Challenge Wrap Ups

Two challenges that I've been participating in, recently concluded with the end of the year. Here's how I did:




The TBR Challenge: my first challenge, the one that brought me to this world of blogging about books and where I learned that many many other book challenges exist!


For this challenge, I choose 12 books that had been sitting on my shelf forever (the rule is at least 6 months, many of mine had been years!) and read them throughout the year. I did REALLY well with this until it fell apart just this last month when I couldn't find my last book and couldn't get interested in any of my alternate books, so... I fell short ONE BOOK! Oh, well. Here's what I did finish:

• Nights of Rain and Stars by Maeve Binchy
• Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Green
• The Stand by Stephen King
• Giliad by Marilynn Robinson
• The Virgin Blue by Tracy Chevalier
• The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks
• Sea Glass by Anita Shreeve
• The Netherworld by George Gissing
• The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
• The Eustace Diamonds by Anthony Trollope
• Zorro by Isabel Allende

And book I couldn't find: The Hostile Hospital by Lemony Snicket!





The Something About Me Challenge: this one was where we all suggested 5 books that we thought said something about us... then we choose, from all that HUGE list, some that we'd like to read. Of course, back in the summer, I was very optomistic, and made my list too long. I did read a bunch before the challenge officially started, so if you include that, I did okay!


From the official list I read:

• Evening Class by Maeve Binchy (Raidergirl)
• Ida Mae Tutweiler and the Traveling Tea Party by Ginnie Siena Bivona (Lynne)
• Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel (Maryanne)
• The Stand by Stephen King (A Book in the Life)
• Sea Glass by Anita Shreeve (Beachreader and Library Lady)
• A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (Diane)
• The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishigiro (Lucca)

Ones I read before the official start of the challenge:

• Papa Married a Mormon by John D. Fitzgerald
• The Quilter's Apprentice by Jennifer Chiaverini
• The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud
• I Am Legend by Richard Matheson (Stephanie)
• So Many Books, So Little Time by Sara Nelson (BookInLife)
• Sixpence House by Paul Collins (Nattie)
• I Am The Messenger by Markus Zusak (Jill)

Ones I didn't get to that I'll still be working on:

• Tracon by Paul McElroy (Lisa)
• The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards (3M)
• The Writing Life by Annie Dillard (Megan)
• Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin (Stephanie)
• The March by E.L. Doctorow (Jill)
• The Petit Prince by Antoine De Saint Exupery (Soleil)
• Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See (Juli)