MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - The 2015 Annual Reading Challenge List Thread

sun surfer · 12-21-2014, 06:18 PM

Challenge Details, January-June July-December

Main Challenge ✔︎

50/50 Books ✔︎

Subchallenges January-June ✔︎

8,164/8,000 Pages ✔︎
3/3 Club Nominees, books 17, 20, 21 ✔︎
2/2 Print Pile, books 3, 7 ✔︎
2/1 Partially Read, books 4, 15 ✔︎
2/1 Irish, books 10, 22 ✔︎
1/1 Tome, book 16 ✔︎
3/1 Young Americana (including Little Women), books 13, 19, 23 ✔︎
1/1 The Broken Road, book 24 ✔︎
6/6 Goodreads Written Reviews, books 1, 2, 19, 24, 26, 27 ✔︎
9/9 Post-Read Club Replies, books 2, 5, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 18, 26 ✔︎

Subchallenges July-December ✘

8,254/8,000 Pages ✔︎
5/6 Partially Read, books 32, 37, 45, 46, 49 ✘
3/3 Young Adult, books 47, 48, 50 ✔︎
1/2 Print Pile, book 39 ✘
2/1 Tome, books 35, 42 ✔︎
0/1 Club Nominee ✘

January

1) Under Fire by Henri Barbusse, 333 pages

translated from the French by Robin Buss
✭✭✭ Overly horrific for me but important

February

2) Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot, 54 pages

✭✭✭✭ "I said to my soul, be still, and let the dark come upon you"

3) Buzz by Marian Salzman, Ira Matathia & Ann O'Reilly, 256 pages

✭✭ Padded, sometimes shameless, already dated, but a few good morsels

4) Spring Snow by Yukio Mishima, 392 pages

translated from the Japanese by Michael Gallagher and narrated by Brian Nishii, 14 hours
✭✭✭✭✭ A subtle, passionate, restrained, descriptive, beautiful masterpiece

5) The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, 303 pages

✭✭✭✭✭ Wonderfully observed love triangle and also a barbed critique

6) The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, 20 pages

✭✭✭ Good though predictable and not at all shocking

March

7) Marketing for Dummies by Alexander Hiam, 384 pages

2nd edition, 2004
✭✭ The title says it all

8) Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels, 306 pages

narrated by Peter Marinker, 9 hours
✭ Tries too hard and is obsessive, a beautiful muddled morass

9) King and King by Linda de Haan & Stern Nijland, 32 pages

✭✭✭✭ Marvelously progressive

10) The Master by Colm Tóibín, 349 pages

✭✭✭✭ Portrait of a gentleman

11) West with the Night by Beryl Markham, 293 pages

narrated by Anna Fields, 9 hours
✭✭✭ At times lively and captivating

12) Cannery Row by John Steinbeck, 190 pages

✭✭✭✭ "Whores, pimps, gamblers and sons of bitches" aka "saints and angels and martyrs and holy men"

April

13) The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, 224 pages

narrated by Garrick Hagon, 8 hours
✭✭✭ Enjoyably folksy and witty

14) Silk by Allesandro Baricco, 114 pages

translated from the Italian by Guido Waldman
✭✭✭✭ Dreamy, poetic and like silk itself

May

15) Dianetics by L. Ron Hubbard, 655 pages

narrated by Lloyd Sherr, 17 hours
✭ I came, I saw, I survived this book

16) Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, 982 pages

translated from the Spanish by John Rutherford
✭✭✭✭✭ Divertido, triste, maravilloso

17) Lost Horizon by James Hilton, 201 pages

✭✭✭✭✭ Supremely transfixing philosophical adventure tale

18) Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene, 224 pages

narrated by Jeremy Northam, 7 hours
✭✭✭ Humorous and with a terrific pre-revolutionary Cuba setting, but fizzles out a bit in the last quarter

19) Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, 512, pages

✭✭✭✭ “love is the only thing that we can carry with us when we go”

20) Pereira Maintains by Antonio Tabucchi, 175 pages

translated from the Italian by Patrick Creagh
✭✭✭✭ sun surfer maintains that this is a great book

