2018 Reading Challenges

Hey people. Last year I set the goal at 150 books, and I read 174. Given that I started working in April, it lessened the amount of time I had to read. So, this year, I’m keeping the goal at 150, and I’m gonna do my best to reach it.

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Besides the Goodreads challenge, I’m doing the  2018 New Adult Reading Challenge, created by Cátia @The Girl Who Read Too Much. I did quite well last year, but I wanna do better this time around.

The challenge has two different directions and I plan to tackle both. The first one is by the number of NA books read and there are a few categories:

• NA Newbie – 6 books
• NA Initiate – 12 books
• NA Intermediate – 24 books
• NA Advanced – 36 books
• NA Expert – 50 books
• NA Queen/King  – 100 books
• NA Supreme – 150 books

I’m aiming for the NA Queen category, this year, because last year I only managed NA Expert.

The second thing within this challenge is a Reading Bingo and I’m so excited for this one! I finished my Bingo last year, so fingers crossed…

1. Finish a Series
2. Friendship to Love Romance
3. Book with a POC Main Character
4. New to You Author
5. First Love
6. First Book by a Favorite Author
7. Bottom of your TBR
8. Book Set in Winter
9. Book out of Your Comfort Zone
10. Enemies to Lovers
11. Book with Only Male POV
12. Blue Cover
13. Book with Number in the Title
14. Book that makes you Cry
15. Forbidden Romance
16. LGBTQ Novel
17. Book about Family
18. 2018 Release
19. Book Set in another Country
20. Book You Knew Nothing About
21. Fantasy Novel
22. Book with Music or Art
23. Book Written by a Male Author
24. Book With Multiple POVs
25. Freebie

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SO, THESE WILL BE MY 2018 READING CHALLENGES.
WHAT ARE YOU GUYS PARTICIPATING IN?

2017 Reading Challenges

Hey guys! This year I’m gonna keep my 2017 Reading Challenges quite simple, and I’m doing the Goodreads one, because obviously I am, and I’ve set my goal to 150 books. Last year I started setting it at 75 and ended up with the goal of 175 (and ended up reading 218), so I think 150 is a good number. And look at that… I’m already ahead of schedule, eheh.

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My REAL challenge however is gonna be the 2017 New Adult Reading Challenge, created by Cátia @The Girl Who Read Too Much.

This is perfect for me, because I’ve been reading loads of NA books lately, so I’m excited for this one :D.

The challenge has two different directions and I plan to tackle both. The first one is by the number of NA books read and there are a few categories:

• NA Newbie – 6 books
• NA Initiate – 12 books
• NA Intermediate – 24 books
• NA Advanced – 36 books
• NA Expert – 50 books
• NA Queen/King (special category) – 100 books

Obviously I’m aiming for the NA Queen category (or at least the NA Expert).

The second thing within this challenge is a Reading Bingo and I’m so excited for this one!

1. Book set in college
2. Hyped Book
3. Debut Novel
4. 2017 Release
5. New Adult best seller
6. Book about friendship
7. Book with music or art
8. Book out of your comfort zone
9. Book based on its cover
10. Diverse novel
11. A LGBT novel or with a LGBT characters
12. New to you author
13. Book you can finish in one day
14. Start a series
15. Book that makes you laugh
16. Book set in the summer
17. Book you knew nothing about
18. A re-read
19. Book about a road trip
20. Book recommendation
21. One word title
22. Book about sports
23. Book on the bottom of your TBR
24. Book with only male POV

I have a few suggestions for books for the bingo, and I’ll be doing a post soon with those suggestion… would that be something you would be interested in?

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So, these will be my 2017 Reading Challenges.
What are you guys participating in?

The Martian (Andy Weir)

Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars.

Now, he’s sure he’ll be the first person to die there.

After a dust storm nearly kills him & forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded & completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive — & even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive.

Chances are, though, he won’t have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment or plain-old “human error” are much more likely to kill him first.

But Mark isn’t ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills — & a relentless, dogged refusal to quit — he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?

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Kat @Life and Other Disasters had loved The Martian a long while ago, and she had been telling me to read it since then. I got the ebook (don’t remember when to be honest), but I just wasn’t in the mood, and I kept putting it off… maybe I thought that because it was Sci-Fi, it would take me a long time to get through it? I don’t know! But then I got the audiobook, because I thought that this one would be amazing as audio, and I started it on my first day off of work, and I listened to nothing else for a whole day! I was cooking and listening. At the gym? Listening! Riding in a car with the family? Listening… to my sister’s dismay. Long story short: I’M IN LOVE WITH THIS BOOK!

On to the review now. The writing is genius! I loved how funny it was, even though the majority of the book is written in logs – and monologues can be boring sometimes – this one is anything but. Mark Watney is a funny SOB. The humour is on point! I also loved how different the narration is, depending on the POV we’re on. Mark’s POV is mostly told by logs, or emails, messages, but when the book focus on other characters, the narration changes to the third person. It’s a very smart way to write a book. I approve :D.

Mark is amazing! Seriously, he’s amazing! I love how he doesn’t panic at all. EVER! He gets a problem, he thinks about it – in a very funny way – and then he solves it. He’s awesome! 😀

I really liked the supporting characters and the various interactions between the different characters, as well as how representative this team was. The collaboration between the various teams and members was great, and it was a pleasure to read about. I might have teared up a bit when the chinese get involved, to be honest.

The plot flows supper nicely, and it didn’t feel nearly as long as the book actually is. I didn’t find this book predictable at all, and mind you, the movie has been out for awhile, I hadn’t seen it yet, but I still didn’t know where this was all going. I was just really hoping that he would be able to get out of Mars somehow, because come on… that was logical, right? I loved all the science stuff, loved it. The scientist in me was like: YES! (even though I’m not that kind of scientist, and astrophysics is not my thing at all).

Overall, I really really loved this book, so I HAVE TO recommend it to you guys. You need to read The Martian. NOW! If you don’t want to pick up the book, listen to the audiobook, because you won’t be sorry!

2016 Reading Challenges: Second Trimester Update

Hello! As I had said at the beginning of the year, I’m doing 2 reading challenges: the Goodreads Reading Challenge, where I’m aiming for 75 books  and the Popsugar Reading Challenge. I’ll do a quick update here on the state of both challenges.

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Originally I had set the goal of 75 books, and by April I was nearing the goal, being several books ahead of schedule. So then I decided to up my challenge to 125 books, and I’ll probably have to up it again, because I’ almost done with it.  So guys, what should I change my challenge to?

What should I change my challenge to? 150? 175?

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So far I’ve completed 20 of the 40 categories of this challenge – I’m halfway through!!!!

1. A book based on a fairy tale

2. A National Book Award winner

3. A YA bestseller

4. A book you haven’t read since high school

5. A book set in your home state

6. A book translated to English

7. A romance set in the future

8. A book set in Europe

9. A book that’s under 150 pages

10. A New York Times bestseller

11. A book that’s becoming a movie this year

12. A book recommended by someone you just met

13. A self-improvement book

14. A book you can finish in a day

15. A book written by a celebrity

16. A political memoir

17. A book at least 100 years older than you

18. A book that’s more than 600 pages

19. A book from Oprah’ Book Club

20. A science-fiction novel

21. A book recommended by a family member

22. A graphic novel

23. A book that is published in 2016

24.A book with a protagonist who has your occupation

25. A book that takes place during summer

26. A book and its prequel

27. A murder mystery

28. A book written by a comedian

29. A dystopian novel

30. A book with a blue cover

31. A book of poetry

32. The first book you see in a bookstore

33. A classic from the 20^thcentury

34. A book from the library

35. An autobiography

36. A book about a road trip

37. A book about a culture you’re unfamiliar with

38. A satirical book

39. A book that takes place on an island

40. A book that’s guaranteed to bring you joy

Me Before You (Jojo Moyes)

Lou Clark knows lots of things. She knows how many footsteps there are between the bus stop and home. She knows she likes working in The Buttered Bun tea shop and she knows she might not love her boyfriend Patrick.

