MobileRead Book Challenges discussion

Goals:
Complete 100 books
Complete 5 series (either already started or containing 5 or more books)
Complete 15 literary magazines

I also want to participate in more book club readings this year. Gave it a complete break last year. So, my goal is 3 books from each of my bookclubs this year.
FoF
Science Fiction group <---appears to be defunct (darn)
Cozy Murder Mystery
Murder/mystery Group
After Earth group <--BOM seems to have stopped
Dragons & Jetpacks

Books:
1. When Elves Attack
2. The Adventurers
3. Fatally Flaky
4. The Big Kitty
5. Dark Corners
6. Cat in an Alphabet Soup
7. Gods of War
8. Dragon's Eye
9. Murder to Go
10. His Majesty's Dragon
11. Crunch Time
12. The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom
13. Eyeshine
14. Murder at Honeysuckle Hotel
15. The Colonists
16. The Whole Enchilada
17. Dark Holidays: A Collection of Ghost Stories
18. The Mummers' Curse
19. The Bluest Blood
20. Helen Hath No Fury
21. Rogue
22. The Tall Delores
23. The Hero's Guide to Storming the Castle
24. Diabetes for Dummies
25. Starship: Mutiny
26. The Gallant
27. To Your Scattered Bodies Go
28. Star Soldier
29. Free-Range Knitter: The Yarn Harlot Writes Again
30. The Toaster Oven Mocks Me
31. Claire and Present Danger
32. The Hero's Guide to Being an Outlaw
33. The Goldseekers
34. Lose 200 Pounds This Weekend: It's Time to Declutter Your Life!
35. Dragon Lords World: Limited Edition Romance 5 Book Box Set
36. The Cat Who Played Brahms
37. Murder in Moscow
38. Murder on the Orient Express
39. Uprooted
40. To Wed a Wicked Earl
41. Tall, Dark, and Vampire
42. The Empire Builders
43. What an Earl Wants
44. Till the End of Tom
45. A Hole in Juan
46. All's Well That Ends
47. The Seafarers
48. The Vampire's Mail Order Bride
49. The Nationalists
50. The Imperialists
51. Star Born
52. Bite Me If You Can
53. The Accidental Vampire
54. The Werewolf Meets His Match
55. Under Wraps
56. Murder, She Did: 14 Killer Short Stories
57. See Jane Score
58. Mew Is for Murder
59. Flight of the Ferryman
60. The Aeronaut's Windlass
61. Thriller: Stories To Keep You Up All Night
62. How to Live on 24 Hours a Day <--boring!
63. Disengaged
64. The Grand Finale
65. The Fellowship of the Frog (Detective Sgt.
66. Soul Music
67. Below Stairs: The Classic Kitchen Maid's Memoir That Inspired "Upstairs, Downstairs" and "Downton Abbey"
68. Alien Sex: 19 Tales by the Masters of Science Fiction and Dark Fantasy
69. Florida Straits
70. An Innocent Client
71. Sweet Talk
72. Alice in Wonderland
73. Interesting Times
74. Vampires are Forever
75. Ghost Stories of an Antiquary
76. The Long Quiche Goodbye
77. The Island: Complete Collection
78. Charming
79. Maskerade
80. Vampire, Interrupted
81. The Cricket on the Hearth
82. All You Need Is Kill
83.

Magazines:
1. Asimov's Science Fiction, February 2016
2. Asimov's Science Fiction, March 2016
3. Asimov's Science Fiction, August 2015
4. Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, January 2011, Volume 35, No. 1
5.

Series List (partial list) books listed read in 2016

Goldy Shulz Culinary Mysteries (17 books) - COMPLETED FEB 2016!


League of Princes (3 books) COMPLETED April 2016!


Amanda Pepper (14/14) - COMPLETED June 2016!


