Challenges completed in 2007

2007

• 2nds Challenge


• Bibliography Challenge


• tbr-reading-challenge 2007


• Fall Into Reading 2007


• Baby Steps Challenge

Under the Tuscan Sun - Frances Mayes

The last book for 2007 was fortunately also a GREAT one: Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes. I want to visit Tuscana - or at least Italy now!

Rest of 2007 book list

This post is a sticky post. Scroll down for newest posts. No longer. All done! :-D

This is mostly for my own sake. A list of the books I've committed to reading before the end of 2007 for one or more of my challenges.

• Flowers in the Attic (2nds, Fall Into Reading)
  
• Noughts and Crosses (Fall Into Reading)
  
• Over Sea, Under Stone (The Dark Is Rising 1) (Fall Into Reading)
  
• The Big Over Easy (Fall Into Reading, TBR, Baby-Steps)
  
• The Stand (Fall Into Reading, Whitcoulls)
  
• My Best Friend's Girl (Fall Into Reading)
  
• Lords and Ladies (Fall Into Reading, TBR, Baby-Steps)
  
• Taken On Trust (Fall Into Reading, TBR, Baby-Steps)
  
• To Say Nothing of the Dog (Fall Into Reading)
  
• Inkspell (2nds, Bibliography)
  
• The Neverending Story (Bibliography)
  
• April Fool's Day (Whitcoulls)
  
• Under the Tuscan Sun (Whitcoulls)
  
• (The Last Jew (Jewish Literature) (Postponed until next year)
  

Books to read...

This post doesn't really have anything to do with my challenges, I just thought it'd be a fun post to do. The photo above is a selection of my books, and the ones within the black circle are the ones I have yet to read... (yes, the left shelf is double-lined... so's the right one, but those books I have read... but I digress.)

I've contemplated completely redoing all my challenges for next year to only use those books, but to be completely honest, I think I'd grow tired of that quite quickly. Besides, if I know myself right, I'll get just as many new ones during the year as I manage to read ;)

I know a lot of the titles are in Danish, so if you want to see exactly which books I'm talking about, click on the Goodreads link at the top of the page, and choose my "to-read-owned" shelf. It ought to be up to date :)

Winter Reading Challenge - DONE!

Now that the Fall Into Reading challenge is over, it's time to start the Winter version - the Winter Reading Challenge, running from December 22nd to March 19th. The rules are the same as for the FIR challenge - you set your own goals.

Again, since it runs for 12 weeks, I've picked 12 books to read. Hopefully that won't tax my already busy reading schedule too much ;)

I've picked the following books to read:

• Terrier (Beka Cooper #1) - Tamora Pierce
  
• The Last Jew - Noah Gordon
  
• Looking Forward - Marcia Willett
  
• Around the World in 80 Days - Jules Verne
  
• The Hiding Place - Corrie ten Boom
  
• Diary of a Young Girl - Anne Frank
  
• Wild Magic - Tamora Pierce
  
• Wolf Speaker - Tamora Pierce
  
• Emperor Mage - Tamora Pierce
  
• The Realms of the Gods - Tamora Pierce
  
• Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH - Robert O'Brien
  
• The Stormcaller - Jacob L. Grant
  

Subject to change if I get completely stuck ;-)

Fall Into Reading 2007 - Wrap Up

The Fall Into Reading Challenge ended yesterday. I'd decided to read 13 books for the challenge - one for each week the challenge covered. It was close, but I managed to finish the last one before the challenge ended. Here are the 13 books I picked with a link to the review of each book at my book review blog.

• PS, I Love You - Cecilia Ahern
  
• Flowers in the Attic - Virginia Andrews
  
• Noughts and Crosses - Malorie Blackman
  
• The Book Of Lost Things - John Connolly
  
• Over Sea, Under Stone (The Dark Is Rising 1) - Susan Cooper
  
• The Big Over Easy - Jasper Fforde
  
• Inkheart - Cornelia Funke
  
• The Stand - Stephen King
  
• Rikki-Tikki-Tavi - Rudyard Kipling
  
• My Best Friend's Girl - Dororthy Koomson
  
• Lords and Ladies - Terry Pratchett
  
• Taken on Trust - Terry Waite
  
• To Say Nothing Of The Dog - Connie Willis

This was my first challenge, and I have to say I enjoyed the experience. I've never been very structured in my reading, so making a list 3 months in advance and actually sticking to it (even if I did read a lot of other books in those months too) was a novelty to me. I may get tired of it after away and want to resort to my unstructured reading again (especially with all the challenges I've got going for next year... I'll have to remind myself to not be afraid of dropping out if it takes the fun out of reading), but for the time being it's fun!

I was really lucky in that I enjoyed all the books I'd chosen, but think the most pleasant surprise was My Best Friend's Girl - I'd expected a very shallow book, but ended up with one that made me laugh, cry and - most importantly - think.

Lords and Ladies - Terry Pratchett

By finishing Lords and Ladies by Terry Pratchett, I've managed to finish all challenges for 2007. Now I can get a head-start on those that spand the New Year until a load of new ones start on January 1st ;)

Over Sea, Under Stone - Susan Cooper

I've finished the first book in The Dark is Rising Sequence: Over Sea, Under Stone. It was okay, but didn't leave me rushing to read the rest of the series. We'll see if I like TDIR any better.