21) Ali and Nino: A Love Story by Kurban Said, 256 pages

translated from the German by Jenia Graman
✭✭✭✭ Immersive and exotic Caucasus-region historical fiction with a mysterious author

22) Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle, 281 pages

✭✭✭✭ Realistic, at times sad and cruel but also often funny and heart-warming, a slice of life of a young Irish lad in an increasingly dysfunctional family in the '60s living in a growing working-class town

23) Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder, 223 pages

✭✭✭✭ Reminiscent of a happy German fairy tale

June

24) The Broken Road by Patrick Leigh Fermor, 365 pages

narrated by Crispin Redman, 12 hours
✭✭✭✭✭ Posthumously salvaged from drafts and notes, this final section of Fermor's trek may lack the indefatigable perfectionist finesse of the other two but still often contains the sparkle of literary genius

25) The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, 189 pages

✭✭✭ Sparse style, a few melodramatic developments but overall affecting

26) Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh, 363 pages

original version
✭✭✭✭✭ Exquisite melancholy

27) The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith, 488 pages

narrated by Robert Glenister, 17 hours
✭✭✭✭ The second Strike mystery is another fun old-fashioned detective story set in modern London

July

28) Night by Elie Wiesel, 123 pages

translated from the Yiddish by Marion Wiesel and narrated by George Guidall, 4 hours
✭✭✭✭✭ A brutal and haunting memoir made all the more poignant by its stark grey truths and sparse matter-of-fact simplicity

29) Pines by Blake Crouch, 309 pages

✭✭✭ An intriguingly mysterious and strange town, and tale, this quick and fluffy sci-fi read is a little undone by the ending but still leaves me tempted to read the next

30) The Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith, 196 pages

narrated by Lisette Lecat, 7 hours
✭✭✭✭ The fourth book in the Botswana-set detective series is another charming and satisfying entry

31) The Plague by Albert Camus, 283 pages

translated by Robin Buss
✭✭✭ Interesting philosophically and allegorically, yet falls flat at times

August

32) Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, 317 pages

translated from the French by Eleanor Marx Aveling and narrated by Elaine Wise, 11 hours
✭✭✭ A lacklustre plot and title character, but the detailed glimpses of a wide cast of supporting characters and small-town 19th century French life are interesting

33) Waterloo by Bernard Cornwell, 352 pages

✭✭✭ Repetitive and slightly opinionated but nonetheless well-researched and enlightening while the eye-witness excerpts scattered throughout are especially interesting

September

34) Tirra Lirra by the River by Jessica Anderson, 161 pages

✭✭✭✭✭ A delicate masterpiece about escaping from expected societal confines and unrealised potential

35) Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delaney, 853 pages

✭✭✭✭ Science Fiction Dystopian Post-Apocalyptic Urban Fantasy Literary Mystery 1960's/70's U.S. Counter-Cultural Semi-Pornographic Prosaic Poetic Schizophrenic Structured Joycean Epic Brilliant Mess

36) Candide by Voltaire, 136 pages

translated from the French by Anonymous
✭✭✭ Oftentimes subversively funny but cartoonish philosophical adventure pitting optimism against pessimism

37) The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie, 565 pages

narrated by John Coveney, 21 hours
✭✭✭ Many interesting stories and ideas interwoven into an overlong and overindulgent text

October

38) H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald, 303 pages

✭✭✭ An interesting glimpse into falconry by way of unique personal memoir

39) The Road to Wealth by Suze Orman, 608 pages

✭✭✭✭ A comprehensive and well-explained general overview of U.S. personal financial topics that includes good simple advice

November

40) Remembering Babylon by David Malouf, 194 pages

✭✭✭ Out of the darkness of the wild comes a boy…

December

41) Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson, 239 pages

✭✭✭✭ A lively, fun classic Scottish adventure story

42) Les Misérables by Victor Hugo, 1,246 pages

translated from the French by Isabel Hapgood and narrated by Bill Homewood, 67 hours
✭✭✭✭✭ One of the best books I've ever read

43) Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar, 316 pages

translated from the French by Grace Frick with the author
✭✭✭✭✭ A wonderful and exceedingly realistic and philosophical historical Roman novel

