The Reading Challenge Group discussion

I set myself a target of 50 books this year, but only managed about half of that! So 50 books again feels a bit ambitious. Having said that, during the last couple of months I have been using Goodreads more, and doing so seems to have increased my reading rate - I've regained a certain excitement about books that at some point along the way I think I had lost. It's what has inspired me to start blogging, and I think blogging itself serves as an extra motivation to keep reading, so that I will have stuff to write about! So, despite my failure this year, I think 50 books in 2014 should be achievable!

I'm not sure yet what books I am going to read, or even how I'm going to select from my ever growing TBR list! I'm going to aim for a mix of genres I think, and I think I may throw in some titles I haven't read in a long time to reread.

I'm going to take some time to look at other people's challenge ideas too, as I think I may select a small number of books from different challenges (eg 6 classics I've never read, 6 chosen at random from my TBR list, 6 I can link in an associative chain, etc etc). But I'm not committing myself yet, as I may well end up just picking whatever as the mood takes me!

Challenge 1: The following 12 books (2 may be substituted for the alternates)

1. Alias Grace
2. Anna Karenina
3. The Book Thief
4. Brideshead Revisited
5. The Great Gatsby
6. Incarceron
7. Never Let Me Go
8. The Princess Bride - read
9. Rebecca - read
10. The Red Queen
11. The Time Traveler's Wife
12. A Wizard of Earthsea

Alternates:

1. Middlemarch
2. The Neverending Story - read

Challenge 2: 12 books from outside of my comfort zone

I will add to this challenge as I go along, but basically 12 books that are from genres I don't often read, by authors I've not read before, and that I probably would delay reading if not for this challenge.

1. Here be Dragons
2. The Goldfinch
3. The Luminaries
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.

Wow :) Good luck Lian.
You should watch Never Let Me Go ( the movie ) after you read the novel :) it's really good.

Thanks, Emad :)

Nice selections! You'll have a great reading year. :)

You've got some amazing selections in that first challenge!

Alias Grace, The Book Thief, Rebecca and Middlemarch are all up there in my favourite novels collection!

Good luck Lian. The Princess Bride is a pretty good read plus the movie is awesome too! ^_^

Thanks Faye, Holly and Amber :)

Amber> I totally agree with you about the film for The Princess Bride - I must have watched it a gazillion times, and pretty sure I could quote most of it word perfect! It's long overdue for me to read the book!

:-) no problem and awesome!

so how's your reading going lian? just curious. hope it is well.

Great list Lian! I hope that the challenge is going well for you. Have you read anything that you have really enjoyed?

Well, I've been away from goodreads for some time, due to not being too well, so my reading has been mostly pretty random and I'd all but forgotten the challenges I set for myself. It seems I need to get a bit of a shift on!

Thankfully, I have read a couple of the ones on my first list, but it looks like I need to get a bit more selective about what I pick out of my TBR pile if I'm to complete these challenges in the few months I have left! I still need to decide on some more books for challenge 2. Hmmm.

In fact, if anyone has any suggestions for books I might try, then please do suggest them :)

I hope you're feeling better now! I find being on Goodreads has increased by reading pace a lot. I find it quite addictive to find all the books I am reading and update on the actual reading.

Here are my favourites so far this year, hope it helps:
- The Ocean at the End of the Lane - it was definitely out of my comfort zone and I loved it
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- I Capture the Castle
- The Complete Maus (a graphic novel)
- The Help
- Sapphire Skies
- The Bronze Horseman