2015 Reading Challenge [Closed] discussion

Well, this is not my finished list, I might change some books as I go along. And I'm accepting suggestions! I have no idea which book to pick for some of the weeks.

[EN] - English; [PT] - Portuguese

WEEKS & TOPICS
1. a book with more than 500 pages - Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky [EN] Finished on 13/01 - 5 star review

2. a romance - Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert (284/372) [PT] Gave up on - 3 star review

3. a book that became a movie - The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald [EN] Finished on 20/03 - 2 stars review

4. a book published this year - Galveias by José Luís Peixoto (43/278) [PT]

5. a book with a number in the title - A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (0/418) [EN]

6. a book written by someone under 30 - The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway (0/242) [PT]

7. a book with nonhuman characters - Animal Farm by George Orwell [EN] Finished on 23/01 - 5 star review

8. a funny book - Candide by Voltaire (0/171) [PT]

9. a book by a female author - Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë [PT]

10. a mystery or thriller - Balada da Praia dos Cães by José Cardoso Pires [PT]

11. a book with a one-word title - Deception by Philip Roth (0/200) [PT]

12. a book of short stories - A Submissa e Outras Histórias by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (I think it's "A Gentle Creature and others stories" in English but I'm not sure) [PT]

13. a book set in a different country - The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

14. a nonfiction book - The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels [EN] Finished on 17/07 - 4 star review

15. a popular author's first book - Carrie by Stephen King [EN] Finished on 04/04 - 4 star review

16. a book from your favorite author that you haven't read yet - The Castle by Franz Kafka [EN]

17. a book a friend recommended - As Intermitências da Morte (Death With Interruptions, as translated to english) by José Saramago [PT] Finished on 21/06 - 5 stars

18. a Pulitzer-prize winning book - To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (0/376) [EN]

19. a book based on a true story -

20. a book at the bottom of your to read list - The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera (0/353) [PT]

21. a book your mom loves - something from Saramago José

22. a book that scares you - a short story from H. P. Lovecraft

23. a book more than 100 years old -

24. a book based entirely on its cover -

25. a book you were supposed to read in school but didn't - Memorial do Convento by José Saramago [PT]

26. a memoir -

27. a book you can finish in a day - The Outsider by Albert Camus [EN] Finished on 11/06 - 4 star review

28. a book with antonyms in the title -

29. a book set somewhere you've always wanted to visit -

30. a book that came out the year you were born (1994) - The Informers by Bret Easton Ellis, Insomnia by Stephen King or Mr. Vertigo by Paul Auster
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: A Savannah Story, The Alienist, One for the Money, Snow Falling on Cedars, Prozac Nation, The Laughing Corpse, K is for Killer, Politically Correct Bedtime Stories

31. a book with bad reviews - A Morte do Coveiro (Original title: Le Pain des Fossoyeurs) by Frédéric Dard [PT] Finished on 20/03 - 1 star review

32. a trilogy (the first) - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson [PT] Finished reading on 01/07 - 4 star review

33. a trilogy (the second) - see 32.

34. a trilogy (the third) - see 32.

35. a book from your childhood - The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry reading again

36. a book with a love triangle - A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare [EN] Finished on 7/07 - 4 star review

37. a book set in the future -

38. a book set in high school -

39. a book with a color in the title -

40. a book that made/makes you cry -

41. a book with magic -

42. a graphic novel - no idea whatsoever! Help me!

43. a book by an author you've never read before -

44. a book you own but have never read - The Russia House by John le Carré

45. a book that takes place in your hometown - (that one is going to be hard to find)

46. a book that was originally written in another language - The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

47. a book set during Christmas (or similar holiday) - Hercule Poirot's Christmas by Agatha Christie reading again

48. a book written by an author with your same initials - something by Albert Camus (it's so nice to have 5 different names ehehe; I usually go with AP but I do have two other names that start with C)

49. a play -

50. a banned book -

51. a book based on OR turned into a tv show - A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin

52. a book you started but never finished - Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche

I read Voltaire's Candide in school and I could not stop laughing. It was so funny! I have no read The Little Prince but I do own it. I jumped the gun on buying chapter books for my son (who is almost 2).
For a mystery, I would recommend Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but then again I am not a huge Stephen King fan. I have read all the Sherlock Holmes' books though :D

Really? I always imagine Candide being very serious, not really sure why though! The Little Prince is such a beautiful book! I think I read it when I was about 11, I read it all in an afternoon. I still remember my mom's surprised face! You should definitely read it to your kid! You'll both love it, I bet :)
So far I've only read The Shining and I really enjoyed it (my horror heart still belongs to Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft though). On the other hand, I got all Sherlock Holmes books with a newspaper earlier this year. I've already read two of them but there's still a lot of them to read :D

For the graphic novel, I suggest Batman: The Killing Joke. My American Literature professor actually put it in our reading list, but we never got around to reading it as a whole class.

That's a good idea, thanks Ana! I've never read the comics but I do like the Joker :P It's either that or I'll have to go through my old Asterix and Obelix comics!

I read Candide for a literature course and I was surprised at how funny it was too. I wasn't expecting something that old to still be funny to a modern audience, but it definitely is.

Good luck with the challenge. :-)

Adriana wrote: "Really? I always imagine Candide being very serious, not really sure why though!"

No, Candide is the very definition of satirical work. If you have time, you may want to brush up a bit on the time period. It is still funny without knowing it, but it is more so if you take it in context of the time period.

Can't wait to get to it! I already took it from my mom's shelf. I'll keep that in mind before reading it Lora!

Well, I convinced my boyfriend to read Candide yesterday and he's loving it! I think I might read it for the funny book week instead.

Finished Crime and Punishment yesterday and added the (5 star) review to the plan.

Huhu, this is a plan :D I like all the informations ;)

Thanks Zaz! I can go crazy on details sometimes. It's also good to have already the first weeks planned out, that way I won't freak about getting the books in time :D

So the challenge is not going so well for me. I realized that being so worried about following the order made me completely lose track. For the rest of the challenge as well as for next year, I'm just going to read whatever I feel like and then fit it into one of the weeks.

So far this year I've read 18 books of which 12 are challenge books.