Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

I've finally decided what I want to do with the challenges this year! I've decided to do Around the Year within 2016, and the PopSugar 2016 challenge. Ideally, I want to be done both by December 31, 2016 (beginning on January 1) but with my schedule I've decided to extend the timeframe an extra 3 months.

Anything left blank are categories that I'm really struggling with, or categories where I have several ideas in mind but haven't committed to one yet. Most of the blanks are ones that I could really use suggestions for, so any feedback is more than welcome.

Here's what I have planned so far (very likely to change):

1. A book you meant to read in 2015, but didn't – Before the Storm
2. A book set in a different continent – The Rosie Project
3. A book from the Goodreads Choice Awards 2015 (winner or nominated) – Inside the O'Briens
4. A book by an author you discovered in 2015 – Attachments
5. A book with a title beginning with the 1st letter of your name – Room
6. The highest rated on your TBR – The Nightingale
7. A book about books – The Book Thief
8. A classic book with less than 200 pages – The Time Machine
9. A book that was mentioned in another book – The Great Gatsby
10. A book by an author you feel you should have read by now – Gillian Flynn
11. A book from the Rory Gilmore challenge – Fahrenheit 451
12. A childhood classic - The Phantom Tollbooth
13. Reader’s Choice – A book published during a significant year for you (anniversary, graduation, child’s birth, etc) – I'll Give You the Sun
14. A book with one of the five W’s -or H in the title (Who/What/Where/When/Why/How) – Where They Found Her
15. A book set in the past (more than 100 years ago) – Philippa Gregory
16. A book from the top 100 mystery novels – Where Are the Children?
17. A book with a beautiful cover – The Promise of Stardust
18. A book on a summer/beach reading list – The Husband's Secret
19. A non-fiction book –Columbine
20. A book with a first name in the title – Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
21. A book from the Goodreads Recommendations page - Things You Won't Say
22. The first book in a new to you series - Inkheart
23. The next book in a series you are reading – The House at Pooh Corner
24. A "between the numbers" book of a series (0.5, 1,5, 2.5, etc.) – Four: A Divergent Story Collection
25. A book whose main character is in a profession that interests you - Goodnight Tweetheart
26. A book everyone is talking about –Go Set a Watchman
27. A book with a beautiful title (in your own opinion) –The Whole Golden World
28. A biography, autobiography, or memoir – Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
29. A book by an author who writes under more than one name – Why We Broke Up
30. A fairytale from a culture other than your own
31. A work of young adult fiction – Love Letters to the Dead
32. A historical fiction book – The Heretic's Daughter
33. The 16th book on your TBR - Before We Were Strangers
34. A book about mental illness – All the Bright Places
35. An award winning book – All the Light We Cannot See
36. An identity book - a book about a different culture, religion or sexual orientation -Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda
37. A book that you've seen the movie of but haven't read – Mary Poppins
38. A book about an anti hero – The Phantom of the Opera
39. A previous suggestion that did not make it into the list – A book with an elderly person the main character – Elizabeth Is Missing
40. A novella from your favorite genre – The Stepford Wives
41. A book about a major world event (fiction or non-fiction) - The Book of Negroes
42. A top 100 fantasy novel – The Once and Future King
43. A book about a thing that goes bump in the night - Dracula (Not 100% sure yet)
44. A book you're embarrassed to read in public – Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret
45. A book related to a hobby or passion you have - The Thirteenth Tale
46. A crime story – The Good Father
47. A book with a type of food/drink in the title – The Ice Cream Girls
48. A dystopia – Never Let Me Go
49. A book with a great opening line – Rebecca
50. A book originally written in a language other than English - The Neverending Story
51. A short story from a well-known author – The Tell-Tale Heart and Other Writings
52. A book published in 2016 – When We Collided

I will probably be adding another "Wild Card" category by picking one off the Rejects list. I know the Wild Card was intended to replace a category I had no interest in, but I'd rather use it to add instead of replace

Now the PopSugar half of the list. I decided that since I extended the timeline, I will do the full 40 items. Even though some of them are the same as the ATY Challenge, there are more than enough books that fit those categories that it shouldn't matter.

1. A book based on a Fairy Tale
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

2. A National Book Award winner
Mockingbird

3. A YA bestseller
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

4. A book you haven't read since high school
Lord of the Flies

5. A book set in your home state
The Girls

6. A book translated into English
The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism

7. A romance set in the future
Delirium

8. A book set in Europe
Us (Not 100% sure)

9. A book that's under 150 pages
Of Mice and Men

10. A New York Times bestseller
See Me

11. A book that's becoming a Movie in 2016
A Monster Calls

12. A book recommended by someone you've just met
Me Before You

13. A self-improvement book
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

14. A book you can finish in a day
Coraline

15. A book written by a celebrity
My New Teacher and Me!

16. A political memoir
Rasputin: The Untold Story or Black Like Me (Not sure on this one -- I'm having trouble figuring out what exactly qualifies as a political memoir)

