The 104 Book Challenge - 2011 discussion

Hi, everyone!

I am so excited to start the 2011 Challenge and am thrilled to see both familiar faces and new faces int he group. I can't believe there are already 25 people here! YAY! I thought now would be a good time for us to take a minute and introduce ourselves to each other. Please let us know a little about yourself and your favorite types of books.

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I'm Jennifer and live in a northwest suburb of Minneapolis, MN. I'm married with three children (a 10, 8 and 4 year old) and own a software consulting business. Luckily I function on very little sleep because I love to read into the wee hours of the night after everyone is tucked into bed.

I enjoy reading all types of fiction but especially love the classics, Young Adult, and paranormal romance. Nice mix, eh? I spent a lot of time reading YA last year and plan on that continuing this year.

Happy Reading!

Hi, everyone, I'm a midwest transplant to the sunny southwest. As a young teen I hated reading but after a summer of forced reading by my mother, I came to love it. I'm married, have three grown sons, one daughter in-law and a grandbaby on the way.:)I stayed home with my children and when they left home, I chose not to work. We travel a lot. I read most genres. Grew up in a family of 6 girls so the romances were spread around. Now I like to read mysteries, suspense, contempory lit, YA and still like the romances.

Hi everyone~ my name is Lesley and I am a bookaholic! I am originally from the Cleveland area but have landed in North Idaho (ok, it's been 30 years, guess I should call it "home")
I was a preschool teacher for 28 years and now I teach Child Development courses at a community college. I have 4 adult children and 2 grandsons.
I have loved reading since I first read for myself "see Dick, see Dick run". I try to read a variety of books and read about equal numbers of printed books to audiobooks. I LOVED being in this challenge last year and found some GREAT reading ideas, although my claim to fame in this group is that I DO NOT like vampire books, but love my friends that do. I like mysteries and suspense, and anything on sale for the Kindle or cheap through audible.com.

Hi everyone, I was invited to participate last year, but I got overwhelmed between school reading ect. This year, my main goal is to not get bogged down.

I live in BC, Canada.
I work as an Out of School Care Site Manager/Bus Driver.
I have been challenged by the kids in my care to read the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.
My new years resolution (yes I am starting them all now and hoping for better results... lol) is to branch out from my comfort zones, with books.

Can't wait to have fun! And now that my Kobo has a night light, I can read anywhere! mmmuwahahahaha!

Hi everyone! My name is Bri and this is my first year attempting (ahem.. er, I mean dominating) a goodreads challenge. I am a student teacher in a kindergarten classroom and will be graduating this spring with an Elementary Education degree and a Language Arts concentration. I'm also a part time nanny for a four year old girl and a one year old boy whom I'm so in love with. I became engaged this past summer and am planning a July 2012 wedding.

Despite being so busy, I LOVE to read and try to always make "me time" to do so. I prefer contemporary fiction, chick lit., and YA but branch out from time to time as well. Looking forward to getting to know all of you this year!

I work in a middle school library in Arkansas and love to talk books with my kids. I also have a 13 year old son but he's getting to the age where we don't have a lot of interest in the same books. I enjoy all genres but read mostly YA so I can help choose new books for the students to read. I am reading a lot of paranormal romance but I can only read so much about pixies and werewolves before I have to read a little realistic fiction. I am looking forward to the 104 book challenge. Hoefully, I will be able to read some adult fiction too. I would also love to go back and read and reread some of the classics to I can turn my students on to these books too.

My favorite book is To Kill a Mockingbird which I encourage all of my students to read. I really enjoyed The Hunger Games series and would like to find more books like that because my students (even my reluctant readers) loved them.

Hi y'all! I'm Jen, I am a single mom of a 4 year old little boy living in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. I was in the challenge in 2010, and came up very short. I went back to school this fall, and that really impeded my reading time. :) I am in the process of getting my bachelors (general studies: english/business) and then I'll be getting my Master's in Library Science. But now that I'm back in the groove of school, hopefully I'll manage to accomplish the goal this year!

When I'm not doing school, work, or kiddos (besides my son I also live with two nephews and their parents), I am usually reading. I'll read pretty much anything except mysteries, mostly YA and historical fiction. I've been wanting to read all of the Newbery winners, so whenever I'm stuck this year I'll likely be picking up one of those. This year I may branch out to audio books too, I started knitting as a hobby this year and its surprisingly difficult to read and knit at the same time!

