My 2020 Reading Challenge - 10 Different Genres

For my 2020 reading challenge I want to try reading from a range of different genres. Especially genres I've never read. Such as romance or historical fiction. I suspect I'll stop enjoying reading soon if I keep this up! Haha :)

First up is Gothic Fiction. I picked up this book in a charity shop and enjoyed reading a mix of poetry and short stories. Some of the stories were great (some not so much) and they were really varied in content. My favourite was a story called The Gold Bug which was part detective, part pirate themed. Plus there was a skull :D

 

Second is Science Fiction. I have read some SF but not much and it's not one of my favourite genres. JD loved this book and when he found out I was doing this challenge he bought me a copy to read. I must admit it was a great book with very political themes. A study of capitalist versus socialist societies which describes people being dissatisfied living in both.

 

Third is Self Help Book. Again I've read some self help books before but mostly found that they have one idea and then seem to expand it to fill a book without adding much substance to the idea. This book was very different and somewhat blew my mind with it's detail, backed up my research facts and the span it covers. We're born as Intuitive Eaters but mess it up by dieting or trying to eat 'healthy'. I've learned so much from this book and I'm going to try put it into practise.

Fourth is Classic Novel. I have read widely in this genre but there's always room for more. This novel follows several generations of the Brangwen family experiencing love and sex in England during the early 1900s. It was banned and over 1000 copies were burned after it was taken to court in an obscenity trial in 1915. Must be worth a read for the that fact alone, haha! Spoiler: it wasn't :|

Fifth is Fairy Tales.Wow, this book is an excellent example of story telling done the right way. If all books about myths, history and other such traditionally boring subjects were written with such wit, humour and wisdom then I'd be a well read scholar indeed.

Sixth is humour. This genre can be a bit hit and miss as humour varies so much from person to person. I borrowed this book from my sister Sal though so it should be good. I was right, it was good but not that funny. Still an interesting, thought-provoking page turner.

Seventh is I'm not sure what. It's a book of essays (obviously) which could be classed as politics or philosophy, I guess.  I enjoyed reading his views on Patriotism and Wealth. Wallace Shawn has a great way with words.

Eighth is Thriller. More of a gory thriller than I'm used to and another loan from Sally. I hope it doesn't give me nightmares, ahah! Hmm turns out it wasn't that gory. Or well written. Not keen at all, I prefer a more competent detective not one who guesses and then ends up in danger. Well, you can't win them all.

Ninth is Religion. I don't think I've ever read a book on religion but my daughter Erin loaned me this book about Wicca to read so I'm going to. It was an interesting read, I especially enjoyed learning about the phases of the moon throughtout the year and how nature features strongly in Wicca.

Tenth is Poetry. This book was fantastic, such powerful poems each with heart, sadness and determination. I might consider reading more poetry books if I can find more like this!

It's been a weird year for reading so far. It's taken me much less time than I thought to read 10 different genre books. Due to the pandemic I've read quite a bit more than usual but I've also lost my source of cheap second hand books as the charity shops are all closed. I've had to borrow several books from family (luckily I borrowed from Sally before the lockdown) plus I've had to buy several brand new books. I've enjoyed having more time to read and I've liked reading more diversely too. I'm really looking forward to the library being open again from 4th July, I'll be heading there once it's safe to top up my to-read shelf.

I notice that I managed to avoid reading a book from the genre of romance even though I mentioned it in my intro! Maybe another year, haha!

Family Game Reviews - Traditional Games

We've been trying out some old fashioned games I used to play when I was a kid. We play a lot of video games together but I wanted to get back to basics playing some more simple games together from my childhood.

Marbles

I bought a set of marbles from ebay and we made a (not very circular) circle out of string on our living room floor. We each had a large marble and placed all the smaller marbles inside the circle. You have to take turns to flick your large marble at the marbles in the circle and hopefully knock a few out. You get to keep the marbles you win and the player with the most marbles at the end of the game wins. It's much harder than you'd think and it took us a while to get a good flicking technique going.

I quite enjoyed playing even though I wasn't very good and never won. It's a game that takes skill and practise to do well at. I remember playing marbles at primary school but not very much and I think I used to watch others playing it more often. Maybe if I'd joined in more often I would've easily beat my family at it.

