finishing up

[Thomas]

Five books left here, I'm close to finishing two of them. Devoting the next three days to reading will hopefully be enough to make it.

[Thomas]

Done with Ernest Cline's Armada and James Cameron's Strange Days scriptment. 90 pages done on Leviathan Wakes and a little less than half left on Kraken. After that it's 180 pages of The Ocean at the End of the Lane and I'm done.

[Elisabeth]

Done! I finished Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Ernest this morning & that was my last one. It also was my 100th book of the year - a feat I've never before accomplished. Yay!

[Amanda]

This month was so busy, I have only finished one book...gah! I am hoping this last week I can come close to finishing my last 3. I have "The Wreath", "Winter Solstice" and "The Lost Child" to finish up for the challenge. I have read a total of 60 books this year and I'm sure some would cross into these categories. So even if I don't finish the ones I choose for the challenge, I'm very happy with reaching my goal of 60 books this year so far.

[Anne]

Ok, good luck guys!! I still believe I can make it, and so can you! ;-) Happy reading these last days of 2015...!

[Thomas]

I think I'm not going to make it in time. I might finish two, but not all three that's left. Then again, I've read 62 books this year and I was moving books around to get books I really wanted on the list. I'll just keep reading into January.

[Anne]

That sounds like a good plan too... 62 books, that's really a lot! As long as you're enjoying it :-)

[Thomas]

These last three are all fantastic. At least two of them are looking like slam dunk five stars, possibly all three. :)

[Elizabeth]

Don't think that I am going to finish- still have 3 to go...I am going to finish it up though. Lots of good reads this year!!!! I am excited that I have read so many different books that I might not have normally read.

[Anne]

Yes me too! Some great discoveries :-)

[Donna]

I have finished the 2015 Book Challenge! I am pretty proud of that feat because for so many categories I seemed to pick the longest book published!! It was wonderful to be pushed to read things that I would not have read! I don't think I am going to participate in the 2016 challenge because I have so many books on my "to read" list that I want to concentrate on that this year. I also read more books than I have probably ever read in one year in a long time! Thanks for the challenge!!

[Zarandra]

JUHUUUUU!!!! I've never ever thought I could read so many books in just one year - but hey, I've just finished!!! In the beginning of the year I started with 12 books in my personal Goodreads Challenge and thought, this would be really challenging, but throughout the weeks and with all those comments here, I noticed: this was possible! And I even put the personal challenge up to 55, which I will fail, but 53 books is so much more than first expected! I'm really looking forward to next year's challenge and want to thank everyone here in this group, because although I remained silent most of the time, I read all your friendly comments and found lots of books to read! Wish you a happy new year - Prost Neujahr! (As we say in Germany)

[Anne]

Yay, finished all categories with just 7 hours left (in Belgium at least) in 2015 :-) Good luck to the people still trying to finish, and happy new year to everybody!

[Linda]

I finished the final book this morning. I am happy to say that I followed all my own rules here - I didn't repeat any title and I didn't use any book that I had previously read for this challenge. Here is my list:

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt;              
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green;
A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler
The Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan
The Tiger's Wife by Tia Obrecht
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams
The Serpent of Venice by Christopher Moore
The Apprentice by Tess Gerritsen
Sycamore Row by John Grisham
Ripper by Isabelle Allende
Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K.Rowling with commentary by Albus Dumbledore
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown
Three Wishes by Liane Moriarity
The Rule of Nine by Steve Martini
Watchers by Dean Koontz
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Chosen by Chaim Potok
Forsaken by J.D. Barker
The Call of the Wild by Jack London
Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal
The Giver by Lois Lowry**
Let's Just Say it wasn't Pretty by Diane Keaton
Room by Emma Donoghue
Take Me with You by Catherine Ryan Hyde
At the Water's Edge by Sara Gruen (Scotland)
Up the Down Staircase by Bel Kaufman
After Alice by Gregory Maguire
Divergent, Insurgent, Allegiant by Veronica Roth
The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles by Julie Andrews Edwards
The Hypnotist's Love Story by Liane Moriarity
The Martian by Andy Weir
Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer
Sacre Bleu by Christopher Moore
Me before You by Jo Jo Moyes
The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness
In Real Life by Cory Doctorow and Jen Wang
The Silent Sister by Diane Chamberlain
Defending Jacob by William Landry
The Man from Primrose Lane by James Renner
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
The Mistletoe Promise by Richard Paul Evans
Lost by Lucy Wadham
The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
The Perks of being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
The Surgeon by Tess Gerritsen
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

Time to start the 2016 list :)

[[deleted user]]

I didn't finish all of the categories, but my attempt did help me reach my personal goal of 50 books. 2015 was one of the most fulfilling of my life, as far as reading goes. I'm very grateful for the inspiration and recommendations from this group.

