Tag: 2015 Reading Challenge

2015 Reading Challenge Review

Posted January 19, 2016 by Holly in Discussions | 2 Comments

Rowena and I both signed up to do the 26 Books in 2015 reading challenge. Sadly, I didn’t get all 26 books marked off my list. I cheated a little to get some of these.

The two I didn’t get to? A Book You Learned About Because of This Challenge and A Book Based on a True Story. I have several books marked TBR from this challenge, but I didn’t get to them. Same with a book based on a true story. Let’s hope 2016 is a better reading year for me.

1) ~~A Book you own but haven’t read~~ | Hostage to Pleasure by Nalini Singh – I had this book in my TBR pile for years. I’m so glad I caught up on the series in 2015.
2) ~~A Book that was made into a movie~~ | Beastly by Alex Flinn – I still haven’t seen the movie, but, hey, I read the book!
3) ~~A Book you picked solely because of the cover~~ | The Friend Zone by Kristen Callihan – Yum.
4) ~~A Book your friend loves~~ | Honor’s Splendour by Julie Garwood – Rowena loves this book. I’ve read it before, but it’s worth listing here since I know she adores it.
5) ~~A Book published this year~~ | Midnight’s Kiss by Thea Harrison – Is it cheating if it’s a series I’m already invested in? Eh…I’m counting it.
6) ~~A Book by an author you’ve never read before~~ | Black Wolf’s Revenge by Tera Shanley – I didn’t love the book, but I may try the author again.
7) ~~A Book by an author you love~~ | Archangel’s Enigma by Nalini Singh – Seriously, does the woman write anything that isn’t amazing?
8) ~~A Book at the bottom of your “to be read” pile~~ | Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews – I bought this book ages ago but didn’t read it. I’m glad I finally dug into the series.
9) ~~A Book with a color in the title~~ | White Out by Linda Howard – An old Howard favorite.
10) ~~A Book set somewhere you’ve always wanted to visit~~ | Heart Legacy by Robin D. Owens – The Planet of Celta is one of my favorite fictional places. I would love to visit it.
11) ~~A Book you started but never finished~~ | Undressed by Shannon Richard – I started this one several times and just couldn’t get into it. I’m glad I stuck with it, though, since it turned out to be a cute read.
12) ~~A Book with a lion, a witch, or a wardrobe~~ | Magic Strikes by Ilona Andrews – Curran, Kate’s leading man, is a Lion.
13) ~~A Book with a female heroine~~ | Magic Rises by Ilona Andrews – The books are all about Kate and her personal journey. This is one of my favorites of the series.
14) ~~A Book set in the summer~~ | Suddenly One Summer by Julie James – And it has Summer in the title. Bonus!
15) ~~A Book of poems~~ | The Complete Works of Emily Dickinson – I loved revisiting some of my favorite poems. Full disclosure: I didn’t read the entire book. Only my favorites.
16) A Book you learned about because of this challenge
17) ~~A Book that will make you smarter~~ | Saving Grace by Julie Garwood – I know this seems like a strange choice for this category, but Johanna’s personal journey, and her struggle with her place as a woman in the church, really spoke to me.
18) ~~A Book with a blue cover~~ | Soaring by Kristen Ashley
19) ~~A Book you were supposed to read in school, but didn’t~~ | The Awakening by Kate Chopin – I don’t know how I missed reading this in school. It was wonderful.
20) ~~A Book “EVERYONE” but you has read~~ | Branded by Fire by Nalini Singh – I’m not sure that this specific book is one everyone but me has read, but I finally read the entire series this year, and I feel like I’m the last one, so I’m counting it.
21) ~~A Book with a great first line~~ | Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen – This was hard for me, because I don’t really pay attention to first lines, until I remembered I re-read P&P over the summer. Love.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

22) ~~A Book with pictures~~ | Go The F*ck to Sleep by Adam Mansbach – This is a hilarious book given to me by a friend just after my youngest was born. Every parent knows the struggle. For real.
23) ~~A Book from the library~~ | The Foot Book by Dr. Suess – My daughter and I visit the library once a week and we always get several books, but most of them are children’s books for her. I love this book, so I decided to list it rather than one of the adult books I picked up for myself.
24) ~~A Book you loved….read it again~~ | Fall Into Me by Linda Winfree – I adore this book. I read it at least once a year. I recently learned Winfree is writing again and plans to release a book this year. So.Effing.Excited.
25) ~~A Book that is more than 10 years old~~ Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase – This might be cheating a bit since it’s a re-read, but it was published 20 years ago (1995!) so it counts.
26) A Book based on a true story

24 out of 26 isn’t too bad considering my sad reading mojo in 2015.

How about you? Did you complete your 2015 reading challenges or meet your goals?

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Tagged: 2015 Reading Challenge, 26 Books to Read in 2015 Challenge, Holly Says, Holly's Books, Holly's Reading, Reading Challenge

My Book Challenge So Far…

Posted July 23, 2015 by Rowena in Miscellaneous | 6 Comments

In the beginning of the year (or maybe it was the ending of last year), Holly and I set some reading goals and this book challenge was one of them. I haven’t been paying any attention to what I’m supposed to be reading for this challenge so I thought I’d write up a post and find out.

