2025 Reading Challenge discussion

Ok, let's do it... I'll try to repeat this amazing year with 220 books.

MY STATS:

Read: 95

Language:
- Italian: 92
- English: 3

Original language:
- Yes: 31
- No: 64

Author genre:
Male: 53
Female: 34
Male&Female (2 or more authors): 8

Author's Geographical Area:
Europe: 49
Asia: 7
Africa: 5
North America: 29
Central America:
South America: 3
Oceania: 2

Is the Author new to me?
Yes: 65
No: 30

Length:
Very short (<150 pages): 14
Short (150-250 pages): 22
Medium (251-500 pages): 46
Long (501-800 pages): 12
Very Long (>800 pages): 1

How I got it:
Purchased - ebook: 14
Purchased - physical: 14
Borrowed from library: 45
Borrowed from friends: 6
Presents and exchanges: 3
Free ebooks: 2
Free books (Premio Strega): 10


If purchased, when: (I have sooooo many books I bought without reading them...)
- 2013:
- 2014: 1
- 2015: 10
- 2016 (I hope this entry will remain empty) 17

Genre:
Fiction: 71
Non-fiction: 3
Biography-memoir: 3
Travel: 1
Plays: 2
Comics and Graphic Novels: 15


Total number of pages: 30.234

Good luck! :)

Thanks!

Rowizyx wrote: "- 2016 (I hope this entry will remain empty)"

Hahahahaha! Now you're a funny girl, you are! :-D

Anyway, good luck with your challenge, I'll come and visit your thread often :-)

Good luck with your challenge! How do you keep track of when you purchased a book?

Cassandra wrote: "Good luck with your challenge! How do you keep track of when you purchased a book?"

I create two shelves every year: "201X-purchased" and "201X-purchased-but-not-read-yet", so I feel shame, shame, shame everytime I look at my books. And I have a note on my MacBook where I write everytime I buy a book where I purchased it, in which format it is and how much it costed.. Shame shame shame, also there.
And I also keep an eye on which publishers I read and buy more often.

This is my 2015 scheme:


Books I purchased with gift cards I had for my degree (3)
Other gifts and presents (1)
Home Books purchased by my parents during the years (11)
Free Ebooks (20)
Borrowed from my friends (6)
Borrowed from libraries (111)
Purchased (66), including:
Kindle Daily Deals (16)
Other Ebooks (8)
Physical books purchased online (1)
Kiosks and Comicshops (20)
Book Fair in Turin (7)
Bookshops (12)
Special events and exhibits (1)

That is so cool! If I kept track, though, I would just cry. I never (hardly ever) pay full price for any book, though.

1 - Deadpool uccide i classici (Deadpool Killustrated) byCullen Bunn

Finished: 01/02

Funny and amazing, my first reading of the year was a chance of luck, because a friend of mine's who I invited for New Year's Eve forgot it in my house, so...
I had a lot of fun reading it: Deadpool is a strange Marvel character and his fight is terrible... but so amusing. He decides to kill all those literature characters who became through the ages archetypes, in order to eliminate models for heroes, villains... A battle he can't win, but you'll enjoy see him try.

Rating: 4/5

Congrats on finishing your first book in 2016!

2 - Star Wars: L'Erede dell'Impero (Heir to the Empire) byTimothy Zahn

Finished: 01/04

This is the first Star Wars novel I read and I like it. I'm a great SW fan and it has been interesting reading it with the characters' voices in my head... Probably I have seen the original trilogy too many times, but nevermind.

I'm not really satisfied by my edition, an ebook with notes. Many notes. Too many notes! Especially if Kindle App is not really fast to skip from the chapter to notes and return. I find quite annoying if I have to stop, tap-tap-tap-tap-tap until the app considers me... and then the note simply says "oh, how cool Han Solo is" (I KNOW BY MYSELF, THANK YOU) or, worse, it spoilers facts of book 2 and 3 of the trilogy... Are you kidding me? I would like to read them... Bah.

