Challenges: Wrap-up 2010 and 2011 Challenges

In 2010, I participated (sort of, I guess?) in 3 reading challenges. First, I would like to say that I enjoy the challenges (and there are a zillion out there on any reading thing you want to do). On the one hand, I'll read or listen to the books anyway, on the other hand, it forces me to try and focus on something new, such as hunting down the next fun audio book to listen to.

So, how did I do? I'm going to go from worst to best.

First, we have the Terry Pratchett Challenge. I made a valiant effort on this one, which The Philosopher Musician is happy about, but my mood for Pratchett just never aligned with us in the car on the trips to family/grad school visits. We started three audio books but I just wasn't in the mood or we talked instead (whoops?). My attempts included Good Omens, A Hat Full of Sky (I'm up to 3 attempts and I finally purchased a copy after finding it in Goodwill), and Nation¹ (The Philosopher Musician determined it would be better physically read than to listen to ["No offense to Stephen Briggs and all" - The Philosopher Musician])




Goal: 3 books
Total: 0

¹ Nation, I HAD listened to in 2009, and still think it should have gotten the Printz award over the actual 2009 winner, which was a "no one really had heard of this book." He's done a lot for reading (and now for Alzheimer's), why can't he get SOME ALA award?


Next up, we have the Graphic Novel Challenge. Even though I read graphic novels, I decided to challenge myself to a feat I've been hoping to accomplish: read my way through an ALA Great Graphic Novel list. The focus on this one was to read through at least 10 of the ALA Great Graphic Novel List of 2010. I thought I had but...

Goal: 10 books
Total: 8 books





Last and best is my favorite and probably most successful challenge: The Audio Book Challenge. Audio books are really fun. I honestly have to say that I enjoy the change of pace by letting a narrator guide me through a story (and a GOOD narrator to boot; if they annoy me, I'll look for another book). Out of all of the audio books (which I'll list for you below since the former website does not have a finished list), The Hunger Games trilogy was my favorite. I would yell out while I was listening to it. I was glued to the story, and I wanted errands to run just so I could work through another disc. I was excited to be part of the Mockingjay hype. I generally miss out on the excitement of counting down to these books, but there I was trying to determined which "Team" I was. Since finishing the books, I have recommended listening to the series often, and two of the people I recommended it to (both librarians) said that I was right, and it is fascinating to hear.

Goal: 6 audio books
Total: 8 audio books (woo!)








The list:

• 1.) Going Bovine by Libba Bray (completed March 9, 2010)
• 2.) The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart (completed April 2010)
• 3.) The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (completed June 2010)
• 4.) Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (completed July 2010)
• 5.) Eternal by Cynthia Leitich Smith (completed August 2010)
• 6.) Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (completed September 2010)
• 7.) City of Bones by Cassandra Clare (completed later September 2010)
• 8.) City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare (completed October 2010)

And just as an FYI, I did finish the Mortal Instruments TRILOGY. I just don't know about the next book. I'll also sit down and finally read Tantalize (the book before Eternal) as I just can't do the audio of that one, which is a pity...I'm definitely looking forward to Blessed though.

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If you've read this far, kudos. I know that is a lot of text (or at least it looks like it on my small computer).

Now for this year's Challenges (aka goals)! For 2011, so far I'm doing two challenges:

The 2011 Audio Book Challenge

Goal: Fascinated at 6 Audio books again.
Aiming for: Addicted at 12 Audio books.







 
The 2011 Graphic Novel Challenge

Goal: Expert Level 10+
Limiters: 11 GNs from the 2011 ALA Great Graphic Novels List (which comes out NEXT WEEK! I hope my suggestions made the cut!)
Aiming for: as many as I can read from this list.