1. Title beginning with A 2. Author beginning with A 3. Title beginning with B 4. Author beginning with B 5. Title beginning with C 6. Author beginning with C 7. Title beginning with D 8. Author beginning with D 9. Title beginning with E 10. Author beginning with E 11. Title beginning with F 12. Author beginning with F 13. Title beginning with G 14. Author beginning with G 15. Title beginning with H 16. Author beginning with H 17. Title beginning with I 18. Author beginning with I 19. Title beginning with J 20. Author beginning with J 21. Title beginning with K 22. Author beginning with K 23. Title beginning with L 24. Author beginning with L 25. Title beginning with M 26. Author beginning with M 27. Title beginning with N 28. Author beginning with N 29. Title beginning with O 30. Author beginning with O 31. Title beginning with P 32. Author beginning with P 33. Title or Author beginning with Q 34. Title beginning with R 35. Author beginning with R 36. Title beginning with S 37. Author beginning with S 38. Title beginning with T 39. Author beginning with T 40. Title or Author beginning with U 41. Title or Author beginning with V or W 42. Title or Author beginning with X or “Ex” 43. Title beginning with Y 44. Author beginning with Y 45. Title or Author beginning with Z 46 children's book published in the 1860s 47. children's book published in the 1870s 48. children's book published in the 1880s 49. children's book published in the 1890s 50. children's book published in the 1900s | 51. children's book published in the 1910s 52. children's book published in the 1920s 53. children's book published in the 1930s 54. children's book published in the 1940s 55. children's book published in the 1950s 56. children's book published in the 1960s 57. children's book published in the 1970s 58. children's book published in the 1980s 59. children's book published in the 1990s 60. children's book published in the 2000s 61. children's book published in the 2010s 62. children's book published in 2019 63. a Newbery Winner 64. a Newbery Honor 65. nonfiction 66. poetry 67. graphic novel 68. first in a series 69. any book in a series 70. last book in a series 71. science fiction 72. fantasy 73. mystery 74. animal fantasy 75. realistic/contemporary 76. coming of age 77. action, adventure 78. historical fiction 79. historical fiction, world war I 80. historical fiction, world war II 81. historical fiction, civil rights 82. historical fiction, civil war 83. historical fiction, great depression 84. reread 85. library 86. free choice 87. another free choice 88. biography or autobiography 89.written in first person 90. written in third person 91. verse novel 92. illustrated "notebook" or diary 93. out of print 94. anniversary reprint of a children's book 95. favorite author 96. new-to-you author 97. YOUR pick for Newbery 2019 98. multiple authors 99. happy, happy 100. oh the sads |
I've got a few more reading challenges I wanted to sign up for this year, and they're all kid book related. I have a toddler and a baby, so I read tons of picture books. And I love reading middle grade just for fun for myself, so these challenges are right up my alley! Well, you had to know this one was coming, since I'm the one who hosts this challenge! It helps me work on my long-term goal of reading all of the Newbery winners (and ideally all of the Honor books, too). I'm signing up for the Avi level, which means I need at least 45 points. I'm hoping to get through a lot of recent Honor books, since I've been reading more ebooks and audiobooks lately, and my library seems to have a lot of these through the Libby app. There is never a shortage of picture books in my house. Our shelves are full, and we have a constant rotation from the library. This challenge is hosted by Becky's Book Reviews, and she has a couple of options of how to complete it. I'm aiming for two of the checklists. One is to read 4 books each month - something old, something new, something borrowed, and something true. The other checklist I'll work on is an A-Z list, for author, illustrator, and title. So much fun! This challenge is also hosted by Becky's Book Reviews, and it also involves a giant checklist. I love reading middle grade books. It's the most dangerous section for me in a library or a bookstore. I know I won't come anywhere close to finishing this huge list, but I'll get as many checked off as I can!
