Thursday 16 March 2017

2016 Reading Challenges - Wrap-Up


I took part in four reading challenges (2016 Reading Challenge, Reading Challenge - Chunky Books 2016, The "Piggybank" Challenge 2016, and 2016 TBR Pile Reading Challenge), one new online book club (Emma's Book Club), added another list (101 Best Selling Books of All Time) and started two new lists myself (Bildungsroman and Travel the World Through Books).

Reading Challenge 2016
Interesting challenge with 40 different categories to fulfil. I managed to read at least one book from each category though many of them can be listed under several points Where I haven't fulfilled the challenge, there usually is a reason and I've explained it under that number.

Reading Challenge - Chunky Books 2016
I read 28 books with more than 450 pages, 3 of them were more than 750 pages, the reading challenge calls them "chunksters".

The "Piggybank" Challenge 2016 
This challenge goes officially from 1 March 2016 to 1 March 2017 but it's easier to wrap this up now with the rest of the challenges. This year, I read 85 books which resulted in €170 to spend on something I'd really like.

TBR Pile Challenge 2016  
I finished 37 books that had been waiting for me to be read before the beginning of the year. Of course, I added others that are NOW on my TBR pile.

Beautiful Blogger Award 
I was happy to be awarded with this by one of my fellow bloggers.

I started a few new lists during the year:

101 Best Selling Books of All Time 
101 books that have been bought by more people than any others. Doesn't necessarily mean that they have been read by everyone. Still, I had only done 37 of them so far with a few more on my wishlist.

Bildungsroman  
I have already read 27 books that belong to this category, so I thought I'd start a list.

Travel the World Through Books 
I love to travel the world with my books but I have only visited 76 countries so far. Time to start a list with all the cuontries yet to be "visited". I started this challenge after I read a book about a woman who visited every country in the world (Die Ländersammlerin). My goal is to read a book about or written by someone from all every country in the world.

I have already read books from the following countries and hope to add more in the next couple of years.
Afghanistan, Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo (Republic of the), Cuba, Cyprus, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Egypt, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Haiti, Hungary, Iceland, India, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Lithuania, Mexico, Morocco, Myanmar, Namibia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Romania, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Vietnam, Zambia

Emma's Book Club - Our shared shelf 
Emma Watson's online book club with books from women for women and about women. I read seven of the eight books.



Details to all my reading lists, those I started last year and those I started earlier.

100 Books by the BBC
Adams, Douglas "The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy" - 1979
Mitchell, David "Cloud Atlas" - 2004
Potter, Beatrix "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" - 1902
Rushdie, Salman "Midnight’s Children" - 1981

101 Best Selling Books of All Time 
Adams, Douglas "The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy" - 1979
Murakami, Haruki "Norwegian Wood" (Japanese: Noruwei no mori, ノルウェイの森) - 1987
Sendak, Maurice "Where The Wild Things Are" - 1963

"13 Ways of Looking at the Novel" by Jane Smiley
I added two more books to this list. "Only" 65 more to go!
Atkinson, Kate "Behind the Scenes at the Museum" - 1995
Lafayette, Madame de (Marie-Madeleine) "The Princess of Cleves" (French: La Princesse de Clèves) - 1678

20 Classic And Important Books 
No new books

2016 TBR Pile Reading Challenge  
My TBR (To Be Read) pile is a lot longer than it should be, therefore I loved the idea to read as many of them as possible. Would have loved to reach the 20 book mark but I knew from the beginning, that wasn't going to happen. I did manage 37. Since the total of my books was 85, that amounts to 43.5%. Not bad, even if I say so myself.

7 Books That Will Radically Shift Your Perspectives  
No new books

A Century of Books 
The goal is to read a book from every year of the 20th century.
If I only manage one book every year, I will have finished this list in 14 years. ;)
I did manage to find one this year:
Camus, Albert "The Stranger" (aka "The Outsider") (French: L'étranger) - 1942

Best European Literature 
Camus, Albert "The Stranger" (aka "The Outsider") (French: L'étranger) - 1942
Shakespeare, William "Macbeth" aka "The Scottish Play" - 1599/1606

Bildungsroman 
Anonymous "Lazarillo de Tormes" (Spanish: La vida de Lazarillo de Tormes y de sus fortunas y adversidades) - 1554
Eliot, George "The Mill on the Floss" - 1860
Joyce, James "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" - 1916
Murakami, Haruki "Norwegian Wood" (Japanese: Noruwei no mori, ノルウェイの森) - 1987
Satrapi, Marjane "Persepolis. The Story of a Childhood" (French: Persepolis) - 2000
Satrapi, Marjane "Persepolis. The Story of a Return" (French: Persepolis. Vol. 2) - 2000
Webster, Jean "Daddy Longlegs" - 1912

Children's Books
Funke, Cornelia "Inkheart" (German: Tintenherz) - 2003
Grimm, Jacob und Wilhelm "Jorinde und Joringel. Acht Märchen der Brüder Grimm" [Jorinda and Joringel. Eight Fairy Tales] - 1812
Potter, Beatrix "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" - 1902
Sendak, Maurice "Where The Wild Things Are" - 1963
Stevenson, Robert Louis "Treasure Island" - 1881/82
Webster, Jean "Daddy Longlegs" - 1912

