I also competed in a reading challenge with my good friend Ingrid over at Getting Lost in the Stacks. Ingrid set up a very challenging 2016 list of book topics. Click here to see the topic list. Obviously, Ingrid set it up to light my hair on fire. I'm happy to report that at this moment, I've completed 111 books this year. Crazy, I know, but I have. However, I have NOT completed the challenge-I still have three topics left to complete...and they are NOT going to be finished in the next two days. I'm okay with that. I started December with 19 books left to read, so I put a decent dent into my goal. :)
Here's my list of books read for the challenge:
| READING CHALLENGE 2016 | |
| LIGHT: 13 | |
| Non-fiction about science | The Story of the Human Body |
| That someone told you “changed their life” | Becoming Marta |
| Published in 2016 | Girl Waits with Gun |
| A food memoir | Animal, Vegetable, Miracle |
| A play | Pygmalion |
| Over 100 years old | The Awakening |
| Over 500 pages | All the Light We Cannot See |
| With a main character with a mental illness | The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time |
| Written by a comedian | Modern Romance |
| Originally published the year you were born | The BFG |
| Non-fiction about a religion not your own | Islam, A Short History |
| Less than 100 pages | The Old Man and the Sea |
| With a one word title | George |
| AVID: 13 | |
| A BIOGRAPHY OR AUTOBIOGRAPHY | Why Not Me? |
| A MYSTERY | Career of Evil |
| BASED ON A NON "WESTERNIZED" FAIRY TALE | Beauty |
| WRITTEN BY AN AFRICAN | Purple Hibiscus |
| A GRAPHIC NOVEL | Nimona |
| ABOUT A ROAD TRIP | paper towns |
| SET IN A COUNTRY NOT YOUR OWN | A Kiss at Midnight |
| SET IN YOUR HOME STATE | A Rogue in Texas |
| WITH A WOMAN’S NAME IN THE TITLE | Esperanza Rising |
| WITH A CHARACTER WHO HAS YOUR NAME | Dancing with the Devil and Other Stories from Beyond |
| ABOUT AN ANIMAL | Four Fish |
| SET IN AUSTRALIA | Three Wishes |
| A NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER | Waiting |
| COMMITTED: 26 | |
| About music or a musician | Life, by Keith Richards |
| A dystopian novel | The Maze Runner |
| A current New York Times Bestseller | The Martian |
| A satire | Catch 22 |
| A collection of poems | A night without armor |
| With an ugly cover | The Dude Abides: The Gospel According to the Coen Brothers |
| Translated to English | 1Q84 |
| Targeted at the opposite gender | Everything Bad Is Good For You |
| By or about a Greek philosopher | Meditations |
| Takes place in a desert | The Heretic Queen |
| An epistolary novel | Last Days of Summer |
| That makes you sad | The Boy in the Striped Pajamas |
| That changed your opinion on a topic | How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk |
| With bad reviews | Slaughterhouse-Five |
| With a number in the title | Size 12 Is Not Fat |
| Set in a place you’ve always wanted to visit | The Other Daughter |
| One you started but never finished | Darwin's Devices |
| A Pulitzer Prize winner | Olive Kitteridge |
| With non-human character | Aftermath |
| Self-published | Eulalia's Story |
| Set during a holiday | Labor Day |
| Film or tv tie in | Harry Potter and the Cursed Child |
| You pretend you’ve read it (but haven’t) | Catcher in the Rye |
| From the library | The Thirteenth Earl |
| Time travel | The Time Machine |
| Political memoir | I Am Malala |
| OBSESSED: 49 | |
| WRITTEN BY A RUSSIAN | Doctor Zhivago |
| ABOUT A MARTYR | Bonhoeffer |
| RECOMMENDED BY A PARENT | The Bible |
| TAKES PLACE DURING WINTER | The Call of the Wild |
| BIOGRAPHY OF A WORLD LEADER | Long Walk to Freedom |
| SELF-IMPROVEMENT | The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People |
| THAT REMINDS YOU OF HOME | Brownsville |
| ABOUT A COWBOY | The Emmitt Zone |
| AN AUDIOBOOK | The Resurrection Casket |
| A BANNED BOOK | Mein Kampf |
| WRITTEN BY AN ACTOR | Love Life |
| BY OR ABOUT SHAKESPEARE | The Lodger Shakespeare |
