Cover to Cover Challenge discussion

[Before you comment on this thread, check minichallenge #6. Even if you don't plan to participate in the minichallenges or the readathon, I would love to see some recommendations.]

Welcome to the final readathon of the year! How fast time flies! This is a week-long readathon starting on Nov 19th 10 am US Pacific time and ending on Nov 26th 10 am. As always, you can start earlier or later, depending on how it fits your schedule!

This time, feel free to do the one day readathon on any day of the week. A weekend or a weekday, whichever works for you! You can start on any day of the week and end it 24 hours later.

Mini-Challenges
So here are the challenges to guide you on your reading. They are completely optional and are meant to spice up your reading or make it more unplanned. And also, to pull you up from any reading ruts.

1. Not-quite-a-chunkster: Read at least one 400+ page book.

2. Test drive: So, Goodreads has rolled out a recommendations feature, and have you been using it? Click on Recommendations, and choose a book from their choices to read.

3. What reading resolution are you talking about?: Did you get to all the books that you hoped to read this year? Half of them? Some of them? If there are books on your list that you are "still" hoping to read before the year ends, go pick one of them and read it this week.

4. Moderators Pick: (This is where we will suggest a category - genre/country/author/awards list and you can pick any book from that category.) The Booker controversy has come and gone. This time, they wanted to make the reading choices more 'readable'. Choose a book from the Booker longlist and if you finish it, let us know how readable you thought it was. For the longlist, go to this link.

5. Honey, I can't see the bottom of the pile: Go to your to-read shelf on Goodreads, click on the 'date added' header once or twice, until the books you first added to the TBR come on top. Then read a book from the top 10.

6. And the best book is...: For your first comment on this thread, recommend 1-5 books that impressed you the most this year. Then, look at what others have recommended as their top 1-5, and choose one book to read.

7. Random Fortune: Since we all have huge Mt. TBRs that we are immensely proud of, randomly select a read from your bookshelf. Go to http://random.org , enter Min=1 and Max=. Click on Generate, and read the book in your TBR corresponding to that number. (If you don't have access to that book, feel free to do this again and again until you come to a book that you have at home or can pick from the library.)


Overlap
You are allowed ONE overlap and it can ONLY be #1 (Not-quite-a-chunkster) with any one of the other 6. (The overlap is optional - #1 can be a challenge of its own.)

I'll def. throw some recommendations for Number 6 out...of the 400 books I've rated so far this year, only 15 of them have been 5 star reads

Of those, my top 5 would be (in no particular order):
Kushiel's Dart
Letters From Home
Beautiful Disaster
Between Shades of Gray
and the millenium trilogy by Steig Larsson

I like having this challenge out a bit early so I can figure out what to read! It's hard to narrow down to 5 books, but my suggestions of favorite books I've read this year would be:
Doc: A Novel
Between Shades of Gray
The Homecoming of Samuel Lake
Those Who Save Us
and in non-fiction:
Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea

Some of my favorites from this year:
Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross (historical fiction)
Home to Italy by Peter Pezzelli (general fiction)
Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella (chick lit)
Naked in Death by J.D. Robb (mystery)
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley (I actually read #2 and #3 this year and this one earlier, but the Flavia de Luce series starts with this one.) (mystery)

My top 5 this year...

The Help by Kathryn Stockett (southern lit)
The Girl Who Played With Fire by Steig Larsson (mystery/thriller)
The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson (science fiction)
Hate List by Jennifer Brown (realistic fiction)
Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor by Lisa Kleypas (romance)
Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi (post-apocalyptic)

Ok that is one extra but I loved all of them!

My top 5 for this year are...

1. The Glass Castle
2. The Hunger Games
3. My One and Only
4. Shadowfever
5. Wicked Intentions

Looking forward to picking out a new fave!

Hard to pick just 5, but here goes:

Fiction:
1. The Cellist of Sarajevo (based on a true event)
2. Minding Frankie

Nonfiction:
3. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption
4.The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
5. Here Comes Trouble

I'm going to list my top picks of books published in 2011. (In no particular order)
1. When She Woke by Hillary Jordan
2. Lionheart by Sharon Kay Penman
3. The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
4. Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

I haven't actually finished the 5th book, but so far it's great. Unless it just falls apart, it will rank up there with his best:
5. 11/22/63 by Stephen King

Mini-Challenges

1. Not-quite-a-chunkster: Read at least one 400+ page book. Still have over 600 pages to go, so I'm going to use it.
Fortune's Favorites by Colleen McCullough (from page 415)

2. Test drive: So, Goodreads has rolled out a recommendations feature, and have you been using it? Click on Recommendations, and choose a book from their choices to read.
Into the Wilderness by Sara Donati (pg 359-)

3. What reading resolution are you talking about?: Did you get to all the books that you hoped to read this year? Half of them? Some of them? If there are books on your list that you are "still" hoping to read before the year ends, go pick one of them and read it this week.

