2025 Reading Challenge discussion

Never reached but always aimed for - I will, again, try to read 40 books this year!

It all started 2016 with the Popsugar challenge (without Goodreads at that point). Last year I decided to abandon Popsugar, because I didn't like the categories, but to keep the number of 40 books as a goal. I messed it up for 3 years in a row now but I managed to read more each year - so the number 40 somehow kept me motivated. That's why I keep it. In the end I just want to read more and if this number helps me doing so, everything is fine. :)

This year I will within the 40 books aim for the 24 categories of a self-made challenge in a forum I am member in. Also I want to re-read the Harry Potter series. And I want to read at least one book in each of the four languages I am (or should be^^) somehow able to read (German, English, Russian and Estonian).

*prepares a cozy reading chair and a pile of to-be-read books*

Books read

32/40

1) Lass den Scheiß doch einfach liegen: Weil Aufräumen dein Leben sicher nicht verändern wird by Jennifer McCartney
2) Sitzen wie ein Buddha. Meditation für Anfänger by Lodro Rinzler
3) Grave Matter by Juno Dawson
4) Depression abzugeben: Erfahrungen aus der Klapse by Uwe Hauck
5) Wie ein leeres Blatt by Boulet
6) Ein bissfestes Abenteuer by Franziska Gehm
7) Das Amulett von Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud
8) Peanut: Die Sache mit der Erdnuss by Ayun Halliday
9) Der Mantel by Nikolai Gogol
10) Der Prinz der Elfen by Holly Black
11) Magic Cleaning: Wie richtiges Aufräumen Ihr Leben verändert by Marie Kondō
12) Dinge geregelt kriegen - ohne einen Funken Selbstdisziplin by Kathrin Passig
13) Schwert und Mistelzweig by Cardon Wârtain
14) Sommergäste by Maxim Gorky
15) Hellblazer: Original Sins by Jamie Delano
16) Micky Mystery - Neue Geheimnisse by Walt Disney Company
17) Schachnovelle by Stefan Zweig
18) Beyond the Wall und andere Abenteuer - Wolfszeit und andere Abenteuer by Peter S. Williams
19) Fünfzig Gedichte by Georg Trakl
20) Huch! Gänsehaut in Entenhausen by Walt Disney Company
21) Nordwärts by Bernhard Hennen
22) Das schwarze Phantom Darkenblot by Walt Disney Company
23) Eine dumme Geschichte by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
24) Horror mit Micky X by Walt Disney Company
25) Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen by J.K. Rowling
26) The Citadel of Chaos by Steve Jackson
27) Blutkrieg by Wolfgang Hohlbein
28) Das Dämonenschiff by Wolfgang Hohlbein
29) Abenteuer gestalten by Andreas Melhorn
30) Roll Inclusive: Diversity und Repräsentation im Rollenspiel by Frank Reiss and others
31) Spawn Origins Collection, Bd. 1 by Todd McFarlane
32) Stadt der Heiligen und Verrückten by Jeff VanderMeer

Good luck! A cozy reading chair sounds perfect

Thank you! :3

Soo I already have read two short books. But since I want to gift the first one to someone and she also is on Goodreads I will not post it until early summer.

The second one was:
Sitzen wie ein Buddha. Meditation für Anfänger by Lodro Rinzler. A nice and short introduction to meditation. The first part of the book is an instruction how to meditate and how to deal with problems, that come up during meditation. That part was really helpful. I did not like the second part of the book, though, in which the author talks about how to use your meditation skills outside of the meditation in everyday life. I don't know... just not my cup of tea. But all in all a nice book which got me to try out meditation. :)

Third book this year: Grave Matter by Juno Dawson.

I got this one from my secret santa here at Goodreads and it was a pleasure to read. I found it to be entertaining, with an easy-to-read font and structure and beautiful pictures. The afterword says that this is to include readers, who normally don't like to read because they have bad eyesight or dyslexia. The story itself is very sad but not without hope. Sam turns his pain into action and even if this may not be useful at first sight, it helps him to overcome what happened and to find his way back to life. All in all a nice, short book to read in between.

