Sunday Sundries: These Things Are Sent To Try Us...

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Well, another week, another stressful situation to add to my life. Please, please, my cup runneth over! But seriously- the week started off fine- I went to London a few days with my mum for her radiotherapy, plus I had a day of housewifely things, and then on Thursday all my plans were scuppered by tonsillitis! So I've had like 3 days basically just in bed, and I'm on antibiotics, but I'm sure I'll be fine.

And anyway, that's not even the stressful thing. Nope, because on Friday morning, my nan had a heart attack and now she's in hospital and I'm like 'well, like I didn't have enough to worry about!' And also, slightly less narcissistically, 'I hope she's ok!' But no really, it's been very worrisome and horrible, even though she has had a heart attack before, which, actually, I don't know if it makes it worse or better... Hmm. Either way, it's not very nice. And I really want to go and see her, but of course I've got tonsillitis, which doesn't really seem like a good illness to spread around people with weak hearts (well, no illness is really!) so instead I just have to sit at home and metaphorically bite my nails and stuff.

So... *tries to think of some positives from the week* Well, I made a schedule for the Grapes of Wrath Readalong, and... I know, I went to m&ms World in London because I'm a disgusting tourist, but actually because I really really like having exciting coloured m&ms because they taste better! (They do. Scientific fact.) And they've been very good for me what with being ill and needing large quantities of chocolate, so that's a positive. And also I've watched massive amounts of Daria which is never bad. But let's be brutally honest, this week kind of sucked. Obviously.

Which is why there's always a new week, and new chances for good things to happen. And this week, that good thing is going to MEET CAITLIN MORAN. Which is going to be awesome, even if at the moment I'm like 'I don't feeeel well, and my nan's in hospital, and my mum's having radiotherapyyyy' all of which is true, BUT I believe that come Thursday, I'll be able to put that aside for a few glorious hours and just be like CAITLIN I LOVE YOU, only perhaps not all in capitals because I don't want to scare the poor woman! Also in my near future, I believe, is a viewing of The Rescuers from the comfort of my bed because I was discussing it with Rainbow Rowell (!!! The excitement!) on twitter last night (or, ok, this morning) and daaaaymn, I forgot how good it is, and how much I like it! Caitlin and Disney? This coming week isn't going to be ALL bad!

Aaaaaand, it's time for my quarterly challenge update! (You knows I love doing this!) I'm actually kind of surprised at how well I'm doing, especially since I had a total challenge burnout earlier in the year- I guess that when I got rid of some books, I kind of wanted to keep doing it, or at least to have the opportunity to keep doing it by, you know, reading books I've had for a while! So, here goes the challenge update...

Quick little Stephen King update: I've read 15 of his books this year. Which I'm not deeming either good or bad, because I've got no time limits on that at all. But it's good to keep count, I think.

And also, a teeny Classics Club update: I've read 12 classics. Which is actually double what I had read in June, which surprises me because I kind of thought I'd... lost some of the mental stamina needed for classics of late. So that's a nice surprise!

And for the Back To The Classics challenge, I'm... Well, I've read 5. Which isn't great, BUT I'm part of the way through book 6, and I fully plan to read 2 more in October (The Grapes of Wrath is an absolute certainty) so if I read ALL of those in October, I'll only have one more. Look at me justifying myself to people who don't need it! How sweet.

This next one is really exciting- for the TBR Pile Challenge, I'm exactly where I should be! 9 books read, 3 to go! It kind of feels like I've been trying to catch up with that challenge all year, so this is my favourite stat-du-jour!

And then, for the Off The Shelf Challenge, I've read 22 books. Which I believe is probably about 3/4 of the way through, so yay for that!

It has to be said, I have the RIP Challenge to thank for most of this, since I've read what, 5 books for it already? And 4 is the top challenge? And I'm definitely not done yet? So much scary reading to do, just one more month to do it. But 3 more months to do all these challenges? Eaaaasy!