Play(list) by the Book: Ready Player One - Ernest Cline

Hello, everyone! We 're just a week before the movie release of Ready Player One, and I JUST CAN'T WAIT!!!! So, what would be more fitting than digging onto the OASIS? And what a world that was! Luckily for this Play(list) by the Book, the book offered a great number of references to songs and artist, most of them from the 80's. But, this time I'm not going to advise you to sit back and relax - just GET UP AND DANCE!

As per usual, in this playlist I included every song and artist that was mentioned in the book. I have to especially mention Rush's album 2112, which I couldn't include in its entirety (although it was close), but it's really important to the story. Anyway, this was a very straightforward case, so there weren't any reference where I couldn't find anything to include. Enjoy!

Find more playlists at: Play(list) by the Book

Reading Challenge 2018

Now that 2018 is here, it's time to set the new reading challenge! I didn't manage to finish the 2017 Reading Challenge, but this year I'm determined to make it! I really enjoy this challenge, although it's a tough one, so for the 2018 reading challenge I'm going to keep more or less the same categories. 

So, in 2018 I will read:

1. a novel from Europe: Death in Venice, by Thomas Mann
2. a novel from Middle East: The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran
3. a novel from East Asia
4. a novel from North America: Artemis, by Andy Weir
5. a novel from South America
6. a novel from Oceania
7. a novel from Africa
8. a novel that won the Man Booker Prize
9. a novel than won the Pulitzer Prize
10. a novel written by a Nobel Prize recipient
11. a play: The Firebugs: A Morality Without a Moral, by Max Frisch
12. a book of poetry: Phenomenal Woman: Four Poems Celebrating Women, by Maya Angelou
13. a collection of short stories: Revenge, by Yoko Ogawa
14. a manga
15. a superhero comic
16. a non-superhero comic
17. a classic
18. a non-fiction book
19. a memoir/biography
20. a novel that won the Nebula Award

So, this is it! This is the third year that I'm doing this challenge, and I'm really happy that it will "force" me to read more diverse books. Feel free to join me!

2017: A Reading Overview

HAPPY NEW YEAR, everyone!!! May 2018 bring you all the joy and love, and of course many interesting books to read!

But, before going into the new reading challenges, let's just take a look at my reading list in 2017.

So in 2017 I read a total of 90 books. Although they seem a lot, I didn't manage to meet my Goodreads goal of 100 books.

In detail, I read 16,331 pages over those 90 books. The longest book (American Gods, by Neil Gaiman) had 640 pages, and the shortest one (An Arabian Night: Nazin's Dream, by Garon Whited) was just 17 pages long. The most popular book I read this year (on Goodreads) was Animal Farm, by George Orwell, while the highest rated one (on Goodreads) was Dengeki Daisy, Vol. 3, by Kyousuke Motomi, with a rating of 4.48. 

My personal average rating on Goodreads was 3.9. My love for Manga has really shown this year, as it was the most popular type of book that I read, with 45 volumes!

The books that I didn't finish in 2017 were:

• Daniel Deronda, by George Eliot (I seriously doubt that I will ever finish it)
• Purity, by Jonathan Franzen (I guess I might get into it when I'm in the mood)
• Artemis, by Andy Weir (Ok, this is unfair, because I will finish it in the next few days. I just didn't manage to finish before the end of the year)

The series I didn't finish in 2017:

• Black Bird, by Kanoko Sakurakouji (I'm currently in volume 10, but I have to admit beforehand that I don't really like this manga series)

How did I do in The 2017 Reading Armchair's Challenge? For one more year I failed. This is a tough challenge, I won't lie. But it's diverse, and it made me read some books that I would otherwise hesitate to read. Still, 14 out of the 20 books of the challenge was a good score! I'll continue in 2018 with the same challenge.

Top 10 Books that I Read in 2017:

1. American Gods, by Neil Gaiman
2. The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood
3. Watchmen, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
4. Revival, by Stephen King
5. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
6. Hirunaka no Ryuusei (Daytime Shooting Star), by Mika Yamamori (10 Volumes)
7. The Gunslinger, Stephen King
8. Norse Mythology, Neil Gaiman
9. The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
10. Pnin, Vladimir Nabokov

The Reading Book Post, December 26th

Hello, everyone! Merry Christmas!! I hope you had a great time. As I've informed you yesterday, The Reading Book Post was delayed for today. So, let's see what happened in the literary world the previous week:

• Since yesterday was Christmas day, let's see a list of the 10 of the Most Valuable Christmas Books. I'd love to own some of them!

• One of the films I can't wait to watch is definitely The Shape of Water. Until then, let's just take a peek at the film's world from the making-of book. I JUST CAN'T WAIT!!!!

• Now this is a quite interesting recommendation list: Librarians pick the books everyone should read in each decade of his/her life. Maybe I should read The Argonauts, by Maggie Nelson.

• Are you pumped up for 2018? Well, looking at those 60 book titles that we are expecting in the following year, I'm looking forward to it! Which book's publication are you expecting?

• Which Famous Female Author Are You? Take the quiz to find out! I got Sophie Kinsella, and I find her books quite enjoyable so I'm happy with the result. Which author did you get?

Merry Christmas!

via Pinterest

Merry Christmas, everyone! All the best wishes for this special day :)

Now, the countdown for the New Year's Eve has begun!

The Reading Book Post is delayed for tomorrow, 

while an overview of 2017's reading is on its way!