Fourth book: Depression abzugeben: Erfahrungen aus der Klapse by Uwe Hauck

An autobiography about an IT expert who has a mental breakdown and tries to kill himself. About to die he remembers that he forgot to write a letter to his wife. The following WhatsApp messages save his life and he wakes up in hospital where the doctors diagnose him with severe depression and anxiety disorder. To get better he starts a year long journey through different hospitals and rehab centers. He has to question who he really is and what he needs and wants in his life.
Not an easy book (especially the beginning, in which he describes in vivid detail what he thought and felt just before and during his attempted suicide) but worth the read. Especially fascinating in my opinion was his description of his therapies. He mostly consideres them to be utterly useless. But in the end they really help him recover. Hauck comes to the conclusion, that all this handycraft work, dancing, painting in combination with the talk therapy was never intended to really heal him. Rather the goal of all this was to help him calm down, get a sense of achievement and get him to think - about himself, his illness, his environment, his problems, wants and needs and of course possible solutions. In the field of your mental health you yourself are the expert and only you yourself can help you get better. Of course this is what every psychologist will tell you - but actually reading about someone who really understood this, was quite exciting!

Fifth book: Wie ein leeres Blatt by Boulet

A graphic novel about a young women on the search for herself. The ending was a bit underwhelming in my opinion but otherwise I liked it.

Wow, Depression abzugeben sounds really interesting! I'm a bit anxious and what you said about how the therapy was designed to calm him down and get him to think resonated with me. Bummed I couldn't find an English translation.

Sixth book: Ein bissfestes Abenteuer by Franziska Gehm

The second part of the series about the two half-vampire sisters Silvania and Daka who have to get used to their new life in average human Germany, which shows to be far more exciting than the sisters thought it would be. This time they dare to tell their new best friend about them being partly vampire. Also there is this school project at the museum which totally spirals out of control. Last but not least one of their schoolmates seems quite odd.
I like the series. The protagonists are cute and the story is exciting enough to really keep me entertained and giggling (as I am obviously way older than the target audience that means a lot). Also: toilet seats! :D

Seventh book: Das Amulett von Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud

Nathaniel, a young sorcerer's apprentice, summones the demon Bartimaeus to steal the Amulet of Samarkand from Simon Lovelace. What started out as the angry idea of a miffed, young pupil soon becomes a political issue with big consequences that Nathaniel was not able to preestimate. Will Nathaniel and Bartimaeus be able to uncover the big conspiracy against the prime minister? Will they be able to safe a lot of lives (of course including their owns^^)?
I have read the book years ago and I totally forgot how awesome it was/is! Bartimaeus' humorous and sharp commentary and his over the top self-adulation (which somehow does not always coincide with what everbody else is saying about him^^) is really a pleasure to read. Nathaniel is a really talented apprentice who in the end just wants to be loved and acknowledged. It is part of this novels melancholic undertone, that his actions get him one but take from him the other.

O noes! I totally forgot to update my postings here. To catch up completely would be too much work, but I will try to say at least one sentence about every book I read till now.
(And since goodreads just ate my first attempt at doing so, I will post each book seperately to spare the rest of my nerves...)

Eight book: Peanut: Die Sache mit der Erdnuss by Ayun Halliday
Was okay but not really exciting.

Ninth book: Der Mantel by Nikolai Gogol
What is it about russians and unlikeable characters? Nevertheless quite funny.

Tenth book: Der Prinz der Elfen by Holly Black
I really enjoyed this one. Imaginative, eerie and fascinating!

Eleventh book: Magic Cleaning: Wie richtiges Aufräumen Ihr Leben verändert by Marie Kondō
A few ideas were okayish, but overall I strongly disliked Marie Kondos arrogant way of writing.

Twelfth book: Dinge geregelt kriegen - ohne einen Funken Selbstdisziplin by Kathrin Passig
Funny book about how to do stuff if you are a lazy piece of shit. A few ideas worked really well for me. :D

Thirteenth book: Schwert und Mistelzweig by Cardon Wârtain
I usually tend to like cheesy vampire love stories but this one just wasn't my cup of tea for some reason.