The Tower, The Zoo, and The Tortoise by Julia Stuart

4. Moderators Pick: Choose a book from the Booker longlist and if you finish it, let us know how readable you thought it was.
Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch

5. Honey, I can't see the bottom of the pile:
American Gods by Neil Gaiman

6. And the best book is...: For your first comment on this thread, recommend 1-5 books that impressed you the most this year. Then, look at what others have recommended as their top 1-5, and choose one book to read.
The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach

7. Random Fortune:
Live from New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live by Tom Shales

Currently Reading:
Streets of Laredo by Larry McMurtry (from page 270)
Into the Wilderness by Sara Donati (pg 359-)

Completed Books:
1. Eat, Slay, Love by Jesse Petersen (read 107 pages during challenge)
2. Fortune's Favorites by Colleen McCullough (from page 415-1072= 657 pages)
3. Pleating for Mercy by Misa Ramirez / Melissa Bourbon (pgs 165-320= 155 pages)
4. I Am Half-Sick of Shadows by Alan Bradley (297 pages)
5. Fletch by Gregory McDonald (197 pages)

Total Pages Read: 1413 pages

I am sorry, I've been thinking about this since yesterday and I could only narrow my top reads down to 6, I feel like sacrificing a child when having to drop one of these...
So in no particular order:
Anna Karenina
Across the Universe
Wuthering Heights
Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter
Silk
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

Here is what I have so far for this year:

1.Refuge by Suzanne Ferrell (An online Historical Western Romance that just touched and drew me in. LOVED IT)
2. A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
3. The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen
4. The Next Always by Nora Roberts

Here are my top 5 for the year:

1. The Help - audio book was great!
2. Someone Knows My Name
3. The Name of the Wind
4. The Invisible Bridge
5. The Winter Sea

ok, I have my tenative list:

1. Hate List
2. XVI (recommendation based on my dystopia shelf)
3. Shine - since the NBA controversy i've been interested in reading this
4. Far to Go
5. Captive Angels - I had to reload my entire TBR list in June of last year because my profile was corrupted, so the first 101 books are all from that day - I used the random.org to figure which one of those
6. Hate List (Meghan)
7. 910 - Master of Crows

**Pending books arriving from the library**

That is crazy that Hate List was a 400+ page book. The ebook version that I read was less than 300.


Here is a Tentative List for me...

1. Endless Summer (pg. 152-)
2. Mudbound
3. Snow: A Retelling of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
4.
5. Sphinx's Princess
6. Crank (Amber)
7. 980-The Castaways

Other Books-
Pretties (pg. 188-)
Specials
When You Least Expect It: A Novel
The Night Circus (4 hr 56 min left)

barely - its like 405 - but its the number that counts ;)

It is crazy how big paper books are and how little they become as ebooks. If I am not mistaken my copy was only about 264 pages.

i never trust the ebook pages listed unless they provide a correlation to a book edition itself because they can be completely random - it could have been the number of pdf pages, or some other metric like that

@Jennifer's post and Refuge - I just looked for it and its no longer available online -according to the author it was contracted to be published by ellora's cave in their blush line and will be out next year

Here is my plan for the Readathon. There's no way I'll get through all these in a week, but it's fun to have lofty goals!

Challenges:
#1-Voyager
#2-Decline and Fall
#3-Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
#4-On Canaan's Side
#5-Fahrenheit 451
#6-The Paris Wife (Shay)
#7-Light in August

Other-The Dark Frigate (for my personal challenge of reading a Newberry winner each Readathon)
Isak Dinesen: The Life of a Storyteller (in progress-need to finish)
Grave Surprise (in progress-need to finish)

Oh Dee I am sorry its not online anymore. If I remember correctly it was a very clean romance story but one that was really sweet. I definitely recommend watching for it to come out in book format.

