Yearly Wrap Up

I'm pretty proud of my reading this year.

Back to the Classics: I finished this challenge with ten days to spare. I stuck to my list fairly well, only changing out one book from the original list. As I look over the list, I find it's hard to pick which was my favorite. I enjoyed so many of the books I read for the challenge this year. I disliked Murder on the Orient Express, The Count of Monte Cristo, and Wide Sargasso Sea. I was fairly apathetic about Song of the Lark. But I relatively enjoyed all the others. I'd say 8 out of 12 is pretty fantastic!

Personal Reading Challenge 1: I made a goal for myself to read all of David Mitchell's novels in order because he considers his novels to be part of one Uber Novel. This was a very interesting exercise. Overall, I was underwhelmed while reading most of his novels. But when I finished the latest novel, I had the urge to go ahead and reread most of them over again. Maybe not Black Swan Green. That one was super dull. But Ghostwritten and Jacob de Zoet both need a reread, as I think a lot of stuff in those came back around in Bone Clocks.

Personal Reading Challenge 2: This is unfinished. I started reading books of of my To Be Read List. And by my To Be Read List, I mean one of my to be read lists, since I have various ones. I'm the type of person that, once I make a list, the chances of me actually reading from it are slim to none. So I started. This specific list is primarily readalikes to a book I read a couple years ago and loved. The first two novels on the list were fantastic! Then the next two books were rough. I didn't finish either of them. The last book I had planned on reading is on my nightstand, but for the moment, I think I'm going to return it and try again next year. I'm a bit gunshy at the moment.

2018 Nonfiction Challenge: My reading challenges seemed pretty light, so I added this one in late January and promptly fell off the wagon. Nonfiction just isn't in my wheelhouse. I'm okay with the fact I never finished it. Some ideas I had for this made there way into other challenges for next year and some are completely gone.

All in all, I feel pretty good about this. Even though I didn't finish all these challenges, I read many more books than were in these challenges. My parents and I did a book club. I read a number of children's novels for work. So I will consider this year a win.