Michelle’s Comments (group member since Dec 21, 2014)

Michelle’s comments from the 2015 Reading Challenge [Closed] group.

Nope, I think I stole it from you. I just changed it to that because it was ever-changing but I didn't realize it was yours, haha. I think I subconsciously must have seen it somewhere and kept it in my head. Oops!

Congrats, Silvia!

Done! Now I've got 7 hours to relax before 2016 starts! ;)

Thanks! I am optimistic that 2016 will go much more smoothly. I'm glad I was able to finish the year strong and, hopefully, make up for lost modding time. :P

I have conquered you 2015! Mwahahahahaha! Victory is mine!

Er... *cough* pardon me. I just stopped by to say I finished today. :)

What was your reading goal for 2015? Did you accomplish it?
I started out just wanting to read the 52 books for the challenge. But GoodReads was counting all the comic books I read at the beginning of the year towards my total, so I upped it to 60 books to balance it out. When all is said and done, I believe I'll end the year at 62 books.

What was your favorite book (or books) of the year?
Ready Player One seemed tailor-made for me. It is chock full of 80's pop culture and gamer references that made me feel like I was sharing an inside joke with the author as I read. All references aside though, it was an entertaining quest-driven story that I thoroughly enjoyed.

The 5th Wave and The Infinite Sea were the surprise hits of the year for me. If not for this challenge, I probably wouldn't have picked them up. What a shame that would have been because, wow, these were intense and thought-provoking.

Flowers for Algernon was the never read in school selection I chose. This book is staggering in it's emotional complexity. It is so good and stunning and heartbreaking and beautiful and just... all the feels. All of them! I highly recommend this to every person ever!

The Help was a re-read, my third re-read of this book, but it's one of my favorites. I like to re-visit it now and again for the warm and wonderful characters. Every time I finish it I feel like I'm saying goodbye to dear friends.

What was your least favorite book (or books) of the year?
Oof, this was a year of bad reads, unfortunately. Anne & Henry was just awful. It was an awful, awful, awful re-telling of the romance between Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn set in a modern high school. I had a feeling going in that this wasn't going to be literary gold but I'm a big Anne Boleyn fan so I had to give it a shot. I had no idea it was going to be that terrible. Half of this book is Henry and Anne talking about each other's rockin' bods. It's just total crap.

Then there was Me and Earl and the Dying Girl which I hoped would be both heart-tugging and humorous. Big no on that. It was trying too hard to be funny, completely missing the mark, and was, at times, borderline racist.

I've read a little of Cecelia Ahern and find her work to be mostly charming and only slightly saccharine. The Gift was preachy, patronizing, and a stale take on a Christmas tale as old as time.

The Book Thief was just annoying. How a book with a narrator as aggravating as this one has managed to capture such a devoted following is beyond my understanding. The book I was reading was full of bland characters, shoddy narration, and a transparent plot. I'm sorry! Don't throw things at me! :P

Illusive is a perfect example of how I get drawn in by these enticing taglines that leave me so unfulfilled. *sigh* This was tagged as Ocean's Eleven meets X-Men. Seriously, who doesn't want to read that?! This could have been that but it felt lazy and rushed and disjointed instead. Poor execution, my friends.

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail is another one of those everyone loves it but me books. I found this wearisome. Mostly because I feel like for all her so-called moments of clarity throughout the book, Cheryl Strayed seems to have learned nothing from the experience.

Who was your favorite character (or characters) of the year?
As a gamer, I was particularly attached to Wade Watts and all his virtual friends in Ready Player One. I love, love, love the wonderful cast of characters in The Help that keep me coming back to this book again and again. I found Don Tillman from The Rosie Project to be irresistible with his eccentricities. Aya from Carnival of Secrets was a real kick-ass girl fighter. I loved her tenacity but the book was disappointing.

Who was your least favorite character (or characters) of the year?
Nathaniel Sorrows from The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender of Ava Lavender. I'm usually all about a good villain but this guy was just a total creep. There's dull as dirty dishwater Liesel Meminger from The Book Thief. Whiney, clingy, pitiful Beryl from The Amaranth Enchantment made me cringe quite a bit.

What was your favorite book cover (or book covers) from this year?
My favorite part! Pretty covers! I'm just going to leave this here. *swoon*



Which book surprised you most this year?
It is a toss up between The 5th Wave and The Good Girl. Both were books I only picked up to satisfy challenge requirements and both of them were much better than I would have expected them to be.

Did you discover anything new about your reading tastes?
I learned that I don't have quite the aversion to mysteries/thrillers I thought I did and that graphic novels have some really wonderful stories. I'm hoping I can get better adjusted to the reading style of graphic novels in 2016 which is my only real hang up with them at this point.