What Lou doesn’t know is she’s about to lose her job or that knowing what’s coming is what keeps her sane.

Will Traynor knows his motorcycle accident took away his desire to live. He knows everything feels very small and rather joyless now and he knows exactly how he’s going to put a stop to that.

What Will doesn’t know is that Lou is about to burst into his world in a riot of colour. And neither of them knows they’re going to change the other for all time.

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With all the buzz surrounding this book lately, I just had to read it, right? I mean, the trailer came out, everyone went crazy, so me, Kat and Cátia decided to have our second buddy read (the three of us), and it went as well as can be expected 😛 . It’s tricky to sync our three schedules, but at least it didn’t take us the whole month like with Lady Midnight 😉 . You can read Kat’s review of this book HERE.

I was surprised by how light, funny and fast the writing was. I was somewhat expecting a heavy book, but this was not at all heavy. The book flows very well, and even the very british vocabulary is easy to assimilate and enjoy. The book is mainly told in Lou’s POV, but every now and then we get a chapter from one of the other character’s POV… well, I didn’t think they were really necessary to be honest, I think they served to make those characters more likable, but they didn’t bring any additional information and feelings that couldn’t have been delivered from her POV. I think that if we had to have another POV, it would have been more useful to have those from Will’s POV, because his thoughts were the ones that Lou didn’t have access to.

I really loved both main characters of this book. Lou was a delight to read and she had such a huge growth in this book. I really liked how she started to set the foot down on the things that she wanted and wished for, because in the beginning of the book, Lou is a bit of a doormat, and everyone steps on her, and I hated that. Will… oh Will… I loved Will. Will knew who he was and what he wanted, and that’s rare!

I had a huge problem with most of the other characters though, and although most of them kind of redeemed themselves at some point or another, they still weren’t very likable. They were real, flawed and raw, and I guess that’s good, right? We should like real characters. But I hated that all of Lou’s family put her down, I hated that they saw her useless and made sure to tell her as much. And Pat, Lou’s boyfriend, was the worst of all… I honestly didn’t get their relationship.

The story is beautiful and it’s definitly important and relevant. More than a romance, this book is about the right to live your life the way you chose to. It’s about Will’s decision about his life, and about Lou wanting to live hers to the best of her abilities. Before I read it, I thought the romance would be heavier than it actually was, I thought that was too bad really, but again, it was also not really the point.

The ending was inevitable, and while I liked it, I thought it was a bit abrupt. I also kind of wish that those last few days of the book hadn’t been told in Trenna’s POV, because I needed to know what was going on through Lou’s eyes.

I did cry a bit in the end, it is an emotional read and a lovely story. But I wasn’t blown away… Still, I’m super excited for the movie :D.

2016 Reading Challenges: First Trimester Update

Hello! As I had said at the beginning of the year, I’m doing 2 reading challenges: the Goodreads Reading Challenge, where I’m aiming for 75 books  and the Popsugar Reading Challenge. I’ll do a quick update here on the state of both challenges.

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Starting with the easier one here… so I set myself the goal of 75 books back in January, and now I’m kind of thinking that I might have to change that. See, It’s the beginning of April, and I’m 43 books ahead of schedule and I’m 83% done with my challenge. So I’m guessing that I should up this challenge soon, because I’ll probably be done this month or in May.

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So far I’ve completed 16 of the 40 categories of this challenge, so I think I’ve been doing good 🙂 . Of course that now the ones left are the hardest, but I won’t think of that.

