2025 Reading Challenge discussion

My goal this year is to read at least 150 books.

217/150

Books marked with * are Caldecott books and not used for individual challenges in this group.

I'm going to try something different this year. I'm going to try to read all my challenges in prompt order (except where a book fits more than one challenge and I'll plug it in to the primary challenge in order and the other challenges wherever it fits).

I've also decided to focus on one challenge at a time as my primary challenge. When it's complete, I'll move to the next one. Right now, the order in which I'll focus on my challenges is: (changes shown as they occur)
1st - To Boldly Go Magical Mystery Tour - finished 4/10/23
2nd - Bibliopoly I Spy - finished 7/1/23
3rd - 100 Years of Wonders To Boldly Go - finished 7/1/23
4th - Magical Mystery Tour Bibliopoly - finished 7/19/23
5th - 100 Years of Wonder Serial Reader - finished 12/5/23
6th - Serial Reader 100 Years of Wonder - finished 12/17/23
I'll also finish my "leftover" Hindsight books as a Personal Challenge! - finished 8/1/23

Simultaneously I also will be working on challenges from other groups:
Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die - multiyear, ongoing
Around the Year in 52 Books - finished 8/22/23
Reading the Detectives - finished 12/11/23
The Mystery Crime & Thriller Group:
* Reading the UN - finished 7/16/23
* Reading the 50 States - finished 8/21/23
Newbery & Caldecott Reading Group - multiyear, ongoing

My ultimate challenge that I enjoy so much is to find books that can be used for more than one challenge (the more the better).

Quarter 1:
1. The Kiss Murder by Mehmet Murat Somer - finished 1/1/23
2. Hunger by Knut Hamsun - finished 1/2/23
3. Hyperion / Empedokles by Friedrich Hölderlin - finished 1/3/23
4. The Rose and the Yew Tree by Mary Westmacott - finished 1/4/23
*5. The Little Island by Margaret Wise Brown - finished 1/4/23
6. Kingdom of the Blind by Louise Penny - finished 1/5/23
7. Conversations with Rabbi Small by Harry Kemelman - finished 1/6/23
8. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk - finished 1/7/23
9. The Black Mountain by Rex Stout - finished 1/8/23
10. Dog Gone Lies by Ted Clifton - finished 1/9/23
*11. Umbrella by Taro Yashima - finished 1/9/23
12. The Cold Blue Blood by David Handler - finished 1/10/23
13. The Man of Feeling by Henry MacKenzie - finished 1/11/23
14. The Voice Inside My Head by S.J. Laidlaw - finished 1/12/23
*15. Rain Drop Splash by Alvin Tresselt - finished 1/13/23
16. The Guilty River by Wilkie Collins - finished 1/14/23
17. Cold Earth by Ann Cleeves - finished 1/15/23
18. The Autumn of the Patriarch by Gabriel García Márquez - finished 1/16/23
19. Deadly Stillwater by Roger Stelljes - finished 1/17/23
20. The Reveries of a Solitary Walker by Jean-Jacques Rousseau - finished 1/23/23
21. Hitty: Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field - finished 1/25/23
22. The Big Tree of Bunlahy: Stories of My Own Countryside by Padraic Colum - finished 1/25/23
23. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell - finished 1/27/23
24. Absolute Beginners by Colin MacInnes - finished 1/28/23
25. In the Balance by Patricia Wentworth - finished 1/29/23
26. Colour Scheme by Ngaio Marsh - finished 1/30/23
27. Just Follow The Money by Jinx Schwartz - finished 1/31/23
28. The Sting Of Death: Book 5 of the Sidney Becker Mysteries by Linda Berry - finished 2/2/23
29. Dobry by Monica Shannon - finished 2/2/23
30. Garram the Hunter: A Boy of the Hill Tribes by Herbert Best - finished 2/3/23
31. Love and Death at the Encierro: A Harold Gatewood Mystery Vol. 1 by Hal Graff - finished 2/4/23
32. The Honey Guide by Richard Crompton - finished 2/5/23
33. Endless Night by Agatha Christie - finished 2/8/23
34. A Christmas Promise by Anne Perry - finished 2/9/23
35. Deception on All Accounts by Sara Sue Hoklotubbe - finished 2/9/23
36. The Private Wife of Sherlock Holmes by Carole Nelson Douglas - finished 2/10/23
37. A Marriage of Inconvenience by Janet Louise Roberts - finished 2/10/23
38. Anthropology: 101 True Love Stories by Dan Rhodes - finished 2/11/23
39. Girl with Green Eyes by Edna O'Brien - finished 2/12/23
40. Black Is the Color of My True Love's Heart by Ellis Peters - finished 2/12/23
41. Let Sleeping Dogs Lie by Rita Mae Brown - finished 2/14/23
42. Cat on a Blue Monday by Carole Nelson Douglas - finished 2/15/23
43. Driving Heat by Richard Castle - finished 2/18/23
44. Black As He's Painted by Ngaio Marsh - finished 2/21/23
45. The End of the Affair by Graham Greene - finished 2/22/23
46. File M for Murder by Miranda James - finished 2/23/23
47. Killer Hair by Ellen Byerrum - finished 2/24/23
48. A Darker Shade of Midnight by Lynn Emery - finished 2/25/23
49. Someday the Rabbi Will Leave by Harry Kemelman - finished 2/26/23
50. A Superior Death by Nevada Barr - finished 2/26/23
51. Death of a Tart by Kate Borden - finished 2/28/23
52. Breakaway - A Mary O'Reilly Lost Files Book by Terri Reid - finished 2/28/23
53. Raisins and Almonds by Kerry Greenwood - finished 3/1/23
54. A Grave Talent by Laurie R. King - finished 3/3/23
55. Rodney Stone by Arthur Conan Doyle - finished 3/4/23
56. A Tangled Web by Nicholas Blake - finished 3/5/23
57. Strangled Prose by Joan Hess - finished 3/5/23
58. The Silence of the Library by Miranda James - finished 3/5/23
59. Hotline to Heaven by Donna Cunningham - finished 3/10/23
60. Murder at the Watergate by Margaret Truman - finished 3/12/23
61. Ordeal by Innocence by Agatha Christie - finished 3/13/23
62. One Fine Day the Rabbi Bought a Cross by Harry Kemelman - finished 3/14/23
63. The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis - finished 3/14/23
64. The Club by Ellery Lloyd - finished 3/16/23
65. Vera Kelly Is Not A Mystery by Rosalie Knecht - finished 3/22/23
66. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - finished 3/23/23
67. The Zakhov Mission by Andrey Gulyashki - finished 3/24/23
68. The Cat Who Went to Heaven by Elizabeth Coatsworth - finished 3/26/23
69. Birthday Bride by Jessica Hart - finished 3/27/23
70. The eye of the Needle by George Garland - finished 3/28/23 (added to database and posted on 6/11/23)
71. Easy Motion Tourist by Leye Adenle - finished 3/30/23
72. If You Want Closure in Your Relationship Start with Your Legs: A Woman's Guide to Understanding Men by Big Boom - finished 3/31/23

