YA and Beyond discussion

Goal: 50 books! The past two years I aimed for 100, but totally failed both times. So I think 50 is a more realistic goal. Let's do this thing!

MASTER LIST OF BOOKS READ SO FAR:


1. The Emperor's Blades by Brian Staveley
2. Icefall by Matthew J. Kirby
3. How To Ride a Dragon's Storm by Cressida Cowell
4. Yes Please by Amy Poehler
5. The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
6. Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman
7. The Boy A Thousand Years Wide by David Spon-Smith
8. Charlie, Presumed Dead by Anne Heltzel
9. The Witch Hunter by Virginia Boecker
10. End of Days by Susan Ee
11. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
12. The Night House by Rachel Tafoya
13. Syllabus: Notes from an Accidental Professor by Lynda Barry
14. The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton
15. None of the Above by I.W. Gregorio
16. The Alex Crow by Andrew Smith
17. The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness
18. Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
19. The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson
20. True Grit by Charles Portis
21. Archivist Wasp by Nicole Kornher-Stace
22. Everybody Sees the Ants by A.S. King
23. 100 Sideways Miles by Andrew Smith
24. To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han
25. The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti
26. Write-A-Thon: Write Your Book in 26 Days by Rochelle Melander
27. Stand-Off by Andrew Smith
28. Uprooted by Naomi Novik
29. Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
30. We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
31. The Diviners (re-read) by Libba Bray
32. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
33. Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray
34. The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh
35. An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
36. Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
37. Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Biruté Galdikas by Jim Ottaviani and Maris Wicks
38. Vengeance Road by Erin Bowman
39. When I Was the Greatest by Jason Reynolds
40. All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely
41. The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney

Yay! Best of luck. I sucked hard at reading last year. Total fail. I started my challenge at 175 and went down to 100 after I saw how far behind I was getting. Here's hoping 2015 is a better reading year for both of us!

I am sure you will surpass your goal this year.

Good luck Brigid!

I'll cheers to that, Heidi!

Goodluck on your goal this year, Brigid!

Good luck Brigid! I set my goal to 70. My first goal 'cause I never kept count of books before.

Thanks guys! Good luck to all of you as well. :)

This is a couple weeks late, oops.

January:

1. The Emperor's Blades by Brian Staveley
2. Icefall by Matthew J. Kirby

... well, 2 is better than none I guess. :P

February:

3. How To Ride a Dragon's Storm by Cressida Cowell
4. Yes Please by Amy Poehler

Aaaand once again, I only read two books this month. Boooo.

I am slacking a lot too Brigid. I am zonked after work in the winter. At least you are in college so have a better excuse than me!

Don't worry, Brigid, the year is still young! ^_^

Yeah I guess after I graduate *screams in terror* I'll have a bit more time to read, at least until I get some kind of job. :P

Yikes, I forgot to update this for two months. And uh. I only have two books to add because I am a piece of garbage.

March:

Nothing. *cringes*

April:

5. The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
6. Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman

Now that I'm done with school I'll hopefully have more time to read, though. :P

You are too hard on yourself Brigid! It is summer so I am sure you will catch up now :) That is my hope too and I am not even in school!

Haha, I know I am. I just feel bad because I'm not reading nearly as much as I used to––and I've also fallen super behind on reviews. And then I have my own writing to worry about. Gahhh! But yes, I think I'll be able to catch up now that I'm out of school. :)

Just realized I forgot to do May. :P

7. The Boy A Thousand Years Wide by David Spon-Smith
8. Charlie, Presumed Dead by Anne Heltzel
9. The Witch Hunter by Virginia Boecker
10. End of Days by Susan Ee
11. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

June:

12. Syllabus: Notes from an Accidental Professor by Lynda Barry
13. The Night House by Rachel Tafoya

Uhhhhh.
I have no excuses.

Hopefully now that I have access to my town library again, I will be more motivated to read. :P

Slowly making progress :)

Haha yup, little by little. I'm still like 10 books behind but I'm hoping I can catch up this month, or at least by the end of the summer.

I hate it when my challenge is behind. It was behind all last year, but this year I'm doing much better, and I'm ahead!

Don't kick yourself too hard if its not a good reading year. Those do happen from time to time!

Congrats! :D The past two years I tried to do 100 books but I was nowhere near reaching it either time. Hopefully I can reach 50.

Well, you were in college the past two years as well. You probably have more free-reading time without the school :)

That's true, although I have multiple jobs right now which is kinda time-consuming (although all of them are very part-time, but still). I usually can squeeze in some reading in the morning/evening though. :)

Time for an update! Here are my reads from the past two months:

July:

14. The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton
15. None of the Above by I.W. Gregorio
16. The Alex Crow by Andrew Smith
17. The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness
18. Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
19. The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson
20. True Grit by Charles Portis

August

21. Archivist Wasp by Nicole Kornher-Stace
22. Everybody Sees the Ants by A.S. King
23. 100 Sideways Miles by Andrew Smith
24. To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han
25. The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti
26. Write-A-Thon: Write Your Book in 26 Days by Rochelle Melander

*phew* I'm finally more than halfway to my goal! I'm still 6 books behind schedule, but at least I've been reading faster now that I have access to my hometown library again. :P

Good work Brigid!

