MobileRead Book Challenges discussion

My challenges for 2018. I think I'll limit it to two three challenges:

1. Read at least 75 100 books

2. The DoodlePanda Bingo Challenge

3. Participate in the MR New Leaf Book Club and read and review at least four books in the year.

I'm dropping the separate category challenge this year, as there's too much overlap with the Bingo challenge (which has plenty to be getting on with...)

82/100 books read

1. Afterlife by Marcus Sakey
2. The Wanted by Robert Crais
3. All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka
4. Mythos by Stephen Fry
5. Passing by Nella Larsen
6. Buy A Bullet by Gregg Hurwitz
7. Crash by Keith Houghton
8. The Hunter by Tom Wood
9. The Walk by Lee Goldberg
10. The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell
11. Writing a Page Turner by Mark Dawson
12. Musings from a Writer's Desk by Elizabeth Bailey
13. Elon Musk: How the Billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla is Shaping our Future by Ashlee Vance
14. From the Heart of a Copy Editor-10 Most Common Mistakes and How to Fix Them by Shiels Glasbey
15. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
16. The Pier Falls by Mark Haddon
17. Nightmares and Dreamscapes by Stephen King
18. Night Moves by Jonathan Kellerman
19. Zombies, Run! The Way of All Flesh by Naomi Alderman
20. Bird Box by Josh Malerman
21. Funny Old World by Victor Lewis-Smith
22. Confessions of a Slightly Neurotic Hitwoman by J.B. Lynn
23. The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir by Bill Bryson
24. Vertical Run by Joseph Garber
25. Hellbent by Gregg Hurwitz
26. Stein on Writing by Sol Stein
27. Making History by Stephen Fry
28. Sophomore Slump by Alan Lee
29. Preacher Book 2 by Garth Ennis
30. Preacher Book 3 by Garth Ennis
31. Preacher Book 4 by Garth Ennis
32. Preacher Book 5 by Garth Ennis
33. The Lost Continent: Travels In Small Town America by Bill Bryson
34. Preacher Book 6 by Garth Ennis
35. Preacher Special: Cassidy: Blood and Whiskey by Garth Ennis
36. Panic Room by Robert Goddard
37. Preacher Special: The Good Old Boys by Garth Ennis
38. The Last Teacher by Alan Lee
39. The Second Secret by Alan Lee
40. Preacher Special: One Man's War by Garth Ennis
41. White Is the Coldest Colour by John Nichol
42. The Bone Farm: A Jane Hawk Case File by Dean Koontz
43. The Grave Man by David Archer
44. Ultima by L.S. Hilton
45. Licensed to Thrill by Diane Capri
46. Professor Moriarty: The Hound of the D'Urbervilles by Kim Newman
47. No Time Like the Past by Jodi Taylor
48. Get Back Jack by Diane Capri
49. Bill Bryson's Appliance of Science by Bill Bryson
50. The P45 Diaries by Ben Hatch
51. Guess Who? by Chris McGeorge
52. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
53. Spider Girl by Peter Lovesey
54. The First Five Pages by Noah Lukeman
55. Dead Boys by Gabrille Squailia
56. The Outsider by Stephen King
57. Crackanory by Various
58. Old Black Magic by Ace Atkins
59. Crossing by Andrew Fukuda
60. Six Poets: Hardy to Larkin by Various/Alan Bennett
61. Deathworld 2 by Harry Harrison
62. Brilliance by Marcus Sakey
63. Sex, Lies and Chocolate Cakes by Steven Morris
64. Forever and a Day by Anthony Horowitz
65. The Crooked Staircase by Dean Koontz
66. Pet Sematary by Stephen King
67. Reality 36 by Guy Haley
68. Flawed Players by Alan Lee
69. Happy by Derren Brown
70. Likely Suspects by G.K. Parks
71. Pushing Brilliance by Tim Tigner
72. Jack in the Green by Diane Capri
73. Hell on Earth by Tony Urban
74. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
75. New York Night by Stephen Leather
76. Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
77. An Ace and a Pair by Blake Banner
78. The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena
79. The Drop by Howard Linskey
80. Aces Full by Alan Lee
81. Pitch by Audible
82. One Summer: America, 1927 by Bill Bryson

Bingo Challenge - Complete!

300/300

4/4 New Leaf Bookclub - read and reviewed. Complete!