17. A book at least 100 years older than you
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

18. A book more than 600 pages
The Goldfinch

19. A book from Oprah's Book Club
The Deep End of the Ocean

20. A Science Fiction novel
The Five Times I Met Myself

21. A book recommended by a family member
Maybe Invisible Man

22. A Graphic Novel
In Real Life

23. A book that is published in 2016
This Is Where It Ends or The Way I Used to Be

24. A book with a protagonist who has your occupation
The Miracle Worker (Very difficult to find -- I work with young adults with special needs in a day program, but my role is similar enough to teaching. It's very hard to find books about teaching kids with special needs)

25. A book that takes place during Summer
My Life Next Door

26. A book and its prequel
Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens and Peter Pan

27. A murder mystery
In the Woods

28. A book written by a comedian
Seriously... I'm Kidding

29. A dystopian novel
The Program

30. A book with a blue Cover
Always Watching

31. A book of Poetry
Where the Sidewalk Ends: The Poems and Drawings of Shel Silverstein

32. The 1st book you see in a bookstore
The Thing About Jellyfish

33. A classic from the 20th century
The Witches

34. A book from the library
You

35. An autobiography
Twirling Naked in the Streets and No One Noticed: Growing Up With Undiagnosed Autism

36. A book about a road trip
Paper Towns

37. A book about a culture you're unfamiliar with
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan or a book by Amy Tan

38. A satirical book
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

39. A book that takes place on an island
And Then There Were None

40. A book guaranteed to bring you joy
Purple, Green and Yellow

I forgot to add in my "wild card" pick for ATY. Instead of replacing a category, I decided to use my wild card as an extra book picked from categories on the Rejects list. I filtered out all categories that were very similar to each other or that were already being done in either of my challenge/that I did in last year's PopSugar challenge.

I was on the fence about picking a category for myself, or if I should just use a random number generator. I had a couple of categories in mind, but none that really jumped out as something that I"had to" add to my list. In the end, I kind of lucked out since a random number generator picked one of the categories I was leaning toward anyway.

My wild card is -- A book with a long title (8-10 words or more), and I will probably be reading The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight or Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

I'd still love to get some feedback/more suggestions for my lists!

From your lists, I read The Time Machine and Farenheit 451 (both interesting), The Phantom of the Opera (not for my tastes, but the atmosphere was pretty interesting) and A Monster Calls (loved it!). Peter Pan is a favorites.

I've A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court in another of my challenges, I plan to read it before April. I'll read plenty of dystopias this year, so you can have a look at my plan during the year to have some ideas :)

I'm actually most stuck right now on a romance set in the future. I've looked up a few, but nothing's really caught my interest.

If anyone knows any other books where the main character is a teacher (espeically a teacher for special needs), please let me know.

For most of your blank categories we sadly cannot help you (GR recommendation page, recommended by a family member, etc.). For week 16 (top 100 mystery), I'm reading In Cold Blood and for a romance set in the future Oryx and Crake. I also read Breakfast at Tiffany's for the book you can finish in a day (and I did!).

Sophie wrote: "For most of your blank categories we sadly cannot help you (GR recommendation page, recommended by a family member, etc.). For week 16 (top 100 mystery), I'm reading In Cold Blood and..."

Thanks, I'll check those out.

I left categories blank either because I have no clue what to choose, or there are way too many options and I just haven't committed to any choice yet (ie. a book with a blue cover, or a book from a library)

It's also nice to keep these options open to choose them according to your mood of the moment. It is not a requirement to decide in advance every single book for 2016 ;)

January Update
At the beginning of the challenge, I figured out that to get both ATY and PopSugar done within the year, I'd need to read on average 8 items per month. I gave myself 15 months to complete PopSugar, but I would love to be able to complete it within the year as well. At the end of the first month, I'm on-track. Here's what I've read so far:

ATY This Month
A book set on a different continent - The Rosie Project
A book from the GoodReads Choice Awards 2015 - Inside the O'Briens
A childhood classic - The Phantom Tollbooth
A book with a beautiful cover - The Promise of Stardust
A book with a first name in the title - Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
A top 100 fantasy novel - The Once and Future King
A dystopia - Never Let Me Go
A book with a great opening line - Rebecca

PopSugar This Month
Since I'm prioritizing ATY, I've been focusing more on reading books off that list, at least for the start. I only read one book for PopSugar so far, but I'm sure in the next couple of months it will balance out. So far, I've read:

A classic from the 20th century - The Witches

Overall
I think I've made a great start to the challenges so far. I'm really happy that I got to read a few books that I've been meaning to read for a long time (Rebecca, Once and Future King, The Rosie Project). I also read some that I probably would not have picked up otherwise, at least not any time soon (The Promise of Stardust, for example).

Actually, I'm mostly just impressed that I managed to stay on-track (or one book ahead, according to my homepage). It's been a very busy month at work, and I only have a few hours to read in the evening. I've been making a conscious effort to read instead of just watching random Youtube videos, except when I'm too tired to focus on the book properly, and so far it's paying off. I don't want to read for the sake of reading, or rush. I want to actually enjoy my books.

