Now that the year will be done in a several hours, I must update my progress with each year-long challenge.
I will keep this in the same order as my post for starting these challenges, except I am adding the Goodreads Reading Challenge to the end since I forgot to add it to the “challenge accepted” post.
Banned Books Challenge 2016
Hosted by Christine @ Buckling Bookshelves
Goal: Trouble-Maker (3-5 books)
Actual: Leader of a Revolution (16 books)
“Leader of a Revolution” sounds really good. It’s powerful. I want to do this challenge again next year.
Here are the covers of the challenged books that I read:
Around the World 2016
Hosted by Crini @ All About Books
Mini-Challenges
The optional mini-challenges help us achieve our goal in different ways. I choose not to count over the goal number when I exceed the goal.
Read one book for each continent: 5/7
- Africa: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
- Asia: Captive Hearts, Vol. 1 by Matsuri Hino
- Australia: The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
- Europe: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne
- North America: The Thing about Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin
Read one book for each state: 12/50
- California: Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko
- Florida: Wither by Lauren DeStefano
- Georgia: Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
- Idaho: The Boy Who Invented TV: The Story of Philo Farnsworth by Kathleen Krull
- Illinois: Mr. Ferris and His Wheel by Kathryn Gibbs Davis
- Kansas: The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
- Massachusetts: The Thing about Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin
- Nebraska: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
- New Jersey: The Last Little Blue Envelope by Maureen Johnson
- New York: The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer. E. Smith
- Pennsylvania: Crow Call by Lois Lowry
- Virginia: Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Read one book for each ocean (the character travels across the ocean, no matter how): 3/5 or 3/4
- Atlantic Ocean: 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson
- Indian Ocean: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak – I assume Liesel had to cross the Indian Ocean to get to Australia, but the book does not say.
- Pacific Ocean: The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
I realized at the end of this year that the goal for this mini-challenge was set at five (by Crini), and I have been trying to figure out when a fifth ocean (the Southern) was added. According to NOAA, the boundaries of the Southern Ocean were proposed in 2000 to the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO), of which the US is a member, but it has not been ratified by IHO. Following IHO’s stance, I met the goal by three-quarters.
Books Set in Capital Cities: 7/6
I am so happy that I did not have to resort to using the capitals of states and provinces in the U.S. and Canada.
- Berlin, Germany: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne.
- Copenhagen, Denmark: 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson.
- Dublin, Ireland: The Last Little Blue Envelope by Maureen Johnson.
- London, UK: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.
- Paris, France: The Girl at Midnight by Melissa Grey.
- Prague, Czech Republic: The Lucy Variations by Sara Zarr
- Tokyo, Japan: Faithful Elephants by Yukio Tsuchiya, illustrated by Ted Lewin.
Books Set in at least 5 different places: 4/4
I assume places mean the same as it does for the A to Z Challenge, so I will run with different buildings and cities.
- Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell: Omaha,NE; University of Nebraska; a bar in Lincoln, NE; two hospitals in Omaha and Lincoln; Levi’s house; and Cath’s dad’s house
- 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson: Corfu, Greece; NYC, New York; London, UK; Paris, France; Rome, Italy; Venice, Italy – to name a few
- The Last Little Blue Envelope by Maureen Johnson: Ghent, Belgium; Curragh, Ireland; Amsterdam, Netherlands; Holyhead, UK; New Jersey; The Channel Tunnel (Chunnel) between the UK and France – to name a few more since many of the places are repeated
- The Girl at Midnight by Melissa Grey: New York, New York; The Black Forest, Germany; Greenland; Kyoto, Japan; Shilin Market in Taipei, Taiwan; and a couple fantasy places
Books Set in 2 places from different continents: 4/4
- The Girl at Midnight by Melissa Grey: US/Greenland, UK/France/Germany, Taiwan/Japan
- Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad: Belgium and the Congo
- The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion: Australia and the US
- The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith: US and UK
A to Z Challenge: Find a place for each letter in the alphabet: 22/26
It is driving me crazy to keep up with listing the book that each place is in, so I will stick to listing the place. You can check the map for the books set there.
- Atlanta, Georgia
- Black Forest, Germany
- Copenhagen, Denmark
- Dublin, Ireland
- Edinburgh, UK
- Frankfurt, Germany
- Ghent, UK
- Holyhead, UK
- Italy
- Jerusalem, Israel
- Kyoto, Japan
- London, UK
- Melbourne, Australia
- New York, New York
- Omaha, Nebraska
- Prague, Czech Republic
- _____ Does the land of the Quadlings count?
- Rødbyhavn, Denmark
- Shilin Market in Taipei, Taiwan
- Toronto, Canada
- University of Nebraska
- Venice, Italy
- Weston-super-Mare, UK
- _____
- _____
- _____
Not counting the land of the Quadlings, I have twenty-two places.