Ratings: JD - 3, Emma - 3, Val - 1, Erin - 2  TOTAL 9

Pick-up Sticks

Another ebay purchase which was a nice little box full of pick-up sticks. You drop them onto the table and then take turns trying to pick them up without moving any other sticks. This takes skill, patience and eagle eyes from everyone playing. It's really tense to play when you're trying to slowly slide a stick out of a precarious position. It's a very simple game but really fun.

JD really enjoyed this one mostly I suspect because he's good at it. Like a pick-up stick ninja he's in and away with a stick before we see what's going on. Me and Erin got better at it as we played more and gave him more of a run for his money. We all enjoyed it more than I'd expected though and since it's quick to set up and play it's a handy one to keep on the game shelf near the dinner table for after dinner fun.

Ratings: JD - 5, Emma - 4, Val - 0, Erin - 3 TOTAL 12

Yahtzee

Yahtzee is one of my alltime fav games and I like to play it any time I can get someone to play it with me. JD got me this lovely Yahtzee board as a gift several years ago and I love it.

It was nice to have a game with everyone. JD's got a scoring app on his phone which we've been using since we ran out of scoring sheets a while ago. It's quite handy and does the adding up for you too. Which saves any dispute about bad maths!

Yahtzee is a quick game to set up and it doesn't take much more than 10-15 minutes to play depending on how many people play. Not everyone loves it as much as me but it's still the highest rated of the 4 games we played for this blog post.

Ratings: JD - 3, Emma - 5, Val - 2, Erin - 4 TOTAL 14

Dominoes

I also love a game of doms but it's not a love shared in my house. JD isn't keen on dominoes and is always slightly annoyed you can't add dominoes anywhere except the ends. Also everyone is displeased that doubles are placed differently. It's not my fault, I didn't make the rules. I just enforce them! Haha.

It's another game that takes hardly any set up and is quite quick to play. Simple but fun. We had a couple of games but I forgot to take a picture so this is a recreation with just me and JD.

Ratings: JD -1, Emma -4, Val - 1, Erin - 2 TOTAL 10

The results were that we all enjoyed Yahtzee the most and Marbles the least. But they were all quite entertaining for a bit of after dinner fun. I'm going to keep my eye open for other traditional games we can play.

Home-made Takeaways - Red Hot Noodle Bar

You might have noticed from previous posts that we love noodles! One of the places I wanted to take JD for a birthday treat recently was the Red Hot Noodle Bar in Leeds. You get a box of noodles and can choose 3 of the several toppings they do. Chicken dishes, beef dishes, veg dishes and tofu dishes. We've walked past a few times but never actually gone in yet.

Now with the lockdown and all the restaurants closed, we can't. So the only thing to do is make it at home. So I sorted out 3 recipes for 3 of the toppings they do and ambitiously tried to make all 3 plus some noodles.

Luckily JD was on hand to help out make his own birthday treat because it was a flurry of chopping, stirring and wishing we had several more pans. I bought some white card noodle boxes on ebay to make it more authentic.

And this is the result of our frenzied cooking and feeling like we worked in a Chinese Takeaway.

Here's what we made:

Chicken with Black Bean sauce

Korean BBQ Chicken

Salt & Pepper Chicken

It was all pretty delicious on top of noodles with a splash of soy sauce and some vegetable spring rolls. There was plenty leftovers for lunch the next day too.

We enjoyed our home-made noodle takeaway and it'll be nice to visit the Red Hot Noodle Bar to compare when it opens again in the future!

OhBurger! 36: The Cheese Toastie Burger

I was keen to try this one as soon as I knew it was a thing! A cheese toastie (or grilled cheese as they call it in America) is a popular lunch/snack in our house so this was sure to be a winner with us. I had a stroke of genius and decided to use milk roll as the bread for the toasties because it's the perfect size and shape. Well, not exactly perfect, it's a bit nobbly but close enough.

So easy to make this one, you just simultaneously cook your burgers (I opted for oven baked burgers this time as the hob was a bit busy) and grilled cheeses at the same time and then bring them together in glory!

Dress your burger with whatever trimmings you enjoy. I just had spinach and barbecue sauce since there was already plenty of cheese in the equation but go with your gut, no judging here.

We really liked this one! The textures were all amazing, the crunchy toastie, the meaty burger and the gooey cheese. The tastes weren't too shabby either, they went so well together. Give this one a try, seriously!

Ratings: JD - 3, Emma - 4, Erin - 4