2015 Reading Challenge [Closed] discussion

The results are in! There was a pretty clear top 4 this time .

1. A book from the top 100 mystery novels
2. A childhood classic (i.e. Anne of Green Gables, Black Beauty, The Secret Garden, etc.)
3. A non-fiction book
4. The highest-rated book on your to-read list

So the 'highest rated book on your to-read list' will replace 'a book on your to-read list'.

The list for the top 100 mystery novels can be found at: https://www.librarything.com/bookawar...

Suggestions for the 10th mini-poll will open on Sunday, September 27.

2 of these were I'm my top 5 so I am happy with that.

I have an issue with the highest rated book on your TBR list though. The highest ones on mine are later books in series that I don't plan on reading this year. Can we just choose one near the top?

Is anyone familiar with the works of Agatha Christie? Do you have to read her books in order or are they stand alones? I guess this is more in regards to her Miss Marple and Hercule Periot series.

Charity wrote: "I have an issue with the highest rated book on your TBR list though. The highest ones on mine are later books in series that I don't plan on reading this year. Can we just choose one near the top?"

I've just had a look at mine and pretty much all the highest rated ones are books that haven't even been released yet, and I'm guessing are being given ratings based on the author alone, or they've only been rated by, like, 3 people. So I'm not sure what I'm going to do on that one at the moment.

I don't see any issue with manipulating it so that it realistically fits. If it's not a book that makes sense for you to read yet (i.e. later in a series) then I would just skip that on the TBR list and go to next highest.

Francesca > My highest rated is also rated by only a few people. Right now the book sounds good but when it comes time to read I'll probably just choose between the top 2 :)

Laura wrote: " My highest rated is also rated by only a few people. Right now the book sounds good but when it comes time to read I'll probably just choose between the top 2 :) "

That's a good idea! I think those books sound good but I just don't know how reliable a few people's ratings are. Especially as some of them aren't even out yet.

I've also found that ratings change quickly. The books that were at the top when the category was suggested are not the same as the top now. One of them was a book that was recently released and it dropped from the top pretty quickly.

Manda wrote: "This may be a dumb question, but how do you see the ratings in order? In my TBR list, I have it sort by rating, and they're all mixed around. There is no real order to the ratings. it doesn't ma..."

Double check whether it's the avg. rating and not your rating (I kept doing that for ages before realising my error) but if that's not the issue here then I have no idea. Mine just sorts itself out into the ascending or descending order. Although I can only do that on my laptop or my computer, it doesn't seem to work on other devices.

I really wouldn't get too caught up in following the challenge perfectly. If the ratings change then just pick whatever one sounds good to you: the original book that was the highest rated or the new one. I'm sure the spirit of the suggestion will still be fulfilled.

That's what I was using. I just restarted my browser and that seemed to straighten things up. My Books lists have been really weird lately. They keep defaulting back to "Date Added" no matter how many times I try to change it. It's only been the past couple of weeks :/

Manda wrote: "That's what I was using. I just restarted my browser and that seemed to straighten things up. My Books lists have been really weird lately. They keep defaulting back to "Date Added" no matter ho..."

Mine always defaults back to that too! It's really annoying because I usually try to keep it ordered by title.

This sort of off-topic but is everyone sorting by 'date added' (oldest-newest) for the 16th book on TBR?

Laura wrote: "This sort of off-topic but is everyone sorting by 'date added' (oldest-newest) for the 16th book on TBR?"

That's how I did it!

Laura wrote: "This sort of off-topic but is everyone sorting by 'date added' (oldest-newest) for the 16th book on TBR?"

I searched by "position".

Manda wrote: "Is anyone familiar with the works of Agatha Christie? Do you have to read her books in order or are they stand alones? I guess this is more in regards to her Miss Marple and Hercule Periot series."

It never ocurred to me that their books could follow a sequence... :S Anyway, I have read some of them in any order and I have enjoyed them a lot, I would consider them as stand alone, because the only thing in comun is the detective (sometimes Poirot, sometimes Miss Marple). I have read a couple of books where sometimes they make references to previous cases or characters... but not so much, and that was never an issue to understand or enjoy the book.

Silvia wrote: "Manda wrote: "Is anyone familiar with the works of Agatha Christie? Do you have to read her books in order or are they stand alones? I guess this is more in regards to her Miss Marple and Hercule..."

Awesome! Thanks :) Murder on The Orient Express it is.

Yippee! All of these were in my top 4.

