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My Really, Real Reading Challenge

Anything in bold and with an " * " is a work in progress...

A book with more than 500 pages � The Paying Guests

A classic romance � Wuthering Heights

A book that became a movie �A Room with a View

A book published this year (2015) � The Miniaturist

A book with a number in the title � Among the Ten Thousand Things

A book written by someone under 30 �A Constellation of Vital Phenomena

A book with nonhuman characters � The Sage of Waterloo: A Tale

A funny book - What a Carve Up!

A book by a female author � Love and Treasure

A mystery or thriller � Tell No One

A book with a one-word title - Redeployment

A book of short stories � The UnAmericans: Stories

A book set in a different country � The Betrayers: A Novel

A nonfiction book � The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra

A popular author's first book � Catch-22

A book from an author you love that you haven't read yet � South of the Border, West of the Sun

A book a friend recommended � Hello, Hollywood

A Pulitzer Prize winning book � The Goldfinch

A book based on a true story � Christ Stopped at Eboli: The Story of a Year

A book at the bottom of your to-read list � Good in Bed

A book your mom (friend) loves � The Girl on the Train

A book that scares you - Aquarium

A book more than 100 years old � The Death of Ivan Ilych

A book based entirely on it's cover � All the Birds, Singing

A book you were supposed to read in school but didn't � The Winter of Our Discontent

A memoir � Autobiography

A book you can finish in a day - Silk

A book with antonyms in the title � Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay

A book set somewhere you've always wanted to visit � Scenes from Village Life

A book that came out the year you were born � The Group

A book with bad reviews � Pazzo weekend

A trilogy - #1 - The Golden Compass
#2 - The Subtle Knife
#3 - The Amber Spyglass *

A book from your childhood � Black Beauty

A book with a love triangle - Euphoria

A book set in the future � Find Me

A book set in high school � Normal People Don't Live Like This

A book with a color in the title � Black River

A book that made you cry � Fully Alive: Discovering What Matters Most

A book with magic � The Ocean at the End of the Lane

A graphic novel - Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood

A book by an author you've never read before � The Interestings

A book you own but have never read -Kim

A book that takes place in your hometown � The Flamethrowers

A book that was originally written in a different language � If on a Winter's Night a Traveler

A book set during Christmas � A Christmas Carol

A book written by an author with your same initials � SJ Day � Eve of Darkness

A play � Romeo and Juliet

A banned book � The Satanic Verses

A book based on or turned into a TV Show � Tender Is the Night

A book you started but never finished - Redwall

I just changed Station Eleven to Among the Ten Thousand Things for the "book with a number in the title" category. Need to read something from modern times after wrestling with an antique, 1963's The Group, for so long!

Sigh. Just got this at a book fair. Now I'm worried.

Don't be! Have you read the reviews?! Most people gave it 4 or 5 stars and wrote large, glowing reviews on the novel. I feel like a weirdo - I've seen only 1 or 2 unfavorable reviews to date. It was just too distracting for me, but you might not find it so. It really was quite an absorbing story - you should give it a try, at least.

Egads! I still have 14 books to go and they are whoppers: Moby-Dick, Wuthering Heights, Catch-22, the 3 trilogy books (I hate reading the same "theme" back-to-back), Shakespeare, to name but a few.

I'm a tad afraid I will drop the challenge (like 3rd period French) in the homestretch in favor of picking up the last of the Neapolitan novels that I am so dying to read! Help!

Can you work them into any of the weeks by switching out books? Or into the 2016 challenge? Maybe if you know you'll be reading them soon then you can resist temptation ;)

I'll try. Thanks, Laura.

Tonight I got very caught up in planning books for next year's challenge...that is so fun to do!

For a couple of categories, I'm stuck - like on the "between the numbers" series, the next book in a series you are reading and the first book in a new series. As noted, I'm not a big fan of series.

Hmm...I just realized there are three books pertaining to "series"! Can that be changed? There are also no poetry books mandated - thought there was going to be one? (although I guess it could be considered non-fiction).

Anyway, will you be providing links to sites that give examples of various books per genre to folks like me who are stumped on what to read? They were quite helpful this year.

