Tag: 2012 Challenges

Updates

August Recap 2012

Geoff W

Even though I only read seven books this month, I had a relatively productive month. I finished my re-read of Harry Potter with Books Five, Six and Seven, and I’m glad I did. It was a much needed reprieve from work and life and the stress of the challenges I chose to do this year! (And I know you’re all dying to know – I’m making awesome progress in Lego Harry Potter 😀 I’ve already completed Years 1-4 and am about 50% of the way through 5-7. If you’ve ever played one of the Lego franchise games you know that’s not as simple as it sounds.) In addition I read an AWESOME NetGalley from Algonquin Books due out in October, The Art Forger, and ticked a few more books off my challenges!

In other cool book news, I hope everyone has seen this article in The Atlantic Wire about what type of book reader you are. I’m definitely somewhere between quite a few of them! (The Hate Reader, The Chronological Reader and the Bookophile, among others.)

Challenge Progress
The major change came when I decided to push James Joyce’s Ulysses off until next year. I tacked it on to my Tea and Books Reading Challenge at the last-minute, but realized that I already had another 700+ page book on my Back to the Classics Challenge, Boris Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago, so I’m going with it instead.

  • Mount TBR Reading Challenge
    • Monthly Progress: 3 books
    • Overall Progress – 21/25 (84%)
  • Back to the Classics Challenge
    • Monthly Progress: 0 books
    • Overall Progress – 5/9 (56%)
  • Tea and Books Reading Challenge
    • Monthly Progress: 0 books
    • Overall Progress – 7/8 (89%)
  • The Classics Club
    • Monthly Progress: 2 books
    • Overall Progress – 11/100 (11%)
Updates

July 2012 Recap

Geoff W

This will be a very short post as I did NOTHING for my challenges last month and it was GREAT!  I did however read two ARCs (The Absolutist and The Secret Lives of Codebreakers), three library books (The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy and The Man Who Knew Too Much) and re-read the first four Harry Potter novels.  Nine books isn’t bad for a month, especially as I relaxed and enjoyed them and didn’t have to worry about posting (even though I did) or about meeting numbers for a challenge.  July was also the two-year anniversary of The Oddness of Moving Things and I did a general recap of the past year.

Challenge Progress
Just to keep this post somewhat standard, I’ve kept this section in.  Nothing has changed from last month so I remain at 20/31 (65%).  I plan on reading Great Expectations as my next book once I finish the Harry Potter series.

  • Mount TBR Reading Challenge
    • May Progress: 0 books
    • Overall Progress – 18/25 (72%)
  • Back to the Classics Challenge
    • May Progress: 0 books
    • Overall Progress – 5/9 (56%)
  • Tea and Books Reading Challenge
    • May Progress: 0 books
    • Overall Progress – 7/8 (89%)
  • The Classics Club
    • May Progress: 0 books
    • Overall Progress – 9/100 (9%)
Updates

June 2012 Recap

Geoff W

I don’t have any pictures to start this recap, but there are plenty below (at the end).  June was a slow month on the reading front, but it was incredibly rewarding.  I started (and finished) Anna Karenina and thoroughly enjoyed it (even if it took 21 days to finish).  In addition I completed my re-read of Mansfield Park and read The Bird of Night, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and The Phantom of Pemberley.

Challenge Progress
I made major headway on my challenges as multiple books counted for multiple challenges.  Overall for the year I am 20/31 (65%) on challenges and this past month put me over the 50% level on EVERY 2012 challenge!

  • Mount TBR Reading Challenge
    • May Progress: 2 books
    • Overall Progress – 18/25 (72%)
  • Back to the Classics Challenge
    • May Progress: 2 book
    • Overall Progress – 5/9 (56%)
  • Tea and Books Reading Challenge
    • May Progress: 1 books
    • Overall Progress – 7/8 (89%)
  • The Classics Club
    • May Progress: 3 books
    • Overall Progress – 9/100 (9%)

Random Awesomeness
It was  an interesting month for finding random stuff about books online. I’ve pulled out the three I found to be most exciting/interesting and they are below.

Click here to continue reading.

2012 Challenges

Mount TBR: Climbing Mt. Vancouver (Checkpoint 2)

Geoff W

Bev of My Reader’s Block has called for the second check in of the 2012 Mount TBR (To Be Read) Reading Challenge and I’m a little less pleased with my progress this time than I was at Checkpoint 1, but still pleased at the steady progress..  For this challenge I have read   For this challenge I have read 17 of 25 books which is 68%! I’m in the process of wrapping up Anna Karenina so I’ve counted it towards my progress. (As it will be done before the 30th – hopefully tonight!)

In addition to our basic check in – Bev has asked us to do a couple of things.  The first is how far we’ve made it up the mountain (that’s above) and if possible convert it into actual distance – that would be 10,735ft or 3, 272m (Mount Vancouver is 15,787 ft/4,812m tall according to Google). The second thing she asked us to do was to compose a poem (with extra words if needed), write about our favorite character or explain if any of the books surprised us.  I’ve decided to do two of them. My poem is below and after that is my surprise read of the year!

Click here to continue reading!

2012 Challenges

Mount TBR: Climbing Mt. Vancouver (Checkpoint 1)

Geoff W

Bev of My Reader’s Block has called for the first check in of the 2012 Mount TBR (To Be Read) Reading Challenge and I’m quite pleased with my progress so far.  For this challenge I have read 10 of 25 books which is 40%!

Overall on my reading challenges I’m 15 of 30 books which is 47%.  I may end up taking some time off to just enjoy reading other books over the next few weeks knowing I don’t have to push myself so hard to stay on pace for my challenges.

So far my favorite book of the challenge is Murder on the Orient Express. It was incredibly enjoyable and fun, and I really liked Agatha Christie’s writing style.   A Game of Thrones and the other novels were definitely up there as well!  My least favorite (by far) was Two Serious Ladies. I’m most looking forward to the Brontë novels (especially Anne as I haven’t read anything by her), but we’ll see once I get to them! You can see my list here and check out the responses to the novels I’ve already read.