Rating 4/5 (also for the short prequel story, very good)

3 - La figlia del sole (no English edition, sorry... "Daughter of the Sun") by Nadia Fusini

Finished: 01/06

In this short novel, a wannabe writer tell his sister (Franny and Zoe, like Salinger's characters) the story of Katherine Mansfield. It's an interesting choice, because through these two siblings this book is not a simple biography, but a reflection on her life choices and thoughts... I want to read KM but still I don't know her quite enough, and I hope this book will help me to understand this author.
Its only blemish is how much the dialogue between Franny and Zoe seems to be arbitrary planned... at least, I saw too clearly the author, Nadia Fusini, through her words.

Rating: 3/5

Did you see episode 7 of Star Wars already? I am living Stars Wars the last couple of weeks haha.

I am about to start the original trilogy in bookform. So excited!!!

And thanks for making me want to read Deadpool even more than before haha (must...not...add...more...books...to...my...tbr...)

Maureen wrote: "Did you see episode 7 of Star Wars already? I am living Stars Wars the last couple of weeks haha.

I am about to start the original trilogy in bookform. So excited!!!

And thanks for wanting to re..."

I started reading the novel while I was waiting the cinema open at... 9:30 am December 16 ahahahah

Oh wow haha. What did you think? I love BB-8, he's so cute.

Maureen wrote: "Oh wow haha. What did you think? I love BB-8, he's so cute."

I really enjoyed it! BB-8 is adorable, and the movie... Well, probably its plot could have been braver, but it's a good introduction to the new series.

4 - I sogni perduti delle Sorelle Bronte (The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë) by Syrie James

Finished: 01/07

I have to confess something: I don't like very much the Brontë sisters. I was never able to finish Wuthering Heights and anytime I read something said by Charlotte I don't like her character...

I decided to read this novel to understand better her person, but althought I liked it, I think it's too much evident that the author is a Charlotte fan. There's a good research work behind this book, but novelization... That's too much. I really hope Charlotte had known happiness in her marriage, after all the tragedies in her life, but I think the author went too far with romance... And smoothing out Charlotte's edges.

Rating: 3/5

5 - Quando eravamo orfani (When We Were Orphans) by Kazuo Ishiguro

Finished: 01/12

Uhm... I think that is the novel by Ishiguro I loved less. It is written, as usual, in a wonderful style... But I'm not sure his style is the correct one for a detective story. To me, it seems too confused, this time.

Rating: 3/5

6 - Diabolik anno LV n. 1: Complesso di colpa by Mario Gomboli

Finished: 01/13

Last year I decided to collect Diabolik, an Italian comic... Do you know it? I love Diabolik, he's the King of Terror <3 With Eva, his lover and partner, he realizes very sophisticated crimes, especially thefts of precious jewels. Sometimes, their plans crush against other criminal intentions, like this time: Diabolik and Eva sets their sights on an incredible diamond, but when they proceed as they planned, the gem has been stolen, and its owner killed. At a first investigation, a former butler seems to be guilty, but Diabolik and Eva discover the truth, kill the real murderer (who meanwhile killed the butler and another man) and reveal his instigator to cops. Did they become some kind of Robin Hood, or watchmen? No, their theft is only postponed...

Monthly issues like this one are usually good: short "single-shot" adventures that I really enjoy... Diabolik was one of my first fictional crushes, since I was... 12? Probably. I love his vengeances and his partnership with Eva, together they're even better <3

Rating: 4/5

7 - 111 errori di traduzione che hanno cambiato il mondo (111 errors of translation which changed the world) by Romolo Giovanni Capuano

Finished: 01/14

It could be a funny and interesting book, IF... its title did not promise too much. How many of these 111 errors were really so important to change the world? Well... A few of them. And many others aren't even properly errors of translation! Bad title, bad preconditions... So bad experience. :(

Rating: 2/5

8 - La danese (The Danish Girl) by David Ebershoff

Finished: 01/15

A novel insipired by the life of Lili Elbe, the first famous change of sex in history.
Well... I hoped it would be better. I really love historical and biographical fiction, but if the author makes changes I would like to understand why... And in this case it didn't happened. Especially, because Ebershoff says he wanted to write about the relationship between Einar/Lili and his wife Gerda (here she's named Greta and she's American), I found it not so credible, in the end. Greta is quite a saint, in Ebershoff's story: never angry, never jeleaous, never a doubt about the strange direction her life has taken... Maybe I was looking for more sentiment.