February Update
I spent quite a bit of time this month going through my TBR list and trying to fill in some of the prompts that I was having trouble with. Either prompts that were really difficult, or ones that I just hadn't committed to a single book for. Of course, things can still change at any time and I've already shuffled things around quite a bit but I think it's pretty set by now...at least for a while.

Here is what I read this month:

ATY This Month
A book by an author you discovered in 2015 – Attachments
A book by an author who writes under more than one name – Why We Broke Up
A classic with less than 200 pages – The Time Machine
A crime story – The Good Father
A book about mental illness – All the Bright Places
The highest rated book on your TBR – The Nightingale
An identity book - a book about a different culture, religion or sexual orientation -- Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda
A “between the numbers” book of a series – Four: A Divergent Story Collection

PopSugar This Month
A romance set in the future – Delirium
A book written by a celebrity – My New Teacher and Me!
A book of poetry – Where the Sidewalk Ends: The Poems and Drawings of Shel Silverstein

Overall
I decided to be a little strategic with my book choices this month. Last year, I found that I naturally prioritized prompts that were most interesting to me so toward the middle/end of the year, I was stuck with quite a few books that I wasn't so interested in. This month, I decided to purposely pick some of the prompts or specific books that I wasn't so interested in and knock them out early on. I've been really trying to balance out my reading so I don't read too many similar books in a row, whether in terms of style, subject matter, etc.

I'm glad that I got rid of some of the prompts that I really wasn't looking forward to (ie. poetry, a book by a celebrity). It should really help later on in the year to stay focused and motivated to continue reading. I've seen across the boards here in a few of my groups that a lot of people are already burning themselves out in a sense, and overdoing it with too many books/rushing through the books to cross things off their lists. I'm really hoping I can avoid that trap. I would much rather read a book and actually take the time to enjoy it (or at least give it an honest chance), and not worry so much about the numbers...although it is very satisfying to cross things off my list.

It's a fine line between challenging yourself, but still having fun, and burning yourself out. I think it's sad to come to this with as fabulous a hobby as reading, but I can understand the pressure.

It is a good idea to choose books or prompts you're less interested in quite early in the year. I may have to do that, as I'm slowly ticking off all the books I'm more excited about ;)

March Update
This month has been an extremely hectic one at work, between our first big event of the year coming up, schedule changes, and this horrible cold/flu constantly going around. Although on paper I've read about the same amount as I have in the previous two months, I've felt very slow with my reading throughout the month.

ATY This Month
Reader’s Choice – A book published during a significant year for you (anniversary, graduation, child’s birth, etc) -- I'll Give You the Sun
A book with one of the five W’s -or H in the title (Who/What/Where/When/Why/How) – Where They Found Her
The next book in a series that you are reading – The House at Pooh Corner
A book with a food/drink in the title – The Ice Cream Girls
A previous suggestion that did not make the list (a book with an elderly person for a main character) – Elizabeth Is Missing

PopSugar This Month
A book that you can finish in a day – Coraline
A book that is guaranteed to bring you joy – Purple, Green and Yellow
A science-fiction novel – The Five Times I Met Myself
A book set in your home state – The Girls
A book with a blue cover – Always Watching

Side Reads
Kristy's Great Idea

Overall
This month marked the end of the first quarter of my challenges, and I've read just under a third of the total number of books needed for the year. Right now, I'm standing at 21/53 (including 1 wild card as an extra) books for Around the Year, and 9/41 for PopSugar. I didn't plan on having any side reads, but I decided to quickly read the graphic novel versions of The Babysitter's Club, a childhood favourite just on the side since those books are so quick and easy.

I haven't lost motivation for the challenge, but I definitely noticed that I was much slower with each book and generally had a lot less time to read this month. There were a few days where I hardly had the time/energy to read at all. Even when I really liked the book (I'll Give You the Sun, for example) I felt like it took me way too long to read. The only reason I think I read as many books as I did this month is because I read a few really short ones.

This was also the first month this year where I read some books that I didn't really enjoy. Even in February, where I purposely chose some prompts that I wasn't really looking forward to, I enjoyed the majority of what I read. This month, I had a couple of books that I wasn't really a fan of (The Five Times I Met Myself being the main example), or at least weren't quite what I had expected (The Girls).

Even though this month has been a little slow, and I had my first few disappointing books, I'm still pretty happy with my progress so far.

April Update
Once again, I found that this month seemed particularly hectic. There was still a lot going on at work, and for some reason, I for once had a lot going on each weekend as well. Although I felt like I didn't read much this month as a whole, looking at my list seems to give a different story.

