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Personal Challenges - 2015 > Alessandra's 2015 Reading Challenge

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message 1: by Alessandra (last edited Dec 14, 2015 06:16AM) (new)

Alessandra (chibisuke) | 266 comments General Reading Challenge 2015 - 32/50
This is a general outline of what I want to read in 2015.

General Goals
[x] Reduce physical TBR pile (marked with *)
[x] finish [all] series started (marked with °)
[x] read more classics

Book List
(view spoiler)


message 2: by Alessandra (last edited Dec 14, 2015 06:25AM) (new)

Alessandra (chibisuke) | 266 comments POINT CHALLENGE 2015

January - Total Points: 34.0
(view spoiler)

February - Total Points: 31.0
(view spoiler)

March - Total Points: 17.0
(view spoiler)

April - Total Points: 41.5
(view spoiler)

May - Total Points: 12.0
(view spoiler)

June - Total Points: 46.50
(view spoiler)

July - Total Points: 19.0
(view spoiler)

August - Total Points: 18.5
(view spoiler)

September - Total Points: 29.0
(view spoiler)

October - Total Points: 11.5
(view spoiler)

November - Total Points: 28.0
(view spoiler)

December
Read a general book: 1 point per book
Read a "shortie" (short story, poem, play): 0.5 points per
Read a group read book: 5 points per book
Read a buddy read book: 5 points per book you read with a buddy
Read a book for the genre challenge: 3 points per book
Read a book for a mini-challenge: 3 points per book
Winter
Complete a multi-book mini-challenge: 10 extra points
2015 NEW RELEASES - FINISHED: 13/12/15


message 3: by Alessandra (last edited Dec 14, 2015 06:19AM) (new)

Alessandra (chibisuke) | 266 comments JANUARY 2015: NEW YEAR/NEW AUTHOR - FINISHED: 16/01/15
(view spoiler)

2015 NEW RELEASES - FINISHED: 13/12/15
Level: 3
(view spoiler)

2015 50 BOOKS CHALLENGE - 33/50
(view spoiler)

ALPHABET SOUP 2015 - 19/26
(view spoiler)

I'D LIKE TO BUY A VOWEL - FINISHED 24/09/15
(view spoiler)


message 4: by Alessandra (new)

Alessandra (chibisuke) | 266 comments Feel free to borrow it :D I'm still thinking about a Little symbol for the classic ones :( I hope it'll be easier to choose my next read like that 'cause I know those are my main goals for 2015 :D


message 5: by Overbooked ✎ (new)

Overbooked  ✎ (kiwi_fruit) | 800 comments Good luck with your challenges Alessandra, you've got quite a few "goodies" in your list!


message 6: by Alessandra (new)

Alessandra (chibisuke) | 266 comments Thanks Kiwi. I'm really looking forward to read all those books :D


message 7: by Camille (new)

Camille (camillesbookishadventures) I have borrowed your coding ideas, I think it is brilliant! :)


message 8: by Alessandra (new)

Alessandra (chibisuke) | 266 comments Happy to hear that others like the coding idea, too :D


message 9: by Alessandra (new)

Alessandra (chibisuke) | 266 comments Updated my thread a bit (adding first mini-challenge, prepared my january points and added a lot of classics to my first post as backups/extras). I think I probably will be reading more classics than I thought next year :D


message 10: by Alessandra (new)

Alessandra (chibisuke) | 266 comments I just finished Cinder *happy* Loved it - Review will be up tomorrow as I want to review as many books as possible this year :)
I'm also half way through Divergent and should be finishing it on the weekend if everything goes as planned.


message 11: by Overbooked ✎ (new)

Overbooked  ✎ (kiwi_fruit) | 800 comments I was surprised how much I enjoyed Cinder too Alessandra, enjoy Divergent. I stopped at the first book but many loved the series.


message 12: by Alessandra (new)

Alessandra (chibisuke) | 266 comments So I'm not the only one who was a bit skeptical towards Cinder :) I'm enjoying Divergent so far, but I watched the movie... so basically I know what happens at the end of the book which slowly catches up with me. Slowly getting bored of the whole "OMG! My friends are hating me now that I ranked first" =/ I'll probably start Throne of Glass today (if Divergent gets too frustrating). I'm curious about it 'cause it's another book that gives me that feeling of "I'm not sure I'll enjoy this as much as everyone else does, but I want to give it a try". :)


message 13: by Alessandra (new)

Alessandra (chibisuke) | 266 comments Finished Divergent on the 10th (added my review just now).
I'm also nearly halfway through Throne of Glass which means I'm on the finishing line of the New Year/New Author challenge which I boldly turned into a three books challenge.


message 14: by Renee, Mistress of the Mini-Challenge (new)

Renee M | 4789 comments Mod
Three new authors is quite a daring way to start the year. Go, you!


message 15: by Alessandra (new)

Alessandra (chibisuke) | 266 comments Thanks Renee. When I decided to do this in December I thought it was an easy thing to do, but I struggled a bit somewhere inbetween Divergent and Throne of Glass. Finished the challenge today which makes me feel like I'm doing really good with my general challenge.