note to self: remember to post update on March 31

Quarter 2:
73. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus - finished 4/1/23
74. The Good Master by Kate Seredy - finished 4/3/23
75. The Dragon Scroll by I.J. Parker - finished 4/4/23
76. Deadly Safari by Karin McQuillan - finished 4/5/23
77. The Fugitive by Robert L. Fish - finished 4/6/23
78. Night's Child by Maureen Jennings - finished 4/7/23
79. An Ounce of Cure by Alan E. Nourse - finished 4/8/23
80. The Hieroglyphic Staircase by Marjorie Thelen - finished 4/8/23
81. Died in the Wool by Ngaio Marsh - finished 4/10/23
82. The Day of the Dolphin by Robert Merle - finished 4/11/23
83. Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford - finished 4/13/23
84. Death in Breslau by Marek Krajewski - finished 4/14/23
85. Coconut by Kopano Matlwa - finished 4/16/23
86. Murder at the Circus by Lee Strauss - finished 4/17/23
87. The Canary Murder Case by S.S. Van Dine - finished 4/20/23
88. Greenmantle by John Buchan - finished 4/20/23
89. Surfeit of Suspects by George Bellairs - finished 4/21/23
90. The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie - finished 4/22/23
91. An Oxford Tragedy by J.C. Masterman - finished 4/24/23
92. Murder in Mykonos by Jeffrey Siger - finished 4/29/23
93. Blood Of The Wicked by Leighton Gage - finished 4/30/23
94. Half Moon Street by Anne Perry - finished 5/2/23
95. A Day on Skates: The Story of a Dutch Picnic by Hilda van Stockum - finished 5/2/23
96. Artists in Crime by Ngaio Marsh - finished 5/4/23
97. We Die Alone: A WWII Epic of Escape and Endurance by David Howarth - finished 5/9/23
98. Lemon Meringue Pie Murder by Joanne Fluke - finished 5/10/23
99. The Melancholy of Resistance by László Krasznahorkai - finished 5/13/23
100. The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers - finished 5/15/23
101. Frankly, My Dear by Sandra Hill - finished 5/18/23
102. They Called Us Enemy by George Takei - finished 5/21/23
103. The Farmer's Second Chance - A Later-in-Life Romance by Sharon A. Mitchell - finished 5/24/23
104. Virtually Mine by Katy Paige - finished 5/25/23
105. Inquest: A Golden Age Mystery by Henrietta Clandon - finished 5/27/23
106. The Hobbit, or There and Back Again by J.R.R. Tolkien - finished 5/30/23
107. The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James - finished 5/30/23
108. Giant George: Life with the World's Biggest Dog by Dave Nasser - finished 6/3/23
109. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank - finished 6/5/23
110. Crime in Kensington by Christopher St. John Sprigg - finished 6/9/23
111. Jacob's Room by Virginia Woolf - finished 6/16/23
112. Speaking from Among the Bones by Alan Bradley - finished 6/18/23
113. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman - finished 6/24/23
114. The Road Trip by Beth O'Leary - finished 6/25/23
115. The Mountain Wreath by Petar II Petrović Njegoš - finished 6/26/23