Dutch and French Books 
Camus, Albert "The Stranger" (aka "The Outsider") (French: L'étranger) - 1942
Delacourt, Grégoire "The list of my desires" (My wish list/French: La liste de mes envies/(The list of my desires/My Wish List) - 2012
Ferri, Jean-Yves; Didier Conrad, Didier "Asterix and the Missing Scroll" (French: Le Papyrus de César) - 2015
Maalouf, Amin "Samarcande" - 1988
Pagnol, Marcel "Jean de Florette" (L'eau des collines #1) (French: Jean de Florette) - 1963
Satrapi, Marjane "Persepolis. The Story of a Childhood" (French: Persepolis) - 2000
Satrapi, Marjane "Persepolis. The Story of a Return" (French: Persepolis. Vol. 2) - 2000

Emma's Book Club - Our shared shelf 
Angelou, Maya "Mom & Me & Mom" - 2013
Atwood, Margaret "The Handmaid’s Tale" - 1985
Brownstein, Carrie "Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl" - 2015
Dirie, Waris "Desert Flower: The Extraordinary Journey of a Desert Nomad" - 1998
Frank, Anne "The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition" (Dutch: Het Achterhuis) - 1942-44
Hardy, Thomas "Tess of the d’Urbervilles" - 1891
Hirsi Ali, Ayaan "Infidel: My Life" (Dutch: Mijn Vrijheid) - 2006
Hooks, Bell "All About Love: New Visions" - 1999
Kristof, Nicholas D. & Wudunn, Sheryl "Half the Sky. How to Change the World" - 2009
Lee, Harper "To Kill a Mockingbird" - 1960
Moran, Caitlin "How to be a Woman" - 2011
Nafisi, Azar "Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books" - 2003
Satrapi, Marjane "Persepolis. The Story of a Childhood" (French: Persepolis. Vol 1) - 2000
Satrapi, Marjane "Persepolis. The Storay of a Return" (French: Persepolis. Vol 2) - 2000
Steinem, Gloria "My Life on the Road" - 2015
Tolstoy, Leo (Толстой, Лев Николаевич) "Anna Karenina" (Russian: Анна Каренина = Anna Karenina) - 1877
Walker, Alice "The Color Purple" - 1982
Walls, Jeannette "The Glass Castle: A Memoir" - 2005
Yousafzai, Malala; Lamb, Christina "I am Malala. The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban" - 2013

Esperanto Links 
Duoblilo 
Štimec, Spomenka "Croatian War Nocturnal" (Kroata Milita Noktlibro) - 1993

German Books - Deutsche Bücher 
Fleischhauer, Wolfram "Schule der Lügen" (aka "Die Inderin") (In a Tender Hold) - 2014
Funke, Cornelia "Inkheart" (German: Tintenherz) - 2003
Grass, Günter "Peeling the Onion" (German: Beim Häuten der Zwiebel) - 2006
Grimm, Jacob und Wilhelm "Jorinde und Joringel. Acht Märchen der Brüder Grimm" [Jorinda and Joringel. Eight Fairy Tales] - 1812
Mercier, Pascal "Perlmann's Silence" (German: Perlmanns Schweigen) - 1995
Schami, Rafik "A Hand Full of Stars" (German: Eine Hand voller Sterne) - 1987
Schwarzer, Alice "Lebenslauf" [German: My life] - 2011
Zweig, Stefanie "Somewhere in Germany" (German: Irgendwo in Deutschland) - 1996

Interesting Links 
No new links added

Le Monde - The 100 Books of the Century  
Camus, Albert "The Stranger" (aka "The Outsider") (French: L'étranger) - 1942
Goscinny, René; Uderzo, Albert "Asterix the Gaul" (French: Astérix le Gaulois) - 1959
Rushdie, Salman "Midnight's Children" - 1981

Migraine Books and Links 2011, 2014, 2016 
I started a new list in 2016. You can find all the links here.

Modern Library 100 Best Novels of the 20th Century 
Joyce, James "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" - 1916

Movies recommending books 
Stevenson, Robert Louis "Treasure Island" - 1881/82

My favourite books ever, 2012 and 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015

I added the following books to the list "My favourite books ever":
Abulhawa, Susan "Mornings in Jenin" - 2010
Alexievich, Svetlana "Second Hand Time. The Last of the Sovjets" (Russian: Время секонд хэнд = Vremja sekond khend) - 2013
Bryson, Bill "The Road to Little Dribbling: more Notes from a Small Island" - 2015
Bryson, Bill "A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail" - 1998
Kulin, Ayşe "Rose of Sarajevo" (Turkish: Sevdalinka) - 1999
Mercier, Pascal "Perlmann's Silence" (German: Perlmanns Schweigen) - 1995
Mistry, Rohinton "Family Matters" - 2002
Oates, Joyce Carol "Carthage" - 2014
Oates, Joyce Carol "The Man Without a Shadow" - 2016
Perkins, Sue "Spectacles" - 2015
Schami, Rafik "A Hand Full of Stars" (German: Eine Hand voller Sterne) - 1987
Trollope, Anthony "The Way We Live Now" - 1875

Nobel Prize Winners and Their Books
I enjoy the books by the Nobel Prize winners a lot and every year I can't wait to hear the name of the latest recipient rush to read some new books by him or her. This year, of course, the prize was awared to a songwriter - Bob Dylan - rather than a book author but I do have his biogrphy on my list. However, I was able to add four more books written by Nobel Prize Winners to my list.