I'm going to start some "chunksters" now as my last two books I planned for this month have 502 and 608 (or something) pages. Let's see if I can finish at least one of them to get some more points :)


message 16: by Kassandra (new)

Kassandra | -1 comments Good luck with getting through the chunksters. I see lots of points adding up - good job!


message 17: by Alessandra (new)

Alessandra (chibisuke) | 266 comments Thanks Kassandra! I'm trying to stay confident in making it through at least one of them :)
I thought I should try achieving lots of points this month as I most likely will read only 1 pointers next month.


message 18: by Alessandra (new)

Alessandra (chibisuke) | 266 comments Finished The Fallen this morning which keeps me 1 book ahead again (at least that's what my widget says). My physical TBR pile keeps shrinking what makes me very happy! :D (it's still huge though)


message 19: by Alessandra (new)

Alessandra (chibisuke) | 266 comments Just finished Fairest after reading Scarlet during the Readathon. I'm suprised at how many books I've read this month. On I go to the currently last unread one in the Lunar Chronicles.


message 20: by Alessandra (new)

Alessandra (chibisuke) | 266 comments Bringing my thread back as we near the middle of February and an update would be nice, wouldn't it?

I read Cress and The Last Guardian plus some short stories. Now I'm slowly making my way through The Fellowship of the Ring which I already started in January. Only 100 pages left, yay! The Last Guardian and The Fellowship of the Ring are both books I own since what feels like forever so I'm happy to finally get them off my TBR pile next to my bed. I'm also about half way through The Ask and the Answer. I'm actually rather proud of how many books I already read this year and how my TBR pile keeps getting smaller (even though I already bought books again).


message 21: by Overbooked ✎ (new)

Overbooked  ✎ (kiwi_fruit) | 800 comments Well done Alessandra, it's a great liberating feeling getting some long standing books off your TBR list!
and congratulations on surpassing your reading expectations, I hope you have some great reads this year!


message 22: by Alessandra (new)

Alessandra (chibisuke) | 266 comments It really is a great feeling, Kiwi! I hope to get ride of the other Long Standing books soonish. Why do they all have to be chunksters though? *laughs*

Thanks, I hope you have some great reads this year, too!

A small update once again: Just finished The Ask and The Answer yesterday and started Jackaby which I got as a present from my secret valentine on tumblr. The first few pages already sound great (and reminded me of BBC Sherlock - which isn't a bad thing at all as I'm a huge fan of the series).


message 23: by Alessandra (new)

Alessandra (chibisuke) | 266 comments Updated this thread after a long time. :)
I included my physical TBR pile in the first post (not including the two books I started to read) as it's nice to have a list of them. I'm actually rather proud that I made it down to 28 books already. Hopefully I'll have read all of them until the end of the year.
At the moment I'm halfway through Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children which is just brilliant. I'm slowly getting out of my reading slump hanks to this and Monsters of Men which I finished earlier this month. It feels good to finally be back to reading :D


message 24: by Camille (new)

Camille (camillesbookishadventures) I don't usually read YA, or "horror"/creepy stories, but I loved "Miss Peregrine" and couldn't put it down!


message 25: by Alessandra (new)

Alessandra (chibisuke) | 266 comments I usually don't like creepy/"Horror" either, but Miss Peregrine was just amazing. I couldn't put it down either. I'm happy to hear that others liked it, too :) Did you read Hollow City, Camille?

I finally finished Alice's Adventure in Wonderland this week. This has been a very Long read as I found myself confused at what was happening for most of the time. This kind of ruined classics for me, but I'm picking up Fahrenheit 451 soon so I hope that one will bring me back on the classics train as I still intend on reading more classics this year :)


message 26: by Camille (new)

Camille (camillesbookishadventures) Yes, I did read "Hollow City". I thought it wasn't as good as the first one, probably because what I enjoyed the most with the first one was to discover all these neww things with the main character, which obviously isn't needed in the second book. I want to read the third book when it comes out!


message 27: by Alessandra (new)

Alessandra (chibisuke) | 266 comments Oh, I can see this Happening to me, too. I haven't read Hollow City so far, but I'm planing to get it soon. I probably will feel the same way though. Finding out new things was the most interesting thing about Miss Peregrine :)


message 28: by Alessandra (last edited Jun 29, 2015 10:06PM) (new)