Here is my list for the mini-challenges
1. Not-quite-a-chunkster:
2. Test drive: Friendship Bread
3. What reading resolution are you talking about?: The Dream-Hunter
4. Moderators Pick:
5. Honey, I can't see the bottom of the pile: Dear Emily
6. And the best book is...: The Helpor The Winter Sea (or both)
7. Random Fortune: #162 - A Fair to Remember

i'm going to do so - just thought i'd let ppl know if they also tried to look for it - the author responded last night to my question - she was really nice about it

5 of my favourite books read this year:


Still Life
Storm Front
A Dance With Dragons
The Help
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

Here are my 5. Two of them are re-reads. Obviously, I re-read them for a reason. :)

1.The Hunger Games (re-read, love it!)
2. Rot & Ruin (also loved it!)
3. Crank
4. Ghost Road Blues
5. Tisha: The Story of a Young Teacher in the Alaska Wilderness (re-read, favorite for years!)

Here is my list. Not sure I will get all of these done, but I love to plan using the challenges. I had to modify one.

1. Not-quite-a-chunkster - Anna Karenina
2. Test drive - Resurrection Dreams
3. What reading resolution are you talking about? - Mockingjay
4. Moderator's Pick - Only one sounded appealing to me and I can't get it at the library. Used Random.org to pick another choice - You Suck
5. Honey, I can't see the bottom of the pile - Playing With Fire
6. And the best book is - Anna Karenina
7. Random Fortune - Offspring

Here is my list... I hope I get to enjoy them and then some!
1. Not-quite-a-chunkster - Lover Unleashed
2. Test drive - As an Earl Desires
3. What reading resolution are you talking about? - still haven't decided on this one...TBA
4. Moderator's Pick - not doing this as none looked interesting enough to me.
5. Honey, I can't see the bottom of the pile -Not Quite a Husband
6. And the best book is - Anna Dressed in Blood - Shay
7. Random Fortune - Lover Unleashed

I won't manage all of the mini-challenges but here is what I have planned:
1. The Help or Hate List
2. Variant
3. ---
4. ---
5. The brief wondrous life of Oscar Wao
6. The Help or Hate List
7. #90: Twelve

Here's the plan: Mini-Challenges 11/11
November Read-a-Thon

1. Not-quite-a-chunkster: Giants in the Earth (453 pp.)
2. Test drive:
3. What reading resolution are you talking about?: Eventide
4. Moderators Pick: On Canaan's Side(Booker longlist )
5. Honey, I can't see the bottom of the pile: Giants in the Earth (overlap w/#1)
6. And the best book is...: Milkweed (Zakiya)
7. Random Fortune: Stork Raving Mad

Here are my Recommendations for M-C #6:
1. Crossed
2. City of Fallen Angels
3. Between
4. Hate List
5. Milkweed
(not in a particular order)

I will only be doing challenge #1 for this one. I'll add others if I end up doing them:) Good luck everyone!!!

~~Mini-Challenges
1. Eragon (497 pages)

~~Also want to read:
Frostbite, Cloaked, Stolen: A Letter to My Captor, Emma, Shadow Kiss

~~Other Goals:
Hours= 24+

Just to clarify Challenge #4, when the Booker committee puts out the longlist, it's all of the books. In other words, it's the long list books plus the short list books- all the books that are up for the prize. The short list is what the long list gets whittled down to after the first round. I noticed that people are only listing books from the "long list" list of just the books that didn't make the cut and not listing any books from the short list.

Challenges I hope to complete this week:

1. City of Shadows: A Novel of Suspense or State of the Union
2. Beyond the Highland Mist
3. There Is No Me Without You: One Woman's Odyssey to Rescue Africa's Children
4. On Canaan's Side
5. City of Shadows: A Novel of Suspense or State of the Union
6. Milkweed
7. Dead Reckoning

Dee's Read-a-thon Progress

Started 19th

Books Finished
Exposure (started at 30%)

Books In Progress
Sacred Horses: Memoirs of a Turkmen Cowboy
Still Waters in Niger
Canary Island Song
A Separate Peace

I am going to start a little early - I am an hour out from the official start right now. So I am going to have something quick to eat and then I will be starting Dear Emily. :) I am looking forward to my weekend of reading.

whoops...for some reason I thought it was time...oh well!

Shay wrote: "Just to clarify Challenge #4, when the Booker committee puts out the longlist, it's all of the books. In other words, it's the long list books plus the short list books- all the books that are up f..."

You're right! When I was trying to get a link to the longlist at the Booker site, all their links had only the books that were in the longlist but didn't make the shortlist. It was pretty hard finding a single link with all books on one page, though maybe a custom link would have worked.

45 minutes more! But if you've already started, feel free to keep the rhythm!

