Goodreads Challenge 2014

Goodreads is probably my all time favorite website. I spend more time on it than on Facebook and twitter combined. I love taking quizzes and playing the never ending trivia game, writing and reading reviews, entering contests for free books, making friends and keep track of what I read and what I want to read in the future. My favorite feature of the website however, is their Reading Challenge.

Since joining Goodreads back in 2011 I have joined to book challenge. What is nice is that every individual sets their own goals, either by page number of book number. The previous two years I have set a goal of 100 books in a year. In 2012 I got close, only reading 98 (had I not gone out with my best friend for new years eve I would have for sure finished number 99 and possibly 100 if I didn’t do anything all day but read).

I ended 2013 by reading 107 books. Yes, I beat my goal! It wasn’t easy, I took a spring course in Scotland and I work two jobs (sometimes three when the photography season gets busy). So it can be difficult to read so much, but I prioritize reading about watching TV and sleeping.

Now that it is 2014, the time has come to see a new goal for books I plan on reading. Again, I plan on reading 100 books, but I know how crazy that might be. Working 17 + hour days has become semi normal for me, but books are important and I commit to reading nearly two books a week.

My Feelings On Ender's Game (non-summary)

Ender's Game is my all time favorite book. I have read it over 20 times cover to cover, plus own in on CD and I just recently purchased it on audible.com so I can listen to it in preparation for the movie coming out in less than a month. It would be difficult, very difficult to write a review without becoming emotional, in fact I don't think that I can. Ender's Game makes me smile, and at times cry hysterically no matter how many times I have read it.
The first time I read Ender's Game was New Years Eve in 2008. I had just gone to the Miley Cyrus MTV party and was at my best friends house waiting for midnight when I started reading it. I missed midnight, I missed the party, midnight kiss, ball dropping, everything. I was so engrossed in the story that I couldn't see or care about anything else. The next few weeks I spent reading the entire series, at least everything that was published at the time. I loved the series, but as someone who rereads books all the time I wasn't in a position to say it was my favorite book.
Ender's Game becoming by favorite book happened almost by accident. The next few years, it was always a book I recommended or gave as gifts to friends and family. When my brother was driving his car to college, a two day journey, I bought him the book on tape. Yes, I reread it a few times, and bought all the books in the series that had been published, but it wasn't until I was having a horrible christmas break in 2011 that I realized Ender's Game had gone from one of the best novels I had ever read, but it had become the best book I had ever read. I reread it two and a half times in less than a week, and whenever I was out of the house I put on my headphones and listened to the CD. Ender's Game had become my escape from being sad, and more than that I still wanted to read it when I was happy. It made bad days better, and when I was happy I want to read it to stay happy.
I think that Ender's Game is the most beautifully written novel in history, and I encourage everyone to read it. I will write an actual review on the book, shortly before the movie and then a comparison of the two as well.