Two more challenges (and some rambling)

Well, apparently it seems I can't resist the the temptation of signing up for another couple of challenges for 2015! The first is the Back to the Classics Challenge, hosted at Books and Chocolate. This one appeals to me as I have a lot of unread classics on my shelves, some of which have patiently been waiting to be read for a number of years, as I mentioned in my last post. The challenge is to read at least six classics that fit into one of twelve categories (e.g. a 19th century classic, a classic in translation). I am tentatively going to aim to read a classic from nine different categories. I have always enjoyed reading classics in the past, but often get distracted by other things, so this challenge is just the thing to inspire me.


The next challenge is the What’s In A Name Challenge at The Worm Hole. This one looks like lot of fun! The aim is to read six books that fit into the following (title-based) categories: a word including ‘ing’ in it, A colour, A familial relation, A body of water, A city, An animal. I love that these categories allows for a lot of creativity, and I look forward to seeing what books I can find to fit each. I can't think of many from my shelves that fit the categories, so I'll probably be relying on the library for this one. Any suggestion welcome!

That's it (I think!) for the challenges I will be signing up for this year, though I do have one or two other personal reading aims I am going to persue (in addition to my book-buying ban). More on this soon. For now, I want to write a little about the challenges I took part in last year, but have decided not to this year, namely the Goodreads Challenge and the Chunkster Challenge.

Last year, I challenged myself to read eight "chunksters" (which the challenge defines as books over 450 pages), and managed to read nine. While I enjoyed taking part in this challenge very much, I did at times find it hard to balance with my Goodreads goal of reading 50 books in 2014. Some of the chunksters took me three weeks+ to read, so I had to follow them up with a few much short books to get myself back on track. Not that this was an entirely bad thing by any means (it did mean I finally got round to reading Philip Pullman's Lyra's Oxford and Once Upon a Time in the North), but I did find it a little frustrating at times. Anyway, below are the nine chunksters I read last year:

1. Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor (513 pages)
2. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson (622 pages)
3. The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters by G.W. Dahlquist (768 pages)
4. Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb (880 pages)
5. The River of No Return by Bee Ridgeway (464 pages)
6. Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor (613 pages)
7. Someplace to be Flying by Charles de Lint (544 pages)
8. One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson (526 pages)
9. Fool's Assassin by Hobin Hobb (630 pages)

My favourite of these was Life After Life, closely followed by Ship of Magic. It was also a joy to read the last two books in Laini Taylor's wonderful Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy. My least favourite (also my least favourite book of the year) was The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters. I really enjoyed this book for the first few hundred pages, but after that I found the plot got a little repetitive and ultimately felt like quite slog.

In total, I read 51 books last year. My favourite of the year remains (by far!) Hannah Kent's breathtaking Burial Rites. (If you haven't already, I implore you: READ THIS BOOK!!) I have decided not to tie myself down to an "I will read x number of books in total" challenge this year, but instead look forward seeing what the year brings and what adventures my other challenges take me on.