1. Passing by Nella Larsen
2. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
3. Making History by Stephen Fry
4. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

First! :)

You did it :P

Orlok wrote: "You did it :P"

LOL! Are you mocking me, sir!?! :D

Very gently :)

I'm just jealous 'cos I never get a first.

Aww!

Well, you may have to haggle about that with DoodlePanda for next year. I already promised her that I'd try to put my thread up while I was sleeping so that she'd have a chance. :)

Although she did get "First" on my 2017 thread... Hmmm

*sigh*

Me either Orlok, me either...

I did? :O

WOOHOO! :D

DoodlePanda wrote: "I did? :O

WOOHOO! :D"

LOL! Alright, young lady! If you can't even remember, then I'm giving your spot to Orlok! :P

:D

:O

First?

*Snort*

Lol xD

No Fantasy? I'm shocked!

And no Magic Realism after how much you liked Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World?

I did enjoy it, but it's not my go-to genre.

#1 Afterlife by Marcus Sakey

My first of 2018! A 5 star read by an author I will definitely be revisiting.

Grats on your first book of 2018 :D

Thanks :). It was a good one too!

Orlok wrote: "#1 Afterlife by Marcus Sakey.

My first of 2018! A 5 star read by an author I will definitely be revisiting."

Congratulations! Hoping the rest of your year is just as awesome! :)

Yay, first book of the year! Happy it was a good one!

Nice. Always nice to find another standby author.

Thanks all.

Time for some updates:

#2 The Wanted by Robert Crais
Bingo challenge:
- Blue cover, Thriller, Gun or bullet, W, A book where someone dies

#3 All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka
Bingo Challeneg:
- Sci-fi, Blood, K, A book that became a movie/ TV series

#4 Mythos by Stephen Fry
Bingo Challenge:
- Supernatural creature, Greek Mythology, Fire, M, Book with a shifter

#5 Passing by Nella Larsen
Bingo Challenge:
- 2 or more people, Paper, P, Love triangle

#6 Buy A Bullet by Gregg Hurwitz
Bingo Challenge:
- Red cover, Action/ adventure, Knife/ dagger/ sword, B, Part of a series

#7 Crash by Keith Houghton
Bingo Challenge:
- Road or path, Audiobook, Something on wheels, C, One-word title

#8 The Hunter by Tom Wood
Bingo Challenge:
- Water, Water, H, About a hitman

And no bingo score yet... 0/300

Woah, well done! :D

Thanks. I'm barely on track and struggling to stop from falling behind, but that's life for you ;)

Hooray for updates. You are certainly making the books count for a lot if categories.

What I'm not doing yet is choosing books so that I can claim certain squares and get a Bingo line. That may come :)

It took me eleven books to get one. See if you can beat that. :P

That only gives me 2 books to do it in, and with the two already on the go, it's not going to happen :P

Maybe I can match your eleven though...

Lol. In the end I think this is a blackout challenge and I do not think I will be the only one achieving that.

#9 The Walk by Lee Goldberg
Bingo Challenge:
- Something dangerous, Animal, FREE

#10 The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell
Bingo Challenge:
- Book or paper, Micro- history, Alcohol, D, Set somewhere you want to visit

#11 Writing a Page Turner by Mark Dawson
Bingo Challenge:
- Text only, Non-fiction, T, Under 150 pages

#12 Musings from a Writer's Desk by Elizabeth Bailey
Bingo Challenge:
- Black and white cover, A book on writing

#13 Elon Musk: How the Billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla is Shaping our Future by Ashlee Vance
Bingo Challenge:
- A biography or memoir, Game, E, Who/what/ when/why/ how in the title

And my first bingo score!!! 5/300

Mega-update!
Grats on bingo! :D

Congrats on the Bingo. The first one is definitely the hardest. At least for most of us.

Thanks both. I think the next Bingo will be a while, too, that one was just lucky.

I can't imagine that "skull or bones" is far off of a lot of covers you read. Or "horror" for the genre category.

Just saying.

:)

Quite right, though the current horror (Stephen King) I'm reading is also a collection of short stories, so I want to bag that category as I may not read any more story collections. And nothing with skull or bones on my TBR for the moment...

I always seem to read a couple of short story collections each year. I just picked up Dandelion Wine for that one, although I don't seem to be able to find the cover I'm holding in my hand. Guilty American pleasure. Is that a genre? :P

Is Dandelion Wine a collection of short stories? That's not clear from the blurb, and at least one of the reviews calls it a novel. The reviews are (mostly) excellent, and I have to say that I now want to read it too.

