I think I was a little too hopeful in attempting to complete two challenges in one year. However, that being said, I really liked doing the challenges. I didn’t finish them, but I had fun. I have never done a reading challenge before and it really helped me expand my reading selections. It also helped me read some books that I had been intending to read but never got around to reading. The only thing I didn’t like about the challenges was that I found books that I normally would have just picked up and read, but since they didn’t fit on my challenge list anywhere I placed them aside for later. I think in 2016 I’m only going to do one challenge so that I can read these books as well. Also, for some of the challenges, I just could not find a book I liked for it at all. Therefore, there were certain challenges I just decided not to complete because I was not going to force myself to read something I didn’t enjoy or even like.
Top Five Books I Read for the Challenges:
- Naked in Death by J. D. Robb
- Heart’s Blood by Juliet Marillier
- The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
- However Long the Night by Aimee Molloy
Books I read that I ended up not liking:
- When the Wind Blows by James Patterson
- Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories by Sandra Cisneros
- Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
- The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving
- Jane Slayre by Charlotte Brontë and Sherri Browning Erwin
Book I was surprised by:
- However Long the Night by Aimee Molloy
- The Hobbit: Graphic Novel by J.R.R. Tolkien, Adapted by Charles Dixon and Sean Deming, Illustrated by David Wenzel
- The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
- The Harry Potter Series by J. K. Rowling
- The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle
- The Haunting of Maddy Clare by Simone St. James
- The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde