2015 Reading Challenge [Closed] discussion

2015 Popsugar Reading Challenge

Week 1 (500 Pages): Moby-Dick; or, The Whale - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Week 2 (Classic Romance): Emma - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Week 3 (Movie): The Perks of Being a Wallflower - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Week 4 (2015): The Girl on the Train - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Week 5 (Number): 30 Days in Sydney: A Wildly Distorted Account - finished! ⭐️⭐️
Week 6 (Under 30): I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Week 7 (Non-human): The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Week 8 (Funny): Diary of a Wimpy Kid - finished! ⭐️⭐️
Week 9 (Female Author): Cold Comfort Farm - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Week 10 (Mystery/Thriller): And Then There Were None - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Week 11 (One Word Title): Night - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Week 12 (Short Stories): The Opposite of Loneliness: Essays and Stories - finished! ⭐️⭐️
Week 13 (Different Country):The Snow Child - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Week 14 (Non-fiction): The Art of Asking; or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Week 15 (Author's First Book): The Bluest Eye - finished! ⭐️⭐️
Week 16 (Author I Love): Fantastic Mr. Fox - finished! ⭐️⭐️
Week 17 (Friend's Recommendation): The Scarlet Letter - finished! ⭐️
Week 18 (Pulitzer): Middlesex - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Week 19 (True Story): Into the Wild - finished! ⭐️⭐️
Week 20 (Bottom of List): Brave New World - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Week 21 (Mum Loves): Postmortem - finished! ⭐️⭐️
Week 22 (Scares Me): The Handmaid's Tale - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Week 23 (Over 100 Years Old): Frankenstein - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Week 24 (Based on Cover): Life of Pi - finished! ⭐️
Week 25 (Read in School): Watership Down - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Week 26 (Memoir): A Moveable Feast - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Week 27 (Finish in a Day): Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Week 28 (Antonyms): Big Little Lies - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Week 29 (Somewhere to Visit): The Age of Innocence - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Week 30 (Year I Was Born): Slapstick or Lonesome No More! ⭐️⭐️
Week 31 (Bad Reviews): Lolita - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Week 32 (Trilogy - Book 1): The Golden Compass - finished! ⭐️⭐️
Week 33 (Trilogy - Book 2): The Subtle Knife - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Week 34 (Trilogy - Book 3): The Amber Spyglass - finished! ⭐️⭐️
Week 35 (From Childhood): Pinocchio - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Week 36 (Love Triangle): Dead and Gone - finished! ⭐️⭐️
Week 37 (Future): 1984 - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Week 38 (High School): Looking for Alaska - finished! ⭐️⭐️
Week 39 (Colour): The Color Purple - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Week 40 (Cry): Of Mice and Men - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Week 41 (Magic): The Graveyard Book - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Week 42 (Graphic Novel) Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Week 43 (Author I've Not Read): The Awakening - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Week 44 (Book I Own): Great Expectations - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Week 45 (Hometown): Antipodes: Stories - finished! ⭐️
Week 46 (Another Language): The Little Prince - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Week 47 (Christmas): SantaLand Diaries - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Week 48 (My Initials): Peter Pan - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Week 49 (Play): A Streetcar Named Desire - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Week 50 (Banned): Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Week 51 (TV Show): A Study in Scarlet - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Week 52 (Started but Unfinished): One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - finished! ⭐️⭐️

Done & Dusted!



Book Riot Read Harder Challenge

Topic 1 (Written by someone under the age of 25): White Teeth - finished! ⭐️⭐️
Topic 2 (Written by someone over the age of 65): Home - finished! ⭐️⭐️
Topic 3 (A collection of short stories): 13 Ghosts: Strange But True Ghost Stories - finished! ⭐️
Topic 4 (Published by an indie press): Strings and Bones - finished! ⭐️
Topic 5 (By or about someone that identifies as LGBTQ): Orlando - finished! ⭐️⭐️
Topic 6 (By a person whose gender is different from your own): The Twits - finished! ⭐️⭐️
Topic 7 (A book that takes place in Asia): Memoirs of a Geisha - finished! ⭐️⭐️
Topic 8 (By an author from Africa): Things Fall Apart - finished! ⭐️⭐️
Topic 9 (By or about someone from an indigenous culture): Rabbit-Proof Fence: The True Story of One of the Greatest Escapes of All Time - finished! ⭐️⭐️
Topic 10 (A microhistory): The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Topic 11 (A YA novel): Eleanor & Park - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Topic 12 (A sci-fi novel): Slaughterhouse-Five - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Topic 13 (A romance novel): Bloodsucking Fiends - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Topic 14 (A National Book Award, Man Booker Prize or Pulitzer Prize winner from the last decade): The Road - finished! ⭐️
Topic 15 (A retelling of a classic story (fairytale, Shakespearian play, classic novel, etc.)): Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West - finished! ⭐️⭐️
Topic 16 (An audiobook): Yes Please - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Topic 17 (A collection of poetry): Chasers of the Light: Poems from the Typewriter Series - finished! ⭐️⭐️
Topic 18 (A book that someone else has recommended to you): The Idiot - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Topic 19 (A book originally published in another language): The Metamorphosis - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Topic 20 (A graphic novel): Zen Pencils: Cartoon Quotes from Inspirational Folks - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Topic 21 (A book that you would consider a guilty pleasure): Dead in the Family - finished! ⭐️⭐️
Topic 22 (Published before 1850): Robinson Crusoe - finished! ⭐️
Topic 23 (Published this year): Red Queen - finished! ⭐️⭐️
Topic 24 (A self-improvement book): This Book Will Make You Sleep - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Done & Dusted!



