Tuesday 19 January 2016

2015 Reading Challenges - Wrap-Up

Reading Challenge 2015

Reading Challenge - Chunky Books 2015

The "Piggybank" Challenge 2014

I took part in 3 online challenges. I had taken on more in the last years but the "Reading Challenge 2015" had so many different tasks that I decided that would be it.

Reading Challenge 2015
Interesting challenge with 50 different categories to fulfil. I managed to read one from almost every one of them.

Reading Challenge - Chunky Books 2015
I read  24 books with more than 450 pages, 7 of them were more than 750 pages, the reading challenge calls them "chunksters". Not a bad result, I think.

The "Piggybank" Challenge 2014
This challenge goes officially from 1 March 2015 to 1 March 2016 but it's easier to wrap this up now with the rest of the challenges. This year, I read 91 books which resulted in €182 to spend on something I'd really like.

I added more books to lists I started earlier.

100 Books by the BBC
Hugo, Victor "Les Misérables" (FR: Les Misérables) - 1862

20 Classic And Important Books That Will Make You Feel Well-Read,
Even If They're The Only Ones You Read

None this year but there are not that many for me to complete the list.

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:
Eco, Umberto "The Name of the Rose" (IT: Il nome della rosa) - 1980

Best European Literature
Eco, Umberto "The Name of the Rose" (IT: Il nome della rosa) - 1980
Hugo, Victor "Les Misérables" (FR: Les Misérables) - 1862
Shakespeare, William "Hamlet" - 1599-1602
Wilde, Oscar "The Picture of Dorian Gray" - 1890

The 100 Greatest Fiction Books as Chosen by The Guardian
Wilde, Oscar "The Picture of Dorian Gray" - 1890

Le Monde - The 100 Books of the Century
Eco, Umberto "The Name of the Rose" (IT: Il nome della rosa) - 1980

Modern Library 100 Best Novels of the 20th Century
I added one more book this year and have now read 23 of those 100 novels.
Faulkner, William "Light in August" - 1932

The Motherhood + Jane Austen Book Club
Austen, Jane "Sense & Sensibility" - 1811

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, another winner of the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (Friendspreis) has been awarded the Nobel Prize and I had already read a book by her, however, more are on my wishlist. I've read this one in 2014: Alexievich, Svetlana "Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster" (Rus: Чернобыльская молитва/Černobylskaja molitva) - 2006

And these are the books by former Nobel Prize authors I read this year:
Buck, Pearl S. "The First Wife and Other Stories" - 1933
Mann, Thomas "Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family" (GE: Buddenbrooks) - 1901
Modiano, Patrick "La Place de l'Étoile" (FR: La Place de l'Étoile) - 1968
Munro, Alice "Runaway" - 2004
Pamuk, Orhan "My Father's Suitcase" (TR: Babamın Bavulu) - 2007
Yousafzai, Malala; Lamb, Christina "I am Malala. The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban" - 2013

Oprah’s Book Club

Faulkner, William "Light in August" - 1932

Oscar Winning Books
Hugo, Victor "Les Misérables" (FR: Les Misérables) - 1862
Shakespeare, William "Hamlet" - 1599-1602
Virgil "The Aeneid" (Lat: Aeneas) - 29-19 BC
Zweig, Stefanie "Nowhere in Africa" (GE: Nirgendwo in Afrika) - 1995

Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (German: Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels)
Frisch, Max "The Arsonists" (aka "The Firebugs" or "The Fire Raisers: A Morality Without A Moral, With An Afterpiece") (GE: Biedermann und die Brandstifter) - 1958
Pamuk, Orhan "My Father's Suitcase" (TR: Babamın Bavulu) - 2007

Smiley, Jane "13 Ways of Looking at the Novel" - 2005

Only one more novel from this fascinating list. Must try harder.
Wilde, Oscar "The Picture of Dorian Gray" - 1890

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.

Berry, Wendell "Hannah Coulter" - 2004
Dickens, Charles "Little Dorrit" - 1857
Dickens, Charles "The Pickwick Papers" - 1836
Doron, Lizzie "Who the fuck is Kafka" - 2015
Ferri, Jean-Yves; Didier Conrad, Didier "Asterix and the Missing Scroll" (FR: Le Papyrus de César) - 2015
Fowler, Karen Joy "The Jane Austen Book Club" - 2004
Mann, Thomas "Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family" (GE: Buddenbrooks) - 1901
McCarthy, Pete "The Road to McCarthy: Around the World in Search of Ireland" - 2002
Multatuli "Max Havelaar, or the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company" (NL: Max Havelaar of de koffiveilingen der Nederlandsche Handelmaatschappy) - 185
Pagnol, Marcel "Jean de Florette" (FR: Jean de Florette) - 1963
Petrowskaja, Katja "Vielleicht Esther" (Maybe Esther) - 2014
Raddatz, Fritz J. "Dann wird aus Zwein: Wir beide. Kurt Tucholsky & Mary Gerold" [Then two will make the two of us] - 2015
Roberts, Gregory David "Shantaram" - 2003
Scott, Mary "Freddie" - 1965
Scott, Mary "Pippa in Paradise" - 1955
Shakespeare, William "Hamlet" - 1599-1602
Wilde, Oscar "The Picture of Dorian Gray" - 1890
Yousafzai, Malala; Lamb, Christina "I am Malala" - 2013

My blog was nominated for
Liebster Award


Beautiful Blogger Award!!

I have been extremely honoured in both cases and have nominated bloggers for the Liebster Award myself. I will do the same with the Beautiful Blogger Award but have not been getting that far, yet.

2 comments:

  1. The books you read continue to amaze me and introduce me to books I've never heard of.

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    Replies
    1. I am lucky to live in an international environment, so I constantly hear about interesting books. And I do embrace the internet for finding new stuff, even though I still don't have an eReader (because I don't want one). I am glad I can pass on my luck to others. Thank you, Janet.

      Happy Reading,
      Marianne

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