I can't wait to follow everyone's list and get some great ideas, and to have some good ideas thrown around. Good luck everyone!!

Jen~ I was also thinking of reading Newberry winners... I read a ton of them from the 60s and 70s but not too many recent ones (except the Graveyard Book... I love Neil Gaiman books!) Great Idea!

My name is Angela and I live in Michigan. This year was the first year I kept track of what and how many books I've read. I really enjoyed doing that, so I am going to do it again in 2011. I am hoping to beat my total from this year.

I mostly read PNR. I love it!

Hi, my name is Corrine and I live in Ohio. I ran into this challenge on accident and thought it sounded like fun. I love all kinds of books (anything that holds my attention really) but have found myself drawn to YA a lot lately. Good Luck to everyone!

Welcome, Corrine! I'm glad you found us. I'm a huge YA fan and look forward to seeing your list!

Hi Corrine, I'm originally from Ohio as well, I currently live in Atlanta, GA. Welcome to the group, I am a new member as well and looking foward to this challenge.

Quick Q - Can you see my posts? When I come back to check on things I can't find anything I have posted....:0) Thank!

Hi Corrine and Linda... I am originally from Ohio too, I am from Berea on the west side of Cleveland.

I have a question for the lovers of the Twilight Series. Does watching the movie first spoil reading the books?

Unfortunately, I have already seen the movies - then got the books. Perhaps if wait long enough before reading them I might forget what happened in the movies - highly probable as I fell asleep during each of them. Thanks for your input.

About myself, I'm a Canadian that recently took an extended vacation (2 years) to Belize in Central America then spent another 8 months in Mexico. The only thing harder to find than a winter parka in either place was a bookstore. I'm convinced that reading is not high on the activity list of Belizeans. I was able to find a bookstore in Cancun and if I read Spanish would have been all set. Visions of the hundreds of books all crated and awaiting my return to Canada just didn't fill the reading void. Upon my return to BC the first thing purchased was, of course, a book. I'm reading anything and everything I can get my hands on to make up for lost time. Lesson learned - was given a Kindle and am busy loading it up and reading. My next trip won't find me without at least 50 books packed away.

@Mikela -- LOL! That's hilarious. I never considered the difficulty of finding books when living abroad.

Amber wrote: "Quick Q - Can you see my posts? When I come back to check on things I can't find anything I have posted....:0) Thank!"


I can see your posts!

Hi, Everybody!
My name is Meg and I am a Young Adult/Reference librarian in Springfield MA. I read A LOT, but I have never counted how many books I read a year. This should be very interesting. My fav genres are dystopias/sci fi, fantasy with a bit of romance.
I am married and have two sons-19 and 15, and two bichon frises 9 and 17. I love to garden, hang around with my kids and READ! LOL!

Welcome Meg!

I like to "beleive" I have a green thumb, but if it is not a succulant, I manage to "kill" it... :o(

It's always a challenge to count what you read, and you will find yourself pleasently surprised!

Thanks for the welcome, Erynn!
Mostly I grow flowers and herbs-don't have the patience to pick vegetables every day (although I know home grown are better for you). In Massachusetts the growing season is short so I garden for 3 months like crazy then relax the other 9 months LOL!

I everyone! I'm Amy and participated in the group for only half the year, but I did reach my goal of 2 books a week, but it was only for 6 months. I'm excited to try the whole year now!

I'm friends with Jennifer here in MN. I've been married for 8 years and have 2 boys, ages 6 and 4. Both of my sons are on the autism spectrum, so that is an important part of my life. I was so excited to see some librarians here! I am currently attending grad school to get my MLS degree (Master of Library Science) and plan to be a Youth services librarian, specializing in young adults and patrons with disabilities. I'm loving school!

I LOVE YA lit and anything with great characters, especially strong female ones written in first person POV. I am taking a YA literature class this semester, so a lot of my reads will be YA (though they usually are anyway!).

So nice to meet you all! Happy reading!

