The Reading Challenge: September 2018 - September 2019

It won't come as a surprise to you all that I didn't manage to complete my reading challenge. It was very definitely challenging, and once I fell behind on the blog posts, I really felt like I fell behind in the reading. Without the blog posts keeping me accountable to my own challenge, I really sucked at sticking to it! 

The challenge also opened my eyes to what books I find easy to read. I went into the challenge thinking that I could read any book, be that factual, or fiction and do absolutely fine. But I was suddenly more aware of writing styles and the types of words used. I realised that what worked for me was more of a narrative, then a factual style of writing, and that using words that are more complex and unusual tend to make a book a lot harder for me to read. This in itself is not going to stop me from reading any book in particular, but at least I will now know what books I am more likely to struggle with. 

So let us take the list down from the wall and have a look at what I have actually managed in the last year. So the list tells me that I started to read a total of 17 books in the last year. Which personally I don't think is too bad. As a self confessed bookworm however I would like that number to be higher, but this girl also has hobbies! 

I specifically say "started to read" because there were a couple of books that I started, and didn't finish. These books I may well go back to at some point, but the challenge seemed to give me a reason to put down a book that I wasn't enjoying, or really making much progress through, which I think is what is to be said for the three unfinished on this list. There was a thought in the back of my mind for many years about reading books, that once I had started to read a book, I then had to finish it. I mostly stuck to that rule for many years, only once or twice putting a book down that I really didn't enjoy (or got rather angry with the main character - The Paper Magician I'm looking at you!), but during this challenge it became clear to me that really I am just wasting my time that could be spent reading and enjoying the books I love. 

So we take out the three books that I never made it to the end of and we are left with fourteen books read from cover to cover. Not too bad if I say so myself. Looking at the titles they are a delightful mix of genres, we have a couple of autobiographies, fiction and nonfiction. I have to say that I did enjoy every one of them, and it did feel good to get some of the books on my shelves read. I still seem to have a somewhat shameful amount of unread books on my shelves and I keep buying more - help! 

I feel that it is only fair to share with you the list of the books I managed to read, and mostly in the order that I read them in. Although I did start some before I finished the ones before it (shhh no one needs to know!) and I will include the ones I didn't make it all the way thorough, and maybe you'll see something there you might want to pick up yourself. The first few you will recognise if you have seen some of my previous reading challenge posts, where I have written a little bit about them.

The List: 

1 - The Tales of Beedle the Bard, JK Rowling

2 - Handbook for Railway Steam Locomotive Enginemen

3 - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, JK Rowling

4 - Mrs Bradshaw's Handbook, Terry Pratchett

5 - Worms to Catch, Guy Martin

6 - Fantastic Beast and Where to Find Them, JK Rowling

7 - First Light, Geoffrey Wellum

8 - Giants of Steam, Jonathan Glancey (Unfinished)

9 - We Need to Weaken the Mixture, Guy Martin

10 - Death on the Nile, Agatha Christie

11 - Underground, Overground, Emily Kearns

12 - Girl Up, Laura Bates

13 - Felix the Railway Cat, Kate Moore

14 - Crimes of Grindelwald, JK Rowling

15 - Love at First Stitch,  Tilly Walnes

16 - The Craft of Handspinning, Eileen Chadwick (unfinished)

17 - Empire of the Clouds, James Hamilton-Paterson (unfinished)

I really did enjoy the challenge I set for myself, or what I did of it at least, and I have decided that I am going to try again. I am thinking of starting on the 1st of January, a slightly more typical date for year long challenges, and I will probably reduce the amount of books to see if I can still reach that goal. Perhaps if I manage to reach a goal of say 20 or 15 then I can ramp it up and maybe another year I will complete 25 books. 

I am also hoping to be back a little more regularly with blog posts (I know I say it every time but I am trying!) and perhaps bring you more information on my sewing projects as well as a couple of book reviews and things I have been reading. 

I hope you have enjoyed this and continue to enjoy reading my blog. Until next time, all the best. xx

The Reading Challenge Books 4-6

I have been rather lax in my blog post writing recently. But I am hoping to change that. At least I am here writing now!