^You are right. Novel. So hard keeping all this straight. This one was "science fiction" and "set in summer".

I was getting it confused with The Cyberiad by Stanisław Lem which is the one I need to think about finding an alternate for:

AI/Robot/Cyborg: excellent
Short Stores: great
Author from Poland: outstanding
Inter-Library Loan: not so good

#14. From the Heart of a Copy Editor-10 Most Common Mistakes and How to Fix Them by Shiels Glasbey

#15. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

#16. The Pier Falls by Mark Haddon

#17. Nightmares and Dreamscapes by Stephen King

#18. Night Moves by Jonathan Kellerman

#19. Zombies, Run! The Way of All Flesh by Naomi Alderman

Bingo Challenge: 45/300
New Leaf: 2/4

That's a big update. Starting to make a sizeable dent in the challenge now.

Quite a few short ones in there. I'm expecting to slow down when I start on a couple of the writing books which are in effect workbooks that are going to take some time to get through.

I've increased my GR Challenge to 100 books this year, as I've read a few shorts, and also DNF'd more than usual (not sure why, maybe because I'm trying more unknown authors since joining Kindle Unlimited).

A bit of a catch-up then:

#20. Bird Box by Josh Malerman
Bingo Challenge: Something that flies, Flying, A book from the bottom of your TBR

#21. Funny Old World by Victor Lewis-Smith
Bingo Challenge: Funny, Light, Tall Tales

#22. Confessions of a Slightly Neurotic Hitwoman by J.B. Lynn
Bingo Challenge: Kiss, S, Want to DNF

#23. The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir by Bill Bryson
Bingo Challenge: Insect, K, Main character under 16 years old

#24. Vertical Run by Joseph Garber
Bingo Challenge: V, a GR recommendation

#25. Hellbent by Gregg Hurwitz
Bingo Challenge: Red cover, A best-seller

#26. Stein on Writing by Sol Stein
Bingo Challenge: Text only, A book on writing

#27. Making History by Stephen Fry
Bingo Challenge: LBGTQ, Phone, More than 500 pages

#28. Sophomore Slump by Alan Lee
Bingo Challenge: Purple cover, Explore a new author

#29. Preacher Book 2 by Garth Ennis
Bingo Challenge: Graphic novel, Sun or Moon Re-read a favourite

#30. Preacher Book 3 by Garth Ennis
Bingo Challenge: Supernatural, Picture or painting, A book that became a movie/TV series

#31. Preacher Book 4 by Garth Ennis
Bingo Challenge: Based on a myth or fairytale, Money or gold, Non-human characters

#32. Preacher Book 5 by Garth Ennis
Bingo Challenge: Super-natural powers

#33. The Lost Continent: Travels In Small Town America by Bill Bryson
Bingo Challenge: L

#34. Preacher Book 6 by Garth Ennis
Bingo Challenge: Love triangle

#35. Preacher Special: Cassidy: Blood and Whiskey by Garth Ennis
Bingo Challenge: A name in the title

#36. Panic Room by Robert Goddard
Bingo Challenge: Mystery, R

#37. Preacher Special: The Good Old Boys by Garth Ennis
Bingo Challenge: G

#38. The Last Teacher by Alan Lee
Bingo Challenge: none

#39. The Second Secret by Alan Lee
Bingo Challenge: Set in the summer

#40. Preacher Special: One Man's War by Garth Ennis
Bingo Challenge: none

#41. White Is the Coldest Colour by John Nichol
Bingo Challenge: A colour in the title

#42. The Bone Farm: A Jane Hawk Case File by Dean Koontz
Bingo Challenge: Trees or flowers, J

#43. The Grave Man by David Archer
Bingo Challenge: none

Bingo Challenge: 100/300
New Leaf: 3/4

So just a small catch-up, then? :P

DoodlePanda wrote: "So just a small catch-up, then? :P"
Yeah :P
Must get on top of my updates. Problem is I find doing this update a tad boring compared to updating the spreadsheet. Dazrin has a lot to answer for...

Hahaha!! I love doing the spreadsheet too, but have to talk myself into doing the GR updates... :P

Slackers. If I get that many books behind, I just point people to my 2018 reading shelf.

And you call us slackers???