Alessandra (chibisuke) | 266 comments May was a really sad month for me *sighs deeply* I hope to catch up with some reading in June now *fingers crossed* I also realized that I stopped keeping track of all the books I read in a proper way so here is everything I read until today. I just finished Ready Player One so for now I'm back to making my way through The Two Towers. Hopefully I can finish it until the end of May, but as I still have 200 pages left and my last finals on Saturday, I don't think I'll manage to do so :(

Anyway, this is what I read so far this year:

JANUARY:
1. Cinder by Marissa Meyer
2. Divergent by Veronica Roth
3. Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
4. The Fallen by Charlie Higson
5. Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
6. Fairest by Marissa Meyer
7. Glitches by Marissa Meyer – Short Story
8. The Queen’s Army by Marissa Meyer – Short Story

FEBRUARY:
9. Cress by Marissa Meyer
10. The Little Android by Marissa Meyer – Short Story
11. Assassin Study by Maria V. Snyder – Short Story
12. Artemis Fowl and the last Guardian
13. The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R Tolkien
14. The Ask and The Answer by Patrick Ness
15. The Wide, Wide Sea by Patrick Ness – Short Story
16. Jackaby by William Ritter
17. The Assassin’s Blade by Sarah J. Maas

MARCH
18. The Hunted by Charlie Higson
19. Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas
20. Big Hero 6 Vol. 1 by Haruki Ueno – Manga
21. Black Beauty by Anna Sewell – Reread

APRIL
22. Monster of Men by Patrick Ness
23. Snowscape by Patrick Ness – Short Story
24. Free Four by Veronica Roth – Short Story
25. Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan
26. Miss Peregrin’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
27. Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Caroll
28. Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz
29. The Three Monarchs by Anthony Horowitz – Short Story
30. The Giver by Lois Lowry

MAY
31. Naoko by Keigo Higashino
32. Kuroko’s Basketball by Tadatoshi Fujimaki - Manga
33. Ready Player One by Ernerst Cline

STATS:
Reading Challenge: 25/50 (without Short Stories)
Physical TBR Pile: 23/56


message 29: by Overbooked ✎ (new)

Overbooked  ✎ (kiwi_fruit) | 800 comments You're doing great Alessandra!


message 30: by Alessandra (new)

Alessandra (chibisuke) | 266 comments Thanks Kiwi :D I'm really glade that I'm doing this good :D I also decided to create a Summer Bucket List with books I want to read from July to September. I think I'm going to add it to my first post in about a minute. As the books on that list are all books from my physical TBR I'm going to be down to about 11 unread books I own if I manage to read all the books I planned to read from June to September :D


message 31: by Alessandra (last edited Jun 29, 2015 10:06PM) (new)

Alessandra (chibisuke) | 266 comments 34. The Two Towers by J.R.R Tolkien

I'm actually surprised how fast I finished this in the end. Definitely going to start the third book next week so I can finish the trilogy in time for my friends and my The Hobbit&LotRs movie marathon :D


message 32: by Kassandra (new)

Kassandra | -1 comments The movie marathon sounds like fun! Will you be watching the entire series?


message 33: by Alessandra (last edited Jun 29, 2015 10:06PM) (new)

Alessandra (chibisuke) | 266 comments Yes, Kassandra. We plan to start with the first Hobbit movie and go from there until the third LotR movie - everything in extended edition :D

A small update from this week:

35. Magic Study by Maria V. Snyder


message 34: by Alessandra (last edited Jun 29, 2015 10:06PM) (new)

Alessandra (chibisuke) | 266 comments 36. Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

I definitely understand the hype surrounding this book. I liked the last 100 pages - the rest was... okay. I think this is my first Group Read in quiet some time.


message 35: by Alessandra (last edited Jun 29, 2015 10:07PM) (new)

Alessandra (chibisuke) | 266 comments 37. Power Study by Maria V. Snyder
38. To All the Boys I've Loved Before Jenny Han
39. Fire Study by Maria V. Snyder

I was really surprised how much I fell in love with To All the Boys I've Loved Before. I honestly didn't expect to love it this much.

Currently Reading: The Return of the King (so my friends and my movie marathon can finally happen :D)


message 36: by Alessandra (last edited Jun 29, 2015 10:07PM) (new)

Alessandra (chibisuke) | 266 comments 40. The Return of the King by J.R.R Tolkien

Currently Reading: Insurgent by Veronica Roth
(started this yesterday and it's really catchy! I'm a bit surprised as I heard that lots of people disliked it =/)


message 37: by Kassandra (new)

Kassandra | -1 comments Alessandra, Insurgent seems to be a polarizing novel. I loved it. Hope you continue to enjoy it!


message 38: by Alessandra (new)

Alessandra (chibisuke) | 266 comments I realized that, Kassandra. The opinions seem to be very split about it. Either you love it or hate it, it seems. I only have 100 pages left which I plan to read today after work and I have to say: I really enjoyed it. More than Divergent actually and I'm definitely going to pick up Allegiant right after putting Insurgent down!