Thanks,
Stacey

The list won't be changed since it was already voted through with each of the mini-polls. I tried to prevent too much repetition by linking to the current list, so (hopefully) people did look at that when voting. But I do think that the "series" selections are somewhat similar to the trilogy week this year, as they fit together pretty well.

Poetry has been voted on, at least a few times, and has never been in the top 4. I can say that it typically has only a few votes so I guess this group collectively doesn't like poetry :) But I think it can easily be worked into other weeks, including the "author", "title", "cover", and "TBR" weeks. I'm sure no one would protest if you made it even more challenging ;) "A book of poetry with a beautiful cover", for instance.

A "miscellaneous" folder has also been discussed, allowing members to deviate from a week and enter the book that they're reading in that section. I don't see an issue with that so it will more than likely be included in the new group.

I hope that helps!

Thanks, Laura. I don't mean to be a pain - just my own personal gripes here. Those are simply the very last books I need to come up with. I've got plenty of time to work on it.

Laura wrote: "The list won't be changed since it was already voted through with each of the mini-polls. I tried to prevent too much repetition by linking to the current list, so (hopefully) people did look at th..."

Personally I can't stand poetry. Like I really really dislike it.

I realized that I didn't answer one of your questions: yes, we will be providing help with locating books for the challenge but that won't be posted until closer to the end of this year. Since we're likely changing the format of the group then that will probably be somewhere in the Mod Corner. Just watch out for them!

I actually put together most of my list - there are only a couple of books that I may switch up at some point. But happy to say about 75% came from my current "to read" list. I was also able to find a new trilogy series I want to try and I already had book #2 ready to go from my list. And found a 2.5 that sounds okay, too. Very happy with my selection! Right now, only my 2016 book is blank.

Only 12 more to go...I have the next three on deck, but had to get a non-challenge book, Hausfrau, to spice things up a bit.

Yikes. Down to 11. It's a race to the finish.

What did you think of Redeployment? It's been in the back of my mind for a while now but I haven't read it yet.

I liked it a lot, but the stories are frequently brutal, as one can only imagine what war in Iraq and Afghanistan must be like. The stories are told from alternating viewpoints and also deal with the aftermath of war, PTSD, etc. Very raw and very shocking, Klay was a former Marine who served during the surge. I'd put it right up there with The Things They Carried - philosophical, raw and how war is completely insane. I can't wish you to enjoy reading it, but I hope it leaves you with something fulfilling in the end :)

The final countdown begins...

Yes! Nine to go...I really hope I can do this!

You can do it!'

I actually just started reading War by Sebastian Junger but I think I'm going to add Redeployment to my short list :)

It's very good. Think you will like it. I hope the author will be coming out with something new soon. He's very talented.

8 more...

I am rethinking Moby Dick for the "bottom of the heap" book. Some lighter fare may be in order.

I'm thinking about changing out some books too. Seems I have left some pretty lengthy ones for the end of the year and I don't know if I will make it if I stick to the plan.

I think Moby Dick is gone from this year's Popsugar challenge! December will be too hectic to be slogging through a classic of such gigantic proportions - especially after The Satanic Verses comes to an end. Instead, I'm going for Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner, also a bottom-of-the-lister, added back in the day when I was new to Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ.

And - though 5 books remain - I had to treat myself to a palate cleanser, Michael Cunningham's The Wild Swan. I'm especially crazy for the illustrations ;)

Thankful for taking a break after the intensity of The Satanic Verses, my banned book.

Just finished my 'palate cleanser', A Wild Swan, an updated, quick take on our classic fairytales, by Michael Cunningham. Totally recommend the stories, as well as the book's beautiful illustrations by Juko Shimizu.

It's looking like The Amber Spyglass will not be available from the library on time, so I'm shooting for the last 2 on my list- Persepolis and ugh, the slogfestivus, not-end-of-year bookworthy, Redwall. I will attempt to finish #3 by the first week in January, before moving on to 2016's goodies.

Last up is The Amber Spyglass as predicted. But I won't go down without a fight. I'm buying the book today and will attempt to finish it by this weekend, so my 2015 Challenge will be complete. Eulalia!!