All right, it's the last day of December, the last day of 2018, and that means also the last day of Blogmas! I did it, guys! I actually posted every day in December! I am impressed with myself for this feat haha. So because it's the last day of 2018 that means it's time for my annual reading challenge recap, aka the longest post I make all year. How did I do you ask? Well, I set out to do 4 challenges, and I completed 2 of them. Interestingly one of the ones I failed was the one I created myself back at the beginning of the year. I realised in about June that I had been waaaaaaay too over ambitious with my challenges this year and knew I wasn't going to finish them. In addition to the challenge of my own devising, I attempted Book Riot's Read Harder challenge, which is you've been following my Blogmas posts you'll know that I won. I also attempted to do PopSugar, but my over ambition got the better of me there too so I didn't finish that one either. My last challenge was, of course, the annual Goodreads challenge I pledged 100 and ended up at 122. That's down from last year, but it's still the second most I have ever read in a year so I am freaking psyched.
The problem was, instead of doing what I did last year and trying to find books that fit multiple challenges, I was trying to do a different book for every single challenge. And with the way, I'd split out some of them, that worked out to be over 160 books which is more than I read last year. That was daunting and actually impacted my speed because I overwhelmed myself with the sheer amount of things I planned to read and therefore put off reading it. So I went back today and had a look at what books I read that could work for multiple challenges. I still failed, but by a much narrower margin haha.
Onto the recaps! What were the challenges and what did I read for them:
Book Riot Read Harder 2018
24/24 = 100%
A book published posthumously
The Salmon of Doubt by Douglas Adams [published in 2002, Adams passed away in 2001] [7/11/18]
A book of true crime
Who killed my daughter? The startling true story of a mother’s search for her daughter’s murderer by Lois Duncan [17/11/18]
A classic of genre fiction (i.e. mystery, sci fi/fantasy, romance)
Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper [middle grade/YA fantasy] [3/9/18]
A comic written and illustrated by the same person
Hostage by Guy Delisle [8/1/18]
A book set in or about one of the five BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, or South Africa) Android Karenina by Ben H. Winters [Russia] [13/8/18]
A book about nature
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood [8/10/18]
A western
Wizard and Glass by Stephen King [13/5/18]
A comic written or illustrated by a person of colour
Monstress, Vol. 1: Awakening by Marie Liu and Sana Takeda [28/5/18]
A book of colonial or postcolonial literature
Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson [described in reviews as “postcolonial redemption story.”] [4/12/18]
A romance novel by or about a person of colour
Winds of Salem by Melissa de la Cruz [paranormal romance by a filipina author] [11/12/18]
A children’s classic published before 1980
Last Battle by C.S. Lewis [first published in 1956] [27/4/18]
A celebrity memoir
Nerd do Well by Simon Pegg [27/12/18]
An Oprah Book Club selection
Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson [Oprah’s Summer Reading club] [30/12/18]
A book of social science
Free Speech on Campus by Sigal R. Ben-Porath [29/12/18]
A one-sitting book
The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis [18/1/18]
The first book in a new-to-you YA or middle-grade series
Loki’s Wolves by K.L. Armstrong & M.A. Marr [6/1/18]
A sci-fi novel with a female protagonist by a female author
Cress by Marissa Meyer [4/11/18]
A comic that isn’t published by Marvel, DC, or Image
Princeless vol.2: Get over it [Published by Action Labs Entertainment] [29/5/18]
A book of genre fiction in translation
Inkspell by Cornelia Funke [fantasy - translated from German] [27/5/18]
A book with a cover you hate
The Hunchback Assignments by Arthur Slade [2009 Harper Collins Hardcover edition] [22/9/18]
A mystery by a person of colour or LGBTQ+ author
A Study in Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas [25/4/18]
An essay anthology
Out Behind the Desk: Workplace Issues for Lgbtq Librarians edited by Tracy Nectoux [28/1/18]
A book with a female protagonist over the age of 60
A Caribbean Mystery by Agatha Christie [Miss Marple] [14/7/18]
An assigned book you hated (or never finished)
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley [I hated this book when I was assigned it in my undergrad English program] [28/10/18]
Because this post is so long I am inserting a cut. Keep going if you want to see PopSugar. My TBR challenge will come as a seperate post tomorrow because this one is making my browser lag haha.
