MobileRead Book Challenges discussion

Well after a couple of difficult challenges for 2012 and 2013, this year I'm going to ignore all the craziness and make a few simple challenges.

Books can be used in as many challenges as they can so a Canadian book that I purchased in 2013 and got the book club to vote as the month's read could count for three of the challenges.

Challenge Status Summary
A quick summary of how the challenges are going. Ticks for each one. If nothing fits more than one category I'll have a forty book minimum. That's enough. Down from forty-four in 2013 and seventy in 2014. So forty books is my challenge number for 2015.

MobileRead Bookclub Participation (8)
I have ignored the book clubs for a while now. Just too busy with too many other challenges in reading. It's time to start participating again.

Read more Canadian (6)
Because I am inept at reading from my own country. Six books should get the CRTC off my back a bit.

Read a Few More Countries (6)
There's still a lot of the world left to read and I really liked that challenge so we'll continue it with an unread country every couple of months.

Read Books in Purchased Pile (5)
I don't have a lot of books in my purchased pile. I believe there's about ten on the Kindle and about ten paper books, but there's a few that have been sitting there and should be read. These books must have been purchased prior to mid-2014.

Second Chance Authors [5]
Read some authors that I have only read one title by that I should read more by. Or that I didn't really enjoy the first book and I think it might have just been the book selection.

Uncategorized [10]
Because we inevitably read things that don't fit into the categories we strive for.

Scrooge [$50]
Because I have too many books, okay not that many, but I'm going to track all of my book purchases outside of books for my son and try to keep myself to $50, yes $50 in purchases for the entire year

Complete list of books read:


MobileRead BookClub (12 of 8)
7. Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot
18. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
22. Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels
30. The Master by Colm Tóibín
34. West with the Night by Beryl Markham
38. Silk by Allesandro Barrico
42. Spring Snow by Yukio Mishima
47. Waterloo: The True Story of Four Days, Three Armies and Three Battles by Bernard Cornwell
55. Candide by Voltaire
63. Tirra Lirra by the River by Jessica Anderson
66. Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
68. Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

Canadian (14 of 6)
1. Sanaaq by Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk
14. A Good Man by Guy Vanderhaeghe
15. No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod
16. February by Lisa Moore
20. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
22. Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels
23. The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
25. Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese
27. MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood
48. Canada Made Me by Norman Levine
58. One Native Life by Richard Wagamese
61. Kicking the Sky by Anthony De Sa
70. The Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston
72. Alligator by Lisa Moore

Countries (7 of 6)
24. Denmark The Elephant Keepers' Children by Peter Høeg
39. Togo Dirty Feet by Edem Awumey
40. Azerbaijan Ali and Nino: A Love Story Kurban Said
49. North Korea The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag by Kang Chol-Hwan
51. Bangladesh A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam.
57. Cameroon Houseboy by Ferdinand Oyono
64. Iran The Drum Tower by Farnoosh Moshiri

Purchased Pile 5 of 5)
2. Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck
6. Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami
11. Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut
19. Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
46. What To Do When Someone You Love Is Depressed: A Practical, Compassionate, and Helpful Guide for Caregivers by Mitch Golant

Second Chance Authors (6 of 5)
3. The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester
8. Concrete Island by J.G. Ballard
10. How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid
26. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
31. Forever Odd by Dean Koontz
33. Adam in Eden by Carlos Fuentes

Uncategorized (29 of 10)
4. The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett
5. Brenner and God by Wolf Haas
9. When It's A Jar by Tom Holt
12. The Outsorcerer's Apprentice by Tom Holt
13. Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett
17. Come, Sweet Death! by Wolf Haas
21. The Girl Who Ruled Fairyland - For a Little While by Catherynne M. Valente
28. In the Cities of Coin and Spice by Catherynne M. Valente
29. The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde
32. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
35. The Last Hero by Terry Pratchett
36. The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde
37. A Blink of the Screen: Collected Short Fiction by Terry Pratchett
41. The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two by Catherynne M. Valente
43. How a Mother Weaned Her Girl from Fairy Tales: and Other Stories by Kate Bernheimer
44. The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountainsby Neil Gaiman
45. The Blue Fox by Sjón
50. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
52. The Boy Who Lost Fairyland by Catherynne M. Valente
53. Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
54. Real World by Natsuo Kirino
56. Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde
59. From the Mouth of the Whale by Sjón
60. The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson
62. Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata
65. Interesting Times by Terry Pratchett
67. The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine by Alina Bronsky
69. Inspector Imanishi Investigates by Seicho Matsumoto
71. Maskerade by Terry Pratchett

Scrooge ($0.00 / $50.00)
- nothing purchased so far

That should be all.

FIRST!

