2015 Reading Challenge

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Just finished Betrayer (Aaron Dembski-Bowden), and holy piss was it good. I'll give a fuller write-up in the Book thread, when I have time to.

[Space Cop The Dandy Find all posts View Profile Close Space Cop]

Just finished reading vol. 1 of RE Howard's Conan stories (The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian), which should count for a book of short stories, written by someone under 30, containing magic, and something I once started but didn't finish.

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Finally finished Lady Gregory's book on Cuchulain



I'll count this for a book published over a 100 years ago, containing a love triangle, set in a foreign country [Ireland], set in a place I want to visit, and translated.*

[*That is a bit of a cheat since it was translated from Gaelic sources and published simultaneously in modern Gaelic, but it was published in English too. If I have time and might finish the list, I'll try another translated book.]

At this point, I highly doubt I'll meet the challenge and I'm not going to try too hard (I'm turning to an Alfred Bester book that I don't think meets any new criteria), but I am reading a graphic novel (The Fifth Beatle) anyway.

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Books Read Since Starting The Challenge:

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (Color on Checklist: BLACK)
A book with nonhuman characters
A book a friend recommended
A book set in the future
A book with magic
A book with an author you've never read before.

Seconds by Bryan Lee O'Malley (Color on Checklist: YELLOW)
A book with a one word title
A graphic novel
A book you own but never read

The Martian by Andy Weir (Color on Checklist: RED)
A book that became a movie
A book set somewhere you've always wanted to visit

The QB: The Making of Modern Quarterbacks by Bruce Feldman(Color on Checklist: BLUE)
A nonfiction book
A book from an author that you love but haven't read yet

Top Girls (Color on Checklist: PINK)
A play


Now Reading:
Controversy Creates Cash by Eric Bischoff
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

UPDATED!!!!!

[Space Cop The Dandy Find all posts View Profile Close Space Cop]

I'm 12 points short right now. There's no way I'll finish. I could still cover 1-3 categories, but I don't know whether I'm going to bother.

[W.West Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close W.West]

Its not like we started in January though

EDIT: Shit, yeah we did.

[Space Cop The Dandy Find all posts View Profile Close Space Cop]

Yeah, I'm pathetically slow. It looks like I'll have read 20 or so books this year (not including graphic novels or books I only partially read for teaching purposes). I'm going to try to read more in 2016, but I highly doubt I'll try whatever new challenge the interwebs concoct.

[Space Cop The Dandy Find all posts View Profile Close Space Cop]

So, in the final analysis I read 21 full titles this year and covered 39 of the 49 categories. A sorry sight, but it could've been worse.

And, yes, there's a 2016 Reading Challenge. I figured on skipping it so I don't feel so bound this year (although there were multiple times I read something that didn't help this year), BUT it is shorter (40 categories, one of which requires two books) and my family is doing it and encouraging me to. I can start another thread of people want it.

[W.West Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close W.West]

Some of the categories are just silly. "First book you see in a bookstore."

I'll definitely try, but I'm positive it'll find its way to the back of my mind and by October, I'll be disappointed with myself. Space Cop, you should be proud of all that reading!

[Space Cop The Dandy Find all posts View Profile Close Space Cop]

Some of the categories are just silly. "First book you see in a bookstore."

Yeah, I was reading this to the family and when I got to that one, my stepdad replied along the lines "I'm not going to read Crockpot Cooking II just because it's the first book on the way into Barnes and Noble."

Space Cop, you should be proud of all that reading!

Thanks. It's light compared to how much Jeff, Ed, and Hypo read and I would have been happier with at least 24 so I could claim two a month, but at the rate I read and considering I read 10-18 comics a week, it could be worse. If I gave up gaming and cut back on movies, these challenges would be a snap.

[Space Cop The Dandy Find all posts View Profile Close Space Cop]

So, I obviously didn't finish this challenge in time, but when I saw I was on schedule this year, I decided I'd do the remaining categories no more than a year late and did. I did this partly with books overlapping this year's categories and then (like the last two months) just finishing them. Here's how:

---Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (a book written by someone with the same initials; also a more accurate book my Mom loves)

---Five Miles Away: The Story of the Lawrenceville School by SR Slaymaker II (a book set in High School; a book set in my hometown)

---Little Red Riding Hood: A Casebook, edited by Han Dundes (a book with a color in the title)

---The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe (a book that came out the year you were born)

---The Poems and Prose Poems of Charles Baudelaire (a book with antonyms in the title)

---The Sympathizer by Viet Than Nguyen (a Pullitzer-Prize winner; a book published in 2015)

---Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy (a book you were supposed to read in High School but didn't*)

---The Steampunk Trilogy by Paul DiFilippo (a trilogy**)

*This is the only book I can remember not reading in High School (I loved to read even then) and technically I didn't have to. It was summer reading for a class I found out I was wrongly enrolled in. I had started it when I found out I had to transfer.

**I know they really meant three books that form one story (which I wouldn't have had time to do before the one-year mark), but this one book is comprised of three novellas.