So I sucked a bit at the Popsugar reading challenge last year. I had high hopes for it, and did actually read a lot of books but, I got side tracked reading a whole series after the first book from an author. I really enjoyed the first of the Sue Grafton alphabet series books I tried, ending up going back to A and reading all of them, including X when it was released. This year, they seem to have gone for more broad themes and made it a little easier to find a book you want to read within the list, so I have high hopes for the reading challenge this year.
Some of them will certainly be less appealing, like a self improvement book, comedian and something recommended by a family member as most of them are not big readers. Maybe I will ask my readers to choose a book for me! Since I have mostly switched over to eReading, finding a book with a blue cover is trickier as the ecovers are sometimes different and my library has many with black & white covers in their list. I guess I need to do some kobo searching for that one.
2016 Reading Challenge Checklist & Book List
1. A book based on a fairy tale
2. A National Book Award winner
3. A YA bestseller
4. A book you haven’t read since high school
5. A book set in your home state: Oh Americanisms. I don’t have a home state, so I went with a book that has been sitting on my Kobo for a while and is based in London where I grew up. Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella is an oldie and one I have always meant to read but just never got around to actually reading it. I have probably picked it up on clearance tables a couple of times throughout the years too.
6. A book translated to English
7. A romance set in the future
8. A book set in Europe
9. A book under 150 pages: I picked January by Audrey Carlan because it was on the New York Times Bestseller list for the week. It is part of a 12 part series where Mia works as an escort to pay off her father’s gambling debts. I expected it to be a bit grittier rather than just her jumping into bed with him on the first night but it was readable.
10. A New York Times bestseller
11. A book that’s becoming a movie this year
12. A book recommended by someone you just met
13. A self-improvement book
14. A book you can finish in a day
15. A book written by a celebrity
16. A political memoir
17. A book at least 100 years older than you
18. A book that’s more than 600 pages
19. A book from Oprah’s Book Club
20. A science-fiction novel
21. A book recommended by a family member
22. A graphic novel
23. A book that is published in 2016: This one could probably fit in a few categories, but since I am pretty much guaranteed to read more murder mysteries and it is not strictly a romance (although the main characters’ romance is a theme) I am going with Brotherhood in Death by JD Robb. One of my favourite authors, I have read all of the In Death books in the long series and pre-ordered this one for the release date.
24. A book with a protagonist who has your occupation
25. A book that takes place during Summer
26. A book and its prequel
27. A murder mystery
28. A book written by a comedian
29. A dystopian novel
30. A book with a blue cover: I will probably read more than one with a blue cover too, but the first one is Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter. I have read many of her books and loved the Grant County and Will Trent books. This one was slower to get into and I almost gave up on it but it finished well. Not her best book, but definitely enjoyable (if you can find death enjoyable, so very readable? I dunno)
31. A book of poetry
32. The first book you see in a bookstore
33. A classic from the 20th century
34. A book from the library
35. An autobiography
36. A book about a road trip
37. A book about a culture you’re unfamiliar with
38. A satirical book
39. A book that takes place on an island
40. A book that’s guaranteed to bring you joy
All books read in 2016
- Lisa Ballantyne – Everything She Forgot
- Audrey Carlan – Calendar Girls (all 12 mini books)
- Lisa Gardner – Find Her
- Heather Graham Krewe of Hunters Series books 1-20
- Piper Kerman – Orange if the New Black
- Sophie Kinsella – Confessions of a Shopaholic
- Melissa F. Miller – Sasha McCandless Series: Irreparable Harm, Inadvertent Disclosure, Irretrievably Broken, Indispensable Party, Improper Influence, A Marriage of True Minds, Irrevocable Trust, Lovers and Madmen, Irrefutable Evidence, A Mingled Yarn, and Informed Consent
- EH Reinhard – Lieutenant Kane Series: Malevolent, Requite, Determinant, Peilous, Progeny and Denouement
- EH Reinhard – Agent Hank Rawlings Series: Drained (Hoping to read the rest of the series)
- Shonda Rhimes – Year of Yes
- JD Robb – Brotherhood in Death
- JD Robb – Festive In Death
- Karin Slaughter – Pretty Girls
Yeah, so I got distracted, read a load that I didn’t include here and then got stuck reading the whole Heather Graham Krewe of Hunters series.