ATY This Month
A book with a beautiful title (in your opinion) – The Whole Golden World
A book that you’ve seen the movie of but never read – Mary Poppins
A book whose main character is in a profession that interests you - Goodnight Tweetheart
The first book in a “new to you” series – The Cuckoo's Calling
*A book about books – The Book Thief (450 pages read in April, last 100 read May 1)

PopSugar This Month
An autobiography – Twirling Naked in the Streets and No One Noticed: Growing Up With Undiagnosed Autism
A book written by a comedian – Seriously... I'm Kidding
A satirical book – Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
A self-improvement book – Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking
A National Book Awards Winner – Mockingbird

Side Reads
The Truth About Stacey
Mary Anne Saves the Day
Claudia and Mean Janine

Overall
This month, I finished my side reads by reading the remaining three Babysitters Club graphic novels. I really wish they had made more of the series in this format, although at the same time, I'm not really sure they needed to become graphic novels either.

I think most of my feeling of slow progress this month is because I did the majority of my reading in the earlier weeks, and the last two or so weeks were taken up by longer books. The Cuckoo's Calling and The Book Thief took me 5 or 6 days each. I did manage to knock out quite a few shorter books this month, including some more categories that I was not really looking forward to (autobiography, and self-improvement books).

This month, I also read two books that really impressed me. The first, and possibly one of the best that I've read all year so far, is The Whole Golden World. I went into this book honestly not expecting too much, and was blown away by it. I was also very impressed by Goodnight Tweetheart, a very light and easy read that I also expected to be quite bland. It ended up being a nice, fun story that I have to say I really enjoyed.

Somehow, I've still managed to be ahead of schedule on my goals for this year although I have a feeling that will change. For the next month, I'm planning on trying to read some more of the books that I'm looking forward to more to keep my motivation up. I've noticed over the past couple of months, I (intentionally or not) was reading fairly strategically, to get rid of some of the more irritating categories. I've also been "saving" some books to fit in with book of the month categories for each of my challenges, and luckily some of the books I want most are now coming up.

As a final, random note -- by this time last year, I had already read 2 or 3 of the books that ended up being the main standouts of the year. I was starting to wonder if I'd have any books like that this year, since not too many really stood out in my mind. Upon looking back at my lists over the past 4 months, I've actually noticed a few that could definitely be contenders by the end of the year. I was thinking it was kind of strange that I hadn't found anything that had quite so much impact yet, but thinking about it now, I've realized that there actually are a few.

May Update
This month, I had quite the variety of books in terms of everything from quality to size to topic. This was another fairly hectic month, especially the last week. Like with April, I sometimes felt that I wasn't reading "enough" by whatever arbitrary standard that is. I keep having to remind myself that the point of the challenge is to enjoy the books, not to rush.

ATY This Month
*A book about books - The Book Thief (450 pages read in April, last 100 read May 1)
A non-fiction book - Columbine
A historical fiction book - The Heretic's Daughter
An award-winning book - All the Light We Cannot See
A fairy tale from a culture other than your own - The Brave Little Tailor by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, as found in Folk & Fairy Tales: An Introductory Anthology
*A book everyone is talking about - Go Set a Watchman (205 pages read in May)

PopSugar This Month
A book recommended by someone you just met - Me Before You
A book that is at least 100 years older than you - A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
A book set in Europe - Us

Overall
This month, I started properly keeping running totals of how many books that I've been reading for each of the challenges. I keep a word document that includes a list of what I read each month, and some comments about each book. At the end of the year, I plan on posting the comments as a Facebook note since some people have expressed an interest in knowing more about my challenges/the books I chose.

This month, I also encountered my first "technical" problems with the challenge. First, up until the end of April, I had managed to finish each book quite neatly within the same month. At the end of April, I was most of the way finished The Book Thief, but read the last chunk on May 1. The same happened at the end of May with Go Set a Watchman. When I finished the whole book in the same month, it was easy to keep track of how many books I had read by the end of the month, but being partially done posed a unique problem -- what was the most accurate way to record my progress? In the end, I decided to list the book for the month with a note about how much I had completed, but only count the book toward my monthly totals when I had finished it completely.

My second barrier was that I encountered my first book that I had a really, really difficult time getting through. I really struggled with A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, and just could not motivate myself to keep reading. I hate abandoning books that I've started, since I always tend to push through with the hope that they'll get better by the end. This was the first book that I seriously considered giving up on, and in the end, I switched to an audio version. I've never really been a fan of audiobooks since I find I tend to tune them out. I can't just listen to a book without doing something else at the same time, but whatever else I am doing may distract me from the story. In this case, the audio version kept my attention much better although I still found the book annoying to get through. It didn't help that my audio version was about 3-4 hours longer than I thought it was. I didn't realize the recording (found on YouTube) stopped unexpectedly several chapters before the end of the book.

Problems aside, this month also gave me the chance to read a few books that I've been hearing so much about over the past year and for the most part, I've enjoyed them. I'm especially glad I got to read Me Before You before the movie came out. As with the past couple of months, I've felt like my progress has been slow even though objectively, I'm more than on track to finish both challenges within the year. I expected ATY to take one year, and gave myself an extra three months for PopSugar but it looks like that won't be necessary. I did find struggling with A Connecticut Yankee really killed my motivation to read for a while though, but luckily the rest of the books I read made up for it.