1. A book based on a fairy tale

2. A National Book Award winner

3. A YA bestseller

4. A book you haven’t read since high school

5. A book set in your home state

6. A book translated to English

7. A romance set in the future

8. A book set in Europe

9. A book that’s under 150 pages

10. A New York Times bestseller

11. A book that’s becoming a movie this year

12. A book recommended by someone you just met

13. A self-improvement book

14. A book you can finish in a day

15. A book written by a celebrity

16. A political memoir

17. A book at least 100 years older than you

18. A book that’s more than 600 pages

19. A book from Oprah’ Book Club

20. A science-fiction novel

21. A book recommended by a family member

22. A graphic novel

23. A book that is published in 2016

24.A book with a protagonist who has your occupation

25. A book that takes place during summer

26. A book and its prequel

27. A murder mystery

28. A book written by a comedian

29. A dystopian novel

30. A book with a blue cover

31. A book of poetry

32. The first book you see in a bookstore

33. A classic from the 20^thcentury

34. A book from the library

35. An autobiography

36. A book about a road trip

37. A book about a culture you’re unfamiliar with

38. A satirical book

39. A book that takes place on an island

40. A book that’s guaranteed to bring you joy

2016 Reading Challenges

For 2016 I’m doing 2 reading challenges: the Goodreads Reading Challenge, where I’m aiming for 75 books (and secretly hoping I reach 100); and the Popsugar Reading Challenge.

I’m quite excited about the Popsugar challenge. I didn’t manage to finish the 2015 one, but I have high hopes for this year. 😀 Who’s with me?

2015 Reading Challenge Wrap-Up

I really wanted to complete this challenge, but it just didn’t happen… ups! Still, I finished books in 39 of the 50 categories, so I’m considering it a win. The goal when I started this challenge was to read a bit more, and I initially aimed for 30 books to read in the whole year, and now, one day from the end of the year, and I’ve surpassed the 90 books read this year, so I’m happy about it!

1. A book with more than 500 pages – City of Heavenly Fire (The Mortal Instruments #6), Cassandra Clare
2. A classic romance – Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. A book that became a movie – Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, Jesse Andrews
4. A book published this year – An Ember in the Ashes, Sabaa Tahir
5. A book with numbers in the title – The One Thing, Marci Lyn Curtis
6. A book written by someone under 30 – A Court of Thorns and Roses, by Sarah J. Maas
7. A book with non-human characters – The Slow Regard of Silent Things, Patrick Rothfuss
8. A funny book – Attachments, Rainbow Rowell 
9. A book by a female author – You had me at hello, Mhairi McFarlane
10. A mystery or thriller – The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss, Max Wirestone
11. A book with a one-word title – Fangirl, Rainbow Rowell
12. A book of short stories – The Bane Chronicles, Cassandra Clare, Sarah Rees Brennan and Maureen Johnson
13. A book set in a different country – The Year of Taking Chances, Lucy Diamond
14. A non-fiction book – Bossypants, Tina Fey and Modern Romance, Aziz Ansari & Eric Klinenberg
15. A popular author’s first book – Eleanor and Park, Rainbow Rowell
16. A book from an author you love but haven’t read yet – Landline, Rainbow Rowell
17. A book a friend recommended – More Happy Than Not, Adam Silvera
18. A Pulitzer-Prize winning book 
19. A book based on a true story – Love at First Type: A Chronicle of Addiction to Online Dating, Robert D. Spake
20. A book at the bottom of your to-read list – Finding Cinderella, Colleen Hoover
21. A book that your mum loves
22. A book that scares you – Throne of Glass, Sarah J. Maas and Crown of Midnight, Sarah J. Maas
23. A book that’s more than 100-years-old – Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen
24. A book based entirely on the cover – Everything, Everything, Nicola Yoon
25. A book you were supposed to read at school but didn’t finish
26. A memoir – Popular: Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Geek, Maya Van Wagenen
27. A book you can finish in a day – Very Good Lives: The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination, J.K. Rowling
28. A book with antonyms in the title
29. A book set in a country you want to visit – The Rosie Project, Graeme Simsion
30. A book that came out the year you were born 
31. A book with bad reviews – Nirvana, J.R. Stewart
32. A trilogy – Shatter Me, Unravel Me, Ignite Me, Tahereh Mafi
33. A book from that reminds you of your childhood – A Whole New World: A Twisted Tale, Liz Braswell
34. A book with a love triangle – To all the boys I’ve loved before, Jenny Han & P.S. I Still Love You, Jenny Han
35. A book set in the future – Armada, Ernest Cline
36. A book set in high school – Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda, Becky Albertalli
37. A book with a color in the title – Red Queen, Victoria Aveyard
38. A book that made you cry – My Heart and Other Black Holes, Jasmine Warga
39. A book with magic – Love in the Time of Global Warming,  Francesca Lia Block
40. A graphic novel – Ms. Marvel, Vol. 1: No Normal, by G. Willow Wilson & Adrian Alphona
41. A book by an author you’ve never read before – The Perfect Match, Katie Fforde
42. A book you own but you’ve never read – Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
43. A book that takes place in your hometown
44. A book that was originally written in a different language
45. A book set during Christmas – Girl Online, Zoe Sugg
46. A book written by an author with your same initials
47. A play 
48. A banned book
49. A book based on or turned into a television show – The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet, Bernie Su and Kate Rorick
50. A book you started but never finished 

