Wednesday, January 14

The challenge

I'm not really known for my new year's resolutions - unless they're along the lines of: 'let's see who can eat the most Chunky KitKats in one year' (where, my friends, the winner would be moi).

However, at the end of 2007 I realized that I'd only read 32 books for the year, which, for someone who use to easily read at least two books a week, this number was a bit of a shock. So anyway, last year's resolution was to read more and I'm pleased to say that I ended 2008 with 50 books. Still not where it used to be, but that's okay. I have kids and a writing career that I didn't have back then (plus of course a very time consuming Chunky KitKat habit to support).

I pretty much loved every book I read last year - mainly because if I don't like something then I don't finish it and it doesn't make my list, but the books that really stood out for me in 2008 were Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus Trilogy - seriously awesome. Megan Crane's Names My Sisters' Call Me and PC Cast and Kristin Cast's House of Night series.

So what about everyone else? Do you ever set yourself reading challenges and what were your favorite reads of last year???

14 comments:

Unknown said...

I never tried a challenge before until this year and I'm loving it so far!

Some of my favorites reads of last year are:

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
The Five People You Meet In Heaven By Mitch Albom
Q&A by Vikas Swarup
Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes
The Gemma Doyle series by Libba Bray
The House of Night Series (the ones out so far) by P.C Cast and Kristin Cast
The Vampire Academy Series (the ones out so far)by Richelle Mead
and a whole bunch more!!

Lauren Baratz-Logsted said...

Exposing myself as the ultimate geek here, I once, um, set myself the goal of reading 365 books in a single calendar year.

Amanda Ashby said...

Robin - I was surprised at how much I enjoyed keeping track of all the books. Oh, and I most definitely need to start reading Richelle Mead because I keep hearing amazing things about her.

Lauren - words fail me - even more so since I know how many other things you fit into your day!!!!!!!!

Mitzy said...

I realized last month that I forget all the books I read! So I joined Blogger and Goodreads in order to keep track of all the books I do read, as well as make notes on what I thought of them!

(From what I remember...) my favorite books of last year were The Violet series, Twilight series (like every other girl in America), Scot on the Rocks/Jack With a Twist ooo and The Adultery Diet!!

Sara Hantz said...

I keep meaning to keep a record of the books I read... maybe I will this year.

Lauren O.M.G. That's all I can say (I think I need to go and lie down in a darkened room, just the thought of it, is sending me in a tailspin)

Stephanie said...

I usually don't set reading challenges, but I always wanted to make a list of all the books I ever read, but then it kept piling up and I still never done it.

Some of my favorite books i read last year are:

The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong
Sucks to Be Me by Kimberly Pauley
Revelations(the 3rd in the Blue Bloods series)by Melissa De La Cruz
Ninth Grade Slays(the 2nd in The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod series) by Heather Brewer
The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti
and a lot more!

Amanda Ashby said...

Mitzy - yeah, actually the best thing about keeping is a list is how it suddenly becomes to answer the 'what was your favorite book' question!!!!!!

Sara - you should. I mean it's a list and it's you. Sort of the perfect combination!!!

Stephanie - actually the next list I need to keep is the books I want to buy list since you've just named quite a few that I've been meaning to read!!!

Brooke Reviews said...

My goal last year was to read 100 books. I had read 100 by Dec. 28th. Right on time haha. My favorite books were

Vampire Academy Series by Richelle Mead
Paper Towns by John Green
House of the Night Series by Casts
Skinned by Robin Wasserman
I wanna be Your Joey Ramone by Stephanie Kuehnert

And a ton others :D

Amanda Ashby said...

Brooke - wow, that is so amazing that you hit your target - with time to spare! Okay and that settles it - I'm ordering Richelle's books today!

Melissa Walker said...

I know a Sarah who read 365 books last year!

I'm happy to read 52, one each week for Win-It Wednesday posts on my blog (and that clears the shelves for more books too!).

You guys should join the VC Andrews challenge! Well, if you were ever a fan. I'm pscyhed:
http://www.melissacwalker.com/blog/2009/01/thank_yous_the_vc_andrews_read.html

Amanda Ashby said...

Hey Melissa - I've been noticing a lot of people talking about VC Andrews recently. I totally remember reading Flowers in the Attic when I was about 16 and it got passed around our whole group of friends probably like what happens with Twilight now. It took a long time to look at a donut again!!!!

Alyson Noel said...

Hmm, do reasearchy titles count?? Because that's pretty much all I read last year--though I did write a blurb for Courtney Summers' CRACKED UP TO BE- and it was ah--mazing!!

Lucy said...

In 2006 an author friend of mine had a contest where, the more books you read, the more chances you had at winning. The prize was a $250 gift card to the bookstore of your choice - and I wanted that gift card. So, from June 1 to December 31 I read 85 books. In 2007 I read something like 70 books for the whole year. Last year I went back to school and read all of like 30-35 books, including required material for school. Kinda bummed about the downward turn of book time. So my goal this year will be similar to yours...read more than that, along with the required class materials. But, favorite books of the year:

Stupid and Contagious by Caprice Crane
The Infidelity Files by Jessica Brody
Unpredictable & What Would Emma Do?, both by Eileen Cook

among others. :)

Amanda Ashby said...

Lucy - all of those books are on my tbr list because they all look amazing!! Let's hope we both kick some reading ass this year!!!