Do you have any reading regrets this year?
I regret that I didn't get to read some of the books I had originally chosen for my 2015 reading plan. I'm hoping I'll be able to squeeze some of them in for 2016. I also regret that I didn't read more of the GoodReads Choice selections this year. Okay, I regret that I didn't get around to reading any of the GoodReads Choice selections this year.

What is your reading goal for 2016?
I want to be the girl who reads everything in 2016! Mostly I want to finish the three major challenges I'm taking on, re-read the Harry Potter series, and shrink my TBR. But, really, that last one is probably never going to happen. :P

Keep at it, Rebekah! Whether you finish or not, you'll know you worked at it till the very end! I've got 4 books left myself.

I'm hyped for 2016! I want it to be my biggest year yet. :)

So proud of you! Woohoo! Congrats!

The 2015 reading year is drawing to a close. We hope you were all able to make all your reading goals a reality. If not, there are still a couple of weeks to make it happen!

On behalf of all the mods here, thank you for a tremendous year! We hope, if you haven't already, that you consider joining us in the new 2016 group for more reading challenge fun. We've been working hard (and will continue to work hard) to bring you all the content, features, and discussion you've come to expect from this group.

Since the year is coming to an end, let us reflect on what we've accomplished for the year!

WRAP UP QUESTIONS

What was your reading goal for 2015? Did you accomplish it?

What was your favorite book (or books) of the year?

What was your least favorite book (or books) of the year?

Who was your favorite character (or characters) of the year?

Who was your least favorite character (or characters) of the year?

What was your favorite book cover (or book covers) from this year?

Which book surprised you most this year?

Did you discover anything new about your reading tastes?

Do you have any reading regrets this year?

What is your reading goal for 2016?

I really enjoyed this too. It wasn't the most technically well written book (lots of editing errors) but I think anyone who loves The Princess Bride would appreciate this. It was a really fun read.

Marta wrote: "I have finished on the 9th but keep reading. I can't believe I read 80 books this year. Add that I only read 6 books until the end of May. That is when I decided to quit that job that was killing m..."

Yeah, I keep wondering how much more I would have read if I hadn't taken that four month hiatus. :/

I still have seven books left and I'm really pushing myself to complete this challenge before year's end. I know I can do it (even if time doesn't seem to be on my side). I know I will feel proud of myself and accomplished if I can meet my goal, so I'm focusing on that. My biggest hurdle right now is trying to find a trilogy to read. I am really struggling to find one that interests me. I read the first book in the Graceling trilogy earlier this week and didn't much care for it so, of course, I have no real desire to continue the series.

Tonight I think I'm going to start on either Clockwork Angel or Unearthly.

That is good to know, about The Martian. I didn't find the premise all that appealing either. :x Maybe I'll give it a shot.

The trilogy is killing me too. I even swapped out for an easier one and I'm still having the damnedest time getting it done. According to this I'm 8% (4 books) behind schedule. But I usually am able to get through 1 or 2 on my days off. I hope I make it!

But, yes, Kaye, you're so correct! What a thrilling and exciting reading year this has been. I've made some terrific GR friends. I've experienced books and genres and authors I would have never given a second glance and actually enjoyed them more than I thought I would. I have had so much fun and it has made me want to challenge myself even more. Thank you all for being part of this! Hope to see you all next year reading along.

Zaz, girl, you are a reading machine! I am very impressed with your reading prowess.

I own this one on Kindle too but just never got around to reading it. A couple of my 2016 challenges require a book that was translated into English from another language so maybe next year I'll get to give it a go?

Awesome work, Ed! Keep it going! You're almost there.

Keri, hmm... you seem to have some eclectic tastes. I like that! If you like romances that aren't too intrusive, might I suggest The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion. I just finished it yesterday and found it humorous and light-hearted. If you watch The Big Bang Theory you'll see shades of Sheldon Cooper in the main character Don Tillman.

I think my favorite read of this year has been The 5th Wave. It was surprisingly layered and well crafted.

These were my final stats at midnight.

How many pages have you read? I finished with 808 pages read this week.

What are you reading now? I finished the Read-a-Thon still reading The Delta Anomaly, A New Hope: The Princess, the Scoundrel, and the Farm Boy, and The Rosie Project.

What have you finished reading? I finished My True Love Gave to Me: Twelve Holiday Stories, The Gift, and three issues of The Wicked + The Divine (The Wicked + The Divine #9, The Wicked + The Divine #10, The Wicked + The Divine #11).