Quarter 3:

116. The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers - finished 7/1/23
117. Sins in the Sun by Claude Bouchard - finished 7/1/23
118. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison - finished 7/3/23
119. Bark Once for Murder by Susie Gayle - finished 7/8/23
120. Lieutenant Bones by Edgar Wallace - finished 7/10/23
121. Stalemate by Icchokas Meras - finished 7/11/23
122. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie - finished 7/11/23 - re-read
123. To Wake Island and Beyond : Reminisces by BGen Woodrow M. Kessler USMC-R - finished 7/12/23
124. The Widow's Cruise by Nicholas Blake - finished 7/13/23
125. Grand Cayman Slam by Randy Wayne White - finished 7/13/23
126. Guam by William Lutz - finished 7/14/23
127. The Candidate by Daniel Pembrey - finished 7/16/23
128. The Annam Jewel by Patricia Wentworth - finished 7/16/23
129. St. Eustatius: A short history of the island and its monuments by Y Attema - finished 7/19/23
130.When Danger Calls by Terry Odell - finished 7/21/23
131. Fly Me To The Moon by Diane Vallere - finished 7/22/23
132. Bermuda Grass by Keith Miles - finished 7/25/23
133. Glamorama by Bret Easton Ellis - finished 7/28/23
134. The Millionaire Mystery by Fergus Hume - finished 7/30/23
135. The Day the Rabbi Resigned by Harry Kemelman - finished 7/31/23
136. The Great Impersonation by E. Phillips Oppenheim - finished 8/1/23
137. Where's Wallis? by Brian Thacker - finished 8/3/23
138. Moving Target: A Porter Novel by R.A. McGee - finished 8/4/23
139. The Man Who Knew Too Much by G.K. Chesterton - finished 8/5/23
140. Ghost Fleet: The Sunken Ships of Bikini Atoll by James P. Delgado - finished 8/9/23
141. High Heat by Richard Castle - finished 8/10/23
142. Accredited Ghost Stories by T. M. Jarvis - finished 8/14/23
143. Death on the Riviera by John Bude - finished 8/16/23
144. Fourteen Men; the Story of the Antarctic Expedition to Heard Island by William Arthur Cn Scholes - finished 8/17/23
145. Maiba, a Papuan Novel by Russell Soaba - finished 8/18/23
146. August Is a Wicked Month by Edna O'Brien - finished 8/18/23
147. All Roads Lead Home by Diane Greenwood Muir - finished 8/21/23
148. The Crimson Circle by Edgar Wallace - finished 8/22/23
149. History & Traditions of Niue by E.M. Loeb - finished 8/23/23
150. The Ice Cage by Olivier Nilsson-Julien - finished 8/24/23
151. Ethnology of Tokelau Islands by Gordon MacGregor - finished 8/25/23
152. Bones in London by Edgar Wallace - finished 8/26/23
153. Nightdancer by Garry Kilworth - finished 8/27/23
154. Castle Rouge by Carole Nelson Douglas - finished 8/28/23
155. His Last Bow by Arthur Conan Doyle - finished 8/28/23
156. A Ring Through Time by Felicity Pulman - finished 8/31/23
157. The Day the Earth Shook. by Jacqueline Cervon - finished 9/3/23
158. History of Sint Maarten and Saint Martin by J. Hartog - finished 9/4/23
159. National Symbols of St. Martin - A Primer by Lasana M. Sekou - finished 9/7/23
160. Natural History Guide to American Samoa by P. Craig - finished 9/10/23
161. Blood and Belonging by Vicki Delany - finished 9/11/23
162. Tropical Kiss by Jan Coffey - finished 9/13/23
163. Saint Helena, little island / translated from the Russian of M.A. Aldanov by A.E. Chamot. 1924 Leather Bound by -. Aldanov, Mark Aleksandrovich - finished 9/14/23
164. Samu-Shamu: The Sonam Stories by Suzie Sims-Fletcher - finished 9/15/23
165. Ghost Stories of Old: A Villagers Tail by H.I. Ithamar Charles - finished 9/15/23
166. The Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizo - finished 9/16/23
167. Andorra by Peter Cameron - finished 9/17/23
168. The Conspiracy & Other Stories by Jaan Kross - finished 9/17/23
169. Comoros Islands - A travelogue by Sean McGrath - finished 9/18/23
170. Bones Of The River by Edgar Wallace - finished 9/20/23
171. Falkland Islanders at War by Graham Bound - finished 9/22/23
172. Devil's Dance by Gisèle Pineau - finished 9/22/23
173. Femme Fatale by Carole Nelson Douglas - finished 9/28/23
174. The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson - finished 9/28/23
175. Adjunct: An Undigest by Peter Manson - finished 9/30/23