message 39: by Alessandra (new)

Alessandra (chibisuke) | 266 comments 41. Insurgent by Veronica Roth
42. Allegiant by Veronica Roth

The end was just cruel! I knew this would happen, but the way it happened upset me in two completely different ways. (view spoiler)

Currently Reading: Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor

I'm not far into this one, but I'm already really confused. It should get better... if I believe others. I don't know what I expected this to be, but at the moment I'm kind of disappointed, but at the same time caught as it seems to be an interesting concept... if I would know what exactly happens and why things happen.


message 40: by Overbooked ✎ (new)

Overbooked  ✎ (kiwi_fruit) | 800 comments I'm looking forward to your thoughts on Daughter of Smoke & Bone, I have it on my TBR. I was dubious at first but it is a well loved book and I was curious.
I hope it gets better :)


message 41: by Alessandra (new)

Alessandra (chibisuke) | 266 comments I'll let you know, Kiwi :) It is a well loved book and I can already see why.


message 42: by Tracey (new)

Tracey | 916 comments I really liked the beginning of Daughter and Smoke and Bone, though admittedly the love story was not for me. If I remember correctly, Laini Taylor is an artist, and you can tell by the writing. It's beautiful!


message 43: by Alessandra (last edited Jul 09, 2015 11:25PM) (new)

Alessandra (chibisuke) | 266 comments I know what you mean, Chase. I have to admit that I kinda like the love story, but it's very predictable. (view spoiler). Even though it's so predictable the story itself is really catchy and that's what impresses me the most. I don't get how I can be so hooked when I kind of know where this is heading to. (view spoiler). I have about 80 pages left & I really enjoyed it so far, but it still leaves me with a bit of a weird Feeling. Like something was off, but I'm not sure if it's just the German Translation as I read it in German...

Will I was in London during the last Weekend I took a break from Daughter of Smoke and Bone (I didn't want to ruin the beautiful cover by travelling) and read something else. So here is a small update:

43. Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover

This was my first excurse into the new adult genre and I'm positively surprised! I think I'll pick up some other books of her as I truly adore the story and the characters.


message 44: by Alessandra (new)

Alessandra (chibisuke) | 266 comments 44. Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor

My thoughts are so mixed about this as I understand the whole Hype about it, but everything was so predictable. I really enjoyed it! But the end was a bit of a "turn off" if I'm honest as I expected there to be more action as there was in the end. I'm sure the action will come with the second book though (or so I hope). I love Laini Taylors way of writing. Even if the story isn't something completely new it still was beautiful to read.

45. P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han

I think my expectations for this one were a bit too high after I loved the first book. This one just felt like it was going nowhere from the beginning and had me a bit frustrated. It wasn't overall bad though! I still enjoyed some parts of it and the new characters were a plus. I just grew tired of the whole drama Happening in this book.

Currently Reading: A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin


message 45: by Alessandra (new)

Alessandra (chibisuke) | 266 comments 46. The Ice Dragon by George R. R. Martin
47. A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
48. Days of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor
49. When Did You See Her Last? by Lemony Snicket

I had a lot of time in the last few days to read which is why I'm finally updating this thread :D I'm finally getting somewhere with my huge TBR pile and the list I made at the beginning of the new year.

Currently Reading: The House of Hades by Rick Riordan (just started this)


message 46: by Kassandra (new)

Kassandra | -1 comments Great job in clearing out your TBR, Alessandra!


message 47: by Alessandra (new)

Alessandra (chibisuke) | 266 comments Thanks, Kassandra!

50. Ice Study by Maria V. Snyder
51. The House of Hades by Rick Riordan

About to start: The Blood of Olympus

I didn't expect to like The House of Hades as much as I did, tbh. I had a lot of issues with the caracters during the first three books, but this book had so much development in that field. Really curious for the end!


message 48: by Alessandra (last edited Nov 05, 2015 10:25PM) (new)

Alessandra (chibisuke) | 266 comments 52. Taming the Star Runner by S.E. Hinton
53. Reborn! Vol. 1 – Manga & Reread
54. SKET Dance Vol. 24 – Manga
55. SKET Dance Vol. 25 – Manga
56. The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan
57. Shouldn’t You Be In School by Lemony Snicket
58. * The Rest Of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness
59. Durarara!! Vol. 1 by Ryohgo Narita

Currently Reading: The Night Circus & The 5th Wave

I took some time and finally updated my lists. I've gotten so busy lately that I didn't have time to do so.


message 49: by Tracey (new)

Tracey | 916 comments I hope you like the Night Circus! It's one of my favorites, although I know it's a really big hit or miss book.


message 50: by Alessandra (new)

Alessandra (chibisuke) | 266 comments I'm enjoying the Night Circus so far, Chase. I'm taking my time with it though. It's just too beautifully written to rush through!


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