The Reading Challenge Group discussion
Personal Challenges - 2015
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Chase's 2015 Reading Progress
2015 Books ReadJanuary
1.The Monkey's Paw
2. The Lottery
3. The Canterville Ghost
4. War and Peace
5. Anne of Green Gables
6. The Secret Garden
7. Persuasion
8. The Magician's Lie
9. I Could Pee on This: And Other Poems by Cats
10. Jane Eyre
February
11. That Risen Snow: A Scary Tale of Snow White & Zombies
12. The Fellowship of the Ring
13. Tess of the D'Urbervilles
14. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
15. The Lucky One
16. The Girl on the Train
17. Crime and Punishment
March
18. Splintered
19. Ethan Frome
20. Cujo
21. The Tiger's Wife
22. We Need to Talk About Kevin
23. The DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend
24. Middlemarch
25. A Brief History of Time
26. The Lovely Bones
April
27. Doctor Sleep
28. The Crucible
29. The Women's Room
30. I'll Give You the Sun
31. Gone with the Wind
32. The Secret History
May
33. The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks
34. All My Friends Are Dead
35. A Streetcar Named Desire
36. Memoirs of a Geisha
37. A Tale of Two Cities
38. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
39. The Westing Game
40. Doll Bones
41. Dorothy Must Die
42. The Horse and His Boy
43. The Complete Fairy Tales and Stories
June
44. Howl's Moving Castle
45. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
46. A Man Called Ove
47. A Passage to India
48. Eat, Pray, Love
49. The Paper Magician
50. The Golden Notebook
51. The Bad Beginning
52. The Reptile Room
53. The Almost Moon
July
54. The Bell Jar
55. Seriously... I'm Kidding
56. Confessions of an English Opium-Eater & Other Writings
57. The Book of Speculation
58. Reconstructing Amelia
59. Castle Rackrent
60. Under the Dome
61. Prince Caspian
62. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
63. For a Few Demons More
64. I Capture the Castle
65. The King's Curse
August
66. The Time Traveler's Wife
67. Ready Player One
68. I Am Pilgrim
69. Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir
70. Station Eleven
71. The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
72. Red Queen
73. All the Light We Cannot See
74. The Taming of the Shrew
75. The Glass Magician
September
76. The Silver Chair
77. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
78. Villette
79. The Savage Heart
80. Cloud Atlas
81. The Martian
82. The Night Before Christmas
83. The Master Magician
84. The Catcher in the Rye
85. The Last Battle
October
86. The Perks of Being a Wallflower
87. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
88. NOS4A2
89. The Accident Season
90. It
91. The Haunting of Hill House
92. At the Water's Edge
November
93. Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things
94. The House of Hades
95. Bad Feminist: Essays
96. The Nightingale
97. Treasure Island
98. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
99. The Constant Princess
100. Scarlet
101. The Silver Linings Playbook
December
102. Shadow and Bone
103. Sense and Sensibility
104. The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket
105. The Book of Life
106. The Little Prince
107. Snow Like Ashes
108. The Rosie Project
109. Oryx and Crake
110. Carry On
111. All the Bright Places
Genre Challenge BooksJanuary - Historical Fiction
War and Peace
February - Romance & Chick-Lit
The Lucky One
March - Contemporary and Literary Merit
The DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend
April: - Poetry and Plays
The Crucible
May - Fantasy (including Utopian)
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
June - Minority Studies/LGBT
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
July - Manga/Graphic Novels &/OR Humor
Seriously... I'm Kidding
August - Mysteries (Crime/Cozy/Espionage)
I Am Pilgrim
September - Science-Fiction (including Dystopian)
Cloud Atlas
October - Horror/Thriller &/OR Short Story Collections
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
November - Adventure &/OR Travel
Treasure Island
December - Children's Lit &/OR Traditional Lit
The Little Prince
December POINT SYSTEM GUIDELINEDecember Points: 26 pt
Read a general book: 1 point per book
Shadow and Bone
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket
The Book of Life
Snow Like Ashes
Oryx and Crake
Carry On
All the Bright Places
Read a "shortie" (short story, poem, play): 0.5 points
Read a group read book: 5 points per book
Read a buddy read book: 5 points per book you read with a buddy
Read a book for the genre challenge: 3 points per book
The Little Prince
Read a book for a mini-challenge: 3 points per book
Sense and Sensibility
The Rosie Project
Complete a multi-book mini-challenge: 10 extra points
Completed Haunted by the Unread
Bonus** Familiar Friends - read a treasured holiday book that you read as a child - 10 points per book!
