The journey of a thousand miles…July

…starts with a single step. In this pedometer geek’s quest (actually more of a in-solidarity-with challenge through a friend, Cally C of Great Britain) of walking a thousand miles in a year, an added dimension was added in July. In addition to putting the usual steps on the pedometer, this pedometer geek decided to participate in the Million Mile Month organization’s Triathlon in a Month by setting a goal of one hundred miles through various activities including walking.

This pedometer geek was successful in the Triathlon, achieving more than a hundred miles (~ 111 miles) by walking (~ 93 miles) and biking (~17 miles) respectively. There were a few miles (based on minutes) logged under gardening, but they were inconsequential to the total. However, because of the biking, fewer steps were logged than normal, or so it is hypothesized by this walker. Only 246,035 steps were recorded on the pedometer during the month, and only 52,486 of them were aerobic steps, both of which were lower totals than in the previous months. The goal of 10,000 or more steps was only accmplished on eight days. Toward the goal of thousand miles, another 92.94 miles were ticked off leaving 346.12 miles to complete with five months to go.

In other challenges, the two Bookcrossing.com challenges in which this pedometer geek participates had mixed results as well. First, in the SIY (set-it-yourself) challenge, another quarter began, and fifteen books were chosen to read during this time frame despite falling short of last quarter’s SIY reading goal. Two of the books were left over from the previous quarter’s list and they were added to the thirteen chosen. Only two of the fifteen have been read so far, making reading more focused in August and September if the other thirteen are to be completed.

In the other Bookcrossing.com challenge, the pages-read challenge, good progress was made. Of the 40,000 pages to be read over the course of the year, another 3,950 pages were read bringing the total to 28,424 pages read. This equates to about 71% complete.

During the month of July, eleven books, one novella, and eight short stories were read. Various genres were read including historical fiction, suspense, romance, mainstream fiction, and urban fantasy.  Four (or should it be five?) of the authors were new to this reader. All but three books were read in an e-book format. Does that mean that this reader has forsaken print books? Absolutely not, but many of them were more quickly obtained through the library’s e-media center than the regular library site, and this reader was caught up in a series.

In July, the following books, novella, and short stories were read:

The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict

Cooking for Picasso by Camille Aubray  *

Poison Promise by Jennifer Estep

Black Widow by Jennifer Estep

Fates and Traitors by Jennifer Chiaverini  *

Blessings by Anna Quindlen

Spider’s Trap by Jennifer Estep

The Look of Love by Bella Andre

Bitter Bite by Jennifer Estep

Unwanted (novella) by Jennifer Estep

Unraveled by Jennifer Estep

8 Elemental Assassin short stories by Jennifer Estep  **

The Good Widow by Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke

Unlike most months, there is less diverse reading material than normal. Frankly, this reader spent most of my reading time reading from the Elemental Assassin urban fantasy series by Jennifer Estep. ** This included reading free short stories of the characters from her website, http://www.jenniferestep.com. More about this series will be posted on this reader’s review site, http://www.pedometergeek.wordpress.com, after completion of the last novella and the most current book in the series, Snared, but I digress. Suffice it to say, I love escaping in this author’s works and never thought that I would get so hooked on the urban fantasy genre.

As for the other books read, two of the novels were historical novels. Jennifer Chiaverini’s Fates and Traitors was a novel about John Wilkes Booth and four women who were close to him and thus, knew him well. Well researched, it told his story, fleshing out the man who killed Lincoln.

The other historical novel, Marie Benedict’s The Other Einstein, featured Maria, the first wife of Albert Einstein, who was as brilliant as Einstein himself. In fact, based on the novel, she may have been the one who came up with many of his breakthroughs including the Theory of Relativity while he found ways to take all the credit himself.

Bella Andre’s novel, The Look of Love,  is a contemporary romance. The Good Widow, co-authored by Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke, is a suspense-thriller; and Blessings is a mainstream novel of the redemptive power of an abandoned baby and the people who take her into their family. Cooking for Picasso by Camille Aubray is also a mainstream novel, but won’t be discussed here as it was reviewed on http://www.pedometergeek.wordpress.com so check it there.

That’s it for now; suggestions on books are always welcomed. SIY books are asterisked.