Jenni's 2010 A-Z+ Challenge! :)

[Jen]

Hi there! I actually started on January 1, and thanks to a great weekend, I've got a great start on my 2010 reading! My goal this year is to read at least 50 books, and complete the A-Z title challenge. Here's what I've got so far:

A - Z Title Challenge


A
B - The Battle of the Labyrinth
C - Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter
D - A Dance to the Music of Time: First Movement
- Dragonfly in Amber
- Dawn
- Drums of Autumn
E - Ella Enchanted
- The Enchanted Castle - dailylit.com
F - Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders
G - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
- The Girl Who Played with Fire
- The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
H - The Help
I
J - Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell - current audio
K
L - The Last Olympian
- The Last Song
M - Message in a Bottle
- Meditations from the Mat: Daily Reflections on the Path of Yoga
N
O - Obsidian Butterfly
- The Other Boleyn Girl
- Outlander
P - The Piano Teacher
- The Princess Bride
Q
R - Rebecca
- The Red Pyramid
S - Sarah's Key
- The Street of a Thousand Blossoms - currently reading
T - The Titan's Curse
- The Three Musketeers
- The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup and a Spool of Thread
U - Under the Lilacs
V - Voyager
W - The Woman in White
- When the Emperor Was Divine
X - The Xibalba Murders An Archeological Mystery
Y
Z

[Jen]

I'm also doing the Book Addicts 12 book challenge. Below are the chosen books, crossed off as I read them. These are all books that have been on Mt. TBR for at least one year. It's a great way to finally get to these books!

Book Addicts 2010 Reading Challenge



1. Outlander - March
2. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - currently reading
3. The Princess Bride - May
4. Midnight's Children
5. A Dance to the Music of Time First Movement - February
6. The Three Musketeers - March
7. The Woman in White - January
8. Sarah's Key - January
9. Shogun - Probably will not read this year as I'm planning to read this next year with a friend. :)
10. The Thirteenth Tale
11. Ender's Game
12. The Other Boleyn Girl - March

Alternates:

1. Anja the Liar
2. Ella Enchanted January

[Andrew]

Whew, you are ambitious. It took me three months just to get through Shogun. I have WWhite on my shelf, and recommend the Pevear translation of the Three Musketeers. I look forward to hearing what you think of Powell, and whether you get to the other five volumes. As for myself, I seem to be suffering from a mysterious reading problem in which (a) I incessantly start books only to put them down, (b) order more books from Amazon and (c) return to (a). There's probably a name for this.

[Jen]

Yeah, I am ambitious. I have this thing for big books. :) I'm hoping to get through all of them, but that's the reason that I picked two shorter books as alternates. :) Have you read any of the Powell books? I'm looking forward to trying him out - he has good ratings on goodreads. I already own Movements 1 through 4, so I'm really hoping I enjoy them!

I also seem to suffer from some of your problems. I incessantly buy books with the full intent to get through them all before I buy more, but it never happens, and then I buy more. Argh! I have so many books and bookshelves in my home... Though I guess that means that once my kids are old enough for them, they'll have plenty to read on rainy and bad weather days. :) (See, that's planning for the future, so I can now justify buying more books!) ;)

[Andrew]

I've read the Powell novels, they are magnificent. I am also a liker of large books. Easily my favorite are: An American Tragedy, by Dreiser and From Here to Eternity by James Jones. I came away from both of these, particularly the Dreiser, with a sense of awe, true awe. The other larger tomes I enjoy are The Brothers Karamazov, by FD, the Pevear translation, and Gravity's Rainbow. I recently finished a wonderful, hands-down tear-inducing biography of John Cheever, by Bailey, which is the best book about a human being I have read in years. Cheever was on the one hand a magnificent wreck of a human being and a fascinating writer.

[Jen]

That's great to hear! I'm going to try to read The Woman in White this month, and hope to start hitting Powell's books next month. I REALLY want to read them!

Thanks for the new idea, now I've got a few more books to add to Mt. TBR! :)

[Andrew]

Just don't get on a Trollope kick. I've seen too many readers go in that direction and never return.

[Jen]

Oh great... more suggestions! :) I'll never get this mountain tackled! ;)

[Jen]

I finished Obsidian Butterfly, and am now working on Ella Enchanted. I'm planning on reading The Woman in White after Ella.

[Jen]

I just finished Ella, and am now working on The Woman in White.

I must say that I really enjoyed Ella Enchanted. It's probably the best Cinderella story that I've read, and I liked how the curse was ended. I won't say more as I wouldn't want to ruin it for anyone, but it was nice. :)

[Jen]

I just finished The Battle of the Labyrinth:

Quite an enjoyable book - I think that this is my favorite of the Percy Jackson series so far. Given that this book (and the whole series) is written for a 4th grader, the plot is actually impressively complex. Rick Riordan does a wonderful job of teaching Greek mythology, and makes me crave more!

I'm looking forward to starting book 5 tomorrow! :)

[Kathy]

Jenni wrote: "I just finished The Battle of the Labyrinth:

Quite an enjoyable book - I think that this is my favorite of the Percy Jackson series so far. Given that this book (and the whole seri..."

I love the Percy Jackson books! When I read the first book I just had to go and pull out my old book of Greek Myths to reread. What fun! And the guy really did his research. I haven't read the last one yet....I think because I don't want it to end!

[Jen]

I don't want it to end either! My problem is that I want to keep going, so I can't put off "reading" the fifth book! I think that Riordan did a wonderful job of researching - I have certainly learned quite a bit about the gods that I either didn't know, or forgot that I knew. ;) I think it's going to be tough to find a new audio book after this one is done...

[Jen]

I've finished The Woman in White and Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter. The Woman in White is a beautiful book!

[Jen]

I've hit 14 letters! It would go faster if I wouldn't keep repeating letters. :) (What would be the fun in that?)

[Jen]

Up to 16 letters and 20 books! :)

[Jen]

32 books down, 7 letters to go! :)