Fourteenth book: Sommergäste by Maxim Gorky
Boring book about bored people being bored. But for some reason a classic piece of russian literature.

Fifteenth book: Hellblazer: Original Sins by Jamie Delano
Liked it. The next book of the series is waiting for me at my shelf...

Sixteenth book: Micky Mystery - Neue Geheimnisse by Walt Disney Company
I love this series about Micky being a private detective in a noir city. :)

Seventeenth book: Schachnovelle by Stefan Zweig
This was surprisingly exciting! I read it in no time and afterwards really wanted to play chess. :D

Eighteenth book: Beyond the Wall und andere Abenteuer - Wolfszeit und andere Abenteuer by Peter S. Williams

An RPG rule book. More adventures for my Beyond the Wall Campaign. :)

Nineteenth book: Fünfzig Gedichte by Georg Trakl
I alway thought Trakl only wrote poems about being lonely in a big city. But actually he wrote quite sensitive and emotional poems not only about loneliness but also about nature, love, fear and despair.

Twentieth book: Huch! Gänsehaut in Entenhausen by Walt Disney Company
I just love spooky stories with Micky and Donald. :)

Twentyfirst book: Nordwärts by Bernhard Hennen
Was a solid work of the fantasy genre, but the series is not going to be my favorite. The basis of the story is an RPG campaign for the german system "The Black Eye", which is quite popular here, but which I do not especially like... I was hoping that at least the novels would be nice. But in the end it's just... okay.

Twentysecond book: Das schwarze Phantom Darkenblot by Walt Disney Company
Micky visits a cybercity and fights the evil black phantom and giant robots. I guess I just like the stories about the noir city and the spooky city more, but cyber city is interesting, too.

Twentythird book: Eine dumme Geschichte by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Abother russian classic. Again - okay but with dislikeable characters.

Twentyfourth book: Horror mit Micky X by Walt Disney Company
Yaaaay - more spooky stories with Micky and Goofwolf!

Twentyfifth book: Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen by J.K. Rowling
One of my alltime classics. Again it was delightful!

Twentysixth book: The Citadel of Chaos by Steve Jackson
A choose-your-own-adventure book. I really had a hard time solving this one, but it was fun. :)

Yaaaaay! I already read 26 books! That's more than I managed to read during the last challenges. I'm so excited! :))

Again I did not have the time to translate my reviews to english and update my challenge in this group properly. O.O
But in the end I managed to read 32 books. (Actually the books were mostly kinda short - therefore I did not really read much more in terms of pages. But the good feeling of nearly finishing my challenge still remains^^)

My personal highlight (which I finished reading just yesterday) was Stadt der Heiligen und Verrückten (City of Saints and Madmen) by Jeff VanderMeer. Hoooly shit - what a trip that was! Highly recommend reading it, if you are into weird, but well-written non-linear storytelling. I now have this problem where fungi grow out of my ears and I cannot get rid of that feeling of having more than my usual 4 arms - but hey, all for a good novel, eh? :D

So in conclusion:

- Read 32 of 40 books, which is really nice, since it is more than I read the year before. :) Yay for me!

- Within that I managed to fulfill 14 of 24 categories of this self-made forum challenge, which is also ok, because I did not really choose my books according to this challenge.

- I re-read 1 of 7 Harry Potter books, which really is a shame. :( But I have the books here and I still want to read them. :)

- I read books mostly in german and sometimes in english. I started a book in russian but was not able to finish it in 2019 (not because of the language, but because it is boring as hell... but it is really easy to read, so that my russian is good enough to read it without a dictionary, which is why I still want to finish it in 2020.) Unfortunately I did not read a book in estonian - mostly because I had to interrupt my language learning for more than half a year. I want to restart learning in 2020 - maybe I can finish my book then.

So all in all I would say I was on a good way with my challenge until July - then real life kicked in and the challenge did suffer a lot. :D Nevertheless it was a good year for reading and I will still aim for the 40 books in 2020. :)

Thank you for making this group - it really helps staying motivated throughout the year!