PopSugar Reading Challenge 2018
44/53 = 83%
Regular
A book made into a movie you’ve already seen
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs [watched the film 7/1/18, started the book 8/1/18] [13/1/18]
True crime
Who killed my daughter? The startling true story of a mother’s search for her daughter’s murderer by Lois Duncan [17/11/18]
The next book in a series you started
Red Glove by Holly Black [17/3/18]
A book involving a heist
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
Nordic noir
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
A novel based on a real person
The Other Queen by Philippa Gregory
A book set in a country that fascinates you
Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor [set primarily in Prague, Czech Republic] [23/5/18]
A book with a time of day in the title
Night Shift by Stephen King [5/4/18]
A book about a villain or anti-hero
Beast Within: A Tale of Beauty's Prince by Serena Valentino [19/7/18]
A book about death or grief
A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore [18/9/18]
A book with a female author who uses a male pseudonym
Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith [J.K. Rowling] [2/8/18]
A book with an LGBTQ+ protagonist
The Trials of Apollo : The Burning Maze by Rick Riordan [Apollo is bisexual] [19/9/18]
A book that is also a stage play or musical
Different Seasons by Stephen King [Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption the first novella in the collection was adapted in 2009 to the stage. The second novella Apt Pupil received a stage adaptation in 1995] [8/10/18]
A book by an author of a different ethnicity than you
Winds of Salem by Melissa de la Cruz [a filipina author] [11/12/18]
A book about feminism
Feminist Pedagogy for Library Instruction by Maria T. Accardi [26/3/18]
A book about mental health
Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler [dissociative amnesia] [25/8/18]
A book borrowed or that was given to you as a gift
Library of Souls by Ransom Riggs [2018 birthday gift from Angie] [13/3/18]
A book by 2 authors
Odin’s Ravens by K.L. Armstrong & M.A. Marr [Rey & Reyna, descendants of Frey & Freya] [30/6/18]
A book about or involving a sport
Riders by Jilly Cooper [Show-jumping] [16/6/18]
A book by a local author
Bellewether by Susanna Kearsley [Kearsley lives in Southwestern Ontario, and so do I] [25/3/18]
A book with your favourite colour in the title
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
A book with alliteration in the title
Short Stories from Hogwarts of Power, Politics and Pesky Poltergeists by J.K. Rowling [23/7/18]
A book about time travel
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle [17/1/18]
A book with a weather element in the title
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson [27/7/18]
A book set at sea
Deck Z: The Titanic: Unsinkable. Undead. by Chris Pauls [5/8/18]
A book with an animal in the title
Odin’s Ravens by K.L. Armstrong & M.A. Marr [Rey & Reyna, descendants of Frey & Freya] [30/6/18]
A book set on a different planet Burning Page by Genevieve Cogman [set primarily on a world which houses an “alternate London” that has fae/dragons and a Holmesian great detective] [30/1/18]
A book with song lyrics in the title
Of fire and stars by Audrey Coulthurst [from In the Beginning by the Stills “...and where did we begin in a ball of fire and stars and suns…”]
A book about or set on Halloween
Uneasy Spirits by M. Louisa Locke [starts mid-October 1879, ends mid-November 1879] [30/7/18]
A book with characters who are twins
Among Others by Jo Walton [Morwenna and Morganna are twins] [12/12/18
A book mentioned in another book
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie [mentioned in The Dinner] [15/4/18]
A book from a celebrity book club
The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman [#RW book club pick] [2/6/18]
A childhood classic you’ve never read
Last Battle by C.S. Lewis [27/4/18]
A book published in 2018
This Fallen Prey by Kelley Armstrong [Published Jan 31 2018] [8/2/18]
A past Goodreads Choice Award winner
- 2011 11/22/63 by Stephen King [best science fiction] [13/9/18]
- 2017 The Ship of the Dead (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard #3) by Rick Riordan [best middle grade & children’s] [19/5/18]
Atomic Blonde by Anthony Johnston and Sam Hart [set in 1989] [29/5/18]
A book you meant to read in 2017 but didn’t get to
Elysian Fields by Suzanne Johnson [11/8/18]
A book with an ugly cover
The Hunchback Assignments by Arthur Slade [2009 Harper Collins Hardcover edition] [22/9/18]
A book that involves a bookstore or library
“Leading from the Middle,” and other contrarian essays on Library Leadership by John Lubans Jr. [29/10/18]
Your favourite prompt from the 2015, 2016 or 2017 PopSugar reading challenges
- 2015: A book from an author you love that you haven’t read yet
- The Unquiet Past by Kelley Armstrong [30/8/18]
- 2016: A book and its prequel
- Scarlet (Lunar Chronicles #2) [7/7/18] by Marissa Meyer
- The Queen’s Army (Lunar Chronicles #1.5) [30/6/18] by Marissa Meyer
- 2017: The first book in a series you haven’t read before
- A court of Thorns & Roses by Sarah J. Maas [17/7/18]
Advanced
A bestseller from the year you graduated high school [2004]Angels & Demons by Dan Brown [according to Publisher’s Weekly] [6/6/18]
A cyberpunk book
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson [27/7/18]
A book that was being read by a stranger in a public place
Turtles All the Way Down by John Green [22/1/18]
A book tied to your ancestry
October 1970 by Louis Hamelin [fictionalised telling of events that happened in Quebec in 1970 - my father was from Quebec]
A book with a fruit or vegetable in the title
Murder with Lemon Tea Cakes by Karen Rose Smith [21/10/18]
An allegory
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley [An allegory of artistic creation according to: Wohlpart, A. James. "A tradition of male poetics: Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein' as an allegory of art." The Midwest Quarterly, vol. 39, no. 3, 1998, p. 265] [28/10/18]
A book by an author with the same first or last name as you
The Emperor’s Arrow by Lauren D.M. Smith [same first name] [4/5/18]
A microhistory
Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly [24/2/18]
A book about a problem facing society today
Draw the Line by Nicole Grey [problem: gun violence and school shootings] [15/8/18]
A book recommended by someone else taking the PopSugar reading challenge
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin [15/11/18]
No comments:
Post a Comment