 

Finding Cinderella (Colleen Hoover)

This novella is a companion novel to the Hopeless series, but can be read as a standalone.

A chance encounter in the dark leads eighteen-year-old Daniel and the girl who stumbles across him to profess their love for each other. But this love comes with conditions: they agree it will only last one hour and it will only be make-believe. 

When their hour is up and the girl rushes off like Cinderella, Daniel tries to convince himself that what happened between them only seemed perfect because they were pretending it was perfect. Moments like that with girls like her don’t happen outside of fairytales.

One year and one bad relationship later, his disbelief in insta-love is stripped away the day he meets Six: a girl with a strange name and an even stranger personality. Daniel soon realizes the way he pretended to feel about Cinderella and the way he really feels about Six may not be so different after all. Especially when the two loves of his life end up being one in the same. 

Unfortunately for Daniel, finding Cinderella doesn’t guarantee their happily ever after…it only further threatens it.

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This is a novella, that is part of the Hopeless series by Colleen Hoover. I have never read anything by her, and I wasn’t really sure what to expect. But the blurb sounded like a cute fluffy romance, so I went for it – the ebook is free!

I really liked it! It made me want to go back and read the other two books in the series… it’s that good!

I loved Daniel, and his relationship with Six was perfect. They were so cute and different together. I could have read a whole book about them together, 90 pages was not nearly enough.

“I’ve been doing this with her for one day and I have no idea what’s happening. I don’t know if it’s a full moon or if I have a tumor wrapped around my heart or if she really is a witch. Whatever it is still doesn’t explain how this kind of thing can exist between two people that ridiculously fast… and actually last.”

But you just know that other shoe is going to drop, because the blurb says so, but still, when it does, it was not anything I was expecting. I was a bit shocked actually, at what happened, at Daniel’s reaction, at Six’s lack of response, …, everything broke my heart. So, when they finally talk and get through it, I was beyond happy.

I would highly recommend this novella, and I look forward to reading more about these people. My rating will probably rise once I’ve read the other two books.

Rating: 

GoodReads Challenge Completed… Now What?

Just a very quick update here. I just completed my GoodReads 2015 Reading Challenge of 51 books! I finished Queen of Shadows last night, and how fitting that that would be the last book for this challenge. (by the way, Queen of Shadows is amazing, utterly brilliant, and I was a sobbing mess for more than 25% of it – I still have no idea how I’m going to review it…)

Now, back to the issue at hand, there are still 3 months to go on this year, and I have to admit that I get a thrill each time I see that bar in the book count go up just a bit, So… I’m thinking of upping the number, maybe to 75?! What do you guys think?