Joan's 2024 Challenge of Not Planning-Maybe Some Will Fit

[Joan]

Completed Holly this morning. I was more enthralled with it than I thought I would be. Her character is growing on me. I rated it 4 stars. It was a creepy story and it kept me in suspense.

I remain 3 ahead in the challenge for this week. I'm going to read prompt #2 and I have a shorter book picked out for that. I'm going to read Gwendy's Magic Feather which is co-written by Stephen King. I want to complete the Gwendy series this year.

32/52

[Joan]

So I guess I wasn't paying attention but only the first book of the Gwendy series was co-written with Stephen King. Richard Chizmar wrote the other two books on his own. Stephen King gave his blessing on it. I thought the second story was suspenseful enough. It might have been missing a little bit of an eery feeling. I ended up rating it 4 stars.

I'm sort of going to try and read in order for what I've got left. We'll see if that happens!!!

33/52

[Joan]

Well I can say I've read Things We Never Got Over. I wanted to read it and now I did. I rated it three stars but rounded up from a 2.5. I was interested what was going to happen with the sister and the niece. I hated the male character in the romance. I'm not sure I've hated someone that much in a romance where you were supposed to fall in love with him. I thought the small town part was cute but it also got annoying. The more I think about it the more I kind of want to downgrade it to a 2 star. The only reason why I rated it a 3 was because I kept turning the pages. But I was literally rolling my eyes at most of it. Time to go back to reading Stephen King! I was trying to round out the horror. Maybe I'll try a suspense next.

34/52

[Joan]

I did a re-read of Cujo. I read it back in the 80's and it fit the dog prompt. Stephen King came out with a follow up short story on it and I wanted to re-read it for that reason. I read it so long ago I only remembered them being stuck in the car. I didn't remember anything about the characters and as always he did a great job with the characters. I'm going to try and read the short story this weekend. It is also in a book published in 2024 so it will help me with that prompt.

I have read some books I wasn't planning to this year based on joining a new book club. This month's pick was Circe. I'm glad I finally read it but it wasn't a great book for me. It was average. I rated it 3 stars. I partly listened to it and partly read the physical book. The best parts I thought were about Odysseus. I did put The Song of Achilles on hold which will help with the sound prompt. I heard that one was better and I am kind of interested to read about Achilles.

The book for September is going to be East of Eden. I haven't read Steinbeck since high school but he used to be a favorite author and this book I haven't read so I am looking forward to it.

I also have to read Roses of May by the end of the month for a buddy read. I liked the first book she wrote in this series. It will be something a little different than what I've been reading so I'm looking forward to starting it today.

I'm 3 ahead in the challenge today. If necessary there are other books I could probably add to it. I hit 60 books this year with completing Circe. It has been a good reading year so far but I'm still not getting to some of the books that I said I wanted to read this year. My collection of Stephen King books are mounting. I've been trying to collect some first editions. I've been having fun with that. Scrounging facebook marketplace and 2nd hand stores and thrift stores. I don't even want to add up how many pages of his books I have before me..........lol

36/52

[Joan]

I did a re-read of All Systems Red to complete the space prompt for the summer challenge. I listened to it on audio. I liked it better the first time around. I remember the second book being better. I may re-read that one. If I had to base my review on this reading only I think I would give it a two star.

[Joan]

I'm probably going to have to go with HOT APPLE CIDER for my fall prompt. I could find something for every letter without going too outside of my plan for fall.

[Joan]

I'm excited about the books I picked for the Fall Challenge. I tried to put a bunch of spooky ones in there.

I've also been wanting to read Something Wicked This Way Comes. I'm hoping I can sneak that in somewhere this fall.

[Joan]

My goal with the Fall Challenge is to complete it rather quickly. I picked the one with the least amount of letters but it was also letters that I could find books for.

I just completed Cycle of the Werewolf that I decided to count for the fall challenge. It was a fun read on a holiday. It also added another book that I checked off on my Stephen King list. It was a graphic novel.

I have You Like It Darker on the list which I should complete today and The Penelopiad. The Penelopiad was another unplanned read for me this year. It is short and I can put it in my challenge for a wild animal on the cover. There are birds on the cover that I'm reading. I should complete it before next weekend. I'm trying to get a little further in my challenge for the year.

I have been having fun with a book club this year. We are reading East of Eden which I don't see where I can fit in my challenge so I've kind of added some smaller books to my challenge so that I can still complete it. And they are books that unexpectedly came up this year for me.

[Joan]

I'm starting to fall behind of where I was. I'm not only one book ahead of schedule. I do have a couple of short books to read and I'm going to be on a mini vacation where I'm mostly relaxing so I think I can catch back up.

I completed You Like It Darker for a book completed in 2024. I enjoyed most of the stories. I rated it 4 stars. I thought Rattlesnakes was pretty creepy and I enjoyed reading about the character from Cujo in it. The Answer Man was an interesting kind of deep story.

I'm going to read The Penelopiad which I hadn't planned on reading but I think I'm going to slip it in under the wild animal on the cover prompt.

37/52

[Joan]

I'm kind of in a slump plus I've been busy. I read The Penelopiad for the animal prompt. It was ok. I rated it 3 stars. I guess I wanted more of a story than what it was.

I'm listening to The Song of Achilles which is not all that exciting to me. I'm not really excited about the books that I'm supposed to be reading with groups this month. Maybe some of the books will surprise me.

I went to the beach for a long weekend and all I read was The Penelopiad which is a short book. I was expecting to read more. This is the first time this year where I haven't been too excited about what I've got to read. My slumps generally seem to happen in the fall. Hopefully something will get more exciting.

