1) How many books did you read this year? 123
2) Did you meet or beat your own personal goal? Beat goal of 52
3) Favorite book of 2012? (You can list more than one or break it down by genre)
Fiction: Middlemarch and Their Eyes Were Watching God
Non-Fiction: The Diary of Anne Frank
4) Least favorite book of 2012 and why?
Steppenwolf - It is just a yucky book. Strange. I don't care if it is a classic.
The Bluest Eyes is a close second.
5) One book you thought you'd never read and was pleasantly surprised you like it?
The Hunger Games trilogy - I had friends bug me to read them for a long time, and I was pleasantly surprised. It totally fit in with my Dystopian novel phase. Most of my Jesus Community and my kids read them and liked them. (I would love to discuss because most people who put them down don't get the author's point.)
6) One book you thought you'd love but didn't?
Song of Years by Bess Streeter Aldrich
She is so beloved by so many in the Book Babes Book Club. I REALLY wanted to like it, but it was chore to get through, and that is unusual for me. The story just didn't grab me. Too many sweeping years and not enough deeper character development. I had liked her other books, but I didn't like this one. I loved The Rim of the Prairie, but I think this was because it was a tighter time frame, less characters, and a much tighter plot line. Read her, and don't let my evaluation of this one book scare you away. She is a great writer.
7) One book that touched you - made you laugh, cry, sing or dance.
Little Women (reread) - it has all those elements.
8) Any new to you authors discovered and you can't wait to read more of their stories?
Zora Neale Hurston - Their Eyes Were Watching God
What a beautiful writer! I listened to the Ruby Dee narration. PERFECT!
9) Name the longest book you read?
Middlemarch.
Shortest?
The Greatest Thing in the World
10) Name the most unputdownable book you read?
The Hunger Games Trilogy - gobbled them up!
11) Book that had the greatest impact on you this year?
All Quiet on the Western Front - What is war for?
12) What book would you recommend everybody read?
All Quiet on the Western Front
13) Share your most favorite cover(s). I had two:
14) Do you have a character you fell in love with?
David Copperfield (what's not to like?) followed by Dorothea in Middlemarch.
15) What was your most favorite part of the challenge? Did you do any of the mini challenges?
It encouraged me to finish my 100 Great Books List. I liked writing reviews. It helped me think through the books more deeply. I think I did the Dickens mini-challenge. I cannot remember.
What are your goals for the new year?
1. Finish remaining 14 books on the Invitation to the Classics List (Full list linked above):
Ancients - finished 12/12
Medieval - 11/13
- 1400's The Second Shepherd’s Play (tried to read over Christmas but unsuccessful)
- 1536 Institutes of the Christian Religion – Calvin
Early Modern 15/21
- 1633 The Temple – Herbert
- 1670 Pensees – Pascal
- 1746 A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections – Edwards
- 1759 Essays and Rasselas – Johnson
- 1791 The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. – Boswell
- 1787 The Federalist – Hamilton, Madison, Jay (1/4 of the way through but will make it my 4th of July patriotic reading)
Modern 24/30
- 1864 Apologia pro vita sua – John Henry Newman
- 1843 Fear and Trembling – Kierkegaard
- 1888 Twilight of the Idols – Nietzsche
- 1935 Four Quartets – T.S. Eliot
- 1942 Go Down, Moses – Faulkner
- 1950 Waiting for God – Weil
3. Read Dandelion Wine and A Year of Biblical Womenhood: How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof, Covering Her Head, and Calling Her Husband "Master" for the Suburban Readers Group.
What book are you most looking forward to reading in 2013?
Pensees by Blaise Pascal because it is so often quoted in other books. I have started, and it is a bit difficult for me to get through.
1 comment:
Impressive. Good luck with your goals for the new year.
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