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Monday, December 11, 2017

Reading Challenges Scorecard

Pick Your Genre


Well it's time for me to take stock of how I did on my reading challenges for 2017. I did three challenges this year- the Pick Your Genre hosted by Herding Cats and Burning Soup, the Cloak and Dagger challenge hosted by Books, Movies, Reviews Oh My!, and the Dystopia challenge hosted by Cornerfolds. So how did I do? Well... I did just fine on the latter two, but the Pick Your Genre- not so well. I picked urban fantasy because I wanted to read more of it this year, and for whatever reason I failed badly! So let's break it down below. 

Pick Your Genre- my goal was 12 UF's and I read... 5. Yup only 5. For some reason I noticed that I read 4 of them early in the year, and my reading focus changed I guess as the year went on. The only reason I got 5 was because the 5th one was a sequel and I basically read it right when it came out. Zounds. 

Here's what I read:

Freeks by Amanda Hocking
Moon Called by Patricia Briggs
Winter of the Gods by Jordanna Max Brodsky 
The Wanderers by Kate Ormand
The Pack by Kate Ormand

So that's it... FAIL. 

Cloak and Dagger- this is a mystery/ thriller challenge. I went with Detective level (16-25 books) and I made it. Easily, since I read a ton of thrillers this time. 25!! I was actually close to the next level, but I'll take that. Here's what I read in this category. 

Lost Girls by Merri DeStefano
How Will I Know You? by Jessica Treadway
A Darkness Absolute by Kelley Armstrong
The Winter Over by Matthew Iden
Distress Signals by Catherine Ryan Howard
Refuge for Masterminds by Kathleen Baldwin
Dead Girls Society by Michelle Krys
Blood Tide by Claire McGowan
Gone Without A Trace by Mary Torjussen
Missing by Kelley Armstrong
I Found You by Lisa Jewell
What She Saw by Gerard Stembridge
One Of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus
Grit by Gillian French
Dangerous Girls by Abigail Haas
The Secret History Of Us by Jessi Kirby
A Map for Wrecked Girls by Jessica Taylor
The Lying Game by Ruth Ware
The Good Neighbor by A.J.Banner
Emma in the Night by Wendy Walker
Friend Request by Laura Marshall
Wreck by Ferris Fleur
The Breakdown by B.A.Paris
The Blackbird Season by Kate Moretti
Everything but the Truth by Gillian McAllister

Dystopian- here I went for Rebel (6-10 books) and was right in the middle with 8 books. Only 8 dystopians- all year?? That surprised me a little. I did okay on the optional bingo category, with  7 entries (I almost got a bingo but missed by one). Here's what I read.

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
Rising Tides by Katy Haye (Bingo- natural disaster)
Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty (Bingo- set in space)
The Rains by Gregg Hurwitz (Bingo- zombies)
Brave New Girl by Rachel Vincent 
Starship by Brian Aldiss (Bingo- one word title)
This Is Not A Test by Courtney Summers (Bingo- scary)
Warcross by Marie Lu (Bingo- swoon worthy romance)

So... this was the year of the thriller for me apparently. But I enjoyed what I read so it all worked out. I don't normally do challenges and I probably won't in 2018- too much to keep track of- but it was fun this year. 

33 comments:

  1. I don't set genre challenges but I think I had an epic fail with series catch up! I did get the Morganville Vampires done but it literally took me all year! Next year I think I'll only do the Goodreads Challenge and try mood reading with the odd themed week or two thrown in!

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    1. Yeah I'm not big on challenges (I'd rather just read, review and move on) but I decided to try this year and it was fun. I'm with you, I like to mood read.

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  2. I signed up for the contemporary romance challenge, but if I was being honest with myself, that's not really a challenge. =) You did great with the mysteries, and I think there were tons of great ones out there this year. I even read some.

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    1. Thanks, and it WAS a great year for those psychological thrillers, I read several good ones!

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  3. This year I've read a ton of mysteries and thrillers as well and I've loved it! Congrats on reading so many great books!

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  4. In my opinion, you did quite well, the only challenge I do is the Goodreads one. I think it depends on the year, though, this one was particularly busy for me, so I struggled a bit more than usual . . . Fingers crossed for a better reading experience next year!