One last note -- I had been steering myself more toward ATY topics over the past month since I felt like I was falling behind on that one, compared to PopSugar. Looking at my lists now, I'm actually pretty far ahead on ATY and just about on-track for PopSugar. It's strange sometimes how it feels like I'm getting nowhere, but actually make good progress.

June Update
I'm actually quite surprised/impressed with how much I managed to read this month. It helped that I read a couple of very short books, including a short story, a graphic novel, and a couple of middle grade books. I actually found that it was harder for me to choose which books to read this month since I've already read quite a few of the ones that I wanted to read most, and I'm trying to space out the rest of those so it's pretty balanced for the rest of the year.

ATY This Month
*A book everyone is talking about –Go Set a Watchman (205 pages read in May, 72 pages read in June)
A book about an anti-hero – The Phantom of the Opera
A book you’d be embarrassed to read in public – Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret
A book on a summer/beach reading list – The Husband's Secret
A book with a title beginning with the first letter of your name – Room
A short story from a well-known author – The Tell-Tale Heart
A book you meant to read in 2015, but didn't – The Secret Between Us
A book from the Rory Gilmore challenge – Fahrenheit 451

PopSugar This Month
A graphic novel – In Real Life
A book that is becoming a movie this year – A Monster Calls
A book from the library – You
A book translated into English – The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism

Overall
Overall, this was an excellent month in terms of productivity. I am currently standing at 38/53 books for ATY (the 52 prompts, plus I added the wild card as an extra instead of replacing a prompt), and 21/41 for PopSugar. When I started the challenges this year, I honestly thought that it would be very, very tight to finish them both within 12 months. Given the progress so far, I've actually decided to add two additional challenges: BookRiot 2016 and BookRiot 2015. I'd considered doing the "rejects" challenge, but that became a bit overwhelming. I've decided to start both BookRiot challenges starting July 1, and I'm giving myself 1 full year to complete them, although ideally it would be great if I could finish them both by the end of this year as well. As an extra challenge, although it also in some ways makes things easier, I'm trying to include more graphic novels in those challenges since that's a genre I don't really go for too often.

I think the reason I managed to be so productive this month is because I balanced my book choices out very well. I had a pretty even mix between shorter/easier prompts, and full-length novels. The past couple of months had been pretty slow, and it was getting to the point where I was starting to feel a little discouraged since I'd read a few books that I didn't enjoy much. This month, I found that I was feeling much better about the challenge and it started to feel more fun again. I'm not sure if it was anything to do with the books I was choosing, or just the fact that this past month has been less hectic/stressful.

One thing I noticed this month was that there were quite a few books that didn't really match what I expected, either in terms of plot or in terms of quality. However, that also led to some great surprises. I was absolutely blown away by A Monster Calls. I'd been worried about that one since despite the great reviews, I'd read another middle grade novel earlier in the month and found it very hard to relate to since I am outside the target audience.

I'm looking forward to starting to figure out what I want to read next month, and especially to start tying in books from my new challenges. I think it will be a great way to get some more variety into my lists, and keep things fresh.

I agree with you, the key is balance!

July Update
By the end of June, I decided to take on the Book Riot Read Harder challenges from 2015 and 2016 in addition to the challenges I've already started. This was partly because I was making such good progress in the challenges, and because the Book Riot challenges seemed more of a "challenge" in the sense of prompts that were a bit more outside my comfort zone. Although it's a bit discouraging to have my progress on my GoodReads homepage drop from being on track to "13 books behind schedule," I've also found it refreshing to find a new set of books to mix in.

ATY This Month
A book from your GoodReads recommendations page – Things You Won't Say
A book that was mentioned in another book – The Great Gatsby
*A book from the top 100 mystery list – Where Are the Children? (50% read in July)

PopSugar This Month
A book that takes place in the summer – My Life Next Door
A New York Times bestseller – Save Me
A book from Oprah’s book club – The Deep End of the Ocean

BookRiot 2015 This Month
A book that takes place in Asia – Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
A book you would consider a guilty pleasure – Kristy's Big News

BookRiot 2016 This Month
Read a book out loud to someone else – When Elephant met Giraffe (*Read earlier in the year, but counted only this month because I started the challenge this month)
A book set in the Middle East – The Complete Persepolis
Read a book over 500 pages long – Beautiful Creatures

Overall
Overall, my progress this month felt very slow-paced even though it is actually just about on-track with what I'd expect. I'm currently standing at 40/53 for ATY and 24/41 for PopSugar, so these will definitely be completed within the year. For the BookRiot challenges, I've given myself 1 year as of July 1 to complete them, but I would ideally love to be finished with both by the start of 2017.

I think part of the reason that this month felt so slow-paced is because only one or two of the books really stuck out to me. I actually really enjoyed When Elephant met Giraffe, although I technically didn't read it this month. It is an excellent children's book and it may be one of my favourites of the year so far. There were also a couple of books that really dragged (The Deep End of the Ocean being the main culprit).