Hello Everyone! I'm hoping to be able to reach the group goal. I've been looking for a group to join that had some challenge for 2011 that wasn't terribly complicated. It looks like I've found my group! (Honestly, the rules for some groups were far too convoluted for my tastes.)

I live in the province of Ontario. I studied English Literature in my undergrad years. Obviously, I enjoy reading. In particular, I prefer the classics, but do veer off of the classical path from time to time. I was pleased to see that rereads count because I am a habitual rereader. However, I do know that it's important to expand one's reading palate and try to take in new reads, too.

Hopefully, I don't get too bogged down with other "stuff" and will be able to come somewhat close to 104 book goal!

Hi! My name is Kim and I am excited to do this challenge! I have 5 kids so sometimes it can be tough to find time to read but I am determined to do it. I love to read and do reading challenges, but I am looking forward to doing a challenge that I can read whatever books I want.

I'm Sarah and I live in southern Indian. I'm married as of this coming Thursday, December 30. Though I call him my husband now since we've been living together since the end of September. Together we have 3 children, one daughter that is 10 and 2 boys that are 9 and 6. We also have 3 fur babies (our cats). I teach 2nd grade and absolutely love it. This year my class is so amazing and love to read so much that I have made challenges for them to track what they are reading. They start when we go back to school next Monday. I even have parents that are signed up to track what they read as well. I'm very excited about this. My older 2 chilren like to read. I hope that the little one will also love it. Right now he uses the excuse of he's only in Kindergarten to try and get him out of it. I look forward to doing many challenges this year and see what books everyone else is enjoying.

My name is Lara and I currently live in Tahlequah, OK though I grew up in Tulsa. I got my Bachelors of Arts in Secondary Education/English and just finished my Masters of Education in Teaching/English in 2009. I teach a Graduate class on learning styles and I am in my 5th year of teaching 9th grade & 10th grade English and I LOVE IT! I get to teach all of my favorites... The Odyssey, Poetry, Romeo+Juliet, To Kill a Mockingbird, etc. I am also starting my National Boards which is a huge project about reflecting on the best teaching practices... so I am still busy learning and teaching! I have been married to my HS sweetheart, Brian, for six years (though we are about to celebrate our 10 year anniversary) and I have three cute puppies, Daisy, Lily, & Ivy. I am so happy to finally be back to "reading for pleasure" and I look forward to sharing in this reading adventure with you all! God Bless & Much Love!

Mikela wrote: "I have a question for the lovers of the Twilight Series. Does watching the movie first spoil reading the books?"

I am a very big "Book before movie" kinda person. It's just my opinion, it would spoil it for me personally because of mow much I like doing things in that order. :-)

Hi. I'm a married mother of three from Naperville, IL. I have a B.A. in English from Michigan State University and a certifcate to teach high school English, though I'm not currently working. (My career path has wandered since graduating from college 23 years ago.) I was attracted to this group because of the Louisa May Alcott quote used as an identifier. It's one of my favorites and I feel it describes me well. I have no idea whether or not I can hit 104 books this year--I've never counted--but I read all the time, and I think it will be fun to try.

I think I want to combine this goal with another aim of mine: 104 books off the shelves of volumes I already own and haven't had time for.

QUESTION - I started 2 books the past week or so but I'm only about 50-80 pages into them. I won't be able to even pick them up again until the new year. Can I count them. How strict are these rules. Will I be arrested by the book police if I count them.

The are both well over 400 page books each......thoughts?

They totally count, Amber. Just need to be completed in 2011. And we are VERY strict here. The book police WILL come arrest you if you even THINK about breaking the rules around here. (Heavy on the sarcasm.)

Ha! Rules...we don't need no stinkin' RULES. :)

Welcome, Diane! I hope to get to Naperville sometime this year. I really really REALLY want to go to Anderson's Bookshop!

Jen wrote: "Ha! Rules...we don't need no stinkin' RULES. :)"

Jen, total random aside, but is that a spin-off of the famous quotation from The Treasure of the Sierra Madre? If so, well done! If not, what a coincidence!