Here goes nothing…

1) ~~A Book you own but haven’t read~~ | The Fill-In Boyfriend by Kasie West
2) ~~A Book that was made into a movie~~ | The DUFF by Kody Keplinger
3) ~~A Book you picked solely because of the cover~~ | Chaos by Jamie Shaw
4) ~~A Book your friend loves~~ | Sincerely, Carter by Whitney Gracia Williams
5) ~~A Book published this year~~ | Trade Me by Courtney Milan
6) ~~A Book by an author you’ve never read before~~ | Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
7) ~~A Book by an author you love~~ | Suddenly One Summer by Julie James
8) ~~A Book at the bottom of your “to be read” pile~~ | Mine to Possess by Nalini Singh
9) ~~A Book with a color in the title~~ | The Duke and the Lady in Red by Lorraine Heath
10) ~~A Book set somewhere you’ve always wanted to visit~~ | Hard Rock by Nalini Singh (New Zealand)
11) ~~A Book you started but never finished~~ | Visions of Heat by Nalini Singh (started it last year but never finished it so I picked it up again this year and not only did I finish it, I loved it too!)
12) ~~A Book with a lion, a witch, or a wardrobe~~ | Dragon Bound by Thea Harrison
13) ~~A Book with a female heroine~~ | Midnight Pursuits by Elle Kennedy (Juliet set out to avenge her brother and protect some innocents, she was definitely a heroine)
14) ~~A Book set in the summer~~ | Open Road Summer by Emery Lord
15) A Book of poems | I’m low key curious to see if I’ll ever do this. I don’t really have an interest in reading a book of poems, not even for this challenge. Ha!
16) A Book you learned about because of this challenge
17) A Book that will make you smarter
18) ~~A Book with a blue cover~~ | We Can Work it Out by Elizabeth Eulberg
19) A Book you were supposed to read in school, but didn’t
20) ~~A Book “EVERYONE” but you has read~~ | Caressed by Ice by Nalini Singh
21) A Book with a great first line
22) A Book with pictures
23) A Book from the library | I’m probably not going to do this one either since I don’t have a library card. I have issues with returning books so I gave this one up a long time ago.
24) ~~A Book you loved….read it again~~ | Before Jamaica Lane by Samantha Young and Frigid by J. Lynn (I read both books this year just because I felt like it. Ames was reading the Samantha Young book for the first time and enjoying the heck out of it so I thought, why not? I read it too. I loved it all over again and Frigid, I read on a whim. A whim that ended with me quite satisfied with Kyler and Sydney’s story yet again)
25) A Book that is more than 10 years old
26) A Book based on a true story

Hmmm, not nearly as bad as I thought. I thought that I wouldn’t have read anything but as you can see, I have. I’ve completed 17 of the challenges and only have 9 challenges to finish before I’m completely done. I still have 5 months to finish too.

Go me!

Are you participating in this challenge? How are things looking for you? Do you have a lot of work to do or are you on track..like me?

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Tagged: 2015 Reading Challenge, 26 Books to Read in 2015 Challenge, Book Goals, Reading Challenge, Rowena's Reading

Reading Goals: 2015

Posted January 16, 2015 by Holly in Discussions, Miscellaneous | 10 Comments

Holly: I never used to set reading goals/challenges for myself, because I would always end up with reading anxiety when I did. “I’m supposed to read 100 books this year and it’s December and I’ve only read 75!?!?!” Then I’d get so freaked out I’d give myself readers-block (it’s a real thing!) and not be able to read at all.

The last few years I’ve done a number challenge (211, 200, 200, etc), and did pretty well with it. I didn’t freak myself out because I just considered it a way to track my reads, which I’ve been doing for years now. This year, however, I’m going to set a few reading goals. I want to broaden my reading horizons, and get out of my comfort zone more.

In an effort to do that, I plan to continue to read new-to-me authors. I read 48 new authors in 2013 and 46 in 2014. That averages out to about 4 per month. Not terrible, but when you consider I average approximately 20 books per month, I feel like I could be doing better. I’m also going to try to branch out and read things beside contemporary romance. I read 136 contemps in 2014, and less than half that many paranormals. The numbers of historical, rom-suspense and other sub-genres was negligible. I also joined a reading challenge to help me cull down my TBR pile and motivate me to read outside my comfort zone. I found this challenge on Pinterest. Rowena has agreed to do it with me. (I ‘m also considering this challenge, also found on Pinterest. I haven’t decided if I’ll do one or both.)

To summarize, or the TL;DR version:

1. Read more sub-genres
2. Read more new authors
3. Finish the 2015 Reading Challenge

Rowena: 2015 was going to be the year that I take a break from reading challenges. It was going to be the year that I read whatever I want, whenever I want and not be bogged down with review books and whatever else but I can’t help myself. I like reading challenges. They’re good for variety because like Holly, I read a lot of contemporary books so the goals I’m setting are to get me out of my comfort zone and try new to me things. I won’t know if I like something until I try it, right?

I have a tendency to stick to what I know and what has worked with me. So if a new to me author is popular, I won’t try them out until someone I know personally recommends them. And even then, it might take me years. Haha.

I belong to a book club that meets once a month to discuss books and last year, there were a few times that I didn’t read the book and couldn’t participate in the discussion. That ends this year. I will read and discuss every single book that we choose to read as a club.

So aside from the 2015 reading challenge with Holly, my reading goals are: