Pocki’s Comments (group member since Jan 24, 2016)

Pocki’s comments from the A challenge of relative ease and merriment group.

I guess I can start :D

I just finished! I've been really slacking during the fall and didn't really realise how much until just a couple of weeks ago. I had still to finish my "acquired before 2016" book, and to decide and read a banned one. So I guess those were also my hardest categories to finish. I ended up choosing The Alchemist for my banned book, as my parents gave me their copy of it about a year ago and all of Paulo Coelho's books have been banned in Iran. So managed to squeeze that in these last two days (good this my internet was out yesterday!) Without this challenge, and feeling like I couldn't exactly "fail" my own challenge, I probably wouldn't have read that book to be honest.

I'm also not a big fan of contemporary fiction, but due to this challenge I did push myself to pick one and it turned out to be pretty nice in the end!

Favourite book is tricky, but I was kind of blown away by the series starting with A Natural History of Dragons, and I ended up reading all four books within a couple of weeks, and could count the fourth for "released in 2016".

I always join the general Goodreads challenge and I always begin with 52 books cause I feel like a book a week is a good pace for me. But then come summer I revise it depending on how much I've been reading the first half of the year and so on. In the end my goal was 75, and I am now at 82. Knowing myself however, I am pretty sure I'll manage to squeeze one more book in before this year finally dies.

And of course I will join the 2017 challenge - I started it!


So in the end this is what I ended up with:


a book written by a woman - Chimera by Mira Grant
a book written by a man - The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
a book released in 2016 - In the Labyrinth of Drakes by Marie Brennan
a book released before you were born - The Silver Metal Lover by Tanith Lee (1981, I was born in 1987)
a non-fiction book - Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
a book for children - Leo: A Ghost Story by Mac Barnett
a YA book - The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi
a book for adults - Fellside by M.R Carey
a microhistory - The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
a romance - Casting Spells by Barbara Bretton
a book of fantastical fiction - Star Wars: Before The Awakening by Greg Rucka
a mystery - Spells and Scones by Bailey Cates
a book of contemporary fiction - Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit by Jayne Robin Brown
a book of historical fiction - The Warrior’s Path by Catherine M. Wilson
a graphic novel - The Saga of Rex by Michel Gagné
a book you acquired before the start of 2016 but never got around to reading - Our Lady of the Ice by Cassandra Rose Clarke
a book recommended by someone you know - Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear
a collection of short stories - The Heart of Aces by a bunch of authors
an award winning book - Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond (Pulitzer + others)
a banned book - The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Hi there guys!
There are only a couple of days left of the year (so you still have time to finish a book!), and I thought we could talk about how it all went!


How did it go overall - did you finish?

What was the hardest category for you this year?

Which is your favourite book you read this year, and did you use it for one of the categories of the challenge?

Did you take part in Goodread's yearly challenge? If so, how many books did you set and where did you end up?

Will you join the new 2017 challenge? (invite has been sent out to you all)


I hope you have all enjoyed this challenge, and that I'll see you all next year as well!

Well if you have made your schedule so you can start at new years, who knows XD

I'm still not done with 2016. I feel almost like I'm cheating counting my historical fiction, cause I wanted something that was very specific (like you knew what year almost) and didn't have any fantastical elements. But I think I will allow myself to count The Warrior's Path which is a bit... generic? And a little bit fantasyish, but no actual magic so it's okay. I think.
And I have banned and "from before 2016" left. I know which ones I want to read but I just have to get around to it. Of course I'm reading other books instead.

Laura: I like it when a book fits many categories, but it also means it's hard to choose which one! So many of mine will go into non-fiction that I never even have to think about that genre.

You'll probably be done by March won't you? ;)

Yeah I thought a new group would be easier and cleaner, since it's different categories.

It is super easy to send out a direct message to all group members at once so don't worry about that. I'll definitely be doing it once the new group is up.

I'm glad you already have a book in mind! I think the one I have down for me is autobiography. I've wanted to read the one by Bruce Springsteen but it's really long so I thought I'd hold off until next year.
Animal on the cover is one of those I'll wait and see what happens. I'll probably read something and suddenly realise there's a cat on the cover and be all "yay, a category!" .... hmm, do dragons count as animals? Cause my most anticipated release for 2017 has four different types of dragons on the cover. And another has a mechanical winged horse.

I have finalised (I think I have at least) the list for next year:

a book released in 2017
a book written before 1900
a non-fiction book
a kids book
a YA novel
a book of fantastical fiction (fantasy/scifi/paranormal)
a cozy mystery
a debut novel
a book of poetry or drama (that is to say a play, not just ~dramatic~)
a biography/autobiography/memoir
a book written by someone under the age of 30
a media tie-in
an LGBTQIA* book
a book about food
a scary/creepy book
a book that is part of a series but not the first book (this could be a later released prequel though!)
a Goodreads Choice Awards winner (any year, any category)
a book with an animal on the cover
a book mostly set in the desert
a book that was adapted into a movie

I will set up the challenge group closer to New Years, but before 2017 rolls around so that people can ask questions if they want and whatnot.

But hey, if you're a part of this years challenge, here's your sneak peek and a chance to prepare ;)

There must be right? Somewhere...

I did a quick search and apparently the Jane Lawless series (starting with Hallowed Murder) is considered a cozy mystery, even though the synopsis of the first book just sounds like a regular mystery to me. BUT Jane Lawless is a lesbian.

I'm sure there must be some more out there though.
I would really like a cozy lesbian mystery with baking involved! And magic if possible.
Oh man there's this romance series I read ones about chocolatiers. No mysteries or magic though. But in one book the lead character (different woman in each, but all set in Paris and kinda intersecting due to high en chocolate) lived with lesbian chocolate hippie aunts or something. I think they might even have had a hint of magic. I really REALLY wanted a book about them...

I think what I'm going for for acquired before 2016 is a book I uh, acquired by... other means. But it's a book I have been planning to read before it even came out so it's one of those "why did you never get to this?" books, which is how I decided to look at it.

I think I used a cozy mystery for my mystery this year XD I mean the series I love is called A Magical Bakery Mystery after all, gotta be a mystery! (so if you like magic and baking that's also one)

I want to se good ace fiction! A few of the short stories were fine but pretty much all were quite meh. Every Heart a Doorway though, now that was really great!
And I recently read Not Your Sidekick which was a pretty neat take on superheroes and just randomly featured a lesbian, a trans boy, a bi girl? I'm not sure about the girls actually. It has a girl/girl love story and I can't remember their specific preferences actually. But it's such a throwaway thing, even if it's integral to the story you know? But no one actually cares. It's way more about heroes vs villains and if the villains are actually evil etc. Who cares about sexuality when you have those problems?

Yeah I might give YA a try for contemporary. Although I suppose a contemporary romance counts too. There are plenty of those I'm sure I can get through. But somehow I feel like I'm cheating if I get a basic romance you know? It isn't actually cheating with the way I set up the rules for the challenge though, it's just in my own mind. Just like I felt I'd be cheating if I read a book and then saw it won some really obscure award and I put it on my Award Winning category.
But I'll take your recommendations into consideration!

If you like knitting, cats, and magic may I suggest the Sugar Maple series?

I completely forgot about it til you brought it up! But I should make bread too... I was going to make my grandmother's bread but I keep putting it off. And right now I can't fit it in my freezer (and it needs to be frozen cause it turns stale in a day) cause I've filled the freezer with homemade cinnamon rolls xD

For this years challenge my short story collection was all asexual (but pretty darn boring sadly) but I think that was it. I did read a YA superhero book with queer kids though, and I think the second one will be out next year. And the book I'm currently listening to has a lesbian lead so that's nice. Oh! And of course, Every Heart A Doorway was a lovely novella with an ace protagonist for once. And I did read a lesbian supernatural romance. So at least I got some queerness in this year! I might go for one for historical romance, looking at some recommendation lists to find one. Shouldn't be too hard.

I can't believe I haven't added "A LGBTQIA book" to the list. Shame on me and my queerness.