I intend to write a blog post about the books I read throughout this challenge and I'm going to do them three books at a time. I am currently reading book number nine, but this post will talk about books four to six. If you want to catch up on the post explaining why I am starting and the challenge itself you can find it here along with my thoughts on the first three books I read:

- The Tales of Beedle the Bard
- Handbook for Railway Steam Locomotive Enginemen
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

The books I am reading are rather varied, and are not all planned out in advance. Part of me wants to plan it all out and would feel rather smug having done so, but I am also aware that I usually want to read something on a whim and having to stick to a years worth of books that I planned out one september would also drive me insane. So I didn't. I did however try to to keep track of the dates that I started and finished each book and where that meant I was in terms of progress. This I have semi-successfully managed. By that I mean that I have written down the dates I have finished each book, but may have forgotten it for some of them. I really hope it won't be too much of a problem.

The third book of the challenge was Mrs Bradshaw's Handbook by Terry Pratchett. I started this book on the 19th September 2018, and finished it on 26th of the same month. So it didn't take me too long to read. I do most of my reading at work in my lunch and tea breaks, so there are periods of time on my off shift where I don't really read. I should change that, it might make the challenge go quicker!

The book itself takes on the role of the Bradshaw's railway guide, but based in Terry Pratchett's discworld. It has little snippets of all of the characters and places from his discworld series and is rather funny in doing so, like most Pratchett. It was a joy to read and I found it funny and entertaining. I very much enjoyed this read and once it was finished, like always there was a small tinge of sadness at having to start a new book.

The next book was not a fiction book but part of an autobiography series. I say a series, because this author wrote an autobiography and then continued to write another three books after. I read Worms to Catch by Guy Martin. This is the third book he has written, covering more or less a year out of his life. Which in itself was crazy and entertaining.

I started this book on the evening of the 26th September and it was finished by the 11th October 2018. 16 days, cover to cover. Seeing as the goal was one book every two weeks this one took slightly longer than was needed. But I think I still have plenty of time, I'll work it out at the end.
I loved reading this book. It gave me insight into what went into Guy Martin's TV programs and his writing style is one that doesn't take any sh*t, is real and down to earth. Which I get on with. I find fancy words and big long sentences difficult to deal with. This is just real. I like it (so much so that you will see I read another Guy Martin book later on).

For the sixth book, I went for something small and silly. It was the book Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them - not the screenplay of the film (I've already read that) but the Hogwarts Library edition of the book that was written by JK Rowling to raise funds for one of her charities. I loved to immerse myself some more in the wonderful world that JK Rowling had created. It's a charming and silly little book and the kind that I could sit down and read in a day or two with no trouble at all. Which I expect is what I did, but as I forgot to write down when I finished it, I'm not to sure at all... Oh poo.

So let's work out if I'm on track with the challenge so far. Up to the 11th of October 2018, we know I have read five books. We're a fifth of the way through the challenge, yay! Going by our one book every two weeks quota, starting on the 1st September I should have read three books. We are doing well! I don't feel quite so bad having taken the time to read Worms to Catch. I am enjoying how this challenge is turning out. It feels good to have a goal in mind when reading books, and it acts as some gentle encouragement to pick up another book after I have put one down.

I didn't do much recreational reading when I was at college, as I was so focused on my studies that I was revising most of the time, and when I was wasn't I wanted to do one of my other 50 hobbies I seem to have collected. (Hobby Collector is now a thing okay.) Having finished my degree and starting my new job in August, I felt that I didn't want to lose the regularity of reading. I don't know if that was a conscious or unconscious feeling, but it manifested itself as a challenge to myself.

Looking at my progress so far in the challenge, (I have read a few more then just six when I am writing this, but you will hear about them in due course) I am pleased with the amount I have read. I feel a huge sense of achievement in having read so much, and there are happy memories connected with each and every book. I'm excited to keep going, and I am excited to keep learning new things.

So I will be back soon enough with the next three on my list.

The Reading Challenge

It is rather obvious that I have been quite quiet recently on my blog here, and with the start of my podcast, it has really been left behind. The podcast has taken over the purpose of the blog, and recently I have been posting shownotes for the podcast and links, and not much of anything else.