| WITH A PROTAGONIST WHO HAS YOUR OCCUPATION | Emily and Einstein |
| ABOUT A CULTURE YOU’RE UNFAMILIAR WITH | A Passage to India |
| WRITTEN FROM THE LOSING SIDE’S PERSPECTIVE | All's Quiet on the Western Front |
| WITH A BEAUTIFUL COVER | The Nest |
| SOMETHING “EVERYONE” HAS READ BUT YOU | A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms |
| TOLD FROM A CHILD’S PERSPECTIVE | Pigeon English |
| WITH MULTIPLE TIMELINES | The Mapmaker's Children |
| WRITTEN BY A CRIMINAL | Catch Me If You Can |
| WRITTEN BY A ‘LOCAL’ AUTHOR | Old Creole Days |
| MODERN RETELLING OF A CLASSIC | GREAT |
| NARRATED BY THE ‘BAD GUY’ | The Picture of Dorian Gray |
| AN ALTERNATE HISTORY | The Man in the High Castle |
| EROTIC NOVEL | My American Duchess |
| SCIENTIFICALLY ACCURATE COMIC | Vampirella |
| A NOVEL WITH RECIPES IN IT | Cream Puff Murder |
| ABOUT A TOPIC YOU’RE AFRAID OF | Twelve years a slave |
| BY OR ABOUT A WORLD EXPLORER | Schooner to the Southern Oceans |
| ABOUT A CONTROVERSIAL TOPIC | Sandrine's Letter to Tomorrow |
| BASED ON A GAME | The Force Unleashed II |
| CONTAINING BULLYING | City of Mirrors |
| WRITTEN BY A FICTIONAL CHARACTER | Flowers from the Storm |
| ABOUT A PLAGUE | The Years of Rice and Salt |
| A TRILOGY THAT HASN’T BECOME A MOVIE OR TV SHOW | Potent Pleasures, Midnight Pleasures, Enchanting Pleasures |
| WRITTEN BY SOMEONE UNDER 20 YEARS OLD | How to Talk to Girls |
| NON-FICTION ABOUT ALCOHOL | Wine & War |
| WRITTEN BY SOMEONE OVER 65 | Still Foolin' 'Em: Where I've Been, Where I'm Going, and Where the Hell Are My Keys |
| SET PREDOMINANTLY UNDERGROUND OR UNDERWATER | The War Below |
| TAKES PLACE IN ASIA | The Good Earth |
| A MICROHISTORY | Hillbilly Elegy |
| SET IN A STEAMPUNK UNIVERSE | Manners and Mutiny |
| A BOOK WITHOUT CHAPTERS | We Need to Talk About Kevin |
| THAT YOU ORIGINALLY READ IN MIDDLE SCHOOL | The Raven |
| AbOUT AN INDIGENOUS PEOPLE | Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee |
| A COLLECTION OF ESSAYS | Gumbo Tales |
| WITH MAGIC | Demon Mistress |
| ABOUT A CURRENT HUMANITARIAN CONCERN | The Book of Unknown Americans |
| WRITTEN BY A FIRST TIME AUTHOR | The Bookstore |
The yellow highlighted books are the ones I haven't read. I'm currently working on The Years of Rice and Salt. I'm only one chapter in, though, so I doubt I'll get it done before year's end.
Also, a disclaimer: Several of the books were audiobooks. I spend about an hour in traffic every day, so I listened to books instead of the radio. A great side effect of listening to audiobooks is that it helps you stop messing with your phone while driving. :)
Yes, some of the books were very easy. (I'm looking at you, How to Talk to Girls and The BFG.) There were some I despised (Demon Mistress and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, which I'm only picking on because I want the next book in the Song of Fire and Ice series). There were sad ones (We Need to Talk About Kevin), funny ones (Modern Romance), and books full of hope (Esperanza Rising). Of course, there were many that I absolutely loved: Hillbilly Elegy, Wine and War, The Martian, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and The Story of the Human Body).
Overall, I'm very glad I participated in this challenge. I read things I never would have considered, and I opened my eyes a bit to new genres. I discovered I'm actually rather fond of autobiographies, particularly when they're read by the authors. I also like history much more than I thought I did. Read any of the non-fiction on my list. They're well worth the time.
So, thank you, 2016. It was a great year for reading. I look forward to next year's challenge: whittle down my current reading list to less than 20 books. It's currently at about 60, so it should be doable. Buuuut...I think Ingrid has another challenge up her sleeve, and though I swore to myself I wouldn't do another complicated challenge, I probably will. Just because I love books.
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