Happy New Year, everyone!

[Margo]

Linda wrote: "I finished the final book this morning. I am happy to say that I followed all my own rules here - I didn't repeat any title and I didn't use any book that I had previously read for this challenge. ..."
Lovely list :>

[Sarah]

I finished and I am now trying to read through my TBR list. This challenge has been fun and it helped me to read outside of textbooks!

[Cyndy]

I finished this year’s challenge Oct 16th, nine days earlier than our 2015 challenge. This year’s challenge was easier for me, because I didn’t have to buy a graphic novel – no offense intended, I am old and comic books are not something I want to spend any money on. My favorite categories last year were color in the title, number in the title, and an author with your initials. My favorite categories this year were the wildcards. I much prefer the categories that allow you to pick from any genre, rather than the genre based. I’m a fan of thrillers, spy novels, and mysteries. I did have a few shorter books within the challenge, but my average book length was still 310 pages, so I don’t feel too bad about the shorter books. Looking forward to next year's challenge.
My top recommendations from the books I read this year are marked with *s below and any of the thriller / spy novels!
Oath to Defend by Scott Matthews
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday
The Forgotten Soldier by Brad Taylor
The Woman Who Walked in Sunshine by Alexander McCall Smith
Falling into Grace by Michael Dietrich
The Rosie Project by Grame Simsion
The Art of War by Stephen Coonts
The Opposite of Everyone by Joshilyn Jackson
The Death of the Great Santini by Pat Conroy
Flight of the Sparrow: A Novel of Early America by Amy Belding Brown
Partners by John Grisham
One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia
Mrs. Mike by Benedict & Nancy Freedman
Shadow Tag by Raymond Khoury & Steve Berry
The 14th Colony by Steve Berry
The Last Mile by David Baldacci
Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy by Carlos Eire
The Life We Bury by Allan Eskens
Running for Water and Sky by Sandra Kring
Mislaid by Nell Zink
* The Martian by Andy Weir
2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas by Marie-Helene Bertino
Theodore Boone kid lawyer by John Grisham
Time to Run by John Gilstrap
Maud's Line by Margaret Verble
* The Dinner by Herman Koch
Foreign Agent by Brad Thor
P.S. Be Eleven by Rita Williams-Garcia
Gone Crazy in Alabama by Rita Williams-Garcia
Liberty's Last Stand by Stephen Coonts
Friendly Fire by John Gilstrap
The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
Ghosts of War by Brad Taylor
Bucky F&%@ing Dent by David Duchovny
The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown
The Innocents by Ace Atkins
Antarctica: Penguins, Whales, and Happiness by Anna Huddleston
The House of Secrets by Brad Meltzer
Girl in Translation by Jenn Kwok
* The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende
Meridian by Alice Walker
The Frog Princess by E. D. Baker
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
Johnny Tremain by Esther Hoskins Forbes
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
House Reckoning by Mike Lawson
Tales from the Odyssey - Part 1 by Mary Pope Osborne
Tales from the Odyssey - Part 2 by Mary Pope Osborne
The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katerina Bivald
* Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd by Alan Bradley
Witness to a Trial by John Grisham
* The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
* Light of the World by James Lee Burke – this was my final book for the challenge
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Nick of Time by John Gilstrap
House Rivals by Mike Lawson
The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
Divas Do Tell by Virginia Brown
The Target by Brad Taylor
Flamingo Sunset by Jonathan London
Order to Kill by Kyle Miles
Precious and Grace by Alexander McCall Smith
* The Witness by John Grisham
* No Man's Land by David Baldacci
Dark Trojan by Scott Matthews
Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
No Way Back by Andrew Gross – currently reading

[Natália]

I am done with my challenge as well, at least tier 1, that is. Since I set up to do just that, even though I hoped to surpass that and finish tier 2, I'm happy with my accomplishment this year. I read a total of 72 books so far, but only 40 of them counted towards this challenge.

[Cinder]

I'm happy to have completed tier one of the challenge, though almost didn't make it. I tend to work too much and have little time for things I like, so I really enjoyed this challenge because it forced me to have a reason to do something for myself. Shooting for more books in 2017 for sure. :)

[David]

January is a time to re-read classics: Henry James (The Portrait of a Lady); George Eliot (Daniel Deronda); Thomas Hardy (Far From the Madding Crowd—each of which has been made into rewarding movies. There is so much dissappointment to be found in contmeporary film and literature: I search for fiction's cure for alienation reading Walker Percy's "The Movie Goer": unity of author, reader and character. —David Taylor Johannesen, South Dartmouth, Massachusetts