Thanks Heidi!

September:

27. Stand-Off by Andrew Smith
28. Uprooted by Naomi Novik
29. Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
30. We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
31. The Diviners (re-read) by Libba Bray

5 books behind schedule, but I have a lot of library books to get through so hopefully that'll help. :P

October:

32. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
33. Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray
34. The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh
35. An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

Still 5 books behind schedule, UGGGGH. :P If I'm going to make my goal, I'm going to have to read like 8 books this month and next month. And on top of that I'm doing NaNoWriMo. o_o So uhhh wish me luck??? *panics*

Brigid *Flying Kick-a-pow!* wrote: "October:

32. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
33. Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray
34. The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh
35. [book:An E..."

Good luck! I think I have given up on this years reading goals and am looking forward to next year!

Thanks Heidi. I think I'm still going to try to make it ... Maybe I'll just read some really short books. :P

For next year I'm definitely going to make a re-read list (there are so many books I need to re-read!) and a list of books I own that I haven't read yet (because there's like 100 of those, lol).

I want to re-read Harry Potter next year for sure. Read some middle grade books or graphic novels!!

That's good idea. I haven't read the HP books in a long time! And yes I was thinking maybe I'd squeeze in some MG and graphic novels to boost my book count. :D But I also have a huge pile of library books to finish!!!

I have never read a graphic novel. Decided to download a sample of The Walking Dead to my Kindle but the sample is just the copyright info, etc. I want to know what it's going to look like on my Kindle or iPad before I buy it. :(

Has the group done a Harry Potter read recently? That would fun...

Brigid *Flying Kick-a-pow!* wrote: "Thanks Heidi. I think I'm still going to try to make it ... Maybe I'll just read some really short books. :P

For next year I'm definitely going to make a re-read list (there are so many books I ne..."

I have to ask, Brigid.....what kind of an awesome job do you have that allows you to read so much?!? Your read list astounds me. :-)

Shannen *aka Mrs. Jericho Barrons* wrote: "I have never read a graphic novel. Decided to download a sample of The Walking Dead to my Kindle but the sample is just the copyright info, etc. I want to know what it's going to look like on my Ki..."

I have never read one either. Not sure the Kindle for those is the way to go.

Elora wrote: "Has the group done a Harry Potter read recently? That would fun..."

We have not. In my other group they are doing one right now where they read one each month I think but they are on Twitter and I am not so I did not join.

My friend Rose is doing a HP read along right now, on Instagram and Twitter, and Facebook. This month is books 5 and 6, next month we finish with 7. This is the first time she's read them!

@Elora - I like the idea of a group HP read! And ummm I don't really have a job ... ? x_x I graduated from college in the spring so I'm still trying to find something. I spend ~10 hours a week in an office helping with paperwork and stuff, and doing other random odd-jobs but ... yeah. *sigh* So uh I guess the trade-off is that I get to read a lot but I don't have any money. :P

I have some favorites I want to reread next year :) I need to make a list too!

I'm ready to move onto next years goals, although I still am working toward this year's!

I went through and figured out how many series I've started and not yet finished...133!!!!

WHAT??? Crazy!!! Some are newer series that haven't released all the books yet. But that is still insane! Next year's big goal: Try to finish some of these series!

I would say I'm not starting any new series, but I know that's just not realistic. :P

@Brigid I'm sorry to hear that you don't have a job. That's a bummer, esp. as a college graduate....I'm new to this group....should I suggest HP as a group read? Or do you guys do buddy reads? We read it last year to my little ones and I feel the need to dive back in soon! :-)

@ Jenny--it's so fun that there are still people who haven't read them yet and how you can share in their joy when they finally do! :)

@Elora - Haha it's okay. I'm just kinda figuring things out right now and sending out applications and whatnot so ... hopefully things will turn around. And luckily my family is waiting to put up with me in the meantime. :P

Welcome to the group! Well, I think we already have group reads for this month and next month ... And I'm not entirely sure how we're setting up group read suggestions for next year, but this year we were focusing on "hidden gems" so HP doesn't really fit that category. :D But it would be a good buddy read!! I know we had buddy reads in this group for a while but we might have gotten rid of them? (Actually I think a while ago I said I'd set them up again, oops.) But maybe we could do that at some point?

@Jenny - Yessss I need a big re-read-a-thon. :D Ahhh that's so many series!!!!! I'm sure there are that many that I haven't finished, but I tend to give up on like 90% of series I start, lol. At this point I'm only following a few... But yes there are always so many shiny new ones coming out!

I would be happy to start a separate challenge thread for my Harry Potter re-reads next year and anyone else who wants to re-read them can join me (kind of like my current Year of David Estes :) I hope to re-read one per month and re-watch each movie after I finish the books :) Sorry for taking over your thread Brigid. Back to your regularly scheduled programming :)

Sounds great Heidi!

Count me in, Heidi!

Haha that's totally fine Heidi, and yes that sounds awesome! :D

Yay!

In looking at your list, have you read We Were Liars or The Rest of Us Just Live Here yet?

Shannen *aka Mrs. Jericho Barrons* wrote: "In looking at your list, have you read We Were Liars or The Rest of Us Just Live Here yet?"

Yes, I've read both! All the books on that list are books I've already read. :)