The Tea & Books Reading Challenge, hosted by Birgit at The Book Garden, was a great idea and an awesome experience. You can find out more about the challenge by clicking any of the above links, or reading my original sign up post here.
I originally signed up for the Earl grey Aficionado level (six books) but upgraded to the Sencha Connoisseur after I quickly plowed through George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series. For my upgrade I originally planned on adding Anna Karenina and Ulysses. I did end up reading Anna Karenina, but decided to wait on Ulysses and instead substituted Doctor Zhivago which I planned on reading for another challenge.
If I have one piece of advice for this challenge in the future. Definitely break up the books! And make sure to see if your books come with convenient stopping points. Martin’s series was emotionally demanding and exhausting. I read the first three back-to-back and then took a break. The two Russian novels were also demanding and incredibly tedious (and totally worth the read), but they came with convenient stopping points in ‘books’ within the novels.
Facts about my challenge
- Average number of pages per book: 937
- Total pages read: 7,499
- Longest Book: A Storm of Swords, 1,210 pages (three book clocked in over 1,000 pages including A Dance with Dragons and Anna Karenina)
- Shortest Book: Doctor Zhivago, 673 pages (There was a lot of introductory text, so I would guess closer to 690.)
- Physical books read: 1, Gone with the Wind (I’m glad of this as I read mostly on public transportation for 1.5hrs+ each weekday).
- Kindle books read: 7 (It doesn’t make them any shorter!)
- Library books read: 1, Doctor Zhivago (The rest I got with a gift certificate for my birthday, or were pre-1923 editions.)
Books and Reviews
- A Game of Thrones – George R.R. Martin
- A Clash of Kings – George R.R. Martin
- A Storm of Swords – George R.R. Martin
- A Feast of Crows – George R.R. Martin
- A Dance with Dragons – George R.R. Martin
- Gone with the Wind – Margaret Mitchell
- Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
- Doctor Zhivago – Boris Pasternak
Overall, I had a great time and this was a great first challenge for my blog! Birgit and the rest of the group participating were great and highly active!
I’m hoping to wrap up my other two challenges well before December 31st, but I won’t count them done until that last page is turned (or clicked)!
Oh my goodness, you read 3 Game of Thrones in a row????? I have read the first 2, but I took a short break (like 1 book) in between 1 & 2, and now I’ve taken a loooong break! I have to get back to them because they’re fabulous books, but they’re a huge commitment since they are so long!
Yeah – not the brightest decision I’ve ever made, but like you said they’re SOOO good! I just couldn’t stop. It took until the end of the third one before I realized I needed a long break.