Reading List image credit
It’s almost mid-year. Time to take stock of the many reading challenges in progress or finished. In another post I’ll show how I’m doing in the on-going challenges and with my reading goals for 2022.
FINNISHED CHALLENGES
Japanese Literature Challenge
My reviews are linked.
The Cat Who Saved Books: A Novel by Sosuke Natsukawa
J-Boys: Kazu’s World, Tokyo, 1965 by Shogo Oketani, translated by Avery Fisher Udagawa
Tales From the Cafe by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
Reading Ireland Month
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
The Statement: A Novel by Brian Moore
Although read after Reading Ireland Month, if you like Irish authors you may want to see my review of the new book, Did Ye Hear Mammy Died? by Seamus O’Reilly.
Wales Readathon
Sugar & Slate by Charlotte Williams
How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn (Included in spite of the controversy about him)
The Fortune Men: A Novel by Nadifa Mohamed
Reading Daphne Du Maurier Week
Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne Du Maurier
1954 Club
Mary Anne by Daphne Du Maurier
LONG-TERM CHALLENGES TALLIES
All-time Classics Club Tally
CC Spin #22 in 2020 was my first Spin. I have not stuck to the same list–I’ve had to tweak it do to time restraints. Many classics are huge and don’t lend themselves to my speed of reading in the short Spin time frame. And long audios can be exhausting. Here is what I’ve finished in the Spins. Twice I picked books I did not finish. I’ve finished other that I did not include here since they were not read in Spins.
- Groves of Academe by Mary McCartney
- Jamaica Inn by Daphne Du Maurier (I’ve read several others but this is the only one for a Spin)
- Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
- Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
- Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
- Passage to India by EM Forster
- Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
- Making of a Marchioness by Frances Hodgson Burnett
- Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck
Backlist Challenge–a Challenge I Set Myself
I’ve been working through the backlist of some authors I like.
Barbara Pym–4 read
Muriel Spark–5 read
Daphne Du Maurier–7 read
Agatha Christie–9 read
Dick Francis/Felix Francis–12 read
Anne Tyler–have read most still have a few missed in busy years of my life
David McCullough (nonfiction)–7 read
Doris Kearns Goodwin (nonfiction)–most
JoJo Moyes–6 books before I stopped due to the plagiarism controversy in Giver of Stars
Two Publishers Whose Lists I’m Reading
Persephone Books–9 read
Dean Street Press/Furrowed Middlebrow–8 read
Reading the World
The original premise of the blogger A Year of Reading the World who started this was to read an AUTHOR from each country. (She has an new, updated edition of her book of the same title out now, too Note: this is a UK link). I’ve settled for reading a book set in each country, but some are also by authors from that country, such as my most recent book read for this challenge, The Sixteen Trees of the Somme, set in Norway and translated into English from Norwegian. Coming soon: My list of books read for this challenge. (I do not track USA or UK–too many).
71 Countries “Read”
This is the list of countries I use: Britannica Countries of the World but I’ve added Scotland and Wales.
I finished Reading Across the USA last year. Here is my post with a book for each state (it also includes D.C. and Puerto Rico).
Do you enjoy geeky book nerd posts like this? Obviously I do! I’ve never met a book list I didn’t like. While I have almost zero knowledge of statistics, I do like tracking my reading in many ways. I know–nearly as geeky as the Duke of Kent keeping track of the amount of time each opera performance he sees takes, right? Leave me a comment about your own geeky book fun or give me a link to your post like this one. I love to see what others read and how/if they track it all.