2017 Reading Challenges

This year I’m embarking on a year-long book buying ban.  I have over 200 books sitting in my house waiting to be read, and I work at a freaking library for goodness sake.  I should be able to do this.  But when I fail, I’ll keep track of my failure here.  I’m also tracking some other goals on this page with the actual challenges.

Back to the Classics 2017  (7/12)

  • Need to finish at least 6 categories
  • Books need to have been written prior to 1967.
The Categories:
 
  1. 19th Century Classic:  Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
  2. 20th Century Classic:  Giovanni’s Room
  3. Classic by a woman author:  Little Women
  4. Classic in Translation:
  5. Classic published before 1800:
  6. Romance Classic:  Persuasion
  7. Gothic/Horror Classic:
  8. Classic with a Number in the Title:
  9. Classic about an Animal/Animal in the Title:  Lord of the Flies
  10. Classic set in a place I’d like to visit:  Wide Sargasso Sea
  11. Award Winning Classic:  From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
  12. Russian Classic:
 
POPSUGAR’s 2017 Reading Challenge   (35/40 and 9/12)
  1. A book recommended by a librarian:  Small Great Things
  2. A book that’s been on my TBR list for way too long:  Little Women
  3. A book of letters:  Hey Harry, Hey Matilda
  4. An audiobook:  Stargirl
  5. A book by a person of color:  Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
  6. A book with one of the four seasons in the title:
  7. A book that is a story within a story  The Professor’s House
  8. A book with multiple authors  My Lady Jane
  9. An espionage thriller
  10. A book with a cat on the cover We are Never Meeting in Real Life 
  11. A book by an author who uses a pseudonym  Come Back to Me
  12. A bestseller from a genre you don’t normally read  Astrophysics for People in a Hurry
  13. A book by or about a person who has a disability  The Last Leaves Falling
  14. A book involving travel  Isla and the Happily Ever After
  15. A book with a subtitle  We Were Feminists Once:  From Riot Grrrl to Covergirl, the Buying and Selling of a Political Movement
  16. A book that’s published in 2017  History Is All You Left Me
  17. A book involving a mythical creature  Carry On
  18. A book I’ve read before that never fails to make me smile  Anna and the French Kiss
  19. A book about food  Lighter than my Shadow
  20. A book with career advice
  21. A book from a nonhuman perspective
  22. A steampunk novel  The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
  23. A book with a red spine  The Hate U Give
  24. A book set in the wilderness  The Stranger in the Woods
  25. A book I loved as a child  From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
  26. A book by an author from a country I’ve never visited  Wide Sargasso Sea
  27. A book with a title that’s a character’s name  Lola and the Boy Next Door
  28. A novel set during wartime  Lord of the Flies
  29. A book with an unreliable narrator Challenger Deep
  30. A book with pictures  The Astronaut Wives Club
  31. A book where the main character is a different ethnicity than me  Paper Boats
  32. A book about an interesting woman  Circling the Sun
  33. A book set in two different time periods  Love and Other Consolation Prizes
  34. A book with a month or day of the week in the title  The Wednesday Wars
  35. A book set in a hotel  Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
  36. A book written by someone I admire  March Trilogy
  37. A book that’s becoming a movie in 2017
  38. A book set around a holiday other than Christmas There’s Someone Inside Your House
  39. The first book in a series I haven’t read before  To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before
  40. A book I bought on a trip  The Names They Gave Us
*Advanced categories
  1. A book recommended by an author I love
  2. A bestseller from 2016  The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo
  3. A book with a family-member term in the title  The Silent Wife
  4. A book that takes place over a character’s life span  The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
  5. A book about an immigrant or refugee  Brooklyn
  6. A book from a genre/subgenre I’ve that I’ve never heard of
  7. A book with an eccentric character
  8. A book that’s more than 800 pages A Storm of Swords
  9. A book I got from a used book sale  The Bell Jar
  10. A book that’s been mentioned in another book  Men Explain Things to Me
  11. A book about a difficult topic  Everyday Sexism
  12. A book based on mythology Norse Mythology

 
 
 
Book Buying Ban broken:  June 6, 2017        
How many books I purchased this year for me:  7 (+6 with birthday gift cards)
 
 
 
 
 
 

#Readmyowndamnbooks

  1.   Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
  2.   Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins
  3.   Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins
  4.   All Broke Down by Cora Carmack
  5.   Carry On by Rainbow Rowell
  6.   Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
  7.   Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín
  8.   The Astronaut Wives Club by Lily Koppel
  9.   Geekerella by Ashley Poston
  10.   Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
  11.   Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
  12. Paper Boats by Dee Lestari
  13. A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin 
  14. The Last Leaves Falling by Fox Benwell
  15. To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han
  16. Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman
  17. Yes Please by Amy Poehler
  18. Big Girl Panties by Stephanie Evanovich
  19. Coming Up for Air by Miranda Kenneally
  20. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
  21. Solo by Kwame Alexander
  22. The Names They Gave Us by Emery Lord
  23. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
  24. Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson
  25. P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han
  26. There’s Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins
  27. Persuasion by Jane Austen
  28. War of Streets and Houses by Sophie Yanow
  29. Love and Other Consolation Prizes by Jamie Ford
  30. Royally Matched by Emma Chase
  31. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
  32. Letters to the Lost by Brigid Kemmerer
  33. Young Jane Young by Gabrielle Zevin
  34. The Essential Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson
  35. The Anatomical Shape of a Heart by Jenn Bennett
  36. The Professor’s House by Willa Cather
  37. All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
  38. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
  39. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
  40. In Honor by Jessi Kirby
  41. Charm & Strange by Stephanie Kuehn
  42. Ramona Blue by Julie Murphy
  43. The Program by Suzanne Young
  44. Mrs. Fletcher by Tom Perrotta

 

Reading All Around the World (8/50)

Hosted by Jean at Howling Frog Books;
Track “where” I’ve read for five years, reach 50 different countries by January 1, 2022.  Fiction by authors who do not/have not lived in that country to not count.  I’m starting January 1, 2017.

 

 ‘Just for fun’ – Keep track of the states in which the books I’m reading are set:  (25/50)

I’ve done this for a couple of years now.  Also tracking countries that do not count in the “Reading All Around the World” Challenge as it is fiction by an author that has not lived in that country for a significant period of time.

  1. Alabama –                                                      
  2. Alaska –
  3. Arizona    – Stargirl
  4. Arkansas
  5. California  –   Lola and the Boy Next Door, Alex, Approximately, Goodbye Vitamin, The Anatomical Shape of a Heart, Come Back to Me, A Circle of Wives
  6. Colorado  – 
  7. Connecticut – Small Great Things 
  8. Delaware
  9. Florida  – Young Jane Young
  10. Georgia  
  11. Hawaii   
  12. Idaho – Twist
  13. Illinois  – The Silent Wife
  14. Indiana   – All the Bright Places
  15. Iowa  –
  16. Kansas   – 
  17. Kentucky – Long Way Home
  18. Louisiana 
  19. Maine  – The Stranger in the Woods, Carrie
  20. Maryland  The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, The Upside of Unrequited, Letters to the Lost
  21. Massachusetts –  Little Women, Civil Disobedience, The Bell Jar, Mrs. Fletcher
  22. Michigan –  The Names They Gave Us
  23. Minnesota
  24. Mississippi – Ramona Blue
  25. Missouri  – 
  26. Montana  –
  27. Nebraska There’s Someone Inside Your House
  28. Nevada  – 
  29. New Hampshire  
  30. New Jersey – Big Girl Panties
  31. New Mexico
  32. New York  –  History Is All You Left Me, The Wednesday Wars, Brooklyn, 99 Days, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, My Name is Lucy Barton
  33. North Carolina 
  34. North Dakota
  35. Ohio  – 
  36. Oklahoma  Some Assembly Required
  37. Oregon  – The Program
  38. Pennsylvania  – 
  39. Rhode Island  – 
  40. South Carolina – Geekerella
  41. South Dakota
  42. Tennessee Coming Up for Air, The Whole Way Home
  43. Texas   – All Lined Up, All Broke Down , In Honor
  44. Utah – By Your Side
  45. Vermont   – Charm & Strange
  46. Virginia – To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, P.S. I Still Love You, Always and Forever, Lara Jean
  47. Washington – Love and Other Consolation Prizes, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
  48. West Virginia  
  49. Wisconsin  –
  50. Wyoming
  • Middle East
  • North America
  • South America
  • South Pacific
Monthly Stats:
  • January
    • Total Books – 13
    • Total Pages  – 3,627
    • Female Authors – 11
    • POC – 1
    • Nonfiction – 3
    • LGBTQ – 0
  • February
    • Total Books – 10
    • Total Pages – 2,783
    • Female Authors – 7
    • POC – 2
    • Nonfiction – 3
    • LGBTQ – 3
  • March
    • Total Books – 14
    • Total Pages – 3,603
    • Female Authors – 8
    • POC – 6
    • Nonfiction – 7
    • LGBTQ – 0
  • April
    • Total Books – 14
    • Total Pages – 3,294
    • Female Authors – 9
    • POC – 6
    • Nonfiction – 4
    • LGBTQ – 3
  • May
    • Total Books – 4
    • Total Pages  – 1,663
    • Female Authors – 1
    • POC  – 0
    • Nonfiction – 1
    • LGBTQ – 0
  • June
    • Total Books – 13
    • Total Pages – 3,756
    • Female Authors– 10
    • POC  -3
    • Nonfiction –  3
    • LGBTQ – 1
  • July
    • Total Books – 11
    • Total Pages – 3,125
    • Female Authors – 7
    • POC – 6
    • Nonfiction – 2
    • LGBTQ – 2
  • August
    • Total Books – 10
    • Total Pages –  2,812
    • Female Authors – 8
    • POC – 2
    • Nonfiction – 2
    • LGBTQ – 1
  • September
    • Total Books – 7
    • Total Pages – 2,047
    • Female Authors  – 3
    • POC  – 3
    • Nonfiction – 0
    • LGBTQ – 2
  • October
    • Total Books – 10
    • Total Pages – 2,917
    • Female Authors – 8
    • POC  – 1
    • Nonfiction – 3
    • LGBTQ – 0
  • November
    • Total Books – 9
    • Total Pages – 2,535
    • Female Authors – 7
    • POC – 5
    • Nonfiction – 0 
    • LGBTQ – 2
  • December
    • Total Books – 5
    • Total Pages  – 1,600
    • Female Authors  – 3
    • POC – 1
    • Nonfiction – 1
    • LGBTQ – 1

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