My plan from now is to change that. I will still have my podcast, (I am enjoying it a lot, and it feels a lot better way to show you what I am up to) but I intend to post more in-depth notes on each podcast and project within it on here, and only the minimum on Youtube. I may even include the in depth notes on Ravelry too for you who are on there - if you are find the podcast page under the pages tab and search for the Lemmon Juicer Podcast.

What I intend to do for this blog now is to create some posts that are more discussions on what I have been getting up to, still focused on making and crafting, but less of the "I made this" and more of the "This is what I think and enjoy". I really hope that this is more interesting to you and will mean that there is more content on this blog that you will enjoy to read.

So I am going to start off with something that I have started that isn't really a making project, but it's a challenge I have set myself that I wish to share with you.

I have challenged myself to read 25 books in a year. Now that may not seem like a lot, and I am aware that usually the challenge is 100 books. But I'm starting small and keeping my goal something that I think I can achieve, because there is nothing more disheartening then an insurmountable challenge where you are only going to be disappointed in the end. Maybe, if I ace this challenge then we can work up to 100 books. But only time will tell.

The other interesting thing about this is the fact that I have not started this at the beginning of the year. I started my challenge on the 1st of September. I did think about this a little bit. I have only just finished my education and I am now working for a living (and loving it), and as almost a last goodbye to starting the year in September, I thought that it was a nice time to start a challenge.

As it was around the end of August that I was dreaming about keeping track of how many books I read in a year, I realised that I would read more books if I had an incentive to read more. I read for pleasure, and I love to read. But if there are other things that need doing, then I won't read. I have gone months not reading a single book because there are other seemingly more important things that need doing. This now gives me a reason to sit down and read, and something that I need to set aside some time for - and I love it.

The very last reason I decided to start in September, was the thinking that we spend a lot of our time waiting for the beginning of the year to make new goals and set ourselves challenges and resolutions for the new year. Whilst for some things that is the best way of doing them (I have a few things waiting for then) occasionally we put off doing things until the 1st January and they are forgotten, or the passion and drive for them is forgotten or dwindles. So, I grabbed the passion I had, and the motivation, and I picked the 1st of the month as a new start and I went for it. I probably never would have if I didn't.

It is important to remember that it doesn't really matter where you start your year from as long as you have the motivation and that it is a good time for you. I feel that now is a better time than any!

The very first thing I did towards this challenge was to create a way of keeping track of my reading. I decided that I would record the book I had read and when I finished it. I could have included a lot more information, but for now, this will do. Then it was a case of deciding how to track it, I have a bullet journal, and I am a visual person, I like to be able to see things and if I can see my progress then that will keep me motivated and on track. So. I decided that instead of having a bullet journal page dedicated to the challenge, I would make a chart on an A4 piece of paper, and I would put it up next to my bookshelf.

Whilst I love my bullet journal for keeping me on track and including whatever I feel like putting in there, I do tend to forget about things that I keep in it. The problem is that I can shut the journal. I close the cover and then I can't see it, so it gets forgotten. I struggle with my habit trackers, because they are not always on the same page that my weekly is on, so I forget it's there and don't fill it in. The wall chart for the books was to keep it in the front of my mind and keep me focused. So far it is working.

My boyfriend made a rough calculation for me and said that I would have to read about one book every two weeks to keep on track. That figure was initially quite worrying. I didn't know if I could do that and wandered if I had set myself up to fail. But I came around to the thinking that there wasn't really any point of an easy challenge. If it was easy, then it wasn't really a challenge, right?  So with this in mind, I pencilled lightly into my chart the theoretical two week "Due By" date of each book. This should keep me on track.

The first book I decided to read was The Tales of Beedle the Bard, by JK Rowling. One of the three small charity books she wrote as part of her bigger Harry Potter series, and a book that features in the books. Now I love Harry Potter and I loved the childish part of me that was satisfied when reading that book. What is great about it, is that after every one of the tails, there is a section explaining the moral of each story and how it shaped the wizarding world, as well as the variations of the stories that were told throughout the ages reflecting what life was like then for the wizarding children who read them.