Somebody can tell me how much does the movie take from this book, instead of real history? In Italy it will be on screens in about a month, and now I'm a little worried I won't like it.

Rating: 2/5

9 - Lisario o il piacere infinito delle donne (no English edition, sorry... "Lisario or Women's Endless Pleasure"), by Antonella Cilento

Finished: 01/17

Rating: 4/5

10 - Il genio e il golem (The Golem and the Jinni), by Helene Wecker

Finished: 01/20

I really loved it. Best book of my year, for now <3

Rating: 5/5

(Scusa se ti rompo pure qui, ho preso 'spunto' dalle tue stats perché sei geniale e penso che questa cosa mi salverà la vita!!)

Serena.. Sery-ously? wrote: "(Scusa se ti rompo pure qui, ho preso 'spunto' dalle tue stats perché sei geniale e penso che questa cosa mi salverà la vita!!)"

In realtà io le ho riprese da Marina, i complimenti sono da fare a lei ^^

Ok, I am not able to check every book I read, I have to admit. So...

January: 14 books

11 - by Shannon Hale

Finished: 01/23

I had already watched the movie, so it wasn't quite surprising... Anyway, I enjoyed it: it's a clever book about those "Austenians" who are soooo in love with Colin Firth (not Mr. Darcy) to lose the sense of reality. The heroine is Jane, a thirty-something woman from New York who is too addicted to P&P to look for a real relationship. In order to help her, an old rich great-aunt gives her a stay in Austenland, a Regency experience where Jane should satisfy her Darcy-fantasies and then let it go. It's funny to see how Jane is uncomfortable having to flirt with actors, men payed to be nice with her (it's a Regency Host Club XD), but still she wants to be part of the game, in order to "recover"... Consequences are unexpected for her, but quite obvious for readers... A pretty book, anyway.

Rating: 3/5

12 - (Freud's Sister) by Goce Smilevski

Finished: 01/26

I didn't know the story of Freud's sisters, four old women who Freud left in Wien when he had the chance to make a list of persons to bring in England with him in 1938. He remembered his dog and his doctor, but he left there his sisters. And all of them died in concentration camps, killed by nazis. Probably we will never know he decided so, but it's quite hard to understand it.
This author gives a voice to Adolfine, the less documented sister, and creates a tormented relationship with Sigmund.
Italian synopsis focuses too much about deportation experience, when it takes a small part of the book, so I read many readers who were disappointed, but I liked it. It's a strong, agonizing novel about women condition in first XX century.

Rating: 4/5

13 - (The Christmas Oratorio) by Göran Tunström

A strange family saga that starts from its end and links two poles apart: a small town in Sweden and a little country village in New Zealand. I picked it for a pair of challenges, also because it's in the 1001-books list, but I had no expectations about it. The author said he wanted to write a book about sorrow and about different ways to react to sorrow... It's a difficult subject, but his try is really good, to me. One of most interesting books I read in this year.

Rating: 4/5



14 - (Seeing a Large Cat) by Elizabeth Peters

Finished: 01/31

Well, I let some months pass between my last adventure with Amelia and her family and this one... And indeed it was a good choice: I really love Elizabeth Peter's characters, but I rapidly get bored when I read too many book by the same author in a row. I enjoyed this book, especially because it's the first time Ramses and the other young characters have space as narrators. A good innovation.

Rating: 4/5

Ok, in my time zone February is almost gone, so...

February: 12 books!

15 -

Finished: 02/02

Rating: 4/5


16 - (South from Granada: A Sojourn in Southern Spain) by Gerald Brenan

Finished: 02/04

It seamed a travel through time or in deep space to a distant planet. Brenan's Spain probably does not exist anymore, but it was still pleasant to travel with him in the southern countryside before Spanish Civil War. He walked really a lot, he made me feel ashamed and lazier than ever. A good travel book

Rating: 4/5

17 - (The Ape Who Guards the Balance) by Elizabeth Peters

Finished: 02/05

Ooooooh, check who's back! Enjoyable and witty, a nice crime novel.

Rating: 4/5

18 - (River of Smoke) by Amitav Ghosh

Finished: 02/12

I'm in love with this series, although there are so many characters and sometimes it's easy to lose the thread. I read "Sea of poppies" last year, so I needed some time to catch back all the lines, but I loved it.