Looking back on my commentary over the past few months, it seems that there have been quite a few months this year where I felt that my progress was slow. I've noticed that even when the number of books is about the same, my progress tends to feel much slower when I'm not so into the books that I'm reading. I'm really looking forward to reading more from the BookRiot challenges to refresh my choices a little and add more variety back into the list.

August Update
I somehow managed to have an extremely productive month. Looking back on how much I read, I'm actually very surprised that I was able to accomplish so much since it's been quite a hectic month. At the beginning of the year, with only ATY and PopSugar, I had figured out that I needed to read 8 books per month to finish within the year. Now that I've added the two BookRiot challenges, I need to read (as of the end of August) 14 items per month! It's definitely more ambitious, but I'm hoping it will be possible.

ATY This Month
*A book from the top 100 mystery novels – Where Are the Children? (50% read in August)
A biography, autobiography, or memoir – Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
A work of young adult fiction – Love Letters to the Dead

PopSugar This Month
A book you haven’t read since high school – Lord of the Flies
A book about a road trip – Paper Towns
A YA bestseller – Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

BookRiot 2015 This Month
A book written by someone when they were over the age of 65 – Little House in the Big Woods
An audiobook – The Graveyard Book
A graphic novel, a graphic memoir or a collection of comics of any kind– Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Biruté Galdikas
A collection of short stories (either by one person or an anthology by many people) – The Complete Fables

BookRiot 2016 This Month
Listen to an audiobook that has won an Audie Award – The Tao of Pooh
A food memoir – Read a food memoir – Relish: My Life in the Kitchen
The first book in a series by a person of colour – Noughts & Crosses
Read a play – Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Read a book about religion (fiction or nonfiction) – Devoted
Read a book about politics, in your country or another (fiction or nonfiction) – The Complete Maus
*A book by an author from Southeast Asia – Bitter in the Mouth (166 pages read in August, 116 read September 1)

Side Reads
I read these books to fulfill categories on the individual Bingo card for our Read-a-Thon. I'm going to fit them in to some of the rejects challenge categories.

Junie B. Jones Is a Beauty Shop Guy
Junie B. Jones Has a Peep in Her Pocket

Overall
Compared to last month, this was an extremely productive month. At the start of the year, when I had only the ATY and PopSugar challenges, I tried to knock out some of the categories that I was least looking forward to early on. I decided to do the same for the two BookRiot challenges, so I took on some of the categories I was definitely not looking forward to -- audiobooks, a food memoir, religion and politics. I was actually surprised by how much I enjoyed most of those books.

One of the reasons I think I was so productive is because of the kinds of books that I read. I listened to 2 audiobooks, although I don't read anything else at the same time, so I'm not sure if that really gets me ahead at all. I also read 3 graphic novels, 1 children's book (excluding side reads), and several YA books. These are definitely quicker than the full-length adult novels I've read in previous months. When I decided to take on the BookRiot challenges late in the year, I intentionally chose more YA and graphic novels because I thought it would inject a bit more variety back into my list and make the challenge a bit more realistic. Even though I've given myself 1 year from the time I started them (July 1, 2016 - June 30, 2017), I would love to be able to finish by the end of this year.

In order to make my goal more realistic, I've also had to make a few strategic moves for my plans for the last few months. There were a couple of books (The Goldfinch and Dracula) that I've put off for now. I really want to read Dracula at some point, but I've lost motivation to read it any time soon and I don't want to get into it when I'm not in the mood. I've been procrastinating on starting The Goldfinch for at least 3 months now (needed for "a book over 600 pages"), so I finally decided to just switch it out for something else.

I also realized partway through the month that I had messed up my records, and I had the same book down for two categories -- I had The Cuckoo's Calling down for a murder mystery (a category I haven't read yet), but I'd already finished it for "the first book in a new-to-you series." I'm not really sure how that happened since I'm usually very careful, but that required some rearranging to make sure I had everything properly covered.

Overall, I thought this was a great month and I was very impressed by some of the books that I was expecting to hate. I'm hoping to keep up the momentum for the rest of the year.

What a great read list! Using shorter or easier books is definitely the way to breathe between heavy books.

September Update
This was another extremely productive month for me, and I'm very impressed with how many books I managed to read! I read a total of 16 books this month, including a couple that were quite dense. Even though I'm making good progress, I am getting a little less confident about whether I will be able to finish all of my challenges by the end of December. Even though I've set them up so that only the ATY challenge "must" be completed by December, I would love to be able to finish them all.

