2015 Reading Challenge [Closed] discussion

So this is my plan so far. I will probably make changes along the way.

1. a book with more than 500 pages:
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck ✔

2. a romance:
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen ✔

3. a book that became a movie:
Chocolat by Joanne Harris ✔

4. a book published this year:
Løvetæmmeren by Camilla Läckberg ✔

5. a book with a number in the title:
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez ✔

6. a book written by someone under 30:
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie ✔

7. a book with nonhuman characters:
Animal Farm By George Orwell ✔
Watership Down by Richard Adams Gave up

8. a funny book:
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman ✔

9. a book by a female author:
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes ✔

10. a mystery or thriller:
And Then There Were None By Agatha Christie ✔

11. a book with a one-word title:
Atonement by Ian McEwan ✔

12. a book of short stories:
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri ✔

13. a book set in a different country:
The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie ✔

14. a nonfiction book
My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me: A Black Woman Discovers Her Family's Nazi Past by Jennifer Teege ✔

15. a popular author's first book:
Looking for Alaska by John Green ✔

16. a book from your favorite author that you haven't read yet:
The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafón ✔

17. a book a friend recommended:
Angels by Marian Keyes ✔

18. a Pulitzer-prize winning book:
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee ✔

19. a book based on a true story:
Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally ✔

20. a book at the bottom of your to read list:
Nobels testamente by Liza Marklund ✔

21. a book my boyfriend loves:
Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton ✔

22. a book that scares you:
An Evil Mind by Chris Carter ✔

23. a book more than 100 years old:
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley ✔

24. a book based entirely on its cover:
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children ✔

25. a book you were supposed to read in school but didn't:
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger ✔

26. a memoir:
Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi ✔

27. a book you can finish in a day:
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher ✔

28. a book with antonyms in the title:
Cold Fire by Dean Koontz ✔

29. a book set somewhere you've always wanted to visit:
Profeterne i Evighedsfjorden by Kim Leine ✔

30. a book that came out the year you were born:
The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett ✔

31. a book with bad reviews:
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov ✔

32. a trilogy (the first):
The Giver by Lois Lowry ✔

33. a trilogy (the second):
Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry ✔

34. a trilogy (the third):
Messenger by Lois Lowry ✔

35. a book from your childhood:
The Brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lindgren ✔

36. a book with a love triangle:
Never Let Me Go Kazuo Ishiguro ✔

37. a book set in the future:
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury ✔

38. a book set in high school:
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky ✔

39. a book with a color in the title:
The Color Purple by Alice Walker ✔

40. a book that made/makes you cry:
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green ✔

41. a book with magic:
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss ✔

42. a graphic novel:
Maus, I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History by Art Spiegelman ✔

43. a book by an author you've never read before:
Stoner by John Williams ✔

44. a book you own but have never read:
Anybody Out There? by Marian Keyes ✔

45. a book that takes place in your hometown:
Death of a Nightingale by Lene Kaaberbol ✔

46. a book that was originally written in another language:
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel ✔

47. a book set during Christmas (or similar holiday):
Den lille pige med svovlstikkerne by H.C Andersen ✔

48. a book written by an author with your same initials:
Charlie Hotel Oscar Kilo by Maise Njor ✔

49. a play:
A Midsummer Night's Dream By William Shakespeare ✔

50. a banned book:
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller ✔

51. a book based on OR turned into a tv show:
Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest by Stephen E. Ambrose ✔

52. a book you started but never finished:
Røde ulv by Liza Marklund ✔

I might have to change a few of the topics. I have changed week 21: Mu mum reads but it is always books she borrows from me. Instead I will read a book my boyfriend loves. He's a big reader like me :-)

A man called Ove was one of the choices we discussed for my nect Swedish course - unfortunately the others decided against it since they prefered to read a Swedish classic :/
I really would have liked to read it

Anja wrote: "A man called Ove was one of the choices we discussed for my nect Swedish course - unfortunately the others decided against it since they prefered to read a Swedish classic :/
I really would have li..."

