Laura’s Comments (group member since Dec 25, 2016)

Laura’s comments from the A challenge of relative ease and merriment 2017 group.

Ack, two days?? LOL--somehow I thought time would go a little slower between Christmas and New Year's! I want to finish The Turn Of The Screw, which is a setup for a book on next year's challenge. . . it's short, but I'm so tired from Christmas!

Anyway, here are the books I counted for it. . . before-1900 was a struggle for me, as perhaps you can guess, because I "cheated" a little by counting a short story. But if I finish The Turn Of The Screw, that will actually work for the category!
a book released in 2017 Behind Her Eyes
a book written before 1900 The Fall of the House of Usher
a non-fiction book Mommy's Little Girl
a kids book The Midwife's Apprentice
a YA novel Paper Towns
a book of fantastical fiction (fantasy/scifi/paranormal) The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August (This was one of my favorite books of the whole year, and the kind of book I will remember for all time!! A Head Full of Ghosts was also awesome.)
a cozy mystery Brownies and Broomsticks (Recommended by Pocki--thanks; it was cute!)
a debut novel Shelter
a book of poetry or drama (that is to say a play, not just ~dramatic~) The Importance of Being Earnest
a biography/autobiography/memoir Beneath the Surface: Killer Whales, SeaWorld, and the Truth Beyond Blackfish
a book written by someone under the age of 30 Calvin and Hobbes (Somebody here recommended this, too, which I appreciate--saved me doing some author-age math!!)
a media tie-in Teen Mom Confidential
an LGBTQIA* book Giovanni's Room (AMAZING!)
a book about food Bento Box in the Heartland: My Japanese Girlhood in Whitebread America
a scary/creepy book Bird Box (Adored this!! Later in the year, Some of Your Blood and I'm Thinking of Ending Things were even better.)
a book that is part of a series but not the first book (this could be a later released prequel though!) A Wind in the Door (Later, Authority, a sequel to a book I read for last year's challenge.)
a Goodreads Choice Awards winner (any year, any category) Eleanor & Park
a book with an animal on the cover Dirty Chick: Adventures of an Unlikely Farmer
a book mostly set in the desert The Martian Chronicles (Thought outside the box a bit. . . Mars is a desert planet.)
a book that was adapted into a movie Firestarter (As I Lay Dying, East of Eden, Rebecca)

Read, read, read, everyone!! I'm off to plug away at The Turn Of The Screw now! XD

This is why I love you and your challenge, Pocki!! You feed the very part of me that craves a reading challenge in the first place. <3

I do sometimes read a cookbook from cover to cover, but I'm aware that it's weird behavior when I do! Usually it's a bread-baking cookbook, or has some kind of theme (like recipes from a certain era or inspired by certain media or something). I did this as a kid, and it's kind of a holdover behavior, I think.

Once I stopped struggling and found cozy mysteries, I discovered that it very much is an actual genre, and it's honestly not my least-favorite genre! ^_^

And yes; I agree with a time being specified for "meaning to read." Technically, I'm meaning to read things right now, but things I only just heard about. ^_^

To me, the treasure-hunting is part of the merriment, and the ease comes up when I realize how many books cross into different categories, and discover new things! Which isn't to say you're wrong; I just feel differently, and maybe the final list could have a blend of specificity level, or optional categories. I really like your category idea about a female author not read previously, and I would tend to agree that a book that the author didn't want published would be a category I probably would abstain from, if chosen.

One of the great things about this challenge, IMO, is that we don't seem to be calling each other out on our picks, so I think a how-to book could be personally defined by each of us with little fuss. . . if anyone is nitpicking, it's probably me just begging for a very specific definition so I can be very strict with myself. XD I think I went a little bit nuts about what EXACTLY a cozy mystery is, so I could be sure to find one, but it was just for fun!

All just my opinions. I love obsessing over this challenge every year. ^_^

If it helps, I took last year's wording very literally. . .

"a book you bought before the start of 2016 but never got around to reading"
So, a book that I personally purchased and paid for, meaning not any gifts or books bought on gift cards or unread library books, and not books in my to-read that I didn't buy at all.

I'm not trying to quibble, and I bet a lot of people did interpret it (quite fairly!) as "meant to read"! I just wanted to explain how it would be a new category for me. :-)

And we do have lots to choose from; that's for sure!!

What's mysterious to me is how I managed to BS reading in elementary school, before I could have read anything about the book. . . I know for a fact that I never read Island Of The Blue Dolphins until a couple years ago, but it was assigned in fifth grade, and I somehow got through the schoolwork. It must have been "what do you think" type questions, more than "what actually happened"!!

But anyway, if you use the category, I definitely think there should be an alternative for people who have never done this, or don't want to admit it! "A book on your to-read for over a year [or more!]" could work, maybe. :-)

That worked out for me in school, too... honestly, if I bought the Cliff's Notes (I'm too old to have had SparkNotes access, sadly), I understood most of the books better than if I'd actually read them. I got better at critical reading as an adult!

Bunny wrote: "Thomas wrote: "- - A book you claim to have read, or discuss like you did, but never have.
:)"

That's an impossible one to fill for some of us - I don't think I've ever done that in my life!"