ATY This Month
The 16th book on your TBR – Before We Were Strangers
A novella from your favourite genre – The Stepford Wives

PopSugar This Month
A book and its prequel – Peter Pan & Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens
A book under 150 pages – Of Mice and Men
A book with a protagonist who has your occupation – The Miracle Worker
A book more than 600 pages – Me Being Me Is Exactly as Insane as You Being You

BookRiot 2015 This Month
A book by an author from Africa – Americanah
A microhistory – Poseidon's Steed: The Story of Seahorses, from Myth to Reality
A collection of poetry – The World of Christopher Robin: The Complete When We Were Very Young and Now We Are Six
A book written by someone when they were under the age of 25 – Shatter Me
A book by a person whose gender is different from your own – Enter Title Here

BookRiot 2016 This Month
*A book by an author from Southeast Asia – Bitter in the Mouth (166 pages read in August, 116 read September 1)
A book of historical fiction set before 1900 – The Crucible
A book by or about a person who identifies as transgender – If I Was Your Girl
Read a book that was adapted into a movie, then watch the movie. Debate which is better – The DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend
A book under 100 pages – The Little Prince

Overall
This month was about equally as productive as August, although I am even more impressed with this month since most of the books were longer. In August, I read quite a few shorter books and 2 audiobooks, whereas this month included more long books (Americanah, for example), non-fiction, or just books that were slower paced for me.

I was looking over my quarter as a whole to do the quarterly awards thread, and I realized that over the past few months, there weren't very many books that I was really impressed with. I think this was because I added the BookRiot challenges in July, so I strategically tried to knock out some of the less interesting categories early on. It's the same strategy I used in the first quarter for ATY and PopSugar, so it's not so surprising that some of the books were less impressive.

The problem with adding the BookRiot challenges is that my progress on ATY and PopSugar has slowed down quite a bit. I read only two books toward ATY this month, although I am still quite close to completing it. I have only 8 books remaining for ATY, and 9 for PopSugar. I'll have to make sure over the next couple of months to make sure I prioritize books for ATY since that is the one challenge that I really want to complete by December.

I've also done quite a bit of switching around this month, partly to make the challenges more realistic and partly because books I thought I'd want to read have kind of lost my interest by now. There are a couple of prompts that are still quite up in the air. I have a total of 40 books remaining for the year (13 items per month, on average), so hopefully I can keep up my pace!

Wow! 16 books is quite a few.

Anastasia wrote: "Wow! 16 books is quite a few."

Thanks, I was actually pretty surprised by it myself. Especially since there were some longer (Americanah plus a 600 page book) and dry (Poseidon's Steed) mixed in there.

October Update
Going into this month, I was starting to get very nervous about being able to complete all of my challenges by the end of the year. Even though I'd allowed myself more time for some of the challenges, I ideally wanted to finish them all by the end of December. However, by the end it was still quite a productive month so I'm feeling a bit better about my odds.

Around the Year
A book about a thing that goes bump in the night – The Halloween Tree
A book set in the past (more than 100 years ago) – The Night Circus
Wild Card (A book with a long title (8-10 words or more)) – Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
A book about a major world event (fiction or non-fiction) – The Book of Negroes
A book related to a hobby or passion that you have – The Thirteenth Tale

PopSugar
A book recommended by a family member – Undone
A murder mystery – And Then There Were None
A book that takes place on an island – We Were Liars

BookRiot 2015
A book published by an indie press – Flat-Out Love
A National Book Award, Man Booker Prize or Pulitzer Prize winner from the last decade – Inside Out & Back Again
A sci-fi novel – Cinder
A romance novel – See Me

BookRiot 2016
A collection of essays – The Psychology of the Simpsons: D'oh!
Read a biography (not memoir or autobiography) – Radioactive: Marie and Pierre Curie, A Tale of Love and Fallout
*A dystopian or post-apocalyptic book – The Girl with All the Gifts (79 pages read October 31)

Overall
This was another month that I had to be a little strategic with my reading choices. I had multiple long weekends this month so I had quite a bit of time off work, and I decided to use each weekend to knock out some of the longer books that I knew would be more difficult to manage in evenings only (The Book of Negroes being the main one).

Unlike the last quarter, this month alone had quite a few excellent books that will probably end up being some of my highlights of the year. Toward the end of the month, I occasionally started to feel like I was getting into a rut, but a few great books pulled me out of it. I have made a couple more strategic changes to my plan, although I feel a little guilty about it since it means taking out some books that I wanted to read. However, in each case, the books that I removed were ones that I'd been hesitant to start or had lost some interest in over the year, so I don't feel too bad (yet?).

With the start of the final quarter down, I'm excited to start planning for next year's challenge and to keep reading my remaining books for this year! I have only 3 books left for ATY, and 6 for PopSugar. If I'm lucky, I can complete both of those challenges within the next month. At the end of September, I'd noticed that I'd slowed down quite a bit on those two challenges to make room for BookRiot, so I decided to re-commit to getting ATY and PopSugar done as I'd originally intended.

November Update
This has been a very strange month. I spent most of it feeling like I was very unproductive due to a couple of books that took me a long time to get through. Looking back on what I actually accomplished, I'm not that far off where I was by the end of other months. I've actually managed to get back on track for completing everything in time!