Too bad, Anja... It definitely sounds more fun than a Swedish classic ;-) I'm looking forward to read it. I read The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson in the summer, and I expect A man called Ove to be somewhat similar and just as funny!

The Hundred-Year-Old was the first ever book I read in Swedish, about 3 years ago, and I had so much fun reading it. So I decided to re-read it for the funny book in week 8 - my swedish has improved a lot over the past 3 years so I guess it will be even more fun now.

I'm impressed that you read it in Swedish. Even though I'm Danish, and Swedish is a language quite similar, I'm not sure I would understand everything :-)

I started learning Swedish 4 years ago because I've got a friend in Sweden whom I stay with at least a few days every year - she speaks German fluently so no problem there but she has children now who don't speak anything but Swedish. Since I had come to like the country a lot and had the opportunity to do courses at the language centre of my university, I decided to learn it. It's not a difficult language for Germans to learn and I always learn languages best by reading books so I started early with that ;D

It sounds like you have it easy when it comes to learning languages :-) I learnt German in school, but I haven't used it for ages, so now I remember very little of it.

If I'm really interested in the language it's rather easy for me, yes. But I have to use it - if I don't use it I have the same problem you have with German. I learnt Latin at school but don't remember anything, I learnt Spanish about 12 years ago but rarely used it in the past years and now it is extremely rusty

We had to learn Latin for a year but I don't remember a thing. I also learned Spanish, but as qwith you it's really rusty. I find it easier to understand German and Spanish, when I hear others talking, but making a sentence myself is the hard part :-)

I have some troubles finding an author with my initials M N. And I've even tried to change it to N M, but without much luck.
I've found a few but their books haven't been published in Danish, so I think I have to be creative with this topic.

Mary Norton maybe? She wrote The Borrowers which are children books about tiny people. There are some movies from the series and an animated film (Arrietty by studio Ghibli), maybe we saw one of them?
The books are on my to-read list since many months, but there are no ebooks so I didn't buy them for the moment.

Zaz wrote: "Mary Norton maybe? She wrote The Borrowers which are children books about tiny people. There are some movies from the series and an animated film (Arrietty by studio Ghibli), maybe we..."

That might be an idea, thanks :-) I don't know Mary Norton or The Borrowers but they have the book at my library, so it's possible to get hold of.
I did though come to think, that I'm getting married in two months, so when we get to week 48 my initials will be M H. I looked for authors with those same initials, but without much luck, so maybe Mary Horton is my rescue!

I've tried to update my reading list a bit, but find it hard planning so far ahead. I also have to consider which books I can get a hold off.

Here in Denmark we don't really have books that are required reading in school, not that I remember at least. Instead I think I'll be choosing one from this list https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/4...

I know I haven't chosen the most exotic book, when it comes to a book set in a different country and a book set somewhere I've always wanted to visit :-) But I have both books at home and had planned to read them this year , so I had to find a topic where they could fit in!

I love The Valley of Horses - don't know how often I've read that book and the other books of this series already (well, the first 4, I'm not so much a fan of the last two)

I honestly can't remember why I didn't finish The Valley of the Horses. It's been a couple of years since I started reading it and I even have two of the next books in the series at home, so I should just get going.

I'm almost done with planning my reading for every week, but I'll probably still make some changes as we go along.

It's impossible finding a book that takes place in my hometown, so it'll be a book taking place in Copenhagen.
And I didn't actually read The Borthers Lionheart as a child, but I should have, so that'll be the book to read in week 35.

I think the person who invented the list leaves in a big city. This week is totally unsuitable for small towns, so another place is fine :)

Zaz wrote: "I think the person who invented the list leaves in a big city. This week is totally unsuitable for small towns, so another place is fine :)"

Haha, you must be right ;-) He/she probably lives in New york or something like that. Plenty of books takes place there, but not many takes place in this small suburb to Copenhagen where I live!
I actually thought about change it to a town I wished was my hometown :-D

(ahem, I wrote "leaves", it's really not this spelling)
A city where you want to live is a great idea :) I want to live in a forest full of faeries, I'm sure I can find lots of books happening there :p

So I gave up on Watership down, and I think I'll read Animal farm for the book with nonhuman characters instead. I was planning on reading it for week 27 (a book you can read in one day), so I will try and find a new book for that week, but right now I have no idea :-S

Marina wrote: "So this is my plan so far. I will probably make changes along the way.

1. a book with more than 500 pages:
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck ✔

2. a romance:
[book:Pride and ..."

Great list, Marina, very ambitious! :-)

Thanks Jenna :-) I've tried to choose some different genres and some books I wouldn't normally read!

I'm reading The Fellowship of the Ring right now as a side-read, but I'm considering using it for the weeks with the trilogy. But I also really want to read His dark Materials, so I guess I just have to make time for two trilogies this year!

I'm really behind this week with the book set in a different country. Sarum is more than a 1000 pages long, and I just haven't had enough time to read it.
I've now decided to read In Cold Blood as a non-fiction book, so I'll probably start reading that in the weekend and also continue with Sarum in between.

I've just read The color of Magic by Terry Pratchett and found out that it was published the year I was born. So I added that to my list in week 30 and will probably not be reading Phantoms this year.

I bought the next book in the Fjällbacka series by Camilla Läckberg a couple of weeks ago, and since I've already read it and I hadn't completed the challenge for week 4, I decided to use this book instead.

I enjoyed the book, but it's pretty similar to Läckberg's previous books.

So I'm halfway through the challenge. When I started the challenge I honestly didn't think I'll complete it, but it's looking good so far!

You're doing brilliantly!

We share quite a few books in common too. :)

I absolutely loved In Cold Blood (I read it a while back) and Brave New World, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale & The Perks of Being a Wallflower (read for this challenge).

I'm not surprised you gave up on the bunny book. I read it for this challenge, and ugh ... it was good, but so freaking tedious & overly descriptive. And I didn't really give a crap what happened to any of them.

Oh, and did you enjoy The Colour of Magic? I liked it, but I'm very glad I kept reading the series, because some of the later ones are absolute crackers. Mort in particular is absolutely brilliant (Death is my absolute favourite character in the Discworld).

Ohh, the bunny book. I had happily forgotten about that. I still have it on my to-read list, but I really don't think I'll ever want go down that road again!

I liked The Colour of Magic, but it's not a genre I usually read so I think I have to read a couple of the books to really get into it. Unfortunately I found out my library only has a handfull of the books, but I'll have to see if I can borrow it from other libraries.

I have ebook versions of them, you can message me if you'd like. :)

33 books read and only 19 to go. I'm surprised to find myself so much ahead of the plan.

I'm dreading some of the weeks to come: a play, a graphic novel, a book set in the future and of course the book I started but never finished. Hopefully I can use as an advantage that I'm ahead of schedule. It gives me room to read some other books in between, and I think I'm going to need that, so I don't hit a brick wall!

Brave New Work is a brilliant book - I see you gave that down for another week, but it could be your book set in the future?

Jody wrote: "Brave New Work is a brilliant book - I see you gave that down for another week, but it could be your book set in the future?"

I have to give it a try one day, so that might be an idea. It seems to be one of those classics you should read at least once. And I have other options for week 25.

I'm glad I'm ahead of schedule. I've been reading plenty books, but not any that fits this challenge. I'm not that interested in some of the books left to read, so maybe I should look for other options.

Marina wrote: ...I'm dreading some of the weeks to come: a play, a graphic novel, a book set in the future and of course the..."

Have you considered The Martian for a book set in the future? I am not a big sci/fi fan, but I really enjoyed this one.

Shelly wrote: "Have you considered The Martian for a book set in the future? I am not a big sci/fi fan, but I really enjoyed this one."

No I haven't. I have seen it mentioned everywhere and it seems popular, but today is the first time I've actually read what's it about. I'm definetely not a sci/fi fan either, but it sounds interesting, so I'll keep it in mind. Thanks!

8 to go...
I think I have to change a few books. I don't know if it's because they have been on my list for so long, but I just don't feel like reading most of the ones left on the list.

Oh well... I'm only missing 6 books and then the challenge is done, but I don't read as much as earlier this year, and the books I read don't match the topics left on my list.