Popsugar Fall Reading Challenge

Topic 1 (A scary book): The Ocean at the End of the Lane - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Topic 2 (A book written by a woman with a male protagonist): Anthem - finished! ⭐️⭐️
Topic 3 (A book and its sequel): Winnie-the-Pooh - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ & The House at Pooh Corner - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Topic 4 (A celebrity memoir): Annie Liebovitz At Work - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Topic 5 (A book on all the bestseller lists): Everything I Never Told You - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Topic 6 (A book recommended by an indie bookstore employee): We Have Always Lived in the Castle - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Topic 7 (A book that your bookclub read but you skipped): The Alchemist - finished! ⭐️
Topic 8 (A book that you always wanted to read but never got around to): Matilda - finished! ⭐️⭐️
Topic 9 (A book by a famous author you've never read): The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Topic 10 (A book based on an historical event): Witch Child - finished! ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Topic 11 (A book that was published in 1995): A Child Called "It" - finished! ⭐️⭐️
Topic 12 (A book that was published in 2015): All the Bright Places - finished! ⭐️⭐️
Topic 13 (A book with food in the title): A Clockwork Orange - finished! ⭐️⭐️
Topic 14 (A book with a pun in the title): The Fandom of the Operator - finished! ⭐️⭐️
Topic 15 (A book that takes place during Fall): The Legend of Sleepy Hollow - finished! ⭐️⭐️
Topic 16 (A book with an orange cover): The Sun Also Rises - finished! ⭐️

There is Johanna who will read Peter Pan for week 46 too :)
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

We will read the same book for the magic week (with lots of members) and the crying week.
I read Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and liked the 1st half more than the last one. I'll be happy to discuss it, it was an unusual read :)

I was a bit stumped for the magic week - I really, really, REALLY don't like clowns so I'm not sure that one will stay on the list! And the crying one is difficult, due to the tense - made me cry - so I'm taking a stab in the dark there. :)

I'm reading Miss Peregrine's at the moment - I jumped waaaaay ahead as I just felt like reading it, the cover has intrigued me every time I go into our English language bookstore here & I couldn't wait any longer! I'm about a third of the way through, and it's just gotten interesting (I think you'll understand what I mean!).

Yes, I see what you're talking about :p
I was intrigued too when I saw the 2nd book on the Goodreads Awards, so I decided to read the 1st one. I enjoyed a lot the pictures and the creepy stuff in the beginning :D After a moment I found the book too usual and was a little disappointed, but I'll read the sequel anyway :)

I have actually read both The Life of Pi as well as One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest as an English Lit. Assignment in college. I enjoyed them so much,I would read them both again. Both the movies are good,however reading the novels first helps you understand the movies.

His two autobiographies are great too. The first one (Boy) didn't grab me as much as the second (Going Solo), which I found fascinating - it was about his time as a fighter pilot in WWII. Such an incredible life!!

I just had to swap books for Week 38 - I just read The Little Prince, and it made me cry ... a lot.

Well, I'm no longer a lagger - I've now knocked off 13 books for my challenge. Yay!

Jody wrote: "I just had to swap books for Week 38 - I just read The Little Prince, and it made me cry ... a lot."

You know, I was thinking to do the same, because If I begin reading a book thinking that I am going to cry, probably I won't. I read Anne of Green Gables for color, but it made me cry, so if I don't cry with any other book soon, I will change it :P

Yes! I know exactly what you mean. I always seem to cry at unexpected things - and I certainly didn't expect that little book to hit me right in the feels! :O

Sixteen books down for the challenge - very happy to have caught back up after my slow start. Yay!

Wow, you're almost done!

I think I'll copy your choice for a book with bad reviews. I'm planning on reading "Reading Lolita in Teheran", so I thought it might be a good idea with a little knowledge of the actual book "Lolita". Do I remember correctly when saying you weren't to impressed after reading "Lolita"?

I am powering on with the challenge! But I seem to have lost my Kindle!! :O I went on a trip to Italy and somehow it's disappeared ... I'm hoping it turns up. Otherwise I'll have to do some swapping around for books I have on my physical shelf.

You remember correctly! I am glad to be able to say that I have read it, but I also wish that I didn't read it. It was certainly beautifully written - but I didn't like the narration style, it was overly pretentious and the subject matter was (obviously) repulsive.

It seems to be one of those books you should at least try to read, so I'll still give it a go. But my expectations aren't to high!

It's not looking good for my poor Kindle. :(

It's funny, I used to be so anti-Kindle until I got one last January. And before it went missing, I knew that I used it a lot, but I didn't realise how attached I'd gotten to it until I didn't have it any more. I feel like I'm missing an arm!