Monthly Totals
January - 25 pts
February - 49 pts
March - 34 pts
April - 24 pts
May - 35 pts
June - 34 pts
July: 22 pts
August - 58 pts
September - 52 pts
October - 19 pts
November - 38 pts
Decade Challenge: Completed 08/22/2015January 1 - December 31, 2015
1800-1809 Castle Rackrent
1810-1819 Persuasion
1820-1829 Confessions of an English Opium-Eater & Other Writings
1830-1839 The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
1840-1849 Jane Eyre
1850-1859 A Tale of Two Cities
1860-1869 War and Peace
1870-1879 Middlemarch
1880-1889 The Canterville Ghost
1890-1899 Tess of the D'Urbervilles
1900-1909 The Monkey's Paw
1910-1919 The Secret Garden
1920-1929 A Passage to India
1930-1939 Gone with the Wind
1940-1949 The Lottery
1950-1959 The Fellowship of the Ring
1960-1969 The Golden Notebook
1970-1979 The Women's Room
1980-1989 Cujo
1990-1999 The Secret History
2000-2009 Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
2010-2015 The Magician's Lie
Back to the Classics Challenge: CompletedJan 1 - Dec 31
[x]A 20th Century Classic The Secret Garden
[x]A 19th Century Classic Persuasion
[x]A Classic by a Woman Author - Anne of Green Gables
[x]A Classic in Translation - Crime and Punishment
[x]A Classic About War - War and Peace
[x]A Classic by an Author Who Is New To You - Jane Eyre
20 Most Influential Books by Women Challenge: Completed August 1, 2015
- The Secret History
- I Capture the Castle
-Gone with the Wind
- We Need to Talk About Kevin
- The Time Traveler's Wife
- The Golden Notebook
- The Women's Room
Vowel Challenge (August 5 - December 31st)
No As- Red Queen
No Es- I Am Pilgrim
No Is- The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
No Os- The Glass Magician
No Us- Station Eleven
No Ys- All the Light We Cannot See
2015 Pinterest Reading ChallengeJan 1 - Dec 31
[x] A book with more than 500 pages - Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
[x] A classic Romance - Persuasion
[x] A book that became a movie - Jane Eyre
[x] A book published this year - The Magician's Lie
[x] A book with a number in the title - The Lucky One
[x] A book by someone under 30 - The Tiger's Wife
[x] A book with nonhuman characters - I Could Pee on This: And Other Poems by Cats
[x] A funny book - All My Friends Are Dead
[x] A book by a female author - The Women's Room
[x] A mystery or thriller - The Girl on the Train
[x] A book with a one-word title - Cujo
[x] A book of short stories - The Complete Fairy Tales and Stories
[x] A book set in a different country - The Canterville Ghost
[x] A non-fiction book - Seriously... I'm Kidding
[x] A popular author's first book - The Secret History
[x] A book from an author you love that you haven't read yet - Doctor Sleep
[x] A book a friend recommended - Howl's Moving Castle
[x] A Pulitzer Prize winning book - Gone with the Wind
[x] A book based on a true story - Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
[x] A book at the bottom of your to read list - Ethan Frome
[x] A book your mom loves - The Savage Heart
[x] A book that scares you - The Lottery
[x] A book more than 100 years old - Middlemarch
[x] A book based entirely on its cover - That Risen Snow: A Scary Tale of Snow White & Zombies
[x] A book you were supposed to read in school but didn't - The Crucible
[x] A memoir - Eat, Pray, Love
[x] A book you can finish in a day - The Monkey's Paw
[x] A book with antonyms in the title - War and Peace
[x] A book set somewhere you always wanted to visit - Memoirs of a Geisha
[x] A book that came out the year you were born - A Brief History of Time
[x] A book with bad reviews - The Almost Moon
[x] A trilogy - Splintered
[x] A book from your childhood - The Secret Garden
[x] A book with a love triangle - Tess of the D'Urbervilles
[x] A book set in the future - Ready Player One
[x] A book set in high school - The DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend
[x] A book with a color in the title - The Golden Notebook