2 Comments
One of my main goals this year is to relax and enjoy what I read - but I just can't resist signing up for reading challenges! (And probably more than I should.) I tried to pick ones that overlapped with my goals or wouldn't be too difficult to complete. I'm really aiming for a no-stress reading life this year, so I'm going to keep my reading challenges fun! My personal goal this year is for 33% of the books I read to be ones I own. I'm hoping to get higher than that, so to give me a little extra push, I'm signing up for the Mount TBR Challenge hosted by My Reader's Block. I'm aiming for the Mount Blanc level, which is 24 books from my own shelves (bought before January 1, which makes it a little harder). I've participated in this challenge every year I've been blogging, except for last year. I love reading books set in Europe, so I've decided to join again this year. This challenge is hosted by Rose City Reader, and I'm aiming for the Five Star level, reading books set in five different European countries (at least!). This challenge, hosted by Bunny's Girl, just happened to overlap with my own plans for the year. I'm planning to reread all of Jane's novels by listening to them on audio. I've never done them as audiobooks before, and I'm pretty excited. I listened to Pride & Prejudice in December and just finished Sense & Sensibility this week. I've also got a few Austen-related fiction and nonfiction reads lined up, so I think this challenge will be a cinch to complete! Okay, this is the one that is going to be the most challenging to complete, and therefore it's the one I'm most excited about. The Connect Five challenge is hosted by Book Date. The concept is to read five books that have some sort of connection, whether it's by the same author or about the same theme or something else entirely. We get to pick the connection, and we can have as many groups of 5 as we would like. I've got a few ideas, but the one I'm absolutely commited to is 5 books continuing a series. I have so many series that I've started, but never gone beyond the first or second book. In fact, just looking at my own shelves, I compiled a list of eleven books I could read for this category. I'm also hoping to read 5 books that start a new series, 5 travel books, and 5 books that I bought in 2019. I'll probably come up with some more connections as I read more books this year, but that's what I'm starting with!
The first three months of the year are over already! That means it's time to take stock of my reading thus far and my reading challenge progress. Since I have a new baby arriving in June, I've been trying to really work on my reading challenges in the first part of this year. Let's see if I'm making as much progress as I think I am! Books read: 45 Pages read: 12,949 Fiction: 78% Nonfiction: 22% Male authors: 47% Female authors: 53% Books I own: 46% From the library: 54% Favorite fiction book this quarter: The Lost Book of the Grail by Charlie Lovett Favorite nonfiction book this quarter: Mail Obsession: A Journey Round Britain By Postcode by Mark Mason Reading Challenge Progress Mount TBR 10/36 Nonfiction 9/15 Litsy Passport 2/6 countries Newbery 26/45 points Picture Book 42/104 categories Middle Grade Well. . . I've read 16 middle grade books so far this year, but I haven't assigned them to categories yet. And since each book can count towards two categories, I guess you could say I have 32 out of 104 categories complete! Personal Reading Goals Finish Classics Club List Just one and 1/3 books to go! TBR Bingo 9/25 (This needs work.) Read My Own Books 46% (Goal is 50%) Cue the never-ending chorus - I need to read more books I own! Only 46% of the books I've read this year have been books I've owned, and I really need to keep that percentage over 50%. I haven't dug the hole too deep yet, so here's my chance to swing the balance the other way!
It's finally time for me to start signing up for reading challenges for this year! I love reading challenges, but I'm really trying to cut back this year. At the end of last year, finishing them all out just became a bit too stressful. So this year, I'm signing up for six. (That still kind of sounds like a lot, I know, but it's definitely less than it could have been!) I'm ready to get started reading and tracking! It's always one of my goals to read my own books. Last week, I posted about my personal reading goals for the year, including having 50% of the books I read this year be ones I own. The Mount TBR Challenge, hosted by My Reader's Block, will definitely help keep me on track for this. I'm signing up for Mt. Vancouver, which means I need to read 36 of my own books. I read fewer nonfiction books last year than any year since I started tracking my stats, so I'm signing up for the Nonfiction Reading Challenge hosted by Doing Dewey. We get to set our own goal for this one, and I'm choosing to aim for reading 15 nonfiction books. This is the Litsy Passport Challenge, which I signed up for through the Litsy app. We chose a number of countries that we wanted to read books from, and then those countries were randomly selected for us. I chose 6 countries, and here's what I got: Armenia, Benin, Ireland, Kiribati, Tokelau, and Brunei. I have to admit that I hadn't even heard of two of those countries, so this will be quite the learning experience for me! I'm also discovering it's hard to find books set in a few of these places, so if you have any ideas, let me know! Now for the kids' books! I'm again signing up for the Picture Book Challenge, hosted by Becky's Book Reviews. There are a couple ways to go about this challenge, but I'm choosing the checklist of 104 categories. It was a lot of fun to complete the giant checklist last year, and since my one-year-old devours books, I think it can happen again this year! I LOVE middle grade books, so I definitely had to sign up for the MIddle Grade Reading Challenge, also hosted by Becky's Book Reviews. This one also has a checklist of 104 categories. Thankfully, a book can count towards two different categories (thanks, Christine!), but I still don't think I'll get all of them complete. I'm just going to try my best and see how I do! And of course I have to sign up for my own challenge, the Newbery Reading Challenge! This year, I'm challenging myself to hit the Avi level, which is 45-59 points (check out the sign-up post to see how the points work). This is a level higher than I've signed up for in the past, but I think I can do it!
