Category: challenges

The results are in…

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and you have chosen 50 of the 55 books I will read in 2010 for the Read Your Own Books Challenge.

Opening up the voting to you was fun!  71 of you voted for 1-5 books and the top vote getter was She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb with 12 votes.  Here’s a photo of the top 50 vote getters.  Half of these books received 4 votes or more.

Start from the top left and you’ll see the books with the most votes.  The last stack on the right received 2 votes each.  There were 5 others that had 2 votes, but I was able to choose which ones not to read.  It was nice to have some choice 🙂  Here are the others that received 1 or 2 votes.

I cannot tell you how much fun it has been watching the votes come  in!  The book I am most excited to read, based just on the comments left by the 8 people who voted for it?  The Tea Rose by Donnelly.  The one I’m most intimidated by?  War and Peace by Tolstoy.  Yikes! 

I want to thank each of you who voted.  As I review each book I’ll give a shout out to the people who voted for it.  Now for what you’ve all been waiting for.  To choose a winner I had all of the books that had received votes lined up with a paper in it that had each of the voter names.  I told Jason to go shopping for a book and he chose The Glass Castle (maybe because he brought this home for me from work) and then told him to choose a number between 1-10.  He chose 7.  The 7th person to vote for The Glass Castle?  Alita of AlitaReads!  Alita will receive a $20 gift card to Barnes & Noble.  If I could afford it I’d sent one to each of you.

You can see the list here with the people who voted for each one.  Thanks for choosing half of my reading list for the new year 🙂

Everything Austen Challenge completed

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everythingausten2My fourth 2009 challenge is done.  Whew!  Wasn’t sure I was going to make it 🙂  I joined this challenge without ever having read a Jane Austen novel and now I can say I have.  I really enjoyed reading Pride & Prejudice and can understand why this is a favorite of many.  Mr. Darcy ranks right up there with romantic heroes.  I listened to Sense & Sensibility and enjoyed this as well, although not as much as Pride & Prejudice.  I watched the 1995 movie version with Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet as the two sisters and liked it so much it ended up on my Top 100 list.  I read The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler and watched The Jane Austen Book Club movie and was surprised that I preferred the movie.  And for my last task I watched the 1995 BBC production of Persuasion.  I liked this story and look forward to reading the book.

I am so glad I joined this challenge because it introduced me to Jane and now I feel like we’re old friends.  Thanks Stephanie for hosting this great challenge.

You will choose 50 of the books I will read next year.  If you help me you could win a $20 gift card to Barnes & Noble.  Go here to vote. (Right now the top vote getter is A Prayer For Owen Meany by John Irving)

A-Z Challenge Completed

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I finished another challenge!  The challenge was to read 2 books for each letter – one for the title and on for the author.  So, 52 books later I can cross it off my list of challenges.

I liked the fact that I had to find books that I never would have looked at before.   I started on one shelf at the library and read the first book that had a title that started with K (Killer Mousse by Melinda Wells) and loved it.  I also used the library to find an author for X and discovered the sweet gem, Sky Burial by Xinran.  And I never would have considered The Xibalba Murders by Lyn Hamilton without the need for an X title.  If you are titling your book, consider starting it with an X!

You can find the list of books I read for this challenge here.

 This was fun and I hope to do it again next year.  Thanks for hosting it, Becky!

Challenge Completed!

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readown3I completed my second challenge with my review of The Appeal yesterday!  It was the 50th book that I read this year that was on my shelves before January 1.  This is the first challenge I signed up for this year and one that fills me with satisfaction now I’ve accomplished it.  I had so many books that had languished on my shelves or boxes for years and now I’ve made a dent. 