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    1. Thanks! And yes good luck with next year!!!

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  5. You did great this year and I'm really glad you enjoyed Cloak & Dagger. We'll miss you next year if you don't participate and we are planning a cool Murder Mystery game this year if you can be tempted!

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    1. I'll miss Cloak and Dagger too, and who knows I may change my mind. :) I just realized you co- host with stormi, I'm sorry I neglected that! It is a fun challenge! And the Murder Mystery game sounds awesome, I'll have to keep an eye out for that!

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  6. Great job on your challenges! And it's awesome that you enjoyed so many of the books you read. I think I read a lot of thrillers this year, too!

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    1. It was definitely the year of thrillers for me!

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  7. You win some, you lose some and it looks like you had a successful time with the cloak and dagger challenge. Wow! Color me impressed :)

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    1. Thanks Sarah! I did feel pretty good about the C&D challenge.

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  8. You did great on two challenges and it’s awesome. You seem to have a great reading year this year. I don’t do any challenge this year but I did set a goal in the beginning to read 100 books but I didn’t reach it. Hopefully, next year. Have a wonderful week, my friend. 😁❤️

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    1. It was a pretty good reading year, all things considered! Aww sorry about the goal but these things are flexible, right? :) You too!!!

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  9. Great job, plus as far as the "fail" on the Urban Fantasy goes... you wanted to read more of it so even one book is more of that genre, ha ha. You have to play the glad game. :D

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  10. Great job! I haven't read any UF in forever, but I do like the genre. I'm a big mystery/thriller fan, so I'd probably do well on that too. I like challenges, but you're right, they can be hard to keep track of. There are a few that I might end up doing in 2018 though; we'll see!

    -Lauren
    www.shootingstarsmag.net

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    1. Yeah they can be hit or miss. I think three was the right number for me. Good luck with any that you choose to do!!!

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  11. Way to go! Two out of three isn’t bad at all! I never do challenges because I fail too much and I get discouraged but they’re sure tempting.

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  12. Looks like you did a pretty good job to me! :)

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  13. Two out of three is good, Greg. I sometimes struggle when I do a genre specific challenge. Especially in one I don't read much of. I see you left a description for Blake Crouch's book blank. Anyone who has read his books knows the word is disturbing. LOL He likes to deliver gut punches.

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  14. Great job! It's funny how our reading tends to go in patterns and we don't really recognize it at the time.

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  15. You did really well, especially considering you had a big reason to NOT read for awhile! Also, you can add The Hunger Games to your dystopian challenge as soon as you're done, so there's that too! I feel you with the challenges, too. Every year I look at them, think "wow, these look so fun!" and then... never do them. I mean, I host one and I don't even do it, so that should tell you how I feel about them hahah. Fabulous in theory, but too stressful for me in practice. I'll just stick to Goodreads!

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  16. Hmm, now that you mention it, this year I was light on Urban Fantasy too. I'm chalking it up to not as many new releases in the series I follow, since a few of them ended last year and another couple more are taking a break. I haven't been picking up a lot of new UF series either, guess I've been much pickier this year!

    ~Mogsy @ BiblioSanctum

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  17. Oooh! I like the sound of the pic-you-genre challenge. I really want to start diving into different genres next year. Just keep reading the same things over and over and over again.... :)

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  18. You did really good! You certainly did better than I would have. :)

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  19. Where do you find all of these reading challenges?! I've been thinking about participating in a few during 2018! I'm happy you met most of your goals!

    Do You Dog-ear?

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  20. Two out of three ain't bad ;-) And wow, you were really into thrillers this year! Maybe you'll finally get to those UF books next year :-)

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  21. I'm surprised it was only 25 thrillers! It seemed like you read A LOT lol

    But I think you did great all around even if you didn't hit every goal.

    That was a genre I really wanted to read more of this year but only read one. Next year!

    For What It's Worth

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  22. You did great with your challenges! I have had that happen where I thought I might read more of one genre but then I ended up in a mood for something else. :)

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  23. Not bad! I've so done that with picking one challenge and then my focus shifting to something else. lol

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