Different countries: 25/25 real countries, 5/5 fantasy countries
For the real countries, I visited
- Australia: The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
- Belgium: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
- Canada: The Film Club by David Gilmour
- China: Captive Hearts, Vol. 3 by Matsuri Hino
- Congo: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
- Cuba: The Film Club by David Gilmour
- Czech Republic: The Lucy Variations by Sara Zarr
- Denmark: 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson
- Egypt: Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt by Anne Rice
- France: The Last Little Blue Envelope by Maureen Johnson
- Germany: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
- Greece: The Odyssey by Homer
- Greenland: The Girl at Midnight by Melissa Grey
- Italy: The Aeneid by Virgil
- Iraq: Children of War: Voices of Iraqi Refugees by Deborah Ellis
- Ireland: The Last Little Blue Envelope by Maureen Johnson
- Israel: Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt by Anne Rice
- Japan: Ouran High School Host Club, Vol. 1 by Bisco Hatori
- Mexico: Migrant by Maxine Trottier, illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault
- Netherlands: 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson
- Poland: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne (set at Auschwitz)
- South Korea: Technically, Korea and then South Korea in When My Name Was Keoko by Linda Sue Park
- Taiwan: The Girl at Midnight by Melissa Grey
- United Kingdom: The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith
- United States: Crenshaw by Katherine Applegate.
Fantasy countries are not required, but I read so much fantasy that I wanted to set a goal of reading them. Of the fantasy countries, I visited
- The Land of Oz: The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
- Arcadia: an isolated universe in Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge
- The Land of Ev: Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum
- The Land of Faerie: The Changelings by Christina Soontornvat
- Demon Realm: Demon Diary, Vol. 1 by Lee Chi-Hyong, illustrated by Kara.
I wish I had figured out a way to make a map for the fantasy lands.
Authors from different countries: 5/5
Graeme Simsion – Australia- Bisco Hatori – Japan
- Christina Soontornvat – USA
- Deborah Ellis – Canada
- J.K. Rowling – UK
I would like to do the overall challenge again, but I will have to think about which mini-challenges I will participate in. I hope the challenge will run again next year.
Books in Translation Reading Challenge
Hosted by Jen @ The Introverted Reader
Goal: Bilingual (7-9 books)
Actual: Beginner (2 books)
While I have read a lot of books, stories, plays and essays in translation, I did not realize until this month that I had to write reviews for each of the books. There is no way I will be able to catch up on the reviews, so the official total is two books (Ouran High School Host Club, Vol. 1 by Bisco Hatori and A Bride’s Story, Vol. 1 by Kaoru Mori).
The number of books I actually read, though I can only prove it through Goodreads without reviews, are sixteen. If books were counted this way, I am well above Linguist level (10-12 books). The books in translation that I read are
- Ouran High School Host Club, Vol. 1-5 by Bisco Hatori (Japanese)
- A Bride’s Story, Vol. 1 by Kaoru Mori (Japanese)
- The Little Vampire by Angela Sommer-Bodenburg (German)
- Captive Hearts, Vol. 1-4 by Matsuri Hino (Japanese)
- Enuma Elish (Old Babylonian)
- The Epic of Gilgamesh (Akkadian)
- The Odyssey by Homer (Greek)
- The Aeneid by Virgil (Latin)
- Demon Diary, Vol. 1-7 by Kara and a changing cast of illustrators (Korean?)
- Dear Pope Francis by Pope Francis (I’m guessing Italian or Spanish), illustrated by the children of the world whose letters are translated as well
- The Scar by Charlotte Moundlic (French), illustrated by Olivier Tallec
- The Ink Drinker by Eric Sanvoisin (French)
- Faithful Elephants by Yukio Tsuchiya (Japanese), illustrated by Ted Lewin
- The Storyteller’s Candle/La velita de los cuentos by Lucia M. Gonzalez (bilingual Spanish-English), illustrated by Lulu Delacre
- Goodbye Rune by Marit Kaldhol (Norwegian)
- The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov (Russian).
There are also the many short stories, essays, and excerpts of writings that I have read over the last year, which Goodreads cannot keep track of. The important thing is that I read the books in the first place, but I dislike that none of this counts unless I write a review.
I will set a goal next year to read more translated books, but I am unsure that I will be able to keep up with posting reviews of them.
2016 Book Blog Discussion Challenge
My Goal: Creative Conversationalist (13-24 posts)
Actual: Discussion Dabbler (8 posts)
I’m proud and disappointed in myself. For pride, I am proud to have broken out of my mold and to be able to write more than reviews and book tags. That makes me want to blog more and read more. For the disappointment, I went on hiatus for half the year, and I was unable to meet the goal.
Here is a list of the discussion posts:
- Front Cover Up or Front Cover Down? The Spine and Cover Battle Post
- Using Book Covers in Reviews
- ‘Cursed Child’: Can a play script be a part of a book series?
- ‘Cursed Child’: Can more authors be added to the creation of the series?
- Should Price Be Included in Book Reviews?
- When Beloved Characters Become Flat
- Bookstore Genre vs College Genre
- Blogging & Reading Challenges | Write a Post or a Page
I will try the challenge again next year with a goal of reaching Creative Conversationalist if that is still the name of it.
Goodreads 2016 Reading Challenge
Last year I did not meet either goal that I set, so I set the goal for 40 books this year. I was doing well until I signed up for a class that required me to read one hundred books in a semester. I intended to increase my goal by that many, but I never got around to doing it on Goodreads.
One hundred sixty-three books out of forty (408% of my goal). This was a spectacular year of reading, but I wish Goodreads differentiated between books that are short and books that are long.
I like the Goodreads Reading Challenge, so I will do it again next year.
We survived 2016, so have a happy new year!
*All non-challenge images come from Goodreads.
Cat on the Bookshelf 