Stickers on newly-bought books bother me. You know, the ones that tell you the price of the book or what percentage you got off and what a great deal it was. I always take those stickers off as soon as I get home (unless they're difficult to get off, but that's another Soapbox post for another time.). Only then does it feel like the book is owned.

Towards the end of last year, I borrowed two books to read for my book club - The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt and Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. I borrowed them from fellow members of my book club who had finished reading them early. That was awfully nice of them, saving me from spending $40 to buy the books myself.

But these books still had the stickers on them. Ahh!

It's hard to explain just how much that drove me crazy. How many times I thought about peeling the stickers off. How often I wondered if they would even notice that the stickers were gone. How many times I debated asking them if I could take the stickers off - but then didn't, for fear they would think I was crazy. I ultimately returned the books in the condition I got them, stickers and all.

So am I crazy? Am I the only one bothered by stickers on books? Or are there fellow sticker-haters out there?

This is one of my favorite reading challenges! (Okay, I say that about a lot of challenges, but it really is true for this one.) The Alphabet Soup Challenge is hosted by Escape with Dollycas Into a Good Book. You need to read books whose titles start with each letter of the alphabet. Some letters are obviously trickier than others (X is nearly impossible), but that's part of the fun of it! I already have my Q book picked out for this year, and I'm keeping my eyes open for some of the other tricky letters.

And to go right along with Alphabet Soup, there is the Authors A to Z Challenge, hosted by Samantha Lin. This time, it's the author's last name that counts. I participated in a challenge like this a couple of years ago, and I had a great time scouring the library shelves to find authors for the last few letters I needed. I'm looking forward to doing so again!

The Chunkster Challenge is a challenge about long books. A chunkster needs to be at least 450 pages long. One of the things I like about this challenge is that you can pick your own level. Last year I aimed for 8 and ended up reading 14 (that was mostly because I reread all of Harry Potter, though). This year, my goal is five officially, although I'm unofficially aiming for 10. We'll see how it goes!

So did anyone participate in National Readathon Day this weekend? If possible, you were supposed to read from 12 to 4 p.m. on Saturday. I was working on report cards most of the day, but I was able to join in for the last hour or so. I like the idea of the whole country sitting down and reading for an afternoon. I'm sure it didn't happen quite like that, but hey, it's only the first year! :)

Sign-Up Posts for Victorian Bingo, Reading England, Around the World in 12 Books & European Reading Challenges
Never Look a Polar Bear in the Eye by Zac Unger - Review
Saturday Snapshot - Our Trip to Florida (including Harry Potter World!)

A Passion Redeemed by Julie Lessman (I didn't like it as well as the first book in the series, but it was still a great read. Such a twisty plot!)
Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen (It goes without saying that I loved this book!)

Balance: A Story of Faith, Family, and Life on the Line by Nik Wallenda (This guy is crazy. I don't know how he does it, but it's fascinating to read about! And I love the way he constantly brings up his faith in God.)

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (I don't know why, but I've been in the mood to reread this one lately.)

My husband and I had the opportunity to travel to Florida over New Year's to visit friends. 

We spent some time wandering through Lettuce Lake Park, which had a boardwalk around a lake. It was so beautiful (and wonderfully warm, after December in Michigan!). We also made a friend - everyone should see an alligator on their first day in Florida!

We spent New Year's Day at Universal Studios. And we headed straight for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. We saw the part of the park that had Hogsmeade and Hogwarts. It was amazing!

The Three Broomsticks, where you had to enjoy a butterbeer!

Polar bears are my favorite animal, an obsession I think began with the first stuffed animal I received as a baby. I have polar bear calendars and paintings and glass statues. In my opinion, there’s no point in visiting a zoo if they don’t have polar bears. So when I saw the title of this book on the library shelf, I snatched it up immediately.

It was different than I expected, but I wasn’t disappointed in any way. The subtitle is “A family field trip to the Arctic’s Edge in search of adventure, truth, and mini-marshmallows.” The author and his family moved to Churchill, Manitoba for several months one fall (prime polar bear viewing season). So I figured the focus of the book would be on their trials and discoveries as a family. Instead, the focus of the book was on polar bears and the effects of global warming. There are currently two camps of scientists who have rather different opinions of the direness of the situation for polar bears. Unger explores both of these theories in depth, as well as introducing us to the big players in the polar bear tourism industry. It was a more scientific book than I was expecting, but that didn’t make it any less interesting.

That being said, this book probably isn’t for everyone. If you have no interest in polar bears or couldn’t care less about global warming, then you would most likely be bored reading this book. It’s more science than family field trip. But if either of those areas strikes your fancy, you should definitely give Unger’s book a try. It provides insight into this scientific field in an extremely accessible and occasionally humorous way.

Find it on: Goodreads  |  Amazon  |  Better World Books

I love bingo challenges! And the Victorian Reading Challenge, hosted by Becky's Book Reviews, is right up my alley. Victorian Lit was one of my absolute favorite classes in college (I was an English minor, so there were plenty of literature classes to choose from). Despite my Classics Club list, I haven't been reading nearly as many classics as I'd like. This challenge seems like a good remedy for that! Here's the bingo card. You need to get a bingo going horizontally, vertically, diagonally, or all four corners plus the center.

To go hand-in-hand with that, I'm also signing up for the Reading England challenge hosted by Behold the Stars. Just over 25% of the books I read last year were set in the UK. And that wasn't even intentional! The point of this challenge is to read books set in the different counties of England. I'm signing up for Level Two, which is 4 - 6 counties. I'm hoping to go over that, but I'll set my sights realistically to begin with.

And continuing with the theme, I'm signing up for the European Reading Challenge hosted by Rose City Reader. (Really I think I'm just a sucker for challenges that involve maps in the background. :) This is my third year participating in this challenge, and I always enjoy it. I read a lot of books set in the UK, France, and Italy. I'm signing up for the Five Star (Deluxe Entourage) level, which means I need to read 5 books. And since they need to be set in different countries, I'm hoping that will get me into some of the other European countries I don't visit as often.

And now to move outside of Europe. . . I definitely need this challenge in my reading life. Around the World in 12 Books is hosted by Giraffe Days. I'm signing up for the Seasoned Traveller level, which means I need to read 12 books altogether, each one set in a different country. I also need to make sure I read a book set in each of the continents as part of my total of 12 books. I really enjoyed this challenge last year because it definitely took me outside of my reading comfort zone. We all need that every once in awhile!

January is moving right along, isn't it? Can you believe we're nearly two-thirds of the way through? I don't know what the weather is like where you live, but I'm a bit disappointed in ours. What happened to this dire winter they were predicting? Most of our snow melted on Saturday! I'm not a fan of cold, but I am of snow - so if it's going to be cold outside, it had better be snowing! :)

Signing Up For - Hard Core Re-reading, What's in a Name?, and Color Coded Reading Challenges
Shiver Language in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Pick a Shelf Results (Thanks for your help!)
Bloggiesta Updates (Still plugging away at this list, hoping to get a couple more things crossed off before the end of the day.)

Pat of Silver Bush by L.M. Montgomery

Mistress Pat by L.M. Montgomery (Sense a theme? ;)

A Passion Redeemed by Julie Lessman (I read the first book of this series over the summer, and I absolutely loved it. I couldn't resist picking up the next one at the library, even though I should be reading books off my own shelves now!)

It's Bloggiesta time! Here is my official to-do list. I'll check stuff off as I get it accomplished. Let the bloggy-ness begin!

- Catch up with posting reviews on Goodreads (Didn't do this at all. Whoops.)
- Clean up my email inbox (Complete!)
- Add my list of Newbery winners I've read (In process. There are a lot of Newbery winners to type into a list!)
- Catch up on writing reviews (thus far, I have three to write) (Four written - Complete!)
- Prepare my blog posts for next week (Complete!)
- Update my 2015 reading challenge page (Complete!)

I was more productive than I thought I would be, considering that my weekend was pretty busy. I had fun as always, and that's what matters!

Last week, I declared my intention to read more of my own books this year. And I asked for your help in picking a shelf to read from. Well, the results are in! The winning shelf is:

It's my plan to have those books read by June 30. And then you can help me pick a new shelf so I can keep going. :) Thanks for your help in picking my next reads!