Why, yes it is! LOL

In hopes of being witty and pretending as if I'll have teh time to both read 104 books and blog about them....I made a blog for the 104 I plan to read.....so if you have nothing better to do....check it out. It of course is rather empty as of now, only a few posts....and bear in mind, I'm fluent in sarcasm and I tend to write that way as well. :0)
http://the-104.blogspot.com/

I'm relieved that books count as long as they are finished in 2011. Think I'll save the last chapter til then. Now, would I do that! Thank you for your input regarding books or movies first. Agree wholeheartedly. My kids don't understand why I haven't enjoyed any Harry Potter movie beyond the first one (which seemed to accurately follow the book) when I absolutely adored the books.

Just finished The Handmaid's Tale.
My only question is why I waited so long to read this terrific book.

Happy New Year all.

I love Anderson's! It's my go-to bookstore. Maybe I'll see ya there . . . .

Hi my name is Tammy and I have a problem. There are ALL these amazing books that I want to read and the list seems to never end! Okay, maybe that really isn't a problem. :)

I live in Wisconsin and have a 7 y/o son (who also enjoys reading, even though he won't admit it). I used to be an avid reader when I was in middle school-reading The Sweet Valley High books, and pretty much anything I could get my hands on. I LOVED to read!!! I guess I've always loved reading, but life got busy in high school, and in college. My favorite classes in college (at UW Madison) besides my Teacher Education ones were my Lit classes. I took loads of Lit classes so that I could read books and write about them. :) Then I got busy with life and work and didn't take time to enjoy reading for ME. Until my best friend introduced me to Harry Potter in 2001. My love of reading started to come back...yet all I wanted to do was re-read the Harry Potter books over and over. Then in 2008, I met some friends on a Harry Potter forum who told me to read the Twilight Saga. I finally broke down and picked up the first 3 books in May 2008 as a Mother's Day gift to myself. I read the books in record time and craved more. I re-read these books more times than I can count, maybe even more than the Harry Potter books (shhh, don't tell anyone). The one thing that stuck after reading The Twilight Saga is that my love of reading truly came back. I now read pretty much anything I can get my hands on. I have lots of friends who also enjoy reading and they share book recommendations...so my to-read pile is always stacked high. The library has become my friend again, since there is no way I could buy all of these books (although I wish my pocketbook was large enough for me to do so).

I love YA, paranormal romance (Black Dagger Brotherhood, anyone?), some historical romance (Outlander--though the books are CRAZY long)...pretty much anything that is a great story. I've also enjoyed listening to the audio books for many of my favorites. I have yet to read some of the classics, but they are on my list (that never ends).

Oh, and I'm friends with Jennifer, Amber, Amy, Nikki (although I don't get to see them enough since they live 5 hours away). :'( Sorry if I missed any of the MN peeps. This is yet another reason why I LOVE the internet...I get to keep in touch with my friends near and far. :D

WOW-that was a LONG intro...

Nice to meet all of you/see you again!
Tammy :)

Hey, this is totally off topic, but I have a Q for any and all of the MN Ladies- I live in Texas, and work for Delta. We have direct flts from DFW to M/SP, and I've never been to that part of the country. Is there stuff to do for a day trip with my 4 year old, or should I go with an adult buddy ( I don't plan on heading that way until the weather calms down for the spring, though)

Hi, I'm Rachael, 28, living in central NY (for now, moving back to New England in the spring, yay!). A litte more about me: I'm a petsitter and I also work part time in a copy center. I have 2 dogs (who might as well be my kids), 3 cats, 4 chickens, 3 parrots and 1 elderly bearded dragon. I journal a lot, and have recently gotten into art journaling. I also love photography and paper crafts, as well as baking and cooking(gluten free!), hiking, biking, and letterboxing.
I joined this site mostly to track all the books I read in 2011, so this challenge is perfect. I read a lot, usually listening to an audiobook plus reading at least two books. I read a lot of YA fiction, as well as general scifi/fantasy, but I also read pretty much anything else, especially when it comes to non-fiction. Favorite authors are Charles deLint, Julie Czerneda, Dorothy Allison, Barbara Kingsolver, Margaret Atwood, and Susan Griffin, but that is only a smattering.
I'm really looking forward to this group!

Hi Rachel~ my neighbor is a Charles deLint addict... I read a few of his books and they were great, but they haunted me! If you have any recommendations on gluten free recipes, food items, or books let me know, my grandson is gluten free/dairy free and a picky eater!