And these are the books by former Nobel Prize authors I read this year:
Alexievich, Svetlana "Second Hand Time. The Last of the Sovjets" (Russian: Время секонд хэнд = Vremja sekond khend) - 2013
Camus, Albert "The Stranger" (aka "The Outsider") (French: L'étranger) - 1942
García Márquez, Gabriel "The General in His Labyrinth" (Spanish: El general en su laberinto) - 1989
Grass, Günter "My Century" (German: Mein Jahrhundert) - 1999

Oprah’s Book Club
Since Oprah doesn't publish much new stuff, I didn't add any new books to this list.

Oscar Winning Books 
This is an old challenge, I didn't add any new books to this list.

Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (Friedenspreis)
Alexievich, Svetlana "Second Hand Time. The Last of the Sovjets" (Russian: Время секонд хэнд = Vremja sekond khend) - 2013
Grossman, David "The Zig Zag Kid" (Hebrew: יש ילדים זיגזג/Jesh Jeladim) - 1994

Suggestions from Friends 
There are always a lot of books that you hear someone mentioning. These are the books that were particularly recommended by friends for me to read. I have enjoyed them all a lot.
Landers, Brian "Empires Apart. A History of American and Russian Imperialism" - 2010
Mitchell, David "Cloud Atlas" - 2004
Rushdie, Salman "Midnight's Children" - 1981

The 10 Greatest Books Ever 
I didn't add any new books to this list.

The 100 Greatest Fiction Books as Chosen by The Guardian 
Another list where I didn't add any new books.

The Top 10 Most Difficult Books
I have only read one book in this challenge and agree that it was difficult.

Top 10 Most Read Books in the World 
I have read seven of them, I doubt I will ever read the last three.

What's in a Name 2014 Reading Challenge 
Even though this is an older challenge, I always think it's interesting to read an eponymous book, it's always something special.
Anonymous "Lazarillo de Tormes" (Spanish: La vida de Lazarillo de Tormes y de sus fortunas y adversidades)
Arnold, Catharine "Globe: Life in Shakespeare's London" - 2014
Borchert, Wolfgang "Schischyphusch oder Der Kellner meines Onkels" [Shishyphush or my uncle's waiter] - 1947/2016
Filipović, Zlata "Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Wartime Sarajevo" - 1993
Grimm, Jacob und Wilhelm "Jorinde und Joringel. Acht Märchen der Brüder Grimm" [Jorinde and Joringel. Eight Fairy Tales] - 1812
Mercier, Pascal "Perlmanns Schweigen" (Perlmann's Silence) - 1995
McCall Smith, Alexander "Emma. A Modern Retelling" - 2015
Pamuk, Orhan "Cevdet und seine Söhne" (Turkish: Cevdet Bey ve Oğulları/Cevdet Bey and His Sons) - 1982
Shakespeare, William "Macbeth" - 1599/1606

Colours in Book Titles: green
Ulitzkaja, Ljudmila/Ulitzkaya, Lyudmila "Das grüne Zelt" (Imago or The Big Green Tent/Zelenyi shater/Зеленый шатер)

My blog was nominated for
Liebster Award
Beautiful Blogger Award!!

Last year's Wrap-Up is here.

4 comments:

  1. My main reading challenge I call My Big Fat Reading Project. Year by year, I read the top ten bestsellers, the award winners, and selected other titles by authors I like. I am only two books away from completing my 1962 list. (I started the lists with 1940.) Each time I get that close to the end of a list, a mirage effect goes into play where other books distract me and I feel like I will never finish the list. But I have it mapped out now and will finish by the end of March. The last two books are King Rat by James Clavell and Saint Francis by Nikos Kazantzakis.

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    1. I love your reading challenge and might tackle that one day. Or not, depending on my energy. I always try to read a book by the latest Nobel Prize winner and some other winners of book awards but don't keep to one award in particular. And then there is my book club, always something new to explore with all the differenet members we've had over the years.

      But I'm glad to know what you are reading, it's always interesting to talk to you.

      Happy Reading,
      Marianne

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  2. Wow! If this isn't a comprehensive wrap-up post! Kudos to you, Marianne!
    I see that you've read a few Nobels too in 2016. Why not copy and paste the reviews to Guiltless Reader's Read the Nobels blog? I think that you did in the past and it would be SOOOO nice to see someone other than me posting there again, at least occasionally.

    LaGraziana @ Edith's Miscellany

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, Edith,

      I love lists and do this just as much for myself than for anybody who is interested in what I am reading.

      And you are completely right, I really should post more in the Nobel blog, I am just so much behind with my posts that I didn't get to it, yet. But I will be back. Promise.

      Happy Reading,
      Marianne

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