Book Riot has created a reading challenge for 2014 that calls for participants to read books that cover 24 areas designed to broaden our horizons.

These “tasks” are as follows:

A book written by someone when they were under the age of 25

A book written by someone when they were over the age of 65

A collection of short stories (either by one person or an anthology by many people)

A book published by an indie press

A book by or about someone that identifies as LGBTQ

A book by a person whose gender is different from your own

A book that takes place in Asia

A book by an author from Africa

A book that is by or about someone from an indigenous culture (Native Americans, Aboriginals, etc.)

A microhistory

A YA novel

A sci-fi novel

A romance novel

A National Book Award, Man Booker Prize or Pulitzer Prize winner from the last decade

A book that is a retelling of a classic story (fairytale, Shakespearian play, classic novel, etc.)

An audiobook

A collection of poetry

A book that someone else has recommended to you

A book that was originally published in another language

A graphic novel, a graphic memoir or a collection of comics of any kind

A book that you would consider a guilty pleasure (Read, and then realize that good entertainment is nothing to feel guilty over)

A book published before 1850

A book published this year

A self-improvement book (can be traditionally or non-traditionally considered “self-improvement”)

Interestingly, the task I see myself having the hardest time with is the guilty pleasure. What would that be for me? I’m not inclined to feel guilty about what I read, so maybe I’ll categorize that as something someone else might feel guilty about. (In checking out the discussion on this topic in Goodreads, I see others with similar concerns have suggested impulse buys and re-reads as ways to fill this category.)

There has been no knitting the last few days. I was washing the mandolin on Monday night and sliced my finger with it. It wasn’t especially deep, but it’s taking its time healing since it’s right where I keep opening it back up by typing and washing.

Hopefully, we’ll be back in the saddle again tomorrow or so. When we are, I’ll be casting on a new pair of socks in this yarn, The Fiberists’ Audubon Sport in the Cornus florida colorway:

I’m still working my way through Signed, Sealed, Delivered, reading a chapter every few days. I’m enjoying reading about letters through history. Tonight’s chapter talked about how letters have been used to convict/implicate suspects in crimes, including the Lindbergh baby kidnapping. I put Neil Patrick Harris’ Choose Your Own Autobiography down for a few days in favor of tearing through the first volume of Ms. Marvel (loved it!), but I anticipate being done with it by Sunday, given NPH’s breezy style and the short “chapters.”

Yarning along about books and crafting with Ginny.
 

In honor of the upcoming Valentine’s Day holiday and to combat my continuing low mood, I’m looking for some suggestions of love stories to read.

Before you hop down to the comments, let me clarify: I want a book that leaves you smiling at the end. Think Rainbow Rowell, Jane Austen, or Gayle Forman. (I’m already thinking David Levithan and Stephanie Perkins.)

The biggest caveat is that I don’t want a tragedy. A little sadness is okay, so long as the overall tone is a positive one. (Think The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, for example, over Code Name Verity.)

Thanks!

Look! It’s actual knitting I’ve done this week! I mean, it’s a pathetic amount (and horribly lit, sorry about that), but given how little I’ve knit the last month, I’m pleased. Plus, because it’s a test knit of a cowl pattern, I know it’ll get done in the next couple weeks.

The book I started over the weekend as I was nearing the end of a couple others. It’s Nina Bankovitch’s Signed, Sealed, Delivered: Celebrating the Joys of Letter Writing. I’m only through the introduction and first chapter, but I’m enjoying it so far.

I’m actively reading two books right now. The Amazing Thing about the Way It Goes: Stories of Tidiness, Self-Esteem and Other Things I Gave up On is Stephanie Pearl-McPhee’s 2014 book essays. They feature her typical humorous, yet poignant approach to storytelling, but this time are about things other than knitting. The two essays I read tonight, for instance, were about competing in hurdles back in school and the importance of photos. One or two in a day is about my speed, though, so the book, although small, is lasting me a few days, which is nice. The fiction I’m working on is 2 a.m. at the Cat’s Pajamas by Marie-Helene Bertino. Set around the holidays in modern Philadelphia, it’s the story of a young girl, who’s recently lost her mother and whose father is having issues coping, who wants to sing and the jazz club she discovers is not especially far away. It’s told in alternating points of view from a few different people, including one of her teachers and the club owner, in short chapters according to the time and I haven’t quite figured out how it’s all going to fit together into a cohesive whole. It appeared on several best-of lists last year, though, so I’m hopeful that it does.

I haven’t been knitting much at all the last couple months. I’ve been feeling down and getting past where I’m stuck on every in-progress project seems insurmountable. I know that dealing with that is a two-pronged approach (1) Start a new project and 2) pick one work-in-progress and knit a few rows on it each day until stops being hard/stuck/not done.), but I just haven’t had it in me to match up yarn, needles, and pattern.

I have been poking around Ravelry, though, and one of the designers I follow had a bunch of patterns she wanted test-knit by early February. One of them was a scalloped cowl that seemed more than reasonable to accomplish in three weeks, so I contacted her and downloaded the pattern this evening. I think I’m going to knit it in this pretty single-ply from Plain & Fancy Sheep Company, but we’ll see how it feels once it’s wound up. I also pulled out my Lightning Shawl and may see about making it my first reinstated project of the year.

Yarning along with Ginny.

Today’s Top Ten Tuesdays topic at The Broke and the Bookish is 2014 Releases I Meant To Read But Didn’t Get To:

1. 2 a.m. at the Cat’s Pajamas by Marie-Helene Bertine (currently reading)
2. Endangered by Eliot Schrefer (started but didn’t finish)
3. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
4. I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson
5. The Eye of Zoltar by Jasper Fforde
6. Salt & Storm by Kendall Kulper
7. Yes Please by Amy Poehler
8. Five, Six, Seven, Nate! by Tim Federle
9. Neil Patrick Harris: Choose Your Own Autobiography
10. An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine

I’m looking to get to all these titles this year and am on the wait list at the library for five of the eight titles not currently in my possession.

How about you? Any regrets among new releases you missed last year?