I think that one should have an alternative, if chosen. . . I've done it, but the only time I can think of now is with the final book in the Twilight series!
Maybe a book that you've pretended to have read, a book you were assigned in school and actually skipped, or a book you've always meant to read?

These are really great and creative suggestions!! I look forward to geeking out over the chosen ones soon. <3

1 book released in 2017
2 book written before 1900
3 non-fiction book
4 kids book
5 YA novel
6 book of fantastical fiction (fantasy/scifi/paranormal)
7 cozy mystery
8 debut novel
(I really enjoyed this one!)
9 book of poetry or drama (that is to say a play, not just ~dramatic~)
10 biography/autobiography/memoir
11 book written by someone under the age of 30
(Thank you so much to Bunny for the tip on this one! I would never have thought to check Watterson's age at the time this was published.)
12 media tie-in (clarification in a thread)
13 LGBTQIA* book
14 book about food
15 scary/creepy book
16 book that is part of a series but not the first book (could be a later released prequel though)
17 Goodreads Choice Awards winner (any year, any category)
18 book with an animal on the cover
19 book mostly set in the desert
20 book that was adapted into a movie

I've also read , which I might count as memoir or might count as an animal on the cover; it depends what I read later in the year. ^_^
I'm working on , a sequel with paranormal elements and an animal on the cover! I'm also finally reading a book that has nothing to do with the challenge and doesn't fit anywhere; I figured I was making enough progress to "allow" that. ^_^

Great job, everyone!! I'm so envious of Cee Cee for getting to read The Particular Sadness Of Lemon Cake for the first time; I really enjoyed that one. ^_^

HAHA!! I think I need to add a "basic biology" category for myself; it's been a long time!! XD

Thanks, Bunny!! I only have a few possibilities listed for that category, if only because it's harder to guess at a glance at my to-read list that a given book might be by a younger author. . . I'd like to read the Calvin and Hobbes collections, challenge or no challenge!

I also have a question: Is a butterfly an animal? I would count dragons or robot animals (or a fake animal, like a Trojan horse), but for some reason, I can't decide if a "bug" is an animal!

I've read I Am Nujood! ^_~ But here's another suggestion for very quick, under-30 debut. . .
Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened

I did find lists on under-30s . . .
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/7...
https://www.buzzfeed.com/randomhouseo...

It's supposed to be a challenge, so it will add a different kind of challenge to that one! XD White Teeth, for me, could work for either that or debut novel. Can't believe I haven't read it yet.

Same worry about under-30! I'm really bad at math, so the whole publication-date-minus-birth-year thing is a little harder than it would be for a normal person. ^_^ I have a few possibilities on my list, but I plan to google it and look for GoodReads lists soon. I might even have a pertinent Buzzfeed list bookmarked somewhere. . .
That will probably be a good overlap category with Debut Novel. . .

Pocki, you have no idea how satisfying that multi-category suggestion is to me. . . definitely putting that on my list!!

Cheering you on for finishing your last 2016 category--you can do it; you're so close!! <3

I did!! LOL--I'm very driven with certain things! ^_^

A cozy mystery about food with an animal on the cover is an excellent strategy, because you can go for whichever category excites you most, out of the three, after that. . . that's how I finished so fast, with such seemingly joyless (but actually quite fun) overthinking strategies! XD

Once I get rolling, it will probably become pretty easy, because I had plenty of "possibilities" from the 2016 challenge leftover. . . and some of them fit into the 2017 challenge, too! It's more these four days, when I don't want to "waste" anything that could fit, that I'm not sure what to read. XD

I will be interested in what people choose for LGBTQIA, btw! If You Could Be Mine is my tentative pick, but I'd love to hear about more fiction in that space.

Hello! I am Laura, and I am slow to introduce myself. XD I was a part of the 2016 challenge, and I think it went great; I have a lot of fun with the strategy of such things, and got around to some reads that have been on my list for awhile with the nudge toward specific genres and categories of books.

I like to read a lot of different things, including trashy memoirs and exposés, and literary fiction that makes me think! There are a number of things I hate to read. . . YA and romance are not my favorites, though I still sometimes read from them. (I always hope YA will get better; I loved "old school YA," like Lois Lowry and Robert Cormier!)

This year, I'm looking forward to the Not The First In A Series category, because I started several series in the 2016 challenge (and I think I was part of the conversation that got that category added)! I'm also looking forward to the kids' book, because I don't allow myself to read enough of those.
I'm a little afraid of the book about food. I don't want to just read a cookbook, and I'm afraid I'm going to start books that seem like they're about food, and discover that they are not. I guess I could read one of my "bread porn" books, about artisanal bread baking! It will make me hungry, but maybe I can make bread first to satiate myself. ^_^
I'm also a little afraid of the cozy mystery, because those really don't appeal to me at all, but I'm also pretty determined to actually read one and find out if I'm judging them unfairly!

I'm an over-planner, and hard at work on my possibilities list already. . . are you guys using a certain method to find books written when the author was under 30, or books that take place in deserts? I have tried just googling it, and looking at the lists here on GoodReads, but it's a little more difficult than something like "Historical Fiction," where books are commonly categorized that way!