At least in this case with cosy mysteries, it's a genre with generally short and easy to read books. I still haven't read my contemporary fiction this year and sort of dreading it haha.
And yeah there are many different versions out there! And some have magic in them too. I have read a a few of them and the two series I ended up properly liking were both magic. Hell one only had a murder in the first book and then they kinda forgot about that aspect and just went for I dunno, magical problems. I got it as a joke cause I was telling someone (I think Sofie, who is even part of this challenge?) about the genre and that you can find pretty much anything. Sometimes there's romance, sometimes it can contain magic, but you always have a "cozy" element like... knitting! (she knitted or crocheted or something right then) and I googled and found this insane cozy romantic magical mystery about knitting. And then ended up reading the whole series XD

I think we both read Make the Bread Buy The Butter this year didn't we ;)

Then it shall be included! It will be a really easy category for me cause several sequels of books I really like will be released next year. Including one of my new favourite fiction series (The Memoirs of Lady Trent) which I am really looking forward to.

Another setting option would be like... an island maybe? Or in the wilderness.

Horror might be a good category, and doesn't actually have to be that scary to still be classed as it I'd think. I dunno, I suppose I'll just have to look at some horror lists and see what kind of books generally end up there. On the other hand, something like ghosts opens up books that are not actually scary but maybe sad? But we also have the fantastical category which might be too similar? So maybe horror is best cause it is a bit more removed. "A creepy book?" Haha.

Yeah, an "or" for the audiobook might be good but man that is a tricky alternative to come up with.

You just gotta suck it up! :P
I kinda like including cozy mystery cause it's a genre a lot of people don't know exist, but it is a very specific genre. So yeah, put on your big girl pants and read about some knitters solving murders or something!

Oh! that reminds me. A good category would be "a book about food" I think! Could be a fictional book where the main character is a chef or a baker or something (I was reminded cause the main cozy mystery I enjoy is about a bakery), or a non-fiction about food (this year I've read about spices for example. And a general history about cooking related things), or simply a kind of fleshed out cookbook.

I was thinking, maybe "A book that is part of a series and NOT the first part". Meaning that either you read the next part in a series you like, or maybe you find that you actually enjoy the cozy mysteries about knitting amateur sleuths and you end up reading several in the series and can count them for different things!

Great! :D

I have even written a post about what a media tie-in is for next year haha. But basically it's a book connected to another type of media, usually tv or movie (and more and more computer/video games as well). Usually it's either a novel expanding the story, or a sort of companion fact book (but also essay collection or "making of" books). I don't read these often at all, but it can be really fun if you love a certain tv show etc.

Yeah the whole desert thing is obviously not set anywhere near in stone XD I would probably need help too haha. I just came back from spending three weeks in the desert (and I miss it) so that's where my mind went for a setting. I know I've read at least two (completely unrelated to each other) books this year mostly set in a desert though. And of course, any setting we end up with, cause I do like the setting idea as a general concept, can be either fact or fiction. You want to read a biography about someone growing up in a desert type environment? Absolutely!

I love the challenge of thinking of something new! I tend to attack it form two angles: what do I like to read that others might not even know about or almost never read? And what do I almost never read but probably should at least give a shot?

As for audiobooks... yeah, it might be too different and polarising. I really love them now. I didn't used to but a lot of commuting for better part of a year, including a summer working as a courier spending countless hours at airports, really made it work for me cause it meant I could read at times where carrying/holding a book would be difficult. I personally found that non fiction worked best, and first person non fiction at that. Cause it's as if someone is talking to you, rather than you just listening to someone read. But I get it, it's not for everyone.

One option is to make a list of something like 30 categories, of which many are quite narrow and/or weird, and let people either go for all of pick 20. Meaning you could skip audiobook for example. But it might make it a bit too easy where one would just go for the easier ones and not challenge oneself (which is the point of a challenge obviously haha)

I am definitely removing male/female author cause it was just too vague and I feel like if you read all the different genres/whatever on a list of 20 you will get both kind of automatically. And I'm removing "a book for adults" cause that too tend to be too vague and easy. Sure, even if you read mostly YA you'd probably end up reading a few adult books trying to cover some categories that it's not really a challenge for anyone. And of course, a book written before 1900 makes "before you were born" completely obsolete.

We started discussing this in the recent update thread so I thought I'd make a proper thread for it.
So, there are three months left of the year (how did this even happen? where did time go?) and hopefully most of you are nearing the end of your reading challenge. It's been fun, and some of you seem to have been really enjoying yourselves. So, I thought that I'd make "A challenge of relative ease and merriment 2017" once New Year is upon us. And hey, I suppose it's not too late to start working on it.