Around the Year
A book by an author you feel you should have read by now –The Lover's Dictionary
A book published in 2016 – When We Collided
A book originally written in a language other than English – Inkheart

PopSugar
The first book you see in a bookstore – The Thing About Jellyfish
A political memoir – I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban
A dystopian novel – The Program

BookRiot 2015
A book that was originally published in another language – Blue Is the Warmest Color
A book published this year – Everything, Everything
A self-improvement book – Challenged: A Tribute: One Man's True Story of Caring For, Laughing with and Learning from People with Special Needs
A book published before 1850 – The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

BookRiot 2016
Read a dystopian or post-apocalyptic novel – The Girl with All the Gifts (79 pages read October 31, the remaining read in November)
Read a nonfiction book about science – Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species: A Graphic Adaptation
Read a book originally published in the decade you were born – Misery
Read a non-superhero comic that debuted in the last three years – Awkward

Overall
This month was an odd mix of doorstops and short books to try and balance things out. In particular, Inkheart significantly slowed down my progress, taking nearly a full week to complete. Both The Girl with All the Gifts and I Am Malala also took me a while. Toward the end of October, I'd made some strategic changes to take out any books that had lost my interest and also to improve the likelihood of finishing all my challenges in time.

My biggest accomplishment this month was definitely finishing the last three books of my ATY challenge! I was very impressed by The Lover's Dictionary, but disappointed by the other two. I've also made good progress on each of the remaining challenges. Another standout of the month was Everything, Everything which really lived up to the hype. I probably read more graphic novels this month alone than I had any other month this year, but it was a nice change of pace and definitely helped to balance out the other books.

Another highlight of the month was that the release of the final ATY list and the PopSugar lists for next year. It was very exciting to start planning for both, although I seem to be stuck at a bit of an impasse currently. I've fit in the majority of the books that I was most interested in reading, but I still have books from series that I would like to squeeze in. I'm looking forward to the BookRiot list being posted in December as well!

With only a month to go, I seem to be in good shape for completing all of my challenges on time. I currently have 12 books to read within the month, many of which are YA books. I think it should be a reasonable pace, especially since the upcoming month seems like it will be less busy than November was. I've already started to put my remaining books in a tentative order but I'm sure things will still change!

December Update
At the end of November, I looked ahead to the books I had lined up and thought I seemed to be in pretty good shape to complete all of my challenges on time. However, there also weren't too many books left that I was very excited for, so I was a bit worried about staying motivated.

Around the Year
None - Challenge already complete as of mid-November!

PopSugar
A book that is published in 2016 – This Is Where It Ends
A book based on a fairy tale – Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister
A book about a culture you're unfamiliar with – With the Light: Raising an Autistic Child

Book Riot 2015
A book that is a retelling of a classic story (fairytale, Shakespearian play, classic novel, etc.) – The Madman’s Daughter
A YA novel – Emmy & Oliver
A book by or about someone that identifies as LGBTQ – None of the Above
A book that is by or about someone from an indigenous culture (Native Americans, Aboriginals, etc.) – The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
A book that someone else has recommended to you – Damaged

Book Riot 2016
A horror book – Anna Dressed in Blood
Read a middle grade novel – Wonder
Read a nonfiction book about feminism or dealing with feminist themes – Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Frontlines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture
Read a book with a main character who has a mental illness – Highly Illogical Behavior

Overall
It took me all the way to the end of the year to finish my last challenge. I finished ATY on November 18, Book Riot 2016 on December 18, PopSugar on December 26, and Book Riot 2015 on December 29. It took some getting used to because I had finished my challenge very early last year, but this year was multiple challenges and almost 3 times as many books so it makes sense that it took much longer to finish.

With only 12 books left for the month, I didn't think there would be too much problem completing the challenges by the end of the year, but I still had to make some strategic changes. I initially intended to read The Kitchen God's Wife for my book about a culture I'm unfamiliar with, but switched it out for With the Light: Raising an Autistic Child, a book that I've read before. I usually try to avoid re-reads unless a prompt specifically calls for one, but as it got closer to the end of the year, I felt a bit of a time crunch and decided to go for something that would be a bit quicker.

The other main change I made was reading Damaged, a book that I got from one of the co-founders of the agency I work for. It was for the prompt "a book recommended by someone else." I originally intended to read The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, but all of the library's copies were either missing or long overdue so I wouldn't have been able to get it in time.

One of my main highlights of the month was The Madman’s Daughter. I had this book on hold from the library for most of the year, but was on the fence about reading it because I was worried about not understanding it much since I didn't know the original story it was based on (The Island of Dr. Moreau). It ended up being one of the best books I'd read all year!

I also spent most of December planning ahead for next year's challenges, and I think I've learned a lot about how to manage multiple challenges at once. The main thing I learned was to keep a good balance between prompts that I'm looking forward to and prompts that I'm not so interested in, a lesson which I already knew from my first challenge but got further cemented by having multiple lists to balance.

I am very excited to start my new challenges, and I already have a pile of books from the library waiting!

Way to go! I am so impressed!