I finally found a few minutes to sit down and tally up the results of my reading and book reading challenge from last year.
Altogether I read over 150 books last year. Admittedly some of these were on the short side – I was reading them to okay them for my children. But others were quite long so I think it all balanced out.
I had a lot of fun doing the Book Reading Challenge 2015. There were nine categories that I didn’t get to. I think this was due to non-planning not time.
I’ve highlighted in blue the books that I really recommend.
I’m going to do this again this year, and next week I’ll share the categories with you. I also have quite a few ebooks on my computer that I really want to work through this year.
| a book with more than 500 pages | The Book Thief |
| a classic romance | The Blue Castle |
| a book that became a movie | The Help |
| a book published this year | Rule of Three: Fight for Power |
| a book with a number in the title | Rule of Three |
| a book written by someone under 30 | Life on Foot |
| a book with nonhuman characters | Silent Intrusion |
| a funny book | No Hope for Gomez |
| a book by a female author | The Ultimate RV Adventure |
| a mystery or thriller | Closure |
| a book with a one-word title | Tisha |
| a book of short stories | The Collected Short Stories of Louis L’amour – Frontier |
| a book set in a different country | Just Deserts |
| a nonfiction book | GI Brides |
| a popular author’s first book | Gregor the Overlander |
| a book from an author you love that you haven’t read yet | Jeanne of the Marshes – Philip Oppenheim |
| a book a friend recommended | Rebecca |
| a Pulitzer Prize-winning book | To Kill a Mockingbird |
| a book based on a true story | Stolen Lives |
| a book at the bottom of your to-read list | |
| a book your mom loves | The Old Curiosity Shop |
| a book that scares you | |
| a book more than 100 years old | Prisoner of Zenda |
| a book based entirely on its cover | Pilgrim’s Wilderness |
| a book you were supposed to read in school but didn’t | This never happened. ☺ |
| a memoir | Outcry: Holocaust Memoir |
| a book you can finish in a day | Elderberry Croft |
| a book with antonyms in the title | A Little Salty to Cut the Sweet |
| a book set somewhere you have always wanted to visit | |
| a book that came out the year you were born | The Lonely Men |
| a book with bad reviews | The Selection |
| a trilogy | Graham’s Resolution |
| a book from your childhood | Little House in the Big Woods |
| a book with a love triangle | The Hill-man |
| a book set in the future | The Centaurus Legacy |
| a book set in high school | A Girl of the Limberlost |
| a book with a colour in the title | The Black Count |
| a book that made you cry | Code Name Verity |
| a book with magic | A Cast of Stones |
| a graphic novel | Ender’s Game |
| a book by an author you’ve never read before | The Kitchen House |
| a book you own but have never read | |
| a book that takes place in your hometown | |
| a book that was originally written in a different language | |
| a book set during Christmas | |
| a book written by an author with your same initials | Heidi |
| a play | |
| a banned book | |
| a book based on or turned into a TV show | Mr. Monk Goes to Hawaii |
| a book you started but never finished | Fahrenheit 451 |
What are your reading plans for 2016?
Intentional Simplicity 
WOW! I am heartily impressed.
My 2016 reading goal is to reread all 8 Anne of Green Gables books. I’m hoping to also read The Blythes are Quoted and both Chronicles of Avonlea books, none of which I’ve read before.
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Well, you’re in for a great reading year!
My list of books to read is already so long that it’s almost discouraging. I just had a birthday and received four books as well as Eva-Joy finding 11 Pimpernel books to add to my Kindle. Then there are the two Nero Wolfe books you sent – thank you very much. I started one and so far it’s great. Plus I have even more books stacked up by my bed!
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I wrote a poem back in college that began “A bibliophile Has books on a pile, Things written with feeling Stacked up to the Ceiling.” It was inspired by the home of one of my lit profs, but it pretty aptly describes my house now. There Are Never Enough Bookcases!!!!!!!!
I’m glad you’re digging the Nero Wolfe! They are simply fun.
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We have over 20 boxes of books in our basement that we simply don’t have room for upstairs. 😦 We rotate them upstairs one box at a time. My dad and mom have the same “problem”.
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Most of my YA and older junior fiction books are still in storage tubs in the basement — I think there are still 8 full ones. I find a small bookcase at a yard sale every now and then to put in the basement along one wall for those — so far I have four, filled with junior fiction that Sam either hasn’t tried yet or doesn’t like enough to want to keep up on the half-sized bookcase in the kitchen where his favorites reside. I’m trying to figure out a way to add another bookcase to our “library” because I desperately need one for my own books, but so far, no luck. I’m actually thinking of taking all my TBR books and putting them in the basement or my bedroom, because they’re the real problem.
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I wish our basement was finished. I would have more than enough room for our books. I’ve never lived in a house that had enough room for all of our books. My mom said that even when I was a baby my parent’s bedroom was bookcases on most of the walls. Whenever we moved my dad always put the books on the truck first then whatever else would fit – our family is hard core. 🙂
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Ours is finished, except for the floor, which is just concrete. It had lovely carpet when we moved in, but a hurricane and a tropical storm within weeks of each other our first fall here killed our sump pump, our basement flooded, and we had to rip out all the carpet. So now it’s just a mostly-finished basement.
My dad has about 4,000 books by his last estimate. My parents’ basement is a maze of bookcases, and there are some in every room upstairs except the kitchen. They’re building their retirement home right now, and hoping that at last, Dad will have enough room for his books. Hoping.
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Your dad sounds like my dad. My dad is a professional at being able to squeeze another bookshelf in. 🙂 I hope your dad doesn’t get his hopes up too high. Book lovers rarely have enough room for books even if it starts out that way.
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Well, he’s hoping that once he’s retired, he won’t need to buy so many theological books all the time to keep up on what’s being said and taught, or to do research with. About 5 years ago, he started collecting classics that he’s never read (I don’t really need to bring books with me to my parents’ house anymore — always something there I want to read!), and he’s very much looking forward to broadening his horizons once he’s retired. Of course, he was planning to retire in 2014, and now he’s saying maybe at the end of 2016, so we shall see! He’s said he’s ready to retire three times now, and each time the leaders of his congregation have persuaded him to stay “one more year.” I think if they would get a second pastor, he would stay until he was 70 at least, but the church is growing a lot right now and he’s been getting run pretty ragged these last couple of years.
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Our dads sound so similar. I’m sure even when he does retire he’ll still be involved in the church. He sounds like he enjoys ministering to people.
My dad is always reading, studying, researching theology too. 🙂 I used to read to my dad when I lived at home. It was a relaxing activity for him to listen to someone read a novel that he didn’t have to think about like he did with his studies. Eva-Joy started doing that when we moved in together, but I think the two college courses he’s currently teaching her have interfered with that. She was reading “Pride and Prejudice”. The only thing he knows about it is the Greer Garson movie which is not a very good introduction to the story.
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Hee! Yes, the Greer Garson version isn’t all that faithful, though it IS fun. I love Mr. Bennet’s line “Perhaps we should have drowned some of them.” I just watched “Bride and Prejudice” for the first time while I was sick last weekend, and the dad there used that line! Cracked me up 🙂
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My Dad’s favourite line is when they are at a dance and the mother tells Mary to sparkle, but not too much. He quotes that one quite often. I know he likes that one too about drowning them. The father in that movie is, I don’t know how to put this, more laid back – less cynical than the one in the book. That was the biggest shocker to me when I read the book.
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