Well that's settled. :)

Anyone got books they have to read for 2015? I think I've got the following for new countries:

Bangladesh - A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam
Bosnia and Herzogovina - How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone by Saša Stanišić
Djibouti - In the United States of Africa by Abdourahman A. Waberi
Hungary - In the Forest of Forgetting by Theodora Goss
Papau New Guinea - The Crocodile by Vincent Eri
Taiwan - Wild Kids: Two Novels about Growing Up by Chang Ta-Ch'un

I've got a gigantic list for Canada, but the front runners are:

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
The Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler
The Confabulist by Steven Galloway
Montreal Stories by Mavis Gallant
Sanaaq by Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk

Homeinmyshoes wrote: "Well that's settled. :)

Anyone got books they have to read for 2015? I think I've got the following for new countries:

Bangladesh - A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam
Bosnia and Herzogovi..."


:D

I'm trying to decide. I think I'm going to push forward with the challenges I failed at in 2014.

Series List
Kate Daniels Series
Magic Bites (Kate Daniels #1)
Magic Burns (Kate Daniels #2)
Magic Strikes (Kate Daniels #3)
Magic Bleeds (Kate Daniels #4)
Magic Slays (Kate Daniels #5)
Magic Rises (Kate Daniels #6)
Magic Breaks (Kate Daniels #7)


Kate Daniels Sub-Series/Short Stories
Kate Daniels (Kate Daniels #0.5)
Magic Mourns (Kate Daniels #3.5)
Magic Dreams (Kate Daniels #4.5)
Magic Gifts (Kate Daniels #5.4)
GunMetal Magic (Kate Daniels #5.5) (full novel)
Kate (Kate Daniels #5.6)

The Inheritance Trilogy
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (The Inheritance Trilogy, #1)
The Broken Kingdoms (The Inheritance Trilogy, #2)
The Kingdom of Gods (The Inheritance Trilogy, #3)


Malazan Book of the Fallen
Gardens of the Moon (Malazan Book of the Fallen, #1) Completed & Reviewed: 35 Points
Deadhouse Gates (The Malazan Book of the Fallen, #2) - in progress
Memories of Ice (Malazan Book of the Fallen, #3)
House of Chains (The Malazan Book of the Fallen, #4)
Midnight Tides (Malazan Book of the Fallen, #5)
The Bonehunters (Malazan Book of the Fallen, #6)
Reaper's Gale (Malazan Book of the Fallen, #7)
Toll the Hounds (Malazan Book of the Fallen, #8)
Dust of Dreams (Malazan Book of the Fallen, #9)
The Crippled God (The Malazan Book of the Fallen, #10)

The Chronicles of Narnia
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia, #1) Completed & Reviewed (85 points)
Prince Caspian (The Chronicles of Narnia, #2) - Completed & Reviewed (35 points)
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Chronicles of Narnia, #3) Completed & Reviewed (85 points)
The Silver Chair (Chronicles of Narnia, #4) - In Progress
The Horse and His Boy (Chronicles of Narnia, #5)
The Magician's Nephew (Chronicles of Narnia, #6)
The Last Battle (The Chronicles of Narnia, #7)


The Legend of Eli Monpress
The Spirit Thief (The Legend of Eli Monpress #1) - Completed & Reviewed (35 points)
The Spirit Rebellion (The Legend of Eli Monpress, #2)
The Spirit Eater (The Legend of Eli Monpress, #3)
The Spirit War (The Legend of Eli Monpress, #4)
Spirit's End (The Legend of Eli Monpress #5)

Parasol Protectorate
Soulless (Parasol Protectorate, #1)
Changeless (Parasol Protectorate, #2)
Blameless (Parasol Protectorate, #3)
Heartless (Parasol Protectorate, #4)
Timeless (Parasol Protectorate, #5)

Mercy Thompson Series
Mercy Thompson Homecoming
Moon Called (Mercy Thompson, #1)
Blood Bound (Mercy Thompson, #2)
Iron Kissed (Mercy Thompson, #3)
Bone Crossed (Mercedes Thompson, #4)
Silver Borne (Mercy Thompson, #5)
River Marked (Mercy Thompson, #6)
Frost Burned (Mercy Thompson, #7)
Night Broken (Mercy Thompson, #8)

Book of the Order
Geist (Book of the Order, #1)
Spectyr (Book of the Order, #2)
Wrayth (Book of the Order, #3)
Harbinger (Book of the Order, #4)

Shadowchasers
Shadow Blade (Shadowchasers, #1) - Previously Read and Reviewed
Shadow Chase (Shadowchasers, #2)
Shadow Fall (Shadowchasers, #3)


The Iron Druid Chronicles
Hounded (The Iron Druid Chronicles, #1)
Hexed (The Iron Druid Chronicles, #2)
Hammered (The Iron Druid Chronicles, #3)

The Divine Comedy
Inferno (The Divine Comedy, #1) - in progress
Purgatorio (The Divine Comedy, #2)
Paradiso (The Divine Comedy, #3)

Kingmaker, Kingbreaker
A Blight of Mages (Kingmaker, Kingbreaker, #0.5)
The Innocent Mage (Kingmaker, Kingbreaker, #1)
The Awakened Mage (Kingmaker, Kingbreaker, #2)



Peter Grant
Midnight Riot (Peter Grant, #1) - Previously Read & Reviewed
Moon Over Soho (Peter Grant, #2)
Whispers Under Ground (Peter Grant, #3)
Broken Homes (Peter Grant, #4)

Step away from the series. Just back away now. It'll end in tears. :)

I should add Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella which is the book Field of Dreams came from. It seems odd that a Canadian wrote that, but I should read it.