To Say Nothing of the Dog - Connie Willis

I found it very difficult to get properly interested in To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis, so it wasn't until I was half way through that I got to the point where I couldn't put it down, which is why it took me a lot longer to read than I'd have expected. All done now though, and only missing another 2 books to finish my Fall Into Reading challenge.

TBR Challenge 2008 - DONE

Yesssss!!! The TBR Challenge 2008 is finally up. I've literally been waiting for this for 6 months, as I was too late to join the 2007 one (not discovering it until July, that's fair enough).

The challenge is: In 2008 read 12 books that have been on your 'to-read' list for more than 6 months. I'm going to expand it and say the 12 books HAVE to be books I already own, in order to make a dent in my ever increasing pile of unread-but-owned-books.

There's my list:

• Wild Swans - Jung Chang
  
• The Red Tent - Anita Diamant
  
• The Dark Is Rising - Susan Cooper
  
• A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini
  
• Seven For A Secret - Victoria Holt
  
• The Color Purple - Alice Walker
  
• Dragonflight - Anne McCaffrey
  
• Winnie-the-Pooh - A.A. Milne
  
• Stolen Lives - Malika Oufkir
  
• Bitten - Kelley Armstrong
  
• 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea - Jules Verne
  
• Looking Forward - Marcia Willett
  

My Best Friend's Girl - Dorothy Koomson

I'm having great luck with chick-lit these days. My Best Friend's Girl is yet another in a fortunately growing line of not-shallow-chick-lit. It's very sweet, very sad and very thought-provoking. I highly recommend it.

The Stand - Stephen King

I finally managed to finish The Stand by Stephen King. Very unlike me this one took about 3 weeks to read! Not because it was bad, nor even because it was terribly long (sure 1007 pages is a lot, but I've read that in less time before), but despite liking it it was just a slow read. Anyway, it's done now and I can strike yet another book off my Fall Into Reading list :)

The Big Over Easy - Jasper Fforde

Yesterday I finally managed to finish The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde. An absolutely delightful book that I highly recommend to anybody - especially people who enjoy bibliographies.

The Neverending Story - Michael Ende

By reading The Neverending Story by Michael Ende I've managed to complete the Bibliography Challenge!! That's two down... a whole lot to go :)

Noughts & Crosses - Malorie Blackman

I've just finished Malorie Blackman's "Noughts & Crosses" and loved it. Link will be up as soon as I get the review written. Link is up :) This was my first book for the Speculative Fiction challenge.

April Fool's Day - Bryce Courtenay

I've managed to finish my first book for the Whitcoulls Challenge: April Fool's Day by Bryce Courtenay. It's an angry and a heart-breaking book. I highly recommend it

What's In A Name - DONE

I wasn't going to sign up for more challenges, but the can be completed using only one new book, and the premise is fun, so I'm going to try anyway :) Cross-overs are encouraged, but no book can be read for two categories.

Dates: January 1, 2008 through December 31, 2008

The Challenge: Choose one book from each of the following categories.

1. A book with a color in its title. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
2. A book with an animal in its title. The Clan of the Cave Bears by Jean M. Auel
3. A book with a first name in its title. LOTS of possibilities here. Probably Charlotte's Web, although Mary Poppins, Mathilda and The Diary of Anne Frank* are also options.
4. A book with a place in its title. Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi.
5. A book with a weather event in its title. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
6. A book with a plant in its title. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver.

* That's the Danish title, so I'd say it counts :)

Flowers in the Attic - Virginia Andrews

By finishing Flowers in the Attic by Virginia Andrews I've finished my first challenge!! "Anyone For 2nds" is now completed :)

Taken on Trust - Terry Waite

I've just finished Taken on Trust by Terry Waite, which covers a whole lot of challenges and is absolutely fascinating. Go read it!

Speculative Fiction Challenge - DONE

In Speculative Fiction the action of the story can take place in a culture that never existed, a world we know nothing of, or an earth that might have been or might be, to name a few. ... This distinctiveness is best illustrated in the primary question asked by the writers of Speculative Fiction,
"What if?" ... this genre has a special capacity to deal with the human equation.

Read six books within the speculative fiction umbrella. That is: fantasy, sci-fi, alternative history and magic realism.

My path is A Theoretical Handbook For the Unseasoned Speculator: otherwise known as the speculative fiction buffet, meaning a mixture of all genres.

My picks:
4 fantasy: Tamora Pierce's "Wild Magic" quartet:
Wild Magic
Wolf Speaker
Emperor Mage
The Realms of the Gods
2 alternative history: "The Dark is Rising" by Susan Cooper
"Noughts and Crosses" by Malorie Blackman.

Alternatives are "Rebel Angels", "The House of the Spirits", "Ironweed", "Xenocide" or the next Thursday Next novel (I've read the two first), but if time gets short, I'll add another fantasy book instead - like "Lords and Ladies".