Wow, you are flying through this! Sorry to hear about the lost kindle, that's so sad :(

I ordered a new one and I'm back on track!

ohh I love your title, I wish I could steal it. I have 'I am Malala' and 'The Little Prince' on my list too, but haven't started them yet - it sounds like they are both going to make me cry & I've just finished my book for that category, 'The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood' and I don't think I cry anymore right now.

Heather, The Little Prince made me cry, a lot. But the book I read this year that made me cry buckets of big, fat, ugly, snotty tears was The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly. Oh dear God I cried!

I was strangely unmoved by I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban - I'm glad I read it, but it didn't live up to the hype. She's an incredible young woman though.

okay, not kidding, but the plot to The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly sounds a lot like the clay animation movie, Chicken Run. Though the book sounds more poetic and moving than Chicken Run, which was basically a spoof of old military movies.

I really don't know how much more I can change this bloody plan ...

Jody wrote: "I really don't know how much more I can change this bloody plan ..."



That's how I feel about mine! lol

Jody wrote: "I really don't know how much more I can change this bloody plan ..."

Haha! Don't worry, I think a lot of us are in the same boat! Some books are just so much more tempting than others!

Not only are they more tempting, sometimes they just aren't as great as you thought they were going to be and need to save your brain and eyeballs from that tragedy lol

There's something about the excitement of searching through books and finding a new one. I've found that if a book sits on my list too long then I get bored with it and ending up replacing it just for the excitement of searching for one. Haha

Laura wrote: "I've found that if a book sits on my list too long then I get bored with it and ending up replacing it"

YES! I think that's exactly what's happening to me. Especially now, with so few left on my list to read, they become less & less appealing to me. This probably sounds completely unreasonable, but the books left on there are actually starting to piss me off a little bit. Which is ridiculous, because a) they're inanimate, b) they haven't done anything wrong, and c) I put them on the list in the first place!

Jody wrote: "Laura wrote: This probably sounds completely unreasonable, but the books left on there are actually starting to piss me off a little bit."


that totally makes sense to me! I felt the same towards Gone With The Wind so I deleted that off my list! and I feel better lol

But Gone With the Wind is fantastic so I would strongly recommend revisiting it once it seems new again :)

I've heard that from half the people, then the other half tell me it isn't worth it. I've attempted to read it twice now and haven't been able to make it past 10% :( maybe if I watch the movie first it will make it easier for me to get in the mood.

It's been a really long time but I remember reading the first part quite a few times. Then there's no turning back once you make it so far

maybe that's the problem then. I just haven't made it far enough. I plan on trying again, just not now...perhaps around Christmas when it starts snowing lol

It is a great book, and I agree, once you get into it it's hard to put down. But, it's just ... So. Damn. Long.

YES! I think that's one thing that is so intimidating to me because I'm not the quickest reader in the world...

Gone with the Wind was my Everest in high school. It's worth reading - though its ending isn't really an ending (okay, yes, there is a 'sequel' but not really). I keep starting new books only to get bored and switch to a different book, I don't know when I'm going to make headway with this challenge if I don't finish some books! :/

Woo! Halfway point in the challenge and I'm well & truly past halfway in progress. 41/52 done & dusted. I'm contemplating leaving the antonym week till the very last, and switching my chosen book to my next 'white whale' book, War and Peace. Maybe.

Yay for 41! I'm not looking forward to most of the ones left on my list though, so I've been doing more side reads.

I'm not really looking forward to my leftovers either - I guess that's why they're still left. :(

Well, with 8 books left for the challenge, I'm almost 0% certain that I won't make any more changes ...

I knew I'd change it again ... but the antonym challenge was too perfect for War and Peace.

At least you are making progress, I'm stuck on 41, good thing I'm still ahead.

Ella wrote: "Yay for 41! I'm not looking forward to most of the ones left on my list though, so I've been doing more side reads."

Would any of your side reads fit into the categories that you have left? If they did, you could replace the ones you have left with those and then you wouldn't have to worry about reading the ones you're not very interested in. Plus you'd be closer to finishing the actual challenge.

No, I just haven't been reading at all right now, and my book I'm reading is a paperback so it makes it harder to read. I'm so used to my backlight on my Kindle, I actually picked up my paperback in the dark once. LOL.

I've done the same thing!

I start to miss physical books and then I go to read one and get so frustrated trying to read in bed at night with my phone propped up for a "book light" haha

I didn't even think about the phone as a book light. Good idea! I might just need to pick up another book on Kindle to read at night. The paperback is messing with my reading average.

Ella, if you want, I have a lot of Kindle books - PM me and we can chat. :)

Another swap ... popped a Sherlock Holmes into the TV category, as I'm finding reading White Teeth increasingly painful, and I don't think I'll finish it before the end of the year the way I'm going!

... aaaaaaand, I've just decided to swap my 'first book' book to Terry Pratchett's first book.

Two to go! I wonder if I can do another swap. Or two.

What are you going to do the rest of the year? :)

I've started filling in an A-Z challenge with the side reads I've done this year, and I think I'll try and complete that (and I might end up padding it out with short stories if I get too stuck).