44) The Untouchable by John Banville, 381 pages

narrated by Bill Wallis, 15 hours
✭✭✭✭ Beautifully written portrayal of a rather emotionally barren and somewhat unlikeable Irish-English man who became an unremarkable Russian spy along with some acquaintances, and was betrayed decades later

45) A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr., 326 pages

narrated by Jonathan Marosz, 11 hours
✭✭✭ Raises some interesting ideas and questions but the writing is a bit lacking

46) Love, Freedom, Aloneness by Osho, 258 pages

✭✭✭✭ Deals with how to love others and how to be happy with being alone; rambling and perhaps a bit emotionally immature at times, but nevertheless some wonderful philosophy within

47) If I Stay by Gayle Forman, 234 pages

narrated by Kirsten Potter, 5 hours
✭✭✭ Young Adult tearjerker that's more a collection of scenes with cookie cutter characters, but it did keep my interest and I especially liked the eclectic and mature musical references

48) Holes by Louis Sachar, 217 pages

narrated by Kerry Beyer, 4 hours
✭✭✭ Fun and imaginative book for children that weaves together backstories of a European folk and Wild West feel with a modern-day desert children's detention camp adventure tale

49) Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons, 259 pages

✭✭✭✭ Take a pinch of Emma, a dash of Wuthering Heights, a sprinkle of 1930's futurism, a teaspoon of Hardy, a liberal helping of Lawrence and throw it all into a Mary Webb pot and voilà! This satire of rural English novels of the time is very funny at points despite somewhat uneven quality throughout; it holds up well even though some of its major targets are now obscure; the Austen and Brontë references were my favourite, perhaps because I was most familiar with them and thus able to pick up on the humour better

50) The Maze Runner by James Dashner, 378 pages

narrated by Mark Deakins, 10 hours
✭✭✭✭ Exciting and interesting dystopian adventure YA mystery about a group of teenage boys who, memories erased, land in the middle of a giant and deadly maze

✭ - Disliked
✭✭ - So-so
✭✭✭ - Good
✭✭✭✭ - Excellent
✭✭✭✭✭ - Favourite

Prior years 2014 2013 2012 2011

12-21-2014, 06:18 PM	#46
sun surfer languorous autodidact ✦ Posts: 4,235 Karma: 44667380 Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: smiling with the rising sun Device: onyx boox poke 2 colour, kindle voyage	To read 50 books in 2015 Challenge Details, January-June July-December Main Challenge ✔︎ 50/50 Books ✔︎ Subchallenges January-June ✔︎ 8,164/8,000 Pages ✔︎ 3/3 Club Nominees, books 17, 20, 21 ✔︎ 2/2 Print Pile, books 3, 7 ✔︎ 2/1 Partially Read, books 4, 15 ✔︎ 2/1 Irish, books 10, 22 ✔︎ 1/1 Tome, book 16 ✔︎ 3/1 Young Americana (including Little Women), books 13, 19, 23 ✔︎ 1/1 The Broken Road, book 24 ✔︎ 6/6 Goodreads Written Reviews, books 1, 2, 19, 24, 26, 27 ✔︎ 9/9 Post-Read Club Replies, books 2, 5, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 18, 26 ✔︎ Subchallenges July-December ✘ 8,254/8,000 Pages ✔︎ 5/6 Partially Read, books 32, 37, 45, 46, 49 ✘ 3/3 Young Adult, books 47, 48, 50 ✔︎ 1/2 Print Pile, book 39 ✘ 2/1 Tome, books 35, 42 ✔︎ 0/1 Club Nominee ✘ January 1) Under Fire by Henri Barbusse, 333 pages translated from the French by Robin Buss ✭✭✭ Overly horrific for me but important February 2) Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot, 54 pages ✭✭✭✭ "I said to my soul, be still, and let the dark come upon you" 3) Buzz by Marian Salzman, Ira Matathia & Ann O'Reilly, 256 pages ✭✭ Padded, sometimes shameless, already dated, but a few good morsels 4) Spring Snow by Yukio Mishima, 392 pages translated from the Japanese by Michael Gallagher and narrated by Brian Nishii, 14 hours ✭✭✭✭✭ A subtle, passionate, restrained, descriptive, beautiful masterpiece 5) The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, 303 pages ✭✭✭✭✭ Wonderfully observed love triangle and also a barbed critique 6) The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, 20 pages ✭✭✭ Good though predictable and not at all shocking March 7) Marketing for Dummies by Alexander Hiam, 384 pages 2nd edition, 2004 ✭✭ The title says it all 8) Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels, 306 pages narrated by Peter Marinker, 9 hours ✭ Tries too hard and is obsessive, a beautiful muddled morass 9) King and King by Linda de Haan & Stern Nijland, 32 pages ✭✭✭✭ Marvelously progressive 10) The Master by Colm Tóibín, 349 pages ✭✭✭✭ Portrait of a gentleman 11) West with the Night by Beryl Markham, 293 pages narrated by Anna Fields, 9 hours ✭✭✭ At times lively and captivating 12) Cannery Row by John Steinbeck, 190 pages ✭✭✭✭ "Whores, pimps, gamblers and sons of bitches" aka "saints and angels and martyrs and holy men" April 13) The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, 224 pages narrated by Garrick Hagon, 8 hours ✭✭✭ Enjoyably folksy and witty 14) Silk by Allesandro Baricco, 114 pages translated from the Italian by Guido Waldman ✭✭✭✭ Dreamy, poetic and like silk itself May 15) Dianetics by L. Ron Hubbard, 655 pages narrated by Lloyd Sherr, 17 hours ✭ I came, I saw, I survived this book 16) Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, 982 pages translated from the Spanish by John Rutherford ✭✭✭✭✭ Divertido, triste, maravilloso 17) Lost Horizon by James Hilton, 201 pages ✭✭✭✭✭ Supremely transfixing philosophical adventure tale 18) Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene, 224 pages narrated by Jeremy Northam, 7 hours ✭✭✭ Humorous and with a terrific pre-revolutionary Cuba setting, but fizzles out a bit in the last quarter 19) Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, 512, pages ✭✭✭✭ “love is the only thing that we can carry with us when we go” 20) Pereira Maintains by Antonio Tabucchi, 175 pages translated from the Italian by Patrick Creagh ✭✭✭✭ sun surfer maintains that this is a great book 21) Ali and Nino: A Love Story by Kurban Said, 256 pages translated from the German by Jenia Graman ✭✭✭✭ Immersive and exotic Caucasus-region historical fiction with a mysterious author 22) Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle, 281 pages ✭✭✭✭ Realistic, at times sad and cruel but also often funny and heart-warming, a slice of life of a young Irish lad in an increasingly dysfunctional family in the '60s living in a growing working-class town 23) Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder, 223 pages ✭✭✭✭ Reminiscent of a happy German fairy tale June 24) The Broken Road by Patrick Leigh Fermor, 365 pages narrated by Crispin Redman, 12 hours ✭✭✭✭✭ Posthumously salvaged from drafts and notes, this final section of Fermor's trek may lack the indefatigable perfectionist finesse of the other two but still often contains the sparkle of literary genius 25) The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, 189 pages ✭✭✭ Sparse style, a few melodramatic developments but overall affecting 26) Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh, 363 pages original version ✭✭✭✭✭ Exquisite melancholy 27) The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith, 488 pages narrated by Robert Glenister, 17 hours ✭✭✭✭ The second Strike mystery is another fun old-fashioned detective story set in modern London July 28) Night by Elie Wiesel, 123 pages translated from the Yiddish by Marion Wiesel and narrated by George Guidall, 4 hours ✭✭✭✭✭ A brutal and haunting memoir made all the more poignant by its stark grey truths and sparse matter-of-fact simplicity 29) Pines by Blake Crouch, 309 pages ✭✭✭ An intriguingly mysterious and strange town, and tale, this quick and fluffy sci-fi read is a little undone by the ending but still leaves me tempted to read the next 30) The Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith, 196 pages narrated by Lisette Lecat, 7 hours ✭✭✭✭ The fourth book in the Botswana-set detective series is another charming and satisfying entry 31) The Plague by Albert Camus, 283 pages translated by Robin Buss ✭✭✭ Interesting philosophically and allegorically, yet falls flat at times August 32) Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, 317 pages translated from the French by Eleanor Marx Aveling and narrated by Elaine Wise, 11 hours ✭✭✭ A lacklustre plot and title character, but the detailed glimpses of a wide cast of supporting characters and small-town 19th century French life are interesting 33) Waterloo by Bernard Cornwell, 352 pages ✭✭✭ Repetitive and slightly opinionated but nonetheless well-researched and enlightening while the eye-witness excerpts scattered throughout are especially interesting September 34) Tirra Lirra by the River by Jessica Anderson, 161 pages ✭✭✭✭✭ A delicate masterpiece about escaping from expected societal confines and unrealised potential 35) Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delaney, 853 pages ✭✭✭✭ Science Fiction Dystopian Post-Apocalyptic Urban Fantasy Literary Mystery 1960's/70's U.S. Counter-Cultural Semi-Pornographic Prosaic Poetic Schizophrenic Structured Joycean Epic Brilliant Mess 36) Candide by Voltaire, 136 pages translated from the French by Anonymous ✭✭✭ Oftentimes subversively funny but cartoonish philosophical adventure pitting optimism against pessimism 37) The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie, 565 pages narrated by John Coveney, 21 hours ✭✭✭ Many interesting stories and ideas interwoven into an overlong and overindulgent text October 38) H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald, 303 pages ✭✭✭ An interesting glimpse into falconry by way of unique personal memoir 39) The Road to Wealth by Suze Orman, 608 pages ✭✭✭✭ A comprehensive and well-explained general overview of U.S. personal financial topics that includes good simple advice November 40) Remembering Babylon by David Malouf, 194 pages ✭✭✭ Out of the darkness of the wild comes a boy… December 41) Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson, 239 pages ✭✭✭✭ A lively, fun classic Scottish adventure story 42) Les Misérables by Victor Hugo, 1,246 pages translated from the French by Isabel Hapgood and narrated by Bill Homewood, 67 hours ✭✭✭✭✭ One of the best books I've ever read 43) Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar, 316 pages translated from the French by Grace Frick with the author ✭✭✭✭✭ A wonderful and exceedingly realistic and philosophical historical Roman novel 44) The Untouchable by John Banville, 381 pages narrated by Bill Wallis, 15 hours ✭✭✭✭ Beautifully written portrayal of a rather emotionally barren and somewhat unlikeable Irish-English man who became an unremarkable Russian spy along with some acquaintances, and was betrayed decades later 45) A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr., 326 pages narrated by Jonathan Marosz, 11 hours ✭✭✭ Raises some interesting ideas and questions but the writing is a bit lacking 46) Love, Freedom, Aloneness by Osho, 258 pages ✭✭✭✭ Deals with how to love others and how to be happy with being alone; rambling and perhaps a bit emotionally immature at times, but nevertheless some wonderful philosophy within 47) If I Stay by Gayle Forman, 234 pages narrated by Kirsten Potter, 5 hours ✭✭✭ Young Adult tearjerker that's more a collection of scenes with cookie cutter characters, but it did keep my interest and I especially liked the eclectic and mature musical references 48) Holes by Louis Sachar, 217 pages narrated by Kerry Beyer, 4 hours ✭✭✭ Fun and imaginative book for children that weaves together backstories of a European folk and Wild West feel with a modern-day desert children's detention camp adventure tale 49) Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons, 259 pages ✭✭✭✭ Take a pinch of Emma, a dash of Wuthering Heights, a sprinkle of 1930's futurism, a teaspoon of Hardy, a liberal helping of Lawrence and throw it all into a Mary Webb pot and voilà! This satire of rural English novels of the time is very funny at points despite somewhat uneven quality throughout; it holds up well even though some of its major targets are now obscure; the Austen and Brontë references were my favourite, perhaps because I was most familiar with them and thus able to pick up on the humour better 50) The Maze Runner by James Dashner, 378 pages narrated by Mark Deakins, 10 hours ✭✭✭✭ Exciting and interesting dystopian adventure YA mystery about a group of teenage boys who, memories erased, land in the middle of a giant and deadly maze ✭ - Disliked ✭✭ - So-so ✭✭✭ - Good ✭✭✭✭ - Excellent ✭✭✭✭✭ - Favourite Prior years 2014 2013 2012 2011 Last edited by sun surfer; 01-02-2016 at 01:28 PM.