Manda wrote: "Is anyone familiar with the works of Agatha Christie? Do you have to read her books in order or are they stand alones? I guess this is more in regards to her Miss Marple and Hercule Periot series."

And Then There Were None is a standalone as well - I read it this year for the mystery week. It is an absolute cracker! If all of her books are as good as that one, it's no wonder she's the queen of mysteries.

And yay, I think 3/4 of my choices made it! Not that I can ever remember what I voted for.

Non-fiction. Ugh!

I love Agatha Christie!

A childhood classic, I'm so happy :D (I'm not sure I voted for this as I read them all over the year).
I didn't voted for the Non fiction, but I've some non fiction books I didn't read on my shelves and there is this new book about Back to The Future which will be released soon (it would be a very nice excuse to buy it :p).
Others are good, so it's a nice batch.

I will be honest in saying I probably won't do the 16th book because my goal is to not buy any new books that aren't part of my series and I would have to for that. I will probably just pick one in that general area that I already own.

Ella wrote: "Non-fiction. Ugh!

I love Agatha Christie!"

I agree - I struggle with non-fiction. I haven't done my non-fiction one for this year yet either.

Yay, it's everything I voted for! :D

I struggled with reading non-fiction also but I try to tell myself that it's pushing me to read something new. A lot of the other ones allow me to fit in my regular books. So while those challenges fulfill the goal of increasing my reading, the genre challenge push me in a different way.

I am very happy with the winners. 3 of the 4 I voted for made it and the other winner I ranked 6. I'm loving most of the winners so far and really can't wait until next year.

Bec wrote: "Ella wrote: "Non-fiction. Ugh!

I love Agatha Christie!"

I agree - I struggle with non-fiction. I haven't done my non-fiction one for this year yet either."

Try reading On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, it's non-fiction, but it doesn't feel like that at all and if your are interested in writting, this could be useful too.

A non-fiction book could be a biography or autobiography as well, you could read a travel book, a sports book, a craft book, a book about computers or even at a push a mytholgy one.

I almost consider the "16th book" as a reader's choice... I have my list sorted by position and have my books ranked by the top 20 I'm interested in at this time...but it changes regularly, so book 16 changes all the time. Honestly, I'll probably substitute it for another topic I wanted that didn't make the list.

For people struggling with non-fiction, it's an extremely broad topic. I understand where people are coming from thinking "non-fiction" is inherently dry, but there are a lot of subgenres that are really quite interesting.

Personally I really enjoy memoirs or accounts of historical events of note or the odd scientific book. I find WW2 memoirs intriguing, Band of Brothers being a great one. Other personal favourites I would highly recommend are:

1 - A Long Way Gone - the personal account of a child soldier from Sierra Leone. Very moving and powerful

2 - Through the Glass - personal account of the author whose husband committed violent crimes 2 months into their marriage. A very good look into the (Canadian) criminal justice system from a unique perspective - not the victim or the perpetrator, but someone still involved and affected. Also an interesting look at the stigma involved in being married to a violent offender.

3 - The Grand Design - Really interesting book with Stephen Hawking explaining his theories in layman's terms. A really interesting look at the universe.

Bec wrote: "Ella wrote: "Non-fiction. Ugh!
I love Agatha Christie!"
I agree - I struggle with non-fiction. I haven't done my non-fiction one for this year yet either."

There is such a wide variety of non-fiction that I'm sure you'll find something that you'll like. I have over 800 books on my TBR non-fiction shelf; feel free to take a look, there might be something there that inspires you.

I used to be the same with non-fiction and it was for no real reason at all but my mind would just go 'Non-fiction, ew, boring' but now I love a lot of non-fiction books and really enjoy reading them. Of course, it still depends on what the book is about. You just need to find the right topics that interest you.

I have about 40 non-fiction books sitting to my left right now, just looking at me. I always intend to read them, but just never seem to get around to it! The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales is probably my favourite non-fiction book though - it's really interesting.

Camilla wrote: "Bec wrote: "Ella wrote: "Non-fiction. Ugh!
I love Agatha Christie!"
I agree - I struggle with non-fiction. I haven't done my non-fiction one for this year yet either."

There is such a wide variet..."
Thanks - I had a look at your list and realised I actually had some of them on my kindle - I need to get out of the mindset that non-fiction is "learning"/textbook type stuff. I have some parenting books on my bedside table but I don't read the whole thing just bits as needed. I've gone to my memoir's/bibliography folder - I have 46 books in there - and have chosen one for this year's challenge and I'm not so put off for the non fiction for 2016 any more.