This year we've had 20 books to work with. Did you think that as a good amount? Should we stick to that for next year?

I thought I'd change things up a bit. Keep some basic categories, remove some that were either way too easy, or specific and could just as well be something else next time. So far this is what I have, but please come with suggestions:

a book released in 2017
a book written before 1900
a non-fiction book
a kids book
a YA novel
a book of fantastical fiction (fantasy/scifi/paranormal)
a cozy mystery
a book of poetry or drama (that is to say a play, not just ~dramatic~)
a biography
a book written by someone under the age of 30
a debut novel
a media tie-in (I'll elaborate once the challenge goes live, for those who might be confused)
an LGBTQIA book


Categories I am considering but don't know yet:

an audiobook
a book of contemporary fiction
a book with a blue cover (or something along those lines)
a book that was adapted into a movie
a romance novel
a graphic novel
a crime novel
a horror/scary/ghost story (not sure how to phrase it really)
a book mostly set in the desert (or something similar. something with setting)

Edit with more additions:
a book mostly set on an island
a book mostly set in the wilderness (as examples of other settings of course. I think we'll stick with one setting!)
a book about food
a book that is part of a series but not the first book


So, what do you guys think? Up for another challenge next year?

I think like a poetry/drama would be great! Means that if you don't like poetry, maybe you'd like reading a play? I bunch em together in my shelving anyway haha.

Under the age of 30 is a really good idea too!

Wow Laura! You were fast! Congrats :D

So far this challenge hasn't actually made me actively choose a book. It did push me a little to read (well, listen to) Guns, Germs, and Steel when I saw the Pulitzer sticker. I've been meaning to read it for years so now I thought "yes good. It won't feel like a copout". But considering there's only three months left of the year I'll probably push myself to find some books to fill the last few categories.

I was actually thinking of doing this challenge again but change out some of the categories, if people would be interested. Keep some of the basics, but switch out some. I'd probably add biography for example. And maybe even audiobook. Maybe media tie in? A book written before 1900?

Marissa wrote: "a fantastical book (fantasy, sci fi, supernatural, etc) - Fellside by M.R. Carey"

I like that we both managed to put the same book on the list, but in completely different categories XD

Also, well done both of you!

I just went through the list and updated mine. This is what it looks like now:

a book written by a woman - Chimera by Mira Grant
a book written by a man - The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
a book released in 2016 - In the Labyrinth of Drakes by Marie Brennan
a book released before you were born - The Silver Metal Lover by Tanith Lee (1981, I was born in 1987)
a non-fiction book - Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
a book for children - Leo: A Ghost Story by Mac Barnett
a YA book - The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi
a book for adults - Fellside by M.R Carey
a microhistory - The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
a romance - Casting Spells by Barbara Bretton
a book of fantastical fiction - Star Wars: Before The Awakening by Greg Rucka
a mystery - Spells and Scones by Bailey Cates
a graphic novel - The Saga of Rex by Michel Gagné
a collection of short stories - The Heart of Aces by a bunch of authors
an award winning book - Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond (Pulitzer + others)


Left:
a book of contemporary fiction
a book of historical fiction
a book you acquired before the start of 2016 but never got around to reading
a book recommended by someone you know
a banned book


I have an abundance of non-fiction (and microhistories) and fantastical fiction for sure. And it seems like most are written by women. I also decided to go for the most prestigious book award apparently haha.
I'm currently reading a book recommended to me, and one I acquired in 2015 and been meaning to read since before it even came out. So at least those two should get done soon enough. Contemporary fiction is something I pretty much never read so that will have to be a very conscious choice.

Hey guys, how's everyone doing?
Summer's over and hopefully you've all read some great books!

So, what have you managed to get done so far?
What's left?
Are there any specific genres/challenge items that you are particularly struggling with?

Three months to go, we can do this!

I just got stuck in the non-fiction trap! Now with summer I will try to read more with my eyes instead with my ears and take this challenge a bit more seriously.

And wow Laura, you're working fast! Well done!
I think I started Looking for Alaska, or did I start An Abundance of Katherines? I honestly don't remember. But I apparently wasn't in the mood for John Green's writing at that point (even if I did watch a lot of Vlogbrothers stuff. Don't anymore though) I suppose I could give it another go for contemporary.