I am already reading for some hours as I am in Europe. I am doing good so far, I have a very catchy (also feels a bit like a few other books cooked up together) read. Variant It was one of the suggestion goodreads made based on one of my shelves (the dystopian shelf). I hadn't heard about it before and although I am not really able to connect to the people too much it is very catchy. I hope to finish it tonight.

The books that have impressed me most this year:

Between Shades of Gray
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter
The Art of Fielding
The Upright Piano Player
Before I Go to Sleep
Long Drive Home: A Novel
Galore

It's the "official" start time! Good luck, everybody and Happy Reading!

Challenges participating in:

1. Not-quite-a-chunkster (changed from 11/22/63):

Russian Winter by Daphne Kolotay


2. Recommendations (based on currently-reading shelf)
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens


3. One of my goal books:

Kiss Me Deadly: 13 Tales of Paranormal Love


5. I can't see the bottom of the pile (no. 10 on my to-read list):

Alex Cross's Trial by James Patterson


6. And the best book is
11/22/63 by Stephen King


7. Random fortune:

Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire


Right now, I must finish Doctor Margaret's Sea Chest by Waheed Rabbani


.. I am currently on page 266

I also must read 250 pages (125 by tomorrow and another 125 through the week for a read-along I'm participating in) of:
Bag of Bones by Stephen King

My first day was quite successful, I read a full book. BUT, God, what an ending! And the next installment will only come out in a year or so. That is just mean! I was quite hooked, although it felt like many known stories/books wound into one another. It was a suggestion by the recommendation feature of Goodreads.

Halfway thru Cloaked, and a fourth of the way thru Eragon. Haven't been able to read that much today.

Dee's Read-a-thon Progress

Started 19th (at 11am EST)

Books Finished
Exposure (started at 30%)
Canary Island Song

Books In Progress
Sacred Horses: Memoirs of a Turkmen Cowboy
Still Waters in Niger
A Separate Peace

I got some good reading done today, but not as much as I wanted, but that's always the way it is with good books, right? Here's my progress so far today, but I plan to read more before bed:

Finished:Agnes and the Hitman (which I had begun earlier)

Started:
Behemoth - 157p. [#1 challenge]
Carbs and Cadavers - 115p. (doing this one as a Buddy Read for another challenge)
Tisha - 32p. [#6 challenge - thanks, Margie]
Pardonable Lies - 26p. [#7 challenge]
One Bad Apple - 29p. [#2 challenge]

Happy reading, everyone! I'm off to read some more.

My progress so far:

Books Finished
Dear Emily by Fern Michaels - 445pgs (paperback)

Mini-challenges finished
1. Not-quite-a-chunkster: Dear Emily
2. Test drive: Friendship Bread
3. What reading resolution are you talking about?: The Dream-Hunter
4. Moderators Pick:
5. Honey, I can't see the bottom of the pile: Dear Emily
6. And the best book is...: The Helpor The Winter Sea (or both)
7. Random Fortune: #162 - A Fair to Remember

Books I've Finished:
Cloaked (started at 54%)

Currently Reading:
Frostbite & Emma

Not sure how much I can participate this week, but we shall see!

Some books that impressed me this year:

The Book Thief
A Game of Thrones
The Crimson Petal and the White
The Last Queen
My Name Is Memory

What I'm working on reading this week:

Bag of Bones by Stephen King
What Alice Knew by Paula Marantz Cohen
The Nine Lives of Christmas by Sheila Roberts
The Hum and the Shiver by Alex Bledsoe (challenge #7)
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer (I'm going to finish reading as close to where the movie ended as possible)

I might also try to do #5 mini-challenge:

either The Vampire Armand by Anne Rice or The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe

Nancy wrote: I got some good reading done today, but not as much as I wanted, but that's always the way it is with good books, right? Here's my progress so far today, but I plan to read more before bed:

Nancy, I hope you love Tisha. :)

Day 1 Reading Progress

Last 170 pages of
Doctor Margaret's Sea Chest

First 327 pages of Russian Winter

Total pages read: 497
Total hours read: 6 hrs., 5 minutes

Total Books Completed:

Day 1 Report

Finished Isak Dinesen: The Life of a Storyteller - Last 125 pages
Grave Sight - 33 pages
The Dark Frigate - 40 pages

Total pages: 198

I really wanted to do my 24-Hour Readathon yesterday, but the day was just too busy. I now plan to do it tomorrow (Monday). I need to start racking up those page totals!