Rating: 4/5


19 - by Gian Carlo Ferretti andGiulia Iannuzzi

02/16

The history of Italian publishing industry through its most important series and their editors. Series as Medusa, or Coralli... Series that gave their name to an entire genre: in Italy crime books are known as "romanzi gialli" (literally "yellow novels") because of the most important series in early XX century in Italy, "I Gialli Mondadori".
I'm in love with Ferretti's books about books, that describe how the "big publishers" (Valentino Bompiani, Arnoldo Mondadori, Giulio Einaudi, and more) and their collaborators gave their mark to the entire publishing system in my country, even nowadays.

Rating: 4/5

20 - (The Luminaries), by Eleanor Catton

Finished: 02/18

I think I have to apologize to this novel because I'm used to read many books at the same time, and this one deserved more attention from me. The first part (that's about the first half) is quite complicated: there are many characters and everyone tells the part he knows about the same story, in order to solve a mystery about a murder, a disappearance and a little treasure in pure gold. It's easy in this part to lose the thread, especially if you do as I did, reading other books meanwhile. But if you pass this part, then the novel flows beautifully, and becomes really pleasant and captivating. Sorry, Eleanor Catton, if I mistreated your novel. And thanks for it.

Rating: 4/5

21 - (History of the Rain) by Niall Williams

Finished: 02/22

I really loved this novel, it's... so Irish! I miss Ireland more than ever in this period, so I read this novel crying... a river. Awful pun, ok, but this book is great: it is written in someway to be the "Forrest Gump" about books, and the protagonist, Ruth, recalls many of the books in the giant library she inherited by her father (with also their catalogue number!) while she's telling her family's history. It's a sensitive and delicate novel, funny but also touching. Lovely <3

Rating: 4/5

22 - (The Radetzky March) by Joseph Roth

Finished: 02/22

Rating: 3/5

23 - (The Clothes They Stood Up In) by Alan Bennett

Finished: 02/23

Rating: 4/5

24 - (Little Big Man) by Thomas Berger

Finished: 02/27

Rating: 4/5

25 - (The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge) by Michael Punke

Finished: 02/28

Rating: 3/5

26 - (Naamah's Kiss, part 1 of 2) by Jacqueline Carey

Finished: 02/29

Rating: 4/5

27 - by Tito Faraci

Finished: 03/01

Rating: 3/5


28 - (Dune) by Frank Herbert

Finished: 03/03

Rating: 4/5


29 - (Naamah's Kiss, part 2 of 2) by Jacqueline Carey

Finished: 03/04

Rating: 4/5


30 - (Chaka) by Thomas Mofolo

Finished: 03/05

Rating: 3/5


31 - (Gould's Book of Fish: A Novel in Twelve Fish) by Richard Flanagan

Finished: 03/10

Rating: 3/5


32 - (Wind And Water) by Ang Chin Geok

Finished: 03/11

Rating: 3/5


33 - (The Bells) by Richard Harvell

Finished: 03/14

Rating: 5/5


34 - by Seth Grahame-Smith

Finished: 03/16

Rating: 3/5


35 - by Laura MacLem

Finished: 03/20

Rating: 5/5


36 - (Shirley) by Charlotte Brontë

Finished: 03/20

Rating: 2/5


37 - (Last Train to Istanbul) by Ayşe Kulin

Finished: 03/23

Rating: 3/5


38 - (Blue Bay Palace) by Nathacha Appanah

Finished: 03/23

Rating: 3/5


39 - (A Complicated Kindness) by Miriam Toews

Finished: 03/26

Rating: 3/5


40 - (Río Fugitivo) by Edmundo Paz Soldán

Finished: 03/26

Rating: 4/5


41 - (顔に降りかかる雨 Kao Ni Furikakaru Ame ) by Natsuo Kirino

Finished: 03/27

Rating: 3/5


42 - by Eddie Campbell

Finished: 03/30

Rating: 3/5


43 - by Eddie Campbell

Finished: 03/30

Rating: 4/5


44 - (The Wrath and the Dawn) by Renee Ahdieh

Finished: 03/31

Rating: 3/5

45 - by José C. Vales

Finished: 04/01

This is a short tale, a false tourist guide that has been released free as "appetizer" of the novel Cabaret Biarritz (it's the guide that the main character uses in the novel), that I am going to read soon. It's brilliant, funny and ironic... I can't wait to read the novel, but I have to finish other books before.