I read this first book in two days. It's a small but loveable book. It was then I realised that, whilst the mathematical calculation was one book every two weeks, what it really depended on was the size of each book. I could read The Tales of Beedle the Bard 25 times over in 50 days. But that is not the point. I suddenly became less anxious of the challenge I set myself, realising that I could effectively "borrow" leftover time from other books, to read the bigger books. So I was proud of myself already, feeling ahead of the game, and now choosing the next book to read.

I decided on variety and chose to read a book that was most common in the era of steam railways.  The British Transport Commission, which oversaw the railways when they were nationalised from the big four companies into British Railways released a book as a guide for all its locomotive staff. Called the Handbook For Railway Steam Locomotive Enginemen.

Now I volunteer on a steam railway and am involved in the firing and running of steam engines, and this book was given to me to give me more of an understanding into steam engines, and to help fuel that curiosity I had about how they worked and the best ways to operate them. It's been on a bookshelf waiting to be read for a little while, so it was the next book to read.

This book, being a little bit bigger than the first one, did take longer to read. It was also the end of the off shift and I was back in work again. So it got a good reading every break and lunch time. I really did enjoy reading it, and it was useful to begin to understand some of the intricate workings of the different types of valve gear and braking systems that are in use, or rather were in use.

Whilst I enjoyed the book, I did struggle a little bit. I'm not particularly good at reading reference or non-fiction books. Books that do not have an easy to follow plot I find difficult to read and that might be partially down to dyslexia. But I was very proud of myself when I got through this book with 8 days to spare. That means another 8 days I can spend on the next book if I need to right? This was a real boost to my motivation, and I decided to re-read a book for the next one.

This year is the 20th anniversary of the second Harry Potter book, and for my birthday my lovely best friend got me the Hufflepuff edition of the book. Having finished the last book on the train home from the Warner Bro's studio having seen The Making of Harry Potter exhibition, I really wanted to start this book. I am currently still reading it and have made considerable progress in the past few days. I have been taking it to work and have been managing almost a chapter per break time. So that is almost a guaranteed three chapters a day. This and the fact that I love the stories is helping me fly through the book.

Once I've got this one down, I'll be back to excitedly choosing the fourth book. I'm not sure what sort of book I am going to go for. I have plenty of books that need reading and am on a little bit of a book buying ban as I really need to get through some. But there are a few old favourites that are poking their heads up wanting to be read again.

What is your favourite book? Or your favourite books? Any recommendations? Or would you like to join me in trying to read 25, or maybe more books in a year?

Buzz Buzz - My Sonic Spanner

My love for Doctor Who is known among

my close friends. So recently when looking for something to do with my BBC Microbit, I came across a Doctor Who Challenge on the BBC website. It was a great challenge aimed at young people, but great fun for the young at heart! 

One part of the challenge is to build a sonic device, and it can be ANYTHING! Which leaves a massive margin for creativity, but being the engineer I wanted mine to also be functional, and opted for the trusty adjustable spanner (I never use adjustables unless I really have to, so it was just laying around). 

I got designing, and using a bit of cardboard left over from some packaging I made somewhere to be able to attach the bits and pieces of the sonic spanner, to the actual spanner, which I did using bluetack (for every single bit). 

For the sonic spanner, you need a battery pack, (unless you want to be tethered to a computer - not a good idea!) a buzzer and a spanner. 

My buzzer is a piezo buzzer and I did have a right old time finding out that I couldn't control it digitally, and finding out that an analogue output was only as difficult as changing "write_digital" to "write_analog". I felt like an idiot for a bit...

One of the requirements for your sonic device (as well as buzzing) is to show a picture of the TARDIS on the LEDs on the Microbit. This took a little bit of designing, mine is a simple outline of a TARDIS, that I drew by lighting up individual LEDs and defining them as an image and naming it TARDIS. But I am sure if the mood took you, you could create any image you wanted. 

As there isn't really any guidance on how to get the sonic spanner working, it really is left to you as to what language to use and how you go about doing it. If you know about the Microbit, you will know that there is a few different languages you can use, some are harder than others and require a different way of thinking. I prefer to programme in Micropython. I've included a picture of my code at the end of this post, I hope it is useful to anyone who needs it.

The end product I made I got very very excited about. After having struggled to figure out what to do with my buzzer, (and finding out the answer was simple!) I felt quite proud of it. Now to go buzz at some cupboards..!