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book report: September 2014

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion was the first book I read this month and I loved it! Such a fun and quick read. I totally got lost into the story. If you haven't read it yet, go and pick up your copy! It's so worth it. There have been moments when I had to laugh out loud. And the main character reminded me of Sheldon from "The Big Bang Theory". I always had him in front of my eyes. This book is one of those reasons, why I love reading. You can laugh, you can forget everything around you and you want to read as fast as possible but at the same time you don't want the book come to an end.

Wild by Cheryl Strayed: Another good book this month. I love hiking so it was clear I had to read this book. And it was amazing. To hike for such a long time (three months) is very hard and Cheryl Strayed used the right words to describe it that I thought I was walking with her on the trail. I can't wait to watch the movie of this book. Totally unrelated, but can you really choose a new last name in the US after you got divorced? I can't get this into my head.

I haven't finished Das Labyrinth der Wörter by Marie-Sabine Roger yet but it's such a sweet story. The original book is in French and I think you can notice this.

 

In October I want to read:

• If I stay by Gayle Forman
• The Silver Star by Jeannette Walls
• Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

 

book report: August 2014

In this blog post you can read about my goal to pick three books per month to read.

For August 2014 I choose the following books to read:

• The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin
• The Book of Summers by Emylia Hall
• Packing Light by Allison Vesterfelt

In the end I only read The Happiness Project and The Book of Summers. I think it's because I was on vacation almost the whole August. It's interesting that I find less time for reading while being on vacation as when I'm at home. I always thought I read more when I don't have to work but it seems, that's not right.

The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin:
I've read about this book so much in the past months so I finally bought it around April. I generally love reading about people who make a year-long project to change their life. And this one was no exception. It's a very inspiring book with great ideas. But it also is a book that takes time because there is so much to think about every chapter. When I shared my progress with the book on Instagram Nicole Reaves wrote, she never finished the book because it's a big book to digest. And she's so right. In the end I read 3/4 of it and that's okay. I will definitely go back to it but I take my time. I found some amazing quotes in this book and this one is probably my favorite one: "You can choose what you do; You can't choose what you like to do.".
Gretchen Rubin has a great website as well.

The Book of Summers by Emylia Hall:
The reason why I got interested in this book is the fact that a scrapbook about summers plays a big role. I love to collect my memories in a summer minibook and I love the idea to have a big book about all summers in one book. I'm sure it truly is a treasure. In the book the main character has to deal with the past when she got a parcel which holds The Book of Summers from her mother who died. It's a very good and easy read. Emylia Hall has a great writing style. I especially love how she describes places and people. You have a very clear vision about the things she described. You can tell she actually visited the country and really knows how it is there.
Emylia Hall has a blog where she gives some insights in her life.

As I already mentioned I didn't read Packing Light by Allison Vesterfelt. But it's one of those books that I really want to read in the coming months.

 

In September I want to read:

• Das Labyrinth der Wörter by Marie-Sabine Roger
  I'm gonna read this one in German. The original book is in French but that's not a language I can read.
• The Rosie Project by Grame Simsion
• Wild by Cheryl Strayed

 

about reading

Books have always been a huge part of my life. There is this magic that surrounds a book when you get lost in the story and sadness when you read the last sentence. I grew up with Harry Potter. And of course I wanted to be a wizard. I read all books about The Famous Five by Enid Blyton and I wanted to be part of that group. There wasn't a day without reading.

As a young adult I thought reading will be a huge part of my life forever. Well, this was one of the million things I was wrong about my idea about the life of grown-ups. (I thought they can do whatever they want all day long too, it seems that's not true as well, since I have to work all day long and can't do whatever I want)

I still love books and I still own a lot of books. My bookshelf is jam-packed with books. Yes, there is a second row behind the one you see. Libraries and bookstores are my happy places and I can spend hours in them. But there is so little time for reading because there are so many other things I have to do and want to do. In the last couple of years I didn't find a lot of time to sit down to read a book. It takes me weeks or even months to finish a book. This is not how I used to be. I was the one who read at least one book per week. Reading was part of my everyday life like brushing my teeth.

In June I saw this amazing Project Life Card Rachel made and I was blown away. These were the exact same words I was thinking about in the last few days.

And then we got the July prompt for One Little Word®. Among other things, Ali Edwards invited us to pick an action item that is just for ourselves. It was clear, that I chose to make time for reading. To start with reading one book per week was a little bit overwhelming, so I decided to pick three books at the beginning of the month and read them in the following four weeks.
I knew July was going to be a very busy month with the blog launch and there was still a book on my night table I wanted to finish so badly because it's a very good one. So I made the decision to start with this action item in August.

Here I am. It's the end of July, I finished that book on my night table and already picked three books I want to read in August. But this project wouldn't be an Andrea Project if there wasn't something crafty in it as well.
I want to keep track about what I read but didn't want to just write it down in one of my notebooks. So I made a 4x6inch minibook where I added a photo of the three books I'm about to read and at the end of the month I'll take the time to write down my experience with those books I picked.

Product sources: read more books card by Rachel, Made with Love Transparency designed by Nicole Reaves for Studio Calico, yes please Stamp from an older kit by Kelly Purkey.