I don't read as much because I've found a new hobby: Crochet! My husband calls my granny :-) But it's really relaxing... well most of the time. I have some discussions with the yarn at times, but when we understand each other, I quite enjoy it. And I have all these projects for Christmas presents, but it takes away my time for reading.

And now my husband and I have bought a small house, so that's another project and less time for reading. The house is ours from february, but there are lots of things to take care of the next couple of months.
So I'm not sure I'm going to complete the challenge, but I've already read a lot more than I expected this year, so I'm happy with the result so far!

Marina,

That's okay. You've made a really great dent in your list, and reading anything is better than nothing. My sister is a huge crochet fiend, haha, but if she's alone or her husband is working on her own project she'll typically listen to audiobooks while she runs stitches. What do you crochet?

If you get the chance and bring yourself to it, I highly recommend Maus. It's a graphic novel but you get so caught up in the story that you forget it's a GN. It's very beautifully written, and terribly sad, but the imagery the author uses for it is amazing. I loved that each nationality was its own animal; Jews were mice, Germans as cats, and Americans as dogs, for example.

Congratulations on the house!!! I hope you're loving it and looking forward to the new projects :D

I'm a fellow 'granny' - but I knit. I find it really soothing & cathartic. Plus, it's nice to watch things grow that I made with my own two hands! I really want to learn to crochet, but I'm left-handed and most of the books are for right-handers.

Thanks Manda :)
I've thought about trying the audiobooks while I crochet, but I've never really been a fan of audiobooks. Well, I have never really given it a fair chance, so maybe I should consider it. It could be my New Year's resolution :)

Right now I'm crocheting a headband (winter's coming here in Denmark) and potholders for my mum for Christmas. My best friend is pregnant so I'm planning on making a baby-blanket and a Giraffe Lovey. And I've tons of other ideas... I just need more hours in a day!

Maus is one of the missing topics I'm definitely planning on reading. It seems each but challenging at the same time.

Jody wrote: "I'm a fellow 'granny' - but I knit. I find it really soothing & cathartic. Plus, it's nice to watch things grow that I made with my own two hands! I really want to learn to crochet, but I'm left-ha..."

Exactly, I feel the same!
Do you listen to audiobooks while you knit? At some point I'll challenge myself and try knitting also, but crochet is all new to me, so I'm going to stick with that for a while.

I've never thought about audiobooks, but I think I might! I usually do it while watching TV, but then I end up watching my knitting more than the television. I learned to knit when I was a kid, so it's familiar to me - I still want to learn to crochet though!

I'm listening to my very first audiobook - Yes Please - at the moment (for the Book Riot challenge) - I've always avoided them up until now. I am actually enjoying it - I listen to it when I'm going for a long walk. Funnily enough, I don't remember ever seeing Amy Poehler in anything, and I have never seen SNL, but I still chose her autobiography to listen to.

I quilt and knit while listening to audio books. It keeps my mind occupied so I do not feel guilty about my dirty house. :)

Well, it's not a trilogy, but I decided to read The Giver Quartet for 32, 33 and 34.
The only one missing now is the graphic novel. I hope to find time to read it between Christmas and New year if I can borrow it from the library.

Good choice, the Quartet is a nice way to check quickly the trilogy and it's a pleasant read. It won't be too hard to find time to read a graphic novel, you can do it :D

Zaz wrote: "Good choice, the Quartet is a nice way to check quickly the trilogy and it's a pleasant read. It won't be too hard to find time to read a graphic novel, you can do it :D"

Excatly, I read the first one and found it was a nice and easy read. Not every book has to be a door stop :-)
I just need to kick myself in the rear end and go to the library for the last book.

Oh well, I went to the library to borrow Maus, but somebody else had beat me to it. I'm on hold for the book, but I don't think it'll be available before the new year.
This month has been really busy and I still have a lot of things to do these days before Christmas, so I just couldn't really be bothered with finding a new book.
I don't know if we have graphic novels as e-books here. If we do, then maybe I could find an e-book instead, but... we'll see :-)

Yeah, thanks to Jody I got a copy of Maus part 1, and I can now finally say I've completed this years challenge!!