 books this year, but it’s progress. And I can listen to audio books even when my chronic fatigue rears its ugly head, so that’s a plus. Here’s to a book-filled April!

Greetings fellow readers! I missed last month’s check-in getting ready for the Historical Novel Society’s conference in Denver (see the pictures–including shots of me in my new Regency ball gown during the costume pageant–here). And I nearly missed this month’s check-in because of a protracted argument with my internet service provider (I moved to a new town, my service didn’t).

But here we are, with five months left to go in this year’s Challenge. How’s your TBR pile doing? My print and kindle books have been languishing on my shelves and, since the move, in boxes, waiting for me to pay attention to them again. My day job has some slow times ahead, so perhaps I’ll be able to do some reading then. But I have to balance reading with writing time, and I have a story just itching to be told!

I did find regular blocks of time at that same day job to listen to the monstrous pile of audio books I’ve accumulated. Some people listen to music at their desks, but I’ve found that audio books are much more interesting to me (plus, I like to sing along with songs I know, and I really shouldn’t do that at work 😉 ). I’ve managed to (finally!) finish Outlander in audio form, and have begun Dragonfly in Amber. On deck waits Hamlet, Prince of Denmark read by the wonderful Richard Armitage, and the first two How to Train Your Dragon novels read by David Tennant, among a host of others. My ears are in for a treat!