Here’s the  link to the books I’ve read for this challenge.  Here are a few of my favorites-

The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom (powerful memoir of the Holocaust)

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (heartwarming coming-of-age story)

Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil by John Berendt (spend a little time in Savannah)

Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen (love me some Mr. Darcy)

The Time Machine by HG Wells (original time travel classic)

Watchers by Dean Koontz (if you love dogs, you must read this book)

MizB  hosted this challenge and will be doing it again next year.  I plan to commit to another 50!  You should think about joining us 🙂

Why I joined the 100 Mile Fitness Challenge

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In May I finally decided to do something about all the weight I’d gained over the last several years (I blame it on the Cleveland winters), so signed up with Weight Watchers online.  You count points and weigh in every week in the privacy of your own home and they chart your weight loss.  Since then I’ve lost 23 pounds, which is only a pound from where I wanted to be by the end of the year (My goal was to take off the last 10 pounds next year) .  I lost the weight simply by eating less and making better food choices and I did it without exercise.  I know I should be exercising for my health and now that I’ve successfully changed my eating habits I need to do something about the exercise.  So, here I am joining the challenge.

The goal is to travel 100 miles by December 31st.  There are weekly mileage updates that will keep us honest.  Unfortunately, I  only logged 3 miles this week, but maybe I can get some walking done on the treadmill while I’m watching football this afternoon.

I’m not going to doing weekly updates here, but wanted to share my new challenge with you.  Would you like to participate?  Visit 100 Mile Fitness Challenge and sign up!

Words Behind the Pictures Challenge

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I have decided to join another challenge.  Yes, I a currently in 3, but I’m confident I can finish them all!  Michael is hosting this fun challenge and I look forward to reading a medium that I’ve never tried before.  Screenplays!  I love reading and I love movies, so this sounds like a perfect challenge to me.

Words Behind The Pictures Challenge

The first Saturday of every month, from September, 2009, through to August, 2010, an electronic copy of one screenplay will be made available through this blog.

The goal is to read the screenplay and then watch the movie before the end of that month and comment on what you’ve experienced.

The more screenplays you get through, the stronger you are as a reading challenger, but you only need to do one month to consider yourself to have completed this challenge.

Of course, the more months you complete, the more chances you’ll have for winning a collection of screenplays I’ll be awarding to one random participant in August, 2010.

So, why not join me in trying something new.  Head on over the A Few Minutes With Michael and sign up.

Southern Reading Challenge Completed

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I finished my first reading challenge!  Woo hoo!  I joined the Southern Reading Challenge hosted by Maggie after I realized that I didn’t read many books set in the south.   We had three months to read 3 books and I did it in 2.  (I’m only bragging about this because I have 3 other challenges that have patiently been waiting for some attention ) 

My favorite of the 3 was the non-fiction Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil by John Berendt.  It was set in Savannah, Georgia and it was absolutely fabulous!  This went on my all-time favorite list and I envision a trip to Savannah soon!  4 1/2 stars

I also really loved When Venus Fell by Deborah Smith, a romantic family drama set in the Tennessee valley.  I loved the spunky heroine and the loving, inclusive family that was willing to take in two sisters as their own.  4 stars

I read Sights Unseen by Kaye Gibbons and thought it was good.  It takes place in North Carolina and chronicles a young girl childhood as her mother is treated for mental illness. 3 1/2 stars

I want to thank Maggie for hosting this great challenge.  I had fun and look forward to next year 🙂

Everything Austen Challenge

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everythingausten1I’ve decided to join my fourth reading challenge this year (and, no, I have not finished my first three – yet)  I have never read an Austen novel, which I find embarrassing, so this challenge will help me get busy.  Here are my 6 goals to finish in the next 6 months…

1. Listen to Sense & Sensibility on cd (started today!)

2. Watch a Sense & Sensibilty movie

3. Read Pride & Prejudice

4. Read or listen to Mansfield Park (loved the movie!)

5. Read the Jane Austen Book Club

6. Watch one movie based on her books.  I’ll have to look around to decide which one.

I’m really looking forward to this.  Why not join me if you haven’t already?  Visit Stephanie’s Written Word to sign up.

Southern Reading Challenge

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Maggie is hosting this challenge for the third time, although I’m a first-timer.

I have from May 15th (I’m late, of course!) to August 15th to read three books set in the south.  I’ve always lived up north, but am charmed by the stories set  in the south, so I’ve looked at my shelves and chosen three that fit the challenge.  I suppose I could change my choices later, but I’m starting with these…

Sights Unseen by Kaye Gibbons – set in North Carolina

Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil by John Berendt – set in Savannah

The Little Friend by Donna Tartt – set in Mississippi

Now all I have to do is get reading!