Bout of Books Day 5 Update

 Yesterday, I read the most this book of 138 pages all of the Railway Children. I only have to read 74 more pages to have finished the book, which I hope to do either today or tomorrow. If I complete it today I plan on starting on Dead Wake by Erik Larson. What are you reading today?

TBR Checkpoint 1

So far my reading challenges haven't been going to well, as for the first ten days of the year I was sick. I have started reading Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson for this month. I am not that far into it but it is a short book. The question for this month's checkpoint is, Which book on my list has been on my shelf the longest? It would be the Once A Grand Duchess: Xenia, Sister of Nicholas II by John van der Kiste. I hope everyone is reading some good books this month!

What I'll Be Reading This Month - Jan. 2015

Since I will be in so many reading challenges this year, I thought at the beginning of each month I would list what I hope to be able to read.

  Germinal by Emile Zola
 Barry Lyndon by William Thackeray
 The Charterhouse of Parma by Stendhal
 The End by Lemony Snicket
 Le Morte D'Arthur by Thomas Malory
 Whatever book above that consists of 450 pages will apply to this challenge

2015 Literary Movement Reading Challenge - Sign Up Post

For this challenge I will be reading 12 books from the following themes for each month:

January        : Medieval

                                   February      : Renaissance

                                   March           : Enlightenment

                                   April             : Romanticism

                                   May              : Transcendentalism

                                   June             : Victorian

                                   July              : Realism

                                   August         : Naturalism

                                   September   : Existentialism

                                   October        : Modernism

                                   November    : The Beat Generation or The Bloomsbury Group

                                   December    : Post-Modernism

If you would like to see the rules click here.

Jan. – Le Morte DArthur by Thomas Malory

Feb. – The Book of the Courtier by Baldesio Castiglione

March – Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

Apr.  The Bostonian by Henry James

May – Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

June- Silas Marner by George Eliot

July – The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Aug – House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

Sep. -  The Idiot by Dostoyevsky

Oct – Sons and Lovers by DH Lawrence

Nov. – To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

Dec. -  A Mercy by Toni Morrison

2015 Birthday Month Reading Challenge - Main Post

 I have been seeing quite a few reading challenges and thought this one sounded interesting. Basically you will choose to read 12 books based on the month that the author was born. So, if I wanted to read a book by Jane Austen I would read it in the month of December, as she was born on December 16th, etc. To find out more information and to sign up click here. Here is my list which consists of some books that are part of other reading challenges.

Jan. - Marie-Henri Beyle AKA Stendhal - The Charterhouse of Parma



Feb. - Charles Dickens - Barnaby Rudge



March - James Patterson - Gone



Apr. - Emile Zola - Germinal



May -  Ian Fleming - Casino Royale



June - Thomas Hardy - Far from the Maddening Crowd



July - JK Rowling - Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows



Aug. - Sir Walter Scott - Waverley



Sep. - Elizabeth Gaskell - Larkrise to Candleford



Oct. - Nella Last - Nella Last's War: WWII Diaries of Housewife, 49



Nov. - George Eliot - Felix Holt: the Radical



Dec. - Jane Austen - Mansfield Park

Victorian Bingo Challenge 2015

I found this Victorian Bingo Reading Challenge, I have always loved bingo and the Victorian era, so I could resist. You must read a minimum of four books, and you can play horizontally, vertically, diagonally, etc. There is another bingo version as well, and to see the rules of both click here.


In looking at this I decided to read five books and due them diagonally from Q-N. Here is my list:

1840's

Barry Lyndon by William Thackeray (1844)


1850's

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell (1855)



1860's

The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky



1870's

Middlemarch by George Eliot (1874)



1880's

Washington Square by Henry James (1880)



So will you be joining me as well?

TBR 2015 Challenge

 Over the past years I have seen blog posts about this challenge, but I have never joined, and decided to take the plunge for next year. Here are the general rules per Adam from RoofBeamReader.com;

1. Read 12 books on my "to be read" list for at least one year, and books publication dates must be before 1/1/2014. Rereads are not allowed. There are two books I can add as a substitute in case we are not able to get through two of them on our original list.

2. Complete and final list of our books we will be reading, must be blogged by Jan 15, 2015.

3. Monthly Check-Ins early month on the 15th.

For the official rules and to see about the giveaway check here

Here is my list:

1. Germinal by Emile Zola (1885)
2. Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens (1841)
3. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (1869)
4. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (1869)
5. Little Dorritt by Charles Dickens (1857)
6. Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson (1886)
7. The Secret Garden (1911)
8. We Took to the Woods by Louise Dickinson Rich (1942)
9. Nella's Last War: The Second World War Diaries of housewife, 49 by Nella Last (2006)
10. The Titled Americans by Elisabeth Kehoe (2005)
11. Four Queens: The Provencal Sisters Who Ruled Europe by Nancy Goldstone (2008)
12. Once A Grand Duchess: Xenia, Sister of Nicholas II by John van der Kiste (2004)

Alternates:

Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian (1970)

The Dirty Life: A Memoir of Farming, Food, and Love by Kristin Kimball (2011)

Do you plan on joining the challenge?

Almost time for Austen in August! Master List

I have participated in this reading challenge for the past two years, and will do so this year for the third time. Since I have not read all of Jane Austen's books, I hope to read Sense and Sensibility and Northanger Abbey. Have you read either one of these books, did you enjoy them? Do you plan on joining me in this reading challenge? 

 

2014 Chunkster Challenge

 I found this reading challenge a few months late, but I am still going to sign up. So here are the rules for the chunkster challenge:

• Books must be more than 450 pages
• Audio and E-books allowed
• Book can be Adult, YA, Fiction or Non-Fiction
• No Graphic Novels
• Open to anyone
• Books can be used from other challenges
• Essay, Short Story, and Poem Collections are allowed but they have to be read in their entirety

Even though I don't have to list the books I will be reading for this challenge, here are just a few that I can immediately think of: