Reading Challenges

The lists of books I read for any challenges will be updated on this page with links to my reviews.  Newer challenges at the top, older at the bottom so I anticipate this page will grow indefinitely.


Read in 2013:
The Battle of the Labyrinth/The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan (review)
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente (review)
The Secret History by Donna Tartt (review)

The 2014 Tournament of Books


Goal: Read all 17 finalists (hopefully, by end of March 2014, but I'll take the end of the year)
Progress: 2/17

  • At Night We Walk in Circles by Daniel Alarcón
  • The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
  • The Tuner of Silences by Mia Couto
  • The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert
  • How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid
  • The Dinner by Herman Koch
  • The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri
  • Long Division by Kiese Laymon
  • The Good Lord Bird by James McBride
  • Hill William by Scott McClanahan
  • The Son by Philipp Meyer
  • A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki (review)
  • Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell (review)
  • The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
  • The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara
  • Pre-Tournament Playoff Round
    • Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
    • Woke Up Lonely by Fiona Maazel


The Goodreads Challenge 2014


Goal: read 130 books


Goal: read 120 books
Completed: 167 (whee!)





Goal: read 110 books
Completed: 191 (boo-yah)


 The Goodreads Challenge 2011



Goal: read 100 books
Completed: 102 (huzzah!)


The Complete Booker Challenge 2011


"Winner's Circle" level (read six Booker Prize-winning novels):
I tried....not hard enough.




"Winners' Circle" level (read six Booker Prize-winning novels) and a little "Booker Devotee" mixed in if I have time (read all six shortlisted novels from a single year).
Troubles by JG Farrell
The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
Room by Emma Donoghue
The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson


Read at least eight books, at least three of those non-fiction:
A Jury of Her Peers
A Bookshelf of Our Own
Click: When We Knew We Were Feminists
Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History
Girls to the Front (bonus read)


Books that counted toward the challenge percent (goal: 50%):
The Invention of Air
Roseanna
Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human
The Other
The Film Club
The Best American Science Writing 2009
The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2009
The Mysteries of Udolpho
Harry Potter's Bookshelf
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
The Best American Essays 2009
The Post-American World
The Best American Essays 2008
And Then There Were None
A Beautiful Blue Death

Books that didn't count toward the challenge percent:
The Children's Book
Wolf Hall
Hush, Hush
The Mill on the Floss
17 out of 21 is 80.95%.

Banned Books Challenge 2009 (Challenge Unmet)
Intended Challenge Books:
The Satanic Verses
The Naked and the Dead
American Psycho

Finished Challenge Books:
American Psycho