[x] A book that made you cry - A Man Called Ove
[x] A book with magic - I'll Give You the Sun
[x] A graphic novel - The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks
[x] A book by an author you've never read before - We Need to Talk About Kevin
[x] A book you own but have never read - A Tale of Two Cities
[x] A book that takes place in your hometown - The Westing Game
[x] A book that was originally written in a different language - Crime and Punishment
[x] A book set during Christmas - The Night Before Christmas
[x] A book written by an author with your same initials - A Streetcar Named Desire
[x] A play - The Taming of the Shrew
[x] A banned book - The Lovely Bones
[x] A book based on or turned into a tv show - Anne of Green Gables
[x] A book you started but never finished - The Fellowship of the Ring
Group Readathon Progress1. Mini-Readathon: Jan 24th
20 pages - Persuasion (finished book)
110 pages - The Magician's Lie
2. Spring Readathon: April 20 - April 26
787 pages - Gone With the Wind (finished book)
5 pages - The Secret History
3. Summer Readathon - July 6th - July 12th
200 pages - The Book of Speculation (finished book)
380 pages - Reconstructing Amelia (started & finished book)
100 pages - Castle Rackrent (started & finished book)
300 pages - Under the Dome (started book)
4. Halloween Readathon - Oct 25th - Oct 31st
185 pages - It (finished book)
182 pages - The Haunting of Hill House (started & finished book)
347 pages - At the Water's Edge (started and finished book)
120 - Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things (started book)
5. The Last Readathon - Dec 25th - Dec 31st
522 pages - Carry On (started & finished book)
376 pages - All the Bright Places (started & finished book)
December TBR ListClean up month from missed books this year
November TBR List
An Ember in the Ashes
October TBR List
The Haunting of Hill House
The Last Battle
September TBR List
August TBR List
All the Light We Cannot See
Ready Player One
I Am Pilgrim
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Let's Pretend This Never Happened
July TBR List
June TBR List:
May TBR List:
Doll Bones
The Princess Bride
April TBR List:
Gone with the Wind
I'll Give You the Sun
The Women's Room
March TBR List:
Splintered
February TBR List:
The Fellowship of the Ring
January TBR List:
Happy Belated New Year all! Get those challenges started.
Happy belated New Year to you Chase, happy reading!
Starting my new year with some short stories while I read the very large War and Peace:1.The Monkey's Paw
2. The Lottery
3. The Canterville Ghost - another short story4. War and Peace - BAM!
Congrats on finishing War and Peace, Chase!
Mod
Wow Chase, I'm impressed, congratulations!
Camille wrote: "How did you like W&P?"I actually found it an easy read once you figure out who is who. I wish I knew more about the Napoleonic Wars before going into this though.
Thanks guys! Now I can go around to everyone and say that I read War and Peace once.
5. Anne of Green Gables - Good, but another book that is too precocious for my tastes.6. The Secret Garden - A good children's book.
7. Persuasion - My 2nd Jane Austen book and I liked it as much as Pride and Prejudice.
8. The Magician's Lie - Everything I could ever want in a book: magic, romance, mystery, a bit of gore, and Iowa...9. I Could Pee on This: And Other Poems by Cats - I bought this as a gift for a friend and ended up reading this little chuckleworthy book.
Jane Eyre is one of my favourites! I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Camille, I can see why! I was in love with it too!
11. That Risen Snow: A Scary Tale of Snow White & Zombies - Thank goodness this one was free... Not a fan.12. The Fellowship of the Ring - I knew I was going to struggle through this one because I picked it up once before in high school and then never finished. It's just not the type of novel I enjoy. Finally made it up to my high school self and can officially say I've read this one now.
13. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - I really liked this one even though it is a tragedy. There are times where I pitied Tess and other times where I just wanted to shake Tess and slap her.
I loved tragedy when I was a young adult and loved this book, but this would be a book at the age of 52 that I would do more throttling than pitying. On the other note, you have read some good books so far this year, Great Job!
14. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - three stars; there were some aspects I loved to keep me interested, but other parts where it read like a history book.
Mod
I liked The Girl on the Train better than Gone Girl.
oh I have been debating The Girl on a Train. I loved Gone Girl.
Crime and Punishment - I struggled getting into this one for awhile, but was able to pick up after part 3 or 4.
18. Splintered - Wasn't a big fan. If they had just removed Jeb completely, I would have liked it a bit more. 19. Ethan Frome - I was pleasantly surprised to find I liked this one. It's a quick read at only 140 pages.
Chase wrote: "20. Cujo - This book is so depressing and of course, terrifying."When I read it years ago, I had a blue-eyed, blonde, 4-year-old boy. Made it doubly terrifying.
21. The Tiger's Wife - So... I thought I was reading this for the Top 20 Most Influential Books by Women List, and now I'm seeing it's not on there. So, I'm not even sure where/why I found this book. It was a good find though. It was a bit disjointed but it made up for it a little bit by being well written.
I think the author was under 30 when she wrote the book. That's on the list for 50 book challenge.
Yes, and still under 30! That was a pleasant find because that one struck me as an otherwise more difficult category to fill.
22. We Need to Talk About Kevin - 3 stars; It's a hard read to take in, as the subject is meant to be. It seemed a poor choice to format the book as letters written by Eva to her husband. The writing seemed too condescending and I had a hard time imagining anyone would ever write a letter in such a style as to chronicle her entire married life to someone who would have been there for most of it.
23. The DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend - Full Disclosure, I'm definitely not the target audience to this book. The teenage drama was enough to turn me off. I cared very little for any of the characters. Still, I did give it 3 stars because it picked up halfway through.
24. Middlemarch - Whew. That was a chunkster. It was a slow first 200 pages. It picked up after that and got more interesting.
Congratulations for getting through Middlemarch, I'm planning to to read it too.
I have Middlemarch on my ebook too but I got a bit scared when I saw the number of pages. What did you find interesting about it, Chase?
I think it was mostly the interactions between characters that I liked about it. It's an interesting view of their beliefs and behaviors for the time period. If you like Jane Austen, I think that you'd like this too.You definitely have to trod through a lot of build up and character jumping to get there though. It took me a long while to figure out how they were all supposed to relate in the story.
Mod
A Brief History of Time - My fiancee bought this book a year or two with intention to read more. Though he is reading more, he has never read it. It's been sitting on our bookshelf untouched all this time. I decided to read it since he hasn't.He has a Master of Science in Astronomy probably would have classified this book as a beginners book. I am not as well learned in astronomy and physics as he is, having not studied either of those with the exception of astronomy 1 in university, and a lot of it went over my head... I get a few bonus props-to-you points because some of his former Astronomy classmates were over when it was on my living room table and naturally assumed he was reading it. Unexpected twist!
Oh, and not only is it expanding outside of my realm of books I probably wouldn't read otherwise, it was published the year I was born, so it meets one of my challenges too.
The Reading Challenge Group
Books mentioned in this topic
All the Bright Places (other topics)All the Bright Places (other topics)
All the Bright Places (other topics)
Carry On (other topics)
Carry On (other topics)
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This year I do want to get some larger books off of my book list, so the overall goal is going to be lower than the ending goal was this year.
[x] 75 books (Currently 111/75)
[x] Participate in the genre challenge every month (12/12)
[x] Complete Top 20 Most Influential Books By Women
[x] Read 15 books from the 1001 Boxall Book List (25/15)
[x] Back to the Classics challenge
[x] 2015 Pinterest Reading Challenge