And even more Canadian:
The Best Game You Can Name by Dave Bidini
Hey Nostradamus! by Douglas Coupland
Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O'Neill
The Stone Carvers by Jane Urquhart
Kicking the Sky by Anthony De Sa
Anil's Ghost by Michael Ondaatje
The Englishman's Boy by Guy Vanderhaeghe
Above All Things by Tanis Rideout
419 by Will Ferguson

I could probably just spend the year reading Canadian and not run out of good choices.

Homeinmyshoes wrote: "Step away from the series. Just back away now. It'll end in tears. :)

I should add Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella which is the book Field of Dreams came from. It seems odd that a Canad..."


LOLOLOLOL!!!!


OMG. I'm dying here, lol. But you're so right. That series challenge was a total FAIL for me this year.

I'm dropping the book club participation down to eight which would be 1/3rd of the 24 selections. I think that's a more reasonable number and gets me to a very trim thirty books for my 2015 challenge. Two point five books a month sounds very leisurely to me.

Homeinmyshoes wrote: "I'm dropping the book club participation down to eight which would be 1/3rd of the 24 selections. I think that's a more reasonable number and gets me to a very trim thirty books for my 2015 challen..."

You're sounding so reasonable. Why must it just be me who is unreasonable?

Where is Christa when I need some comfort??! :)

I'm here! What's happening? What do you need?

Christa wrote: "I'm here! What's happening? What do you need?"

It's all HiMS fault! All this "reasonable" stuff going on. *sniff*

Trying to make me feel bad for being a FI/LO book hog. *cries*

MrsJoseph wrote: "It's all HiMS fault! All this "reasonable" stuff going on. *sniff*

Trying to make me feel bad for being a FI/LO book hog. *cries*"

Being reasonable is overrated. It's okay. **pats head** ** hugs**

What's wrong with FIFO? If the other books were better they'd be able to push their way to the front anyway.

Homeinmyshoes wrote: "What's wrong with FIFO? If the other books were better they'd be able to push their way to the front anyway."

I'm picturing books with little arms and legs pushing each other, trying to get to the top of the stack.

Christa wrote: "Being reasonable is overrated. It's okay. **pats head** ** hugs** "

See!! Christa agrees with me. :-P

Homeinmyshoes wrote: "What's wrong with FIFO? If the other books were better they'd be able to push their way to the front anyway."


Ha!

The most recently purchased or borrowed books are always the most exciting.

There's a reason they were purchased and a reason the others are still unread.

I really want to start 2015 now.

Homeinmyshoes wrote: "I really want to start 2015 now."

Me too, though I have no special challenges planned.

Bianca wrote: "Homeinmyshoes wrote: "I really want to start 2015 now."

Me too, though I have no special challenges planned."

Me, three.

We have quorum!

:)

Just added the $50 Scrooge challenge to my challenges.

Homeinmyshoes wrote: "Just added the $50 Scrooge challenge to my challenges."

:D

Because I just can't quit looking through book lists, here is what I've got penciled in for my reading list for my challenges outside of the bookclub reads that will have to wait and see.

Canadian
1 - The Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston
2 - The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler
3 - Montreal Stories by Mavis Gallant
4 - Sanaaq by Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk
5 - Treacherous by Paul Derry
6 - Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

Countries
1 - Bangladesh - A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam
2 - North Korea - The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag by Kang Chol-Hwan
3 - Azerbaijan - Ali and Nino: A Love Story by Kurban Said
4 - Djibouti - In the United States of Africa by Abdourahman A. Waberi
5 - Togo - Dirty Feet by Edem Awumey
6 - Bosnia and Herzegovina - How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone by Saša Stanišić

Purchased Pile
1 - Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
2 - Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck
3 - Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami
4 - Wizards at War by Diane Duane
5 - Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut

Second Chance Authors
1 - Who's Afraid of Beowulf? by Tom Holt
2 - Gateway by Frederik Pohl
3 - Jamilia by Chingiz Aitmatov
4 - The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester
5 - A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner

That's pretty detailed. I get funky when I try to give myself reading lists, lol.