Quarter 4:

176. Barabbas by Pär Lagerkvist - finished 10/2/23
177. The Clock Strikes Twelve by Patricia Wentworth - finished 10/3/23
178. Sanders by Edgar Wallace - finished 10/5/23
179. Shroud of Darkness by E.C.R. Lorac - finished 10/8/23
180. The Country Girls by Edna O'Brien - finished 10/9/23
181. A Dangerous Mourning by Anne Perry - finished 10/9/23
182. Red Shadow by Patricia Wentworth - finished 10/15/23
183. After the Quake by Haruki Murakami - finished 10/17/23
184. Foe by J.M. Coetzee - finished 10/18/23
185. Chocky by John Wyndham - finished 10/21/23
186. Cat and Mouse by Gunter Grass - finished 10/22/23
187. Again Sanders by Edgar Wallace - finished 10/30/23
188. The Quiet American by Graham Greene - finished 10/31/23
189. The Deadbeats by Ward Ruyslinck - finished 11/1/23
190. The Burning Plain and Other Stories by Juan Rulfo - finished 11/3/23
191. The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon - finished 11/4/23
192. Mr Campion's Falcon by Youngman Carter - finished 11/5/23
193. The Castle of Crossed Destinies by Italo Calvino - finished 11/6/23
194. Sad Cypress by Agatha Christie - finished 11/7/23
195. Lady Rogue by Carole Nelson Douglas - finished 11/9/23
196. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson - finished 11/10/23
197. Blood and Guts in High School by Kathy Acker - finished 11/11/23
198. The Roman Hat Mystery by Ellery Queen - finished 11/12/23
199. A Long Walk to Water: Based on a True Story by Linda Sue Park - finished 11/15/23
200. Clear Light Of Day by Anita Desai - finished 11/16/23
201. The Cay by Theodore Taylor - finished 11/18/23
202. A World of Love by Elizabeth Bowen - finished 11/19/23
203. Ocean island and Nauru;: Their story, by Albert Fuller Ellis - finished 11/21/23
204. Spider Dance by Carole Nelson Douglas - finished 11/24/23
205. Djibouti by Elmore Leonard - finished 11/24/23
206. The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle - finished 11/25/23
207. Christmas Island - The Wrong Place at the Wrong Time by J. Haggas - finished 11/28/23
208. Pitcairn's Island by Charles Bernard Nordhoff - finished 11/30/23
209. Tanna Times: Islanders in the World by Lamont Lindstrom - finished 12/02/23
210. The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe - finished 12/03/23
211. The Cocos Islands Mutiny by Noel Crusz - finished 12/04/23
212. That Day the Rabbi Left Town by Harry Kemelman - finished 12/05/23
213. Rest You Merry by Charlotte MacLeod - finished 12/11/23
214. Tied Up In Tinsel by Ngaio Marsh - finished 12/17/23
215. Clarissa, or, the History of a Young Lady by Samuel Richardson - finished 12/25/23
216. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens - finished 12/25/23
217. The Mystery of Orcival by Émile Gaboriau - finished 12/25/23

Best of luck, Carol.
Have a great 2023!

On the last day (March 31) of the first quarter of the year, I have read 72 books. That puts me well ahead of my goal of finishing at least 150 books.

Wow! That is impressive.

As of the last day (June 30) of the second quarter of the year, I have read 115 books. I've slowed down a little bit, but still on target for my goal of 150.

8/24/23:

I just reached my goal for my Personal Challenge at 150 books.
But I'll keep tracking my progress. Maybe I'll reach 200 or more!

9/30/23:

175/150 books
As of the last day (September 30) of the third quarter of the year, I have read 175 books. I have 2 yearly challenges in this group to finish and will continue to work on the challenges from other groups. So, I'm feeling pretty good about my reading this year!

Carol wrote: "9/30/23:

175/150 books
As of the last day (September 30) of the third quarter of the year, I have read 175 books. I have 2 yearly challenges in this group to finish and will continue to work on t..."

I'm up to 92 but I will reach 100 by the end of the year. However, I'm about to start 'Covenant of Water' and that is a loooong book.

Looks like an interesting book. Good luck! :-)

I'm finishing up my year on Goodreads today. My final count of books is:

217/150+