Rating: 3/5

46 - (The Fiery Cross part 2 of 2) by Diana Gabaldon

Finished: 04/02

Mm... It's the first novel of this saga I didn't enjoyed at all. "Drama" chapters was... well, we all know she won't kill Jamie nor other main characters (fans would pursue her, I think), so they weren't as touching as I expected. On the other side, the chapters about Frasiers' everyday routine are boooooring. Brianna and Roger don't make me feel anything... I'll put this saga aside for a while, till the moment I'll miss Jamie and Claire, hoping next book will be more thrilling.

Rating: 2/5

Other books I read in April:

47 -

Finished: 04/04
Rating: 3/5

48 - (We Are Not Ourselves) by Matthew Thomas

Finished: 04/05
Rating: 5/5

49 - by Aminata Fofana

Finished: 04/10
Rating: 2/5

50 - (The Alchemyst) by Michael Scott

Finished: 04/11
Rating: 3/5

51 - (Palace of the Peacock) by Wilson Harris

Finished: 04/11
Rating: 3/5

52 - (Charlotte) by David Foenkinos

Finished: 04/13
Rating: 4/5

53 - (Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations) by Georgina Howell

Finished: 04/14
Rating: 5/5

54 - by José C. Vales

Finished: 04/18
Rating: 4/5

55 - by Paolo Malaguti

Finished: 04/20
Rating: 4/5

56 - (By Fire, by Water) by Mitchell James Kaplan

Finished: 04/21
Rating: 4/5

57 - (The Haunted House) by Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Elizabeth Gaskell, Hesba Stretton, George Augustus Sala, Adelaide Anne Procter

Finished: 04/23
Rating: 4/5

58 - (The Japanese Lover) by Isabel Allende

Finished: 04/10
Rating: 4/5

59 - (Reach of Rome) by Alberto Angela

Finished: 04/24
Rating: 3/5


60 - by Joanne M. Harris

Finished: 04/26
Rating: 3/5

61 - by Adelmo Cervi

Finished: 04/27
Rating: 3/5


61 - (Necropolis) by Boris Pahor

Finished: 04/30
Rating: 4/5

Books I read in May:

62 - (The Secret Life of Bees) by Sue Monk Kidd

Finished: 05/03
Rating: 4/5

63 - Diabolik anno LV n. 5: Non solo per i diamanti

Finished: 05/04
Rating: 3/5

64 - (Darth Vader #1) by Kieron Gillen

Finished: 05/04
Rating: 5/5

65 - (Old Herbaceous: A Novel of the Garden) by Reginald Arkell

Finished: 05/05
Rating: 4/5

66 - (Flood of Fire) by Amitav Ghosh

Finished: 05/10
Rating: 4/5

67 - (Infiltration: A Novel) by Yehoshua Kenaz

Finished: 05/10
Rating: 4/5

68 - by Simona Lo Iacono

Finished: 05/12
Rating: 3/5

69 - (All the Light We Cannot See) by Anthony Doerr

Finished: 05/15
Rating: 3/5

70 - (Guardians of the Louvre) by Jirō Taniguchi

Finished: 05/17
Rating: 4/5

71 - (Stowaway) by Karen Hesse

Finished: 05/18
Rating: 4/5

72 - by Giorgio Terruzzi

Finished: 05/19
Rating: 4/5

73 - by Zerocalcare

Finished: 05/17
Rating: 5/5

74 - by Mark Millar

Finished: 05/20
Rating: 4/5

75 - by Mark Millar

Finished: 05/20
Rating: 4/5

76 - by Christos Cage

Finished: 05/20
Rating: 4/5

77 - by Rossana Campo

Finished: 05/21
Rating: 4/5

78 - (Landfalls) by Naomi J. Williams

Finished: 05/24
Rating: 5/5

79 - by Demetrio Paolin

Finished: 05/26
Rating: 5/5

80 - by Raffaella Romagnolo

Finished: 05/28
Rating: 3/5

81 - (The Madness of George III) by Alan Bennett

Finished: 05/31
Rating: 4/5