2016 Reading Challenge: Accomplishment Unlocked

[osprey_archer]

I finished The Things They Carried a couple of days ago, and with that, I have finished my 2016 Reading Challenge. Hooray! I feel all accomplished now. Particularly about finishing War and Peace, although just in general, too.

For your edification, a list of the categories and the books I chose:

- a book published this year: When the Sea Turns to Silver
- a book you can finish in a day: Last Stop on Market Street
- a book you've been meaning to read: The Things They Carried
- a book you should have read in school: All Quiet on the Western Front
- a book recommended by your local librarian or bookseller: Welcome to Night Vale
- a book chosen for you by your spouse, partner, sibling, child, or BFF: Lud-in-the-Mist
- a book published before you were born: Winona's Pony Cart
- a book that was banned at some point: Lady Chatterley's Lover
- a book you previously abandoned: A Girl of the Limberlost
- a book you own but have never read: Madensky Square
- a book that intimidates you: War and Peace
- a book you've already read at least once: Caddie Woodlawn

I liked this challenge because it offers so much room for choice. Only one of the challenges is actually entitled "A book you've been meaning to read," but actually I ended up reading books that fit that description for half the categories: having the challenge gave me a reason to read books like A Girl of the Limberlost or All Quiet on the Western Front now, rather than just "well, maybe someday..."

In fact I liked this challenge so much that I went searching for a 2017 challenge, and found this Master List of 2017 Reading Challenges, although unfortunately none of them seem to offer the same mix of specificity and open-endedness that I got from last year's challenge. But perhaps the website where I got my 2016 challenge will post one for 2017 later in December.

I've also discovered that I really enjoy reading books with people, and also that it brings an extra and deeper aspect to the book to have someone to discuss it with - I think particularly with Lady Chatterley's Lover and Atonement, I got a lot more out of them because evelyn_b and I were reading & discussing them as we went along.

(And this has been a useful safety valve as I have read The Count of Monte Cristo. Sometimes I just have to yell "THAT PLOT DEVELOPMENT, DID YOU SEE IT?" Speaking of which - the latest developments with Caderrouse!!!)

In fact I'm thinking of suggesting a dual read to my mother, if I can just think of the perfect book for it. It looks like we can both get D. E. Stevenson's Listening Valley from our respective libraries, and I know she enjoyed Miss Buncle's Book, so perhaps that?

I have also decided that 2017 is going to be The Year of Reading the Harriet Vane/Peter Wimsey Novels, provided of course I can track down a copy of Have His Carcase. I have the other three in the sequence! This is the only one that eludes me!

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I really like what you say about reading **with** someone. Reading is a really solitary thing when you're doing it (unless you're reading aloud with people--which is one big reason why I like reading aloud), but if you're sharing the reading with someone the way you did--yeah: it adds a sociability aspect and gives you someone to squee or fume with. I like this idea!

I've never managed it the way you did it with Evelyn B or the way you're proposing with your mom, but think it sounds like a lot of fun. I'm sort of hoping I can do it with the healing angel with a a book we both have a copy of...

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I have always found nineteenth-century novel descriptions of people reading aloud together so charming. If I could think of a non-weird way to sell this activity to my friends I would totally do it.

It would be great if you could read a book with the healing angel! I remember at some point you were reading one of his books for English class together - The Grapes of Wrath or maybe Catcher in the Rye? Anyway, it seemed like such a good idea, and probably helped him get more out of the book than if he'd just been slogging through it for class on his own. And it would be much more fun with a book you get to choose!

[evelyn-b.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! The 2016 Reading Challenge does seem like an ideal reading challenge.

Also, CADEROUSSE :(((((

If only you didn't keep wasting perfectly good opportunities for redemption, CADEROUSSE. >:( I have to say, as a favorite character, Caderousse is a perennial disappointment. Which is why he's my favorite, I guess.

:(

I had a great time reading Possession and Lady Chatterly with you! I'd also be down for a Gratuitous Detective Romance Party when the time comes, if you're interested (and if you don't nope out right away, which is also a valid response), though I have read all those books already so it won't be quite the same.

Also, my offer of just mailing you a copy of Have His Carcase still stands. The suspense is killing me!

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Caderouse was BORN to be a disappointment. He's handed like fifteen chances at redemption and DOES HE TAKE ANY OF THEM? Noooo, not until the very end when the Count is whispering in his ear (presumably "I am Edmond Dantes, you fool).

Yessss, Gratuitous Detective Romance Party! That sounds like so much fun. How about we wait until June, and if I haven't found Have His Carcase by then you could send me a copy as a birthday present?

[evelyn-b.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a plan!

Oh Caderousse. :( How was he supposed to know there wouldn't be a sixteenth chance??

[inspirethoughts.livejournal.com]

Wonderful...I have been writing reviews that year I have read more than my share for a year. But I love to read.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I always think that writing a review adds a little something to the reading experience.

[littlerhymes]

You did so well with this challenge, and your reviews were so fun to read! I can never stick to my reading goals and am super super impressed by those who can.

If asked I would have confidently said "OF COURSE you've read the Wimsey novels" - lol I am surprise. anyway I think you will find them v v interesting and look forward to your thoughts. :D

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I often have some problems sticking with reading goals; I think this one worked because it was really pretty low-pressure. One challenge a month! I can do that!

I've been meaning to read the Wimsey novels since *mumblecough* probably high school, but it just never happened. Till now. 2017 will be the Year of the Harriet Vane/Peter Wimsey Novels!

[thisbluespirit]

Aw, well done on completing the challenge! (And for taking us along with you.)

I hope you can find a suitable one for next year, too. Maybe you can adapt one or tweak this one or something if you can't? (Memes were made to be altered, after all.) :-)

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

There's still all of December for me to find a new challenge, so I have hope. If I can't find one, I might just do a do-it-yourself "Twelve Months, Twelve Books that Have Been on My To-Read List Forever" challenge.