Mel's Random July 2012

July is over and if there is one thing you can't escape if you're living or working in London at the moment - the Olympics are here! The build up over the last seven years has been impressive and even those who were a little bah, humbug when we first won the games seem to have been won over. I was actually lucky enough to get tickets to the rowing in Windsor which I will be heading too tomorrow!
Before that though we had over two months of the Olympic torch touring the UK  - and it went past the end of my road! Of course I couldn't resist any excuse for a party and took the day off and invited everyone I know to celebrate with me. I was amazed at how many people turned out and what good spirits everyone was in! Plus it was the start of the good weather and the sun was shining...

Unfortunately I had the horrible choice of whether to watch the torch through my camera while trying to snap a picture, or see it with my eyes. I saw it with my eyes, but I managed to snap a quick just before it passed -

The guys in grey are security, but the torch is just behind...

So what impact did this have on my reading?

Books
The Dead (The Enemy #2) - Charlie Higson (British Books Challenge)
Deceived By The Others (H&W Investigations #3) - Jess Haines (TBR Pile Reading Challenge)
Join Me - Danny Wallace (British Books Challenge & TBR Pile Reading Challenge)
The Fear (The Enemy #3) - Charlie Higson (British Books Challenge)
The Queen's Secret - Victoria Lamb (British Books Challenge)
Evil Thirst (Last Vampire #5) - Christopher Pike
Creatures of Forever (Last Vampire #6) - Christopher Pike

EBooks
The Wake of the Bloody Angel - Alex Bledsoe
1.4 - Mike Lancaster (British Books Challenge)
The Unspoken (Krewe of Hunters #7) - Heather Graham
Blade Song - JC Daniels
Bright Young Things - Anna Godbersen (TBR Pile Reading Challenge)

Audio-Books
Real Murders - Charlaine Harris
The Ancient Future - Traci Harding

Sarah's Reviews
Shards of Honour - Lois McMaster Bujold
Moon Called (Mercy Thompson #1) - Patricia Briggs

Regular Posts
Same Book/Different Cover looked at Graceling by Kristin Cashore 
I also decided to go on a book buying ban - partly to save money and partly because the physical books are about to overwhelm the flat! My Book confession explains more...
In addition there were the usual wishlist posts, in my mailbox and Throwback Thursdays.

So updating the challenges -
British Books Challenge - 22 Read
2012 TBR Reading Pile Challenge - 28 Read



Best of the Bunch: I was a bit of a British book roll this month and the best by far was The Fear by Charlie Higson


Honourable Mentions: The Dead, Blade Song and 1.4 were all fantastic reads as well!