Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah to you and yours. There are a few presents under the tree that look suspiciously like books. *grin* Love it when my family shops off my Amazon wishlist. Hope you get everything you want and more for Christmas. The year seems to have passed in a flash and we are ending it with gratitude and optimism for a joyous new year. Our quest to read 52 books is coming to an end for this year. How did you do?
- Did you reach the goal of 52 books or did you manage to beat your own personal best?
- What book are you ending the year with?
- Did you discover a new author or genre? Did you love them or hate them?
- Did you challenge yourself to read more non fiction if prefer fiction or more fiction if you prefer non fiction?
- Did you read from a list or wing it?
- How many classics did you read? What did you think of the writing style or author?
- Name one book that you thought you'd never read and was pleasantly surprised you like it.
- What are your top ten favorite books?
- What are your ten least favorite books?
- Did you start any books that you just simply couldn't finish?
- What did you think of the mini challenges and did you join in or complete any?
- Did your family join in on the fun?
- How many books have you added to your wishlist since the beginning of the year?
- What was your favorite thing about the challenge?
Congratulations and thank you to everyone who joined in. I hope you enjoyed your reading year and discovered some new and interesting authors and genres. Thank you to all who followed our progress. Are you ready to join in yet? *grin* I had a lot of fun and look forward to another year of exploring different topics, books and authors. Best wishes for a happy reading new year!
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Link to your last read and/or wrap up post for 2011. Please link to your specific post and not your general blog link. In the Your Name field,type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis or indicate wrap up post. In the Your URL field leave a link to your specific post.
If you don't have a blog, leave a comment in the comment section about your reading year.
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Link to your last read and/or wrap up post for 2011. Please link to your specific post and not your general blog link. In the Your Name field,type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis or indicate wrap up post. In the Your URL field leave a link to your specific post.
If you don't have a blog, leave a comment in the comment section about your reading year.
I have just come across this blog. I would like to do this for 2012. I would like to be reading a book a week to my children.
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas to you too and everyone else who has been doing this challenge. Looks like I'm finishing on 59 books, I will hopefuly be posting a wrap up blog post and then beginning 52 books in 52 weeks again. Hopefully adding new stuff to my blog.
ReplyDeletePaul
1.Did you reach the goal of 52 books or did you manage to beat your own personal best?
ReplyDeleteI had no idea how many books that I read in a year, but I thought it was probably more than 52. I joined this blog to learn how to do a blog - I still need more help with that if you can offer advice and to see how many books I read. So far, I have read and reviewed 157 books on my blog and I did not count or put the children's picture books on there. I want to learn how to put tabs and categories on my blog and do a separate section for children's lit because I love that.
2.What book are you ending the year with?
I read multiple books at one time. I am currently reading:
Learning to Breathe: My Year-Long Quest to Bring Calm to My Life ,Be the Change: Your Guide to Freeing Slaves and Changing the World, And the Bridge Is Love, and several others.
3.Did you discover a new author or genre? Did you love them or hate them? I read my first graphic novel and I was suprised that I really did like it.
4.Did you challenge yourself to read more non fiction if prefer fiction or more fiction if you prefer non fiction? no, I read a large variety of books
5.Did you read from a list or wing it? I winged it.
6.How many classics did you read? What did you think of the writing style or author? I think the only "classic" that I read was Jane Eyre and I loved it!
7.Name one book that you thought you'd never read and was pleasantly surprised you like it. Marzi - the graphic novel that I read.
8.What are your top ten favorite books? From the ones that I read this year: A Shepherd Looks At Psalm 23 by W. Phillip Keller , Alan Mendelsohn, The Boy From Mars by Daniel M. Pinkwater , Enchanted Glass by Diana Wynne Jones, Falcon Quinn and the Black Mirror by Jennifer Finney Boylan, everything that I read by Shannon Hale, The Faith Club by Rayna Idliby, Suzanne Oliver, and Priscilla Warner , Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children , Beastly by Alex Flinn ,
The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan, and The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child by Donalyn Miller
9.What are your ten least favorite books? From the ones that I actually read, I did not like Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand - it is well written, but I struggled through it due to the subject matter, and I Am Legend by Richard Matheson - was not real impressed by it, and the mother who stayed by laura furman - disturbing, and Blindness by Jose Saramago - I had to skim it - the grammar is so horrible that it just ruins the story - ick - worst book on my list I think.
10.Did you start any books that you just simply couldn't finish?
Blindness - I skimmed the last half or so, and Tolstoy and the Purple Chair - just gave up on it, because it was not worth my time, and Going Rogue: An American Life by Palin, Sarah - too long - just plugging herself, title
Spirit Junkie: A Radical Road to Discovering Self-Love and Miracles - odd, and I have not read the book that it is based on, and Beyond Animal Rights: food, pets and ethics
11.What did you think of the mini challenges and did you join in or complete any? I did not, perhaps next year.
12.Did your family join in on the fun? I found some good books that my kids and husband like.
13.How many books have you added to your wishlist since the beginning of the year? I have a "to read" list on Goodreads now w/ 287 books.
14.What was your favorite thing about the challenge?
I think I read more books because of it, I found Goodreads, which I love, and I enjoyed reading other people's reviews and learning about good books from them.
Today is Christmas and I wrapped up book #47 last night. I'm hopeful to get close to 52 by the end of the year, but don't think I'll reach it. This year has been a great exercise for me. I've learned a lot and reading so much has really effected me. Based on the books I've read this year, I've become a vegetarian and I'm exploring other religions. I finally finished A Tale of Two Cities and ended up liking it!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite this year was Let the Great World Spin, and the book I want none of you to EVER read is The Beginners. I wish I had stopped reading that one...ugh.
Thanks again to Robin and all who post here for the inspiration!
Hi Robin,
ReplyDeleteThanks for hosting this reading challenge. I've read some old and new authors. Looking forward to next year. My last book and wrap up are posted. Have a great day!
Sherrie
Just Books
Thank you for the challenge. Look forward to 2012. Happy New Year.
ReplyDeletegrrr....
ReplyDelete#10 is challenge wrap-up
#11 is a review for Janeology
Thank you for hosting Robin!
The challenge was much more difficult than I imagined it would be. I have read 52+ books in a year before but to make sure you read one book in a week requires planning and thought--especially if you want to read more difficult books. It was fun and interesting but truthfully I feel a little burned out from reading on such a rigid schedule. So I'm taking a break for a few weeks and then I'll see what challenges I feel like pursuing. Thanks for hosting a very challenging reading challenge.
ReplyDeleteI am rounding the year out with Little Women (#52). I try to read a broad range of new authors every year - some good, some not so good. I tend to read more non fiction than fiction, but this year was fairly balanced for me. Depending on what is considered a classic, I read between 3 and 10. I really didn't want to finish Moby Dick, but I pushed on for the sake of finishing the classic. My favorite book was "My (not so) Storybook Life" by Elizabeth Owen.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed joining in the challenge this year and hope to do it again next year.
Thanks so much for hosting this. It's been wonderful.
ReplyDeleteHopefully I'll be able to answer some of your questions on my blog later.
For now, I'm still reading. :)
Annie Kate
Well I did not reach my goal of 52 books or come any where near it. (I had the wedding of my oldest daughter to plan this year)I am up for the challenge in 2012 and can't wait to start. Thanks for hosting this again. It will be my third year attempting the challenge so maybe this will be the year I hit the 52 books read mark!
ReplyDeleteThroughly enjoyed the blog... I didn't have trouble making 52, but I really love to read. And I enjoyed keeping track of my books while finding great suggestions from other's lists. Looking forward to the 2012 challenge.
ReplyDelete