@Jen - HECK YES! Like 2 minutes from the airport is the Mall of America with the indoor Nickelodeon theme park and millions of other things to do there! You can actually see the mall right across the highway from the airport! Totally worth it!

Hi, I'm Kristin, married mom of 3 (ages 10, 8, & 6) little readers in the suburbs of Atlanta. I'm intrigued by this group as I love reading, and including audiobooks (I have a long commute), I am curious to see if I can hit 104 books in 2011. I have a NOOK (regular, not color) and I love it! Best thing ever!! :) I have several series I want to get into- the Outlander series, the Black Dagger Brotherhood, the Kay Scarpetta series by Patricia Cornwell, & the Mortal Instruments series, so I'll probably be starting with those. :) My only concern with making the goal is that I'm in an intensive nursing school program this year, so we'll see! Nice to "meet" you all! Happy 2011!

Hey all! Most people know me by my user name - Rosmelie - but some know me as just Mel, or Melissa. I've almost become accustomed to just being called Rose! Yea, I know. SHH. I'm 25 (26 in less then a month), and live about 60 miles from Chicago! I work full time and do the school thing part time.
I adore music and refound love in a couple of bands in 2010, which helped me to have something in common OTHER than just Twilight with a friend.
In 2010 near the end of August, I challenged myself to read as many books as possible before the new year hit - and ended up reading about 40 or a little more in that time. Some books were re-reads, and some were not. I have a tendency to stick with the YA genre, but am open to everything. I even ended up reading a book that my mother's book club had read and went to her book club for discussion! I have only met two authors in my life - Stephenie Meyer and Kaleb Nation - but they were both fun to meet.
I hope to end up meeting more (and following more) this year and am actually challenging myself not to just the 104 books, but to 120...I don't think it's impossible. I already know of 51 of the books I want to read, plus 2 that I've already bought (aside from those 51) so I have nearly half of my list complete. I'm starting the year off with one of my favorite authors - Meg Cabot. The Princess Diaries is what got me back into reading and I haven't looked back since.
In 2010 I enjoyed The Hunger Games series (as well as it finishing up finally and waiting in anticipation of the last book), The Fallen series (one of the books for 2011 includes the last), The Hush, Hush series (again, including a book for 2011) and the Shiver series (the last of series that I'm awaiting a last book on!). If anyone has any suggestions - I'm open to them. I know I'll be looking for more by Sara Gruen and delving into the Vampire Academy series as well as The Immortals. (Eh, vampires...apparently I can't get away from them, or anything like them!)
Soooooooooooo yea. That's it in a nutshell.

Hi, I'm Cynthia and last year was my first doing a challenge. I loved it. I did 110. It seems a doable number for me so here I am.

I live in NWArkansas
I'm from California
I have 4 children 2,3,10,12, that I homeschool
I'm a grad student
I'm addicted to reading lists

I am currently reading books from around the world - alphabetically. This year I only did the A's. I'm a little compulsive and can't settle for just one book. I read 13 on Afghanistan, and 14 on Austria. Only one on Andorra though. 20 for Australia. It looks like it may take me 26 years, but I'm OK with that.

I'm Suzy from Valencia, California. I discovered this group when someone posted a link to it on Facebook. I thought it sounded like alot of fun and I decided to give it a try.
I have two grown kids, a daughter 27, and a son 22. My husband and I have our own business and when I'm not doing bookkeeping, invoices, or artwork, I'm usually reading a book on my Nook or Nookcolor.
I read alot of mystery/thrillers and paranormal/sci-fi. Lately I've also been reading alot of YA. Finding this group was perfect timing since I just finished my last book of 2010 before midnight. Now I just need to pick my first book of 2011 and go create a shelf to keep track of all my reading this year! Thanks for letting me join!!!!

I live in Southern Nevada. About an hour from Las Vegas. I am married with cats (which are my children.)

I am a medical assistant. I should have more time to read since I will be starting a new shift, so I will get 4 days off.

I have always been an avid reader. I get it from my dad. This is my first year doing this challenge as I am new to Goodreads this year. I am excited to challenge myself. I favorite genre is mystery/thriller, but am open to reading anything. I have already started my first book and should be finished by tonight. So I guess I am starting out good.

I am excited to see what people are reading and getting introduced to new authors.