The Australians (12/12) - COMPLETED AUGUST 2016


Discworld (18/40)


Song of Ice & Fire (0/5)

In Death (12/53)

Jessica Fletcher (10/46) Updated May 2016


Middle Earth 3/5

Argeneau Vampires(9/24) Updated Dec 2016

Book Club Participation

FoF

Cozy Murder Mystery
The Big Kitty
Murder to Go
Eyeshine

Murder/mystery Group
Murder on the Orient Express

After Earth group

Dragons & Jetpacks
Uprooted

First!

Whoo Hoo!

I've always been interested in trying Cozy Mysteries (even bought a few) but have never really gotten around to it.

The Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom series ( Carpe Demon) by Julie Kenner is as close as I've gotten.

A Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom... hmm... now that sounds like a series!! I'll put that on my 'to find' list. Thanks Nyssa!

You have to be into cozies, I think. My Mom is a huge mystery fan, but hates cozies. There ARE a lot of bad cozies out there, but I read a lot of them like beach reads. Something to read on a Saturday afternoon when you don't want to do anything else.

I read The Cat Who series - those are cozy and I love the cats. :)

The MC is a bit of a male chauvinist, however.

Stephanie wrote: "A Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom... hmm... now that sounds like a series!! I'll put that on my 'to find' list. Thanks Nyssa!
"

You are quite welcome. :) I've read 5 out of the 6, and really enjoyed the mix of monster hunting and humor. I plan to reread and complete the series one day.

MrsJoseph wrote: "I read The Cat Who series - those are cozy and I love the cats. :)

The MC is a bit of a male chauvinist, however."

The Cat Who series has been on my "to try" list forever, the sheer number of them, however, is a bit intimidating.

I totally understand! I started a re-read but crashed and burned fast. The entire series is pretty good but I like a lot of the later books more. The first few are pretty classic, though. I think that if you ever want to try again, don't check a bunch out at one time. I think that series is best read really spaced out.

The Cat Who is actually one of my series (just didn't have on the list). I might try the next book (book 5, I think) after this week. :)

There's only 30 books. What's the problem? :)

Well, the first quarter is past now. I'm keeping up on my challenges, more or less. The total count is going well. I am caught up there. Out of my 5 series completion goal, 1 is done, 2 more will be done. No idea if I will get 2 more to make the 5, but I will certainly try. Currently set to be completed yet are the Amanda Pepper series (I have 3 left) and the Australians (6 more to go). I'm on the last book for the League of Princes, but it's only a 3 book series, so doesn't count.

I am falling behind on the magazines. Just one of those things. Will have to focus on them a bit soon. I have decided NOT to continue my Asimov subscription until I get caught up some with 5 years of Asimov, Lightspeed, Nightmare, etc. etc. magazines.

Finally! Another Cat Who book! Thought I'd never get to one. They will be my 'driving' books for awhile. Most of my other stories are too complex to pay sufficient attention while driving.

Despite my lack of progress in May, I'm close to finishing two series now. A couple of this month's Book Club reads are on my ereader now, so there's hope there as well. Behind on audiobooks - I ran into some hearing problems a couple of months ago. Seems the tinnitis isn't going to go away, so I just have to work with it.

Only two left in the Amanda Pepper series and three in the Australian series. Woohoo!! Gotta get a move on though. Even finishing LOTR series, I'll still need one more to meet my goal this year.

Completed the Amanda Pepper series! Yay!! So, that's 2 of 5 completed so far. The Hero's Guide series doesn't count as it's only 3 books. I'll be working the Australians next and then maybe focus on Terry Pratchett.

Stephanie wrote: "Completed the Amanda Pepper series! Yay!! So, that's 2 of 5 completed so far. The Hero's Guide series doesn't count as it's only 3 books. I'll be working the Australians next and then maybe focus o..."

Nice! I'm finally caught up on all but two of my series. Well, of those I've decided to continue, anyway.