Okay, let's try this again. I wrote and scheduled this post last week, but when it published, all that was there was the picture. So. . . take two! Books read: 44 Pages read: 11,222 Fiction: 80% Nonfiction: 20% Male authors: 48% Female authors: 52% Books I own: 42% From the library: 58% Favorite books this quarter: On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness by Andrew Peterson and First Impressions by Charlie Lovett. It's always too hard to just pick one book. Reading Challenge Progress Read the Books You Buy - 9/36 read - current percentage is 25% (21-40% is my goal) Show Your Shelves Some Love - 24/30 Beat the Backlist - 30+/30 Full House - 22/25 European - 4/5 Picture Book - 87/102 Newbery - 29/30 points Where Are You Reading? - 24/26 Color Coded - 9/9 Cross your fingers and hope that this one actually posts correctly this time! As for my challenge progress, as always, I need to read more of the books I own. Last year, the Read the Books You Buy challenge really helped me limit the number of books I bought. Not so much this year. Now I just need to get reading them!
Yeah, I said I was done. I know I shouldn't sign up for any more reading challenges this year, but I found a really fun one that I couldn't resist, and then I figured I might as well sign up for the one I was on the fence about while I was at it. So two more. Then I'm done. (Or am I?) This one is hosted by Book Dragon's Lair, and you can find all the details here. The goal is to complete the alphabet using the settings of the books you read. It can be the country, state, or city. It can even be fictional! In the past, I've loved the challenge of completing the alphabet for titles or author's last names. This is a brand new twist, and I'm really excited to try it! This challenge is hosted by My Reader's Block, and you can find all the details here. This is a challenge I've participated in a couple of times in the past, but I skipped it last year. Now I find myself scanning my shelves to see what I have for titles involving color words, so I figured I should participate this year!
Time to sign up for more reading challenges! I'm always looking for new and fun challenges to participate in, and I certainly found some this year. For now, these are all the challenges I'm signing up for this year, but I reserve the right to change my mind and add a few more! This challenge is hosted by Book Date, and you can find all the details here. The object is to fill in as many squares on the game board as you can. I'm aiming to get them all! This challenge is hosted by Rose City Reader, and you can find all the details here. This is a challenge I love participating in every year. I'm going for the Five Star level, which means I need to read 5 books set in different European countries. I love books about Europe, so this usually isn't too much of a struggle for me. The challenge is reading outside of my typical United Kingdom, France, and Italy! This challenge is hosted by Becky's Book Reviews, and you can find all the details here. I am beyond excited for this challenge, because I have a lot of picture books in my future. Now they can count towards a reading challenge! This is also a good excuse to bring home even more piles of books from the library. There are three options for this challenge, and I'm going to try to accomplish the checklist. It's 102 items long, so I won't post it here, but you can click on the challenge detail link to see them all. This is going to be so much fun! Last but not least, my own challenge! You can check out this post to get all of the details. I'm aiming for the Spinelli level, which means I need to get 30-44 points. I'm slowly accomplishing my goal of reading all the Newbery winners, and this challenge certainly helps with that!
