2025 Reading Challenge discussion
ARCHIVE 2016
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Ecem's 250+ books in 2016 - Challenge Completed with 275 books^^
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#249. Goodbye Tsugumi by Banana Yoshimoto#250. Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
With "Franny and Zooey", I have completed my reading challenge of 250 books in 2016. There is still time, so I'm continuing.
24.10.16 *Pages read so far: 56,718
*Books read so far: 250 - Challenge Completed and Continuing
*Popsugar Reading Challenge: 32/32 - Challenge Completed
*Reading Challengers Challenge: 26/ 26 - Challenge Completed
*Around the World in Books Challenge - 16/16 - Challenge Completed
#251. Euthyphro by Plato#252. Apology by Plato
#253. Crito by Plato
#254. Sourcery (Discworld, #5; Rincewind #3) by Terry Pratchett
#255. The Mistake (Off-Campus, #2) by Elle Kennedy
#256. The Nose by Nikolai Gogol
#257. Tony Takitani by Haruki Murakami
#258. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami
#259. Pierced by the Sun by Laura Esquivel
#260. Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss
#261. House of Many Ways (Howl's Moving Castle, #3) by Diana Wynne Jones
#262. Among Others by Jo Walton
#263. Trumps of Doom (The Chronicles of Amber, #6) by Roger Zelazny
#264. Blood of Amber (The Chronicles of Amber #7) by Roger Zelazny
#265. Catwings (Catwings, #1) by Ursula K. Le Guin
#266. Catwings Return (Catwings, #2) by Ursula K. Le Guin
#267. Wonderful Alexander and the Catwings (Catwings, #3) by Ursula K. Le Guin
#268. Jane on Her Own (Catwings, #4) by Ursula K. Le Guin
20.11.2016 *Pages read so far: 59,736/60,000
*Books read so far: 268/250 - Challenge Completed and Continuing
#269. The Little Sister (Philip Marlowe #5) by Raymond Chandler#270. Too Many Magicians (Lord Darcy #2) by Randall Garrett
*Pages read so far: 60,403 /60,000 - Let's Turn Pages Challenge Completed
*Books read so far: 270/250 - Challenge Completed and Continuing
#271. The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson#272. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
#273. Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami
#274. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
#275. Wyrd Sisters (Discworld, #6; Witches #2)
by Terry Pratchett
*Pages read so far: 62,191 /60,000 *Books read so far: 275/250
2016 Reading Challenge Completed with 275 books out of my goal 250
The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson Review In the middle of the book, I thought I was going to give it 4 stars, then as I got closer to the ending, it became 4,5 stars. Yet, now, after reading the last page, I have to say that this book deserves 5 stars.
This book is brilliant, really. The main character, 100-year-old Allan Karlsson has led a life full of famous dictators, presidents, people and countries, languages. You can meet H.Truman, L.B. Johnson, R. Nixon, Mao Zedong, J. Stalin, Kim Il-Sung, Charles de Gaulle and many others while reading. And Allan has great stories to tell us, aside from the adventure he is currently having, which includes climbing out of the window of the retirement home where he is staying on his 100th birthday, stealing a big suitcase full of money from a dangerous street gang, and getting new, interesting friends along his way.
I kept picturing Allan as Woody Allen, maybe initially it was because of the name similarity, yet as I went on, I could picture Woody Allen more and more vividly, since Allan Karlsson is such an eccentric character that could jump out of Allen's pen. Maybe only difference between these two men is that while Woody Allen is usually full of anxiety, Allan Karlssohn is one of the calmest people I've ever seen/read in a book in front of his constant misfortunate meetings. But don't take it as that Karlsson is an unlucky fella, no no no, he is maybe the luckiest person you'll ever know. And prolly, one of the smartest people.
This book was written brilliantly, the transitions between Allan's current days and his past are great. You wanna dive in both series of events, and every time a chapter ends, whether its about his past or current day, you get impatient to see what'll happen next. Not to mention Jonasson created a great ending very cleverly/ shrewdly that fulfills the reader's needs, because I have to say that at one point I was like "Wow, where is this going? How will he get out of this in the end?" Yet, things panned out very well in the end that I was satisfied enough to give 5 stars.
Very eccentric, clever book, full of the most interesting people in the world (real and fiction). Makes you see the world in a different color, at least for a while. Also funny of course, just wait to read the question that Allan asks Stalin. ;)
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami Review The reason I dragged reading this story book of Murakami more than a year is because I didn't wanna exploit everything quickly. I read most of his books, and when I realized I could read everything he wrote in a very short time, without breathing even, and exploit them till the last word, I decided to leave some of his works for my emotional emergencies.
Murakami cleans my soul. Murakami is my antidepressant. Whenever I feel like I hit the rock bottom, I pull one of his books from my shelf (I have everything he wrote on my shelf) and sip my medicine slowly. Of course reading him doesn't make my troubles vanish, but the relief of forgetting them, even for enough time to read a short story is like a blessing to me. And I really am thankful for that.
The characters in Murakami's books and stories are so real to me, even when they are facing an extraordinary, fantastic, unreal situation. He usually draws characters who are so very patient, who accepts the world and the events as they are, and comes to an understanding with them, no matter how bad things go. Many times I looked at these characters and took them as an example for myself. If something is in a certain way, well, it is in that certain way and you have nothing to do about it: Shikata ga nai - if we say it in Japanese. And Murakami makes his characters to accept that fact, so they can move on. Of course they also lose themselves in dreams or find themselves conversing with a talking monkey (really, I think the last story in this book was a little bit exaggerated in a way I could never see it coming^^), yet I simply can find the element of hope in each of them. That hope element, resembling a spark, which will make us humans go on, one step at a time.
Murakami cleans your soul. Makes you see things differently. Even sometimes gives you the feeling that you are not alone in your misery in this world. There are so many people like you too. Each one coping with their miseries differently. So why can't you cope with your own? Of course you can.
These are the feelings I read Murakami with. I absorb his stories one by one whenever I feel depressed, to carry me on. And they *are* carrying me on somehow, while making me thank God that there is an author in this world as Haruki Murakami.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain Review This was the first time I read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I liked Huckleberry very much in this book, he has a conscience and affection for the people he likes. He thinks he is a bad guy, and will burn in hell at the end, yet his actions only shows that he is a little boy with a big heart.
I liked the adventures of Huck in this book. Even though he thinks Tom Sawyer is still his superior, I think Huck has the same wittiness and smartness as Tom. Also, I loved Huck's much simpler thinking to make things right, he is definitely not a drama queen like Tom - just wait for the last chapters of this book, and then you'll know how big of a spectecular Tom Sawyer loves. Believe me, it's too much Tom, too much.
Sweet book, even though some slave issues in it kinda bothered me. Yet, we can say all's well that ends well for this book too. ^^
*Pages read so far: 56,331
*Books read so far: 248
*Popsugar Reading Challenge: 32/32 - Challenge Completed
*Reading Challengers Challenge: 26/ 26 - Challenge Completed
*Around the World in Books Challenge - 16/16 - Challenge Completed