I'm usually pretty detailed. :)

Most of these are in my WTR list on GoodReads so it was really just a matter of finding a couple Second Chance titles. It's all subject to change. I was really trying to get a page count estimate for next year's 'required reading.'

About 6,406 pages and estimating 350 pages per book for 8 bookclub reads would get me to about 9,200 pages.

Way less than the 17,500 pages on 2014's 'required reading' list.

Nine days before 2015 and I'm going crazy. I've made my spreadsheet, I've got the books penciled in and have the spreadsheet keeping track of costs. IA books don't count towards the costs. I think I'll track them and add the cost of them to the $50 budget. I've got funky colors to track percentage progress so I can quickly see green for complete. I'm a total spreadsheet nerd.

I even created an Uncategorized challenge group for reading that doesn't fall into the other categories because I needed the spreadsheet to track everything and make sense. So I added 10 books to my challenge to get to 40.

Now what? I'm going crazy trying to not start reading.

I need help.

Homeinmyshoes wrote: "Nine days before 2015 and I'm going crazy. I've made my spreadsheet, I've got the books penciled in and have the spreadsheet keeping track of costs. IA books don't count towards the costs. I think ..."

lololol

I need help, not laughter. :)

Homeinmyshoes wrote: "I need help, not laughter. :)"

Do you read graphic novels? I don't.

But I heard of this one that sounded so good I got the first one from my library.

Saga, Volume 1

Maybe your library has it?

So far the beginning is crazy but super interesting. It will be slow going for me since I don't read graphic novels - making it a trial for me.

If you are like me, it might take you til Dec 28th or so.

Yep, they've got graphic novels and they've got that one, but not at a branch that's really accessible. It would have to be a request, which given the holidays might make getting it quickly hard.

Louis Riel by Chester Brown has been on my list to read for a while. I haven't read many as I figured it would be a black hole I'd never climb out of.

I think I'll just go to the library at lunch and see what looks good.

Homeinmyshoes wrote: "Yep, they've got graphic novels and they've got that one, but not at a branch that's really accessible. It would have to be a request, which given the holidays might make getting it quickly hard.

..."

I suggest you put Saga on hold for a later date...

That Louis Riel...has 10! Wow, I see your point. Let me know how the library goes.

The library was awesome, although I didn't pick up anything that wouldn't apply to next year's reading challenges. I got:

Canada: Sanaaq
Second Chance: Blonde Bombshell
Second Chance: How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia
Second Chance: Concrete Island

Maybe I'll just start next year's reading. There's only 2.2% of the year left which is well within experimental error. I also subscribe to the fact that hard reading stops for the year challenges is silly because there is almost always a book that is bridging the years for its reading timeline. How do they count? GoodReads does it based on when you finish so that's good enough for me and anything not finished this year just shortchanges the year so every year is shortchanged in some manner.

Homeinmyshoes wrote: "The library was awesome, although I didn't pick up anything that wouldn't apply to next year's reading challenges. I got:

Canada: Sanaaq
Second Chance: [book:Blonde Bombshell|730239..."

:-D

Haha Cat Vader.

I've been there a long time.

:)

Come on GoodReads, it's 2015 somewhere in the world now. :impatient:

Homeinmyshoes wrote: "Come on GoodReads, it's 2015 somewhere in the world now. :impatient:"

:) Yeah, I'm feeling it too!

Worse - For those of us who use it, we'll still have to wait until US Pacific Time before being able to set up the GR 2015 challenge widget.

I know. I probably won't set up the widget until January 5th. I'll feel late-to-the-party despite already adding all the books I just picked up at the library into the Currently Reading pile now. Hoping to have a productive weekend and put a few titles away.

Where the heck do duplicate books come from? I don't get it. I looked at my stats and was looking at a given year and finding a book I didn't read in that year and then I dig some more and find a duplicate book so I do the find duplicates functionality and find seven of them. WTF?

Thats happened to me when I've added books from Listopia, Recommendations, or Giveaways.

I don't do that. I manually add everything individually as I read so its really weird. And they weren't books that I would retouch after reading at all. I wonder if strange things happen when they split or combine editions.

Homeinmyshoes wrote: "I wonder if strange things happen when they split or combine editions. "

Yes, sometimes splits, combines, or efforts to correct an incorrect split or combine can result in weirdness. This is even more likely to happen if a book has been published in more than one language, with translated titles, or if the author's name has been presented differently in different markets (Hebrew, Cyrillic and Roman alphabets), etc.

Ugh. Totally my reading list the last few years.

And we have our first victim.

Sanaaq: An Inuit Novel. First Canadian challenge book down. Really good. Four stars.

Homeinmyshoes wrote: "And we have our first victim.

Sanaaq: An Inuit Novel. First Canadian challenge book down. Really good. Four stars."

Congratulations! I believe you may be the first one in the MRBC family to have finished a book this year! :)