'Tis the glorious time of year when we get to sign up for all new reading challenges! I love reading challenges. I'm always scouring people's blogs to see what they're participating in, so I can maybe add more to my list. Now that I've got a little guy around (recently on the move!), I'm trying to be realistic about what reading challenges I can complete without stressing myself out. So far, I've picked seven (but I haven't necessarily stopped there if something else grabs my attention!). The three I'm signing up for in this post are all challenges that will help me read my own books, rather than the shiny new ones at the library (although I know I'll be reading a fair amount of those this year, too). This challenge is hosted by Book Date, and you can find all the details here. I participated in this one last year for the first time, and it really helped me to only buy books that I knew I would read soon, rather than letting them languish on my shelves forever. I'm aiming for the Making Inroads level, which means I need to read 21-40% of the books I buy in 2017. This challenge is hosted by Chapter Break and Second Run Reviews, and you can find all the details here. This challenge is designed to help you read books you've bought before 2017. I have a lot of those (boy, that's an understatement), so I'm hoping to achieve the Give Your Shelves a Warm Friendly Hug level. That's reading 21-30 books from my own shelves, which I had better be able to do! This challenge is hosted by Novel Knight, and you can find all the details here. Beat the Backlist is about reading books published before 2017, which I will have absolutely no problem doing. That's already most of my reading (especially if I'm reading off my own shelves). But I just had to participate in this one because there's a Harry Potter House Challenge! You get points for your house for posting reviews of the backlist books you've read. There are also scavenger hunts and Instagram challenges and all sorts of other fun things to participate in. You set your own goal for this challenge, so I'm going to aim for a minimum of 30 books published before 2017. I'll probably go way over that, but since I don't know how much my little guy is going to affect my reading this year, I'm trying to keep my goals manageable. I'm so excited for this challenge!
So a couple of weeks ago, I posted about finishing my reading challenges for 2016. One of those challenges was to read the books I bought this year. I marveled at the fact that I had only bought 23 books in 2016, which was way under the amount I normally buy. Of course, I had only read 8 of them, but that was enough to surpass my minimum percentage of 20% to complete the challenge. And then. . . a Christian bookstore near me was going out of business, so they had really good sales. And I visited the wonderful bookstore by my mom's house when we were there for Christmas. Suffice it to say that I have no longer bought just 23 books in 2016. I'm coming clean and confessing my splurge to all of you. But I'm also still counting my Read the Books You Buy Challenge as complete for this year. My percentage has dropped, and I won't be able to read enough books to get it back up by the end of the year. I guess I'll just count buying these books with no pressure as a Christmas present to myself. 'Tis the season, right?
I did indeed complete all six of the challenges I signed up for this year, and I'm rather surprised at how well I did. I had no idea how my reading life was going to change once I had my baby in April, so I didn't sign up for as many challenges as I usually do. Now that I'm gathering a list of challenges I want to try in 2017, I have a feeling I'm going to have an even harder time reining myself in than I did this year. Here is round two of the challenges I completed this year! Hosted by Chapter Break Goal: Give Your Shelves a Warm, Friendly Hug (21-30 books) 1. So Many Books, So Little Time by Sara Nelson 2. Maud: The Life of L.M. Montgomery by Harry Bruce 3. Akin to Anne: Tales of Other Orphans by L.M. Montgomery 4. Lost in Rooville by Ray Blackston 5. The Island of Dr. Libris by Chris Grabenstein 6. Tisha by Robert Specht 7. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne 8. The Tale of Hill Top Farm by Susan Wittig Albert 9. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco 10. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy 11. The Midnight Rose by Lucinda Riley 12. The Girl in the Gatehouse by Julie Klassen 13. The Invention of Sarah Cummings by Olivia Newport 14. Walking the Amazon by Ed Stafford 15. Irresistible North by Andrea di Robilant 16. A Walk Through Wales by Anthony Bailey 17. Seven Seasons in Siena by Robert Rodi 18. Istanbul: Memories and the City by Orhan Pamuk 19. Walking the Bible: A Journey by Land Through the Five Books of Moses by Bruce Feiler 20. Right from the Start by Shirley Morgenthaler 21. River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze by Peter Hessler Okay, so I just barely made this one. I was really hoping I would do better. It's my goal to get a couple more books of my Circumreading the World journey read by the end of the year, so the number may go up by a couple. This is definitely one I'll try again next year and hopefully work even harder at! Hosted by An Armchair By the Sea & Smoke and Mirrors January: Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder February: Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder March: Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder April: On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder May: On the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder June: The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder July: Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder August: These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder September: The First Four Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder October: On the Way Home by Laura Ingalls Wilder November: West from Home by Laura Ingalls Wilder December: A Wilder Rose by Susan Wittig Albert I petered out on the reviewing part, but at least I read them all! This is the first time I've read the Little House books, and I'm so glad I finally did. What took me so long? Hosted by: The Introverted Reader Goal: Explorer (6-10 books) 1. So Many Books, So Little Time by Sara Nelson 2. Maud: The Life of L.M. Montgomery by Harry Bruce 3. Tisha: The Wonderful True Love Story of a Young Teacher in the Alaskan Wilderness by Robert Specht 4. Bringing Up Bébé: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting by Pamela Druckerman 5. A Spoonful of Sugar: A Nanny's Story by Brenda Ashford 6. Jane's Fame: How Jane Austen Conquered the World by Claire Harman 7. The Year of Reading Dangerously: How Fifty Great Books (and Two Not-So-Great Ones) Saved My Life by Andy Miller 8. Among the Janeites: A Journey Through the World of Jane Austen Fandom by Deborah Yaffe 9. Ten Letters: The Stories Americans Tell Their President by Eli Saslow 10. The Nothing That Is: A Natural History of Zero by Robert M. Kaplan 11. The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap: A Memoir of Friendship, Community, and the Uncommon Pleasure of a Good Book by Wendy Welch 12. The Penguin Lessons by Tom Michell 13. The King's Speech: How One Man Saved the British Monarchy by Mark Logue 14. Mastering the Art of French Eating: Lessons in Food and Love from a Year in Paris by Ann Mah 15. The Perfection of the Paper Clip: Curious Tales of Invention, Accidental Genius, and Stationery Obsession by James Ward 16. The Mommy Group: Freaking Out, Finding Friends, and Surviving the Happiest Time of Our Lives by Elizabeth Isadora Gold 17. The Missing Ink: The Lost Art of Handwriting by Philip Hensher 18. The Lost Girls: Three Friends, Four Continents, One Unconventional Detour Around the World by Jennifer Baggett 19. How to Be a Heroine by Samantha Ellis 20. Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War by Mary Roach 21. Good Prose: The Art of Nonfiction by Tracy Kidder 22. Out of Order: Stories from the History of the Supreme Court by Sandra Day O'Connor 23. The Private World of Georgette Heyer by Joan Aiken Hodge 24. God's Bestseller: William Tyndale, Thomas More, and the Writing of the English Bible - A Story of Martyrdom and Betrayal by Brian Moynahan 25. What We See When We Read by Peter Mendelsund 26. When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi 27. Living with a Dead Language: My Romance with Latin by Ann Patty 28. Walking the Amazon: 860 Days. One Step at a Time. by Ed Stafford 29. Irresistible North: From Venice to Greenland on the Trail of the Zen Brothers by Andrea di Robilant 30. A Walk Through Wales by Anthony Bailey 31. Seven Seasons in Siena: My Quixotic Quest for Acceptance Among Tuscany's Proudest People by Robert Rodi 32. West from Home: Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder, San Francisco, 1915 by Laura Ingalls Wilder 33. Istanbul: Memories and the City by Orhan Pamuk 34. Walking the Bible: A Journey by Land Through the Five Books of Moses by Bruce Feiler 35. River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze by Peter Hessler So, um, yeah. I read a lot more nonfiction than I was anticipating. Next year, I'll set my goal a bit higher for this challenge!
|
My name is Julie, and I own a lot of books. As in, they are stacked on the floor because I've run out of room on the shelves. And those shelves? There are so many books on them that they smile -- not sag; smile. This blog will cover book reviews and all manner of other bookish things.
You can contact me at [email protected]. Archives
November 2019
Categories
All
|