And I agree, trilogies don't count. :)

Behind on general reading by about 10 books, but now that my blood sugar problem is fixed, the fuzzy head and vision problems are good now too, I'm doing a little catchup.

I've just started the last book for the Australians series. Yay! The last book was a bit of a bore - it was published 3 years after the author's death. The plot dragged for the first 3rd of the book and honestly, I found I didn't like any of the characters in this book. The style of writing didn't change, so I doubt it was ghostwritten (she was prolific, after all), but I was a little disappointed.

I'm just reading whatever catches my fancy. Sadly, rarely are those books workable for challenges.

Per my Excel worksheet, I'm somewhere in the 150 books range.

150?!? How can you not have finished all the challenges? I can see a few being problematic but there's got to be a space opera selection in there for political memoir. :P

Or maybe The Goblin Emperor.

lol

Ok. So I finished one: The "Mt. TBR" Struggle is Real Challenge where the goal was 10 and I've already hit 12.

Kindle Freebie Freakout! - Goal is 24 and I'm somewhere around 10.

Review Challenge: I'm at about 150 books but only 96 reviews...

2016 My Kindle is Unlimited: Goal is 40 books and I'm at 34

ABC Challenge: I need books for "X" and "Y."

So, the freebies is the problematic one. Everything else looks like a pass to very good to me. Even your reviews are almost at 2/3rds which is quorum for almost any vote.

HomeInMyShoes wrote: "So, the freebies is the problematic one. Everything else looks like a pass to very good to me. Even your reviews are almost at 2/3rds which is quorum for almost any vote."

Huh. Never thought of it like that.

MrsJoseph wrote: ABC Challenge: I need books for "X" and "Y."


Are these the titles? How about "X" by Sue Grafton?

Orlok wrote: "MrsJoseph wrote: ABC Challenge: I need books for "X" and "Y."


Are these the titles? How about "X" by Sue Grafton?"

Yep.

You know, I used to read that series. I got stalled somewhere around "N" or "O" but I do have "Q" for some reason. I'm sorta scared to take it up right at "X" because I can't remember where she was in her relationship(s). There's a whole crew...

I know what you mean. I hate to skip any in a series, though I think you could happily skip Q as IMO it is the worst of the series (based on a true story, which I think led Grafton astray a bit).

Orlok wrote: "I know what you mean. I hate to skip any in a series, though I think you could happily skip Q as IMO it is the worst of the series (based on a true story, which I think led Grafton astray a bit)."

O_O

Good to know!

Ok, September 1st, so another quarter gone. I'm about 15 books behind, but still have hope of catching up a little this month. Lots of Ebaying, and I listen to audiobooks when I do that. Also, lots of appointments for family members, so I'll get a lot of reading in as well.
I now have 3 of the 5 series goal done. The only one I can hope to finish yet this year is Discworld, so I will start on that this weekend. I might be able to squeeze in the other Middle Earth ones as well before the end of the year.

Last month, didn't get to any group books, but I have one in my reader now, so we'll see how I get there.

I have the first half of the Sue Grafton series. I should get to that next year, I think. So many books to read/listen to!!

Very behind now - about 23 books. Finally have the blood sugar under control so the sludge and attention span is normal again. Yay! Anyway, I'll see what I can do, but I doubt I can catch up with my goals for the year now.

Reduced my goal for total books this year. I'm ok with that - just had to reassess.

I'm spending some time now listening to older audiobooks in my Audible account. I realize that my tastes have changed some since I bought these, so some are a grind to get through. Starting my Discworld marathon on Monday.

I think it's good to reassess. I don't quite often and find myself upset because I didn't finish my goals. But my goals became unreasonable as I hit burnout.

Diskworld marathon was delayed due to serious illness in family. Got started though. THEN, Amazon, in their attempt to help me fix an ebook downloading issue broke the Audible playback in every single one of my devices. Very annoying, so am now relying on downloaded, de-DRMed, side loaded audiobooks. Lots of work to finish my books!