2012 Reading Challenges summary

My 2012 Reading Challenges goals were kind of a big bust!  Of seventeen challenges I committed to, I only succeed in five of them!  Eeek!  Of course, has that stopped me from considering a badrillion more in 2013? NOPE.

A-to-Z (26 books) : Only made it to 'O' and I have at least one letter with an outstanding review. Ooops!

Bloomsday Readathon : Fail!  (I got the book, but didn't open it.)

Books in Translation (3 books) : Fail! Only read 1.

Clarissa Group Read : Fail! (Didn't even get the book! :/)

Dewey Decimal Challenge (5 books) : Victory!  Read 12.

E-books (25 books) : Victory! Read 29.

Edgar Awards (3 books) : Super epic fail. ZERO.

Europa Editions (2 books) : Super epic fail. ZERO.

Fearless Poetry (1 book) : Super epic fail. Zero.

Forever Amber Readalong : Fail! Bought the book though!

Gothic Fiction in October : Super epic fail.

Historical Fiction (20 books) : Super epic VICTORY!  Read 63!  Beat out last year's best, too!

Immigrant Stories (3 books) : Victory! Read 15.

NetGalley (10 books) : Victory! Read 20.

RIP VII (4 books) : Fail. ZERO.

Victorian Challenge (2 books) : Victory.  Read 5.

Witches and Witchcraft (5 books) : Fail.  Read 3.

Comments

  1. I'm impressed that you signed up for so many challenges! I signed up for two, participated for a couple of months, then promptly forgot about them. Thus I think I won't sign up for any for 2013!

    ReplyDelete

  2. I saw 6 victories! That's better than my record with challenges.

    ReplyDelete

  3. I haven't looked at my numbers yet...trying to put that off for as long as possible :p

    ReplyDelete

  4. Hahaha, that's hilarious! I love it. This is why I don't assign myself specific challenges, so I can just be like:
    I read these things: VICTORY!

    ReplyDelete

  5. awww :-) are you going to give Europa another try in 2013? I hope so!

    ReplyDelete

  6. 8 challenges in which you didn't read one, versus 9 that you at least attempted and read something for is pretty good for the large number of challenges you joined. Congrats! I posted my wrap-up today and the poetry 2013 challenge for 2013 yesterday.

    Hope you have a great end of year!

    ReplyDelete

  7. I gave up on formally signing up for reading challenges because I could never accomplish them (or then those weren't actually a challenge!), so I think you did great:-)

    ReplyDelete

  8. Some of these challenges sound like fun!! I am signed up for the Immigrant one already...that AtoZ sounds good...but the link back to the creator doesn't seem to work...are you doing that one again this year?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. Krystyn -- I was going to but also saw that the creator's webpage doesn't work so I guess not! :/

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Winter 2017 Bloggiesta To Do Post

Image
I love Bloggiesta for reminding me to brush up and take of my blog, and doing it "in community", so to speak, makes this housework a little more fun.

Given my earlier whining about feeling out-of-it with my blog, I'm really excited there's a mini-event this coming weekend in which I can do some backend work here.

My to do list is pretty simple:
make a top 10 of 2016 post (even if it is just a list!)review the book I just finished!I'd like to start 2017 without a backlog of reviews, so it feels important I keep up. We'll see if I'll tackle my 2016 backlog. (Perhaps for another Bloggiesta!)
Read more

Weekend reads and my first vlog!

Image
It feels like summer is over in Boston -- it's brisk and beautiful and while I love it, I'm also mourning the end of summer because I don't feel like I did enough summer stuff!

So, after fumbling with many different apps, I've made my first vlog/booktube, below. Don't judge me too harshly; I decided to just do it and not agonize, and I'll figure it out along the way. (But helpful tips always welcome!)

My weekend reads are more of Middlemarch as well as The Other Alcott by Elise Hooper. What are you reading this weekend?


Read more

A novel about E.M. Forster not getting some is surprisingly moving

Image
I grabbed this book from the library in my usual, arbitrary way: I liked the spine and the binding, and the cover; then I saw it was a Europa Edition and decided to check it out. Then I never got around to reading it, and had forgotten about it until noticing it on my Overdrive wishlist.

Arctic Summer is biographical novel of English novelist E.M. Forster; it's mostly about Morgan's desperate search for love and companionship and sex, and how he basically didn't get those things. It's gorgeous and emotional and restrained, and I loved every word.

Overwhelmingly, this novel is just bittersweet. Morgan is so sweetly likeable (I know it's trendy these days to want unlikable characters, but there's something to be said for characters you also just want to squish) but his life so empty despite the people, jobs, and travel that fill it. He finds some intense emotional relationships, a few that translate into physical/sexual ones, but all seem lopsided and unequal -- s…
Read more

Monday....musings? August 28

Image
The things that feel summery-y for me are coming to an end: our summer hours at work, which end after this week; vacation for school kids; college kids moving into the dorms; a kind of shift in the weather from muggy heat to tolerable heat; the farm in full harvest mode.

We went camping this weekend, and it was really perfect; I finished Ship Fever which was unbelievable. I love historical short fiction in a way I don't always love short fiction generally -- and while a few of Barrett's stories were too neat, the titular story was un-believable. I'm currently in the throes of Damon Galgut's Arctic Summer, which was a free range reading find, and now confirms I'm just going to browse the library or catalog subject index until a title or book cover catches my attention. (I'm still struggling to finish Middlemarch for my 9/21 bookclub!)

Inspired by Andi of Estella's Revenge, I'm starting to think a little more -- creatively -- about what I want to do with …
Read more