38/52

[Joan]

I liked the second half of The Song of Achilles much better than the first half. It still just ended up being 3 stars for me but it ended up being a lot better than I thought it was going to be.

I'm reading The Secret History and that's going slow for me. The chapters are so long. I like the story so far. The characters are deplorable so far but I think they are supposed to be. I keep dropping behind in the challenge and I'm in the bit of a slump. Looking forward to spooky reads for the next month or so.

39/52

[Joan]

Well, I'm definitely slowing down in my reading. The Secret History is taking some time. It is a dense book and I am enjoying it. I should complete that one this weekend.

I just finished listening to The Bullet That Missed. I don't usually listen to fiction but I thought this would be a fun one to listen to and it was. I got the hard copy for a backup and I did have to go back over a few things. Libraries are wonderful for getting backup copies to books I'm listening to. I also use the library app for audio. I rated this one 4 stars. I love the characters. I already got the next book out of the library and will probably start that today. I'm not sure if I can slot it in my challenge though.

I'm also supposed to read The Historian as a buddy read this month with another group. I have a feeling this one is going to take me awhile and not sure where I have left to slot it. But for me this year it's about the reading journey and trying to get to books that I've been meaning to get to. It's driving me nuts thought that I may not complete the challenge! Only 12 to go!

40/52

[Joan]

I finally completed The Secret History. I did enjoy reading it even though the characters were deplorable. It didn't seem to have much of an ending after all of that. I liked the ambiance of the book. That is what made me rate it a 4 star book. I enjoyed the writing and the predicaments the characters got themselves into.

I also completed The Last Devil to Die which I listened to on audio. I also rated this book 4 stars. I'm sad I'm done the series.

My next book is The Historian which is almost 700 pages so I don't think this book is going to go any quicker than the last book. I've been wanting to read it though. I guess we'll see. I'm currently on track with the challenge and will probably fall behind with this book.

42/52

[Joan]

Well I'm four books behind now. I've been reading The Historian for four weeks now. It's good. It's just long and dense and I've been busy at work.

I'm going to look at the other phrases for the fall challenge to see if I can complete one of them with what I've already read. I'm probably not going to be able to complete the annual challenge. I guess we will see. I have read 75 or 76 books this year but there are some categories this year that I'm just struggling to fill.

[Joan]

I actually found genres for the extra books I read for the Fall Challenge so I should be able to complete it.

[Joan]

I've read 79 books this year but the other ones I read don't fit the categories I have left. Life has been a little too busy.

I did manage to read In Five Years. It was a fun quick read. It was a good story. I rated it 4 stars.

I might be able to complete two other books this year but I also want to read what I want to at this point.

43/52

[Joan]

Well I finally completed The Historian. I liked it and thought it was a good book. It just took me forever to read. It wasn't a book to be read quickly. It was pretty dense. I wasn't fond of the epilogue. I found myself confused at times on who was telling the story as there were two points of view. I ended up rating it 3 stars. I mostly rounded down because of the ending. It was a creepy book during the first half. Second half was probably long winded. It could have been shorter. It was a 676 paged book.

I haven't read much this year of what I thought I was going to. Even though I've slowed down, I've had a good reading year overall. I should be able to get at least one more book in for the challenge.

44/52

[Joan]

I thought it was dumb that I wasn't going to make the challenge. I read 80 books and I looked through my list and found some that fit in some categories. So now I'm 3 away. I know I can complete 2 so then if I can't complete 3 I'll just use one of my other books as a wildcard. One of the hardest prompts for me was the Canadian, New Zealand and Australian author. I did read a short story from Margaret Atwood so I counted that. I thought the short story was bad though. I also read The Penelopiad from her this year that I counted in another prompt. I was trying not to move around any prompts that I already slotted with books.

The two covers that were similar I counted a couple of cute graphic books I read this year.

For the beach prompt I slotted Remarkably Bright Creatures in that slot. The cover is beachy and one of the characters was in a band and they had a part about a grateful dead t-shirt so I thought it kind of related to a Jimmy buffet theme.

For the crime other than a murder prompt I counted From Here to the Great Unknown: A Memoir. There were illegal drugs in the book so I went with that to relate to the prompt. This prompt was hard for me also. I could have counted Yellowface or Holly but I already had them slotted somewhere else.

I also did a reread of Elevation that I actually liked much better the second time around. I listened to it on audio. I fount out that Stephen King narrated it and I thought it would be fun to reread. I used that for a one word title prompt.

So now I believe I'm up to 49 and I have some days off. I can do this!!

49/52

[Joan]

You're all going to laugh at me but I'm an accountant and can't count. I was at 50 books with those ones I added to the challenge. Now I just realized that The Mars Room was on the 2018 Fives book list so that prompt is completed. I didn't like that book all that much. I listened to most of it and I read the end of the physical book. I only rated that one a 2 star. I wasn't sure why everyone liked that book.

So now I just have one book left. So I guess in the end my plan of - just reading what I felt like and later see if they fit a prompt - worked.

I did end up reading the most books that I have read in a year so far yet so I guess it was a good way for me to go. Planning to do more of the same in 2025.

51/52

[Joan]

Only have 80 pages to go in my last book for the challenge!

[Joan]

I literally completed the challenge at a couple of minutes before midnight. I could have thrown another book in that I've already read but I wanted it to fit the prompt and not be a wildcard. I read Gwendy's Final Task. It was the conclusion to the series and wasn't that great. I rated it 3 stars. The best book in the series was the first one. I used it for the botanical cover since there is a flower garden on the cover.

I'm excited to start a new year!

52/52