Reading Challenges a November and 2015 Update!
As the end of November approaches, it’s time again to recap the books that I read this month and my reading plan for December. Even though November has been a busy month, I have still managed to finish three books. First Secondhand Souls by Christopher Moore, followed by Patrick Lee’s second book in the Sam Dryden series Signal and most recently Jonathan Kozol’s Amazing Grace:The Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation. I finished Amazing Grace this evening, so I will try to write about it tomorrow.
Now to update where I stand on my various reading challenges. Overall I have read 47 books on a lofty goal of 51 (92%) this year. Needing only four more books to reach my overall goal it’s obvious that the only reading challenge that I will beat is the Cloak & Dagger reading challenge. But I will be over 60% om the other three reading challenges, including my TBR reading challenge. I don’t think that’s too bad for the first year of establishing reading challenges! Next year I want to establish some different challenges to expand the variety of books that I read. One challenge may be a classic literature reading challenge to try to catch up on some of those classics I didn’t read in school! And maybe a reading challenge that challenges me to read a book from the New York Times bestseller list…. I’ll keep thinking about it, any ideas?
| Reading Challenge | From TBR Pile | Buy/Library | Total | Goal | %complete |
| 2015 Nonfiction Reading Challenge | 2 | 5 | 7 | 11 | 64% |
| 2015 Cloak & Dagger Reading Challenge | 7 | 19 | 26 | 23 | 113% |
| 2015 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge | 2 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 60% |
| 2015 Science Fiction/Fantasy Challenge | 3 | 5 | 9 | 12 | 75% |
| No Reading Challenge | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 100% |
| Totals | 15 | 47 | 51 | 92% | |
| 2015 TBR Pile Challenge | 15 | 25 | 60% |
So here are my proposed December reads. I have been reading Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and Whistling Past the Graveyard so I should be able to finish those books relatively quickly. In addition, I have started reading and put on hold both Good Omens and The Revenge of Geography so I should be able to finish those books, too. That would get me to 51 books! Finishing the fifth book, Grain Brain may be a reach but we’ll see!! Wish Me Luck, because I know December will be every bit as busy if not busier than November!! Even if I don’t finish another book this year my total number of books read is the highest since 2009, the year before I started blogging and working part-time at Target!!
| Proposed December Reads | Challenge | From |
| Dangerously Funny | Nonfiction | TBR Pile |
| Good Omens – Terry Practhett Neil Gaiman | Fantasy | TBR Pile |
| Whistling Past the Graveyard – Crandell | Historical Fiction | Library |
| Grain Brain- Daniel Perlmutter | Nonfiction | Library |
| The Revenge of Geography | Nonfiction | TBR Pile |
