2019 Challenge Update
2019 Reading Challenge
Goodreads Reading Challenge: I aced my Goodreads Challenge this year! I set my goal for 2019 at 190 books. Counting the books I indexed (which I definitely read!), I completed 223 books this year — 33 books more than my goal.
Audiobook Challenge 2019: My goal was 20 books. I finished 13 books, but only reviewed three. I’m partway through another book. I enjoyed all the books I listened to, but I didn’t make my goal. Next year, I will set my sights lower. (Hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer)
- Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation (Cokie Roberts) – new to me
- Something Wonderful: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Broadway Revolution (written and read by Todd S. Purdum) – new to me
- Mary Poppins (P.L. Travers, read by Sophie Thompson) – reread, first listen
- A Wrinkle in Time (Madeleine L’Engle, read by Hope Davis) – reread, first listen
- Mary Poppins Comes Back (P.L. Travers, read by Sophie Thompson) – reread, first listen
- The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (L. Frank Baum, read by Anne Hathaway) – reread, first listen
- The Marriage Spell (Mary Jo Putney, read by Simon Prebble) – reread, first listen
- Code Girls (Liza Mundy, read by Erin Bennett) – new to me
- A Natural History of Dragons (Marie Brennan; read by Kate Reading) – new to me
- Perilous Gard (Elizabeth Marie Pope; read by Jill Tanner) – reread, first listen.
The Backlist Reader Challenge 2019: My goal was 20 backlist books from my TBR. I read 29, so I met my goal… but I only reviewed six, which is abysmal. Here are the ones I read but didn’t review:
- Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation (Cokie Roberts) – audiobook
- Lies By Moonlight (Amanda Quick)
- Born in Fire (Nora Roberts)
- A Stash of One’s Own (Clara Parkes)
- Birthright (Nora Roberts)
- The Spinner’s Book of Yarn Designs (Sarah Anderson)
- Code Girls (Liza Mundy) – audiobook
- The Rosemary Tree (Elizabeth Goudge) – reread, but more than 10 years ago
- Haunted (Heather Graham)
- Ghost Walk (Heather Graham)
- The Presence (Heather Graham)
- The Diamond Throne (David Eddings) – reread, but more than 10 years ago
- The Ruby Knight (David Eddings) – reread, but more than 10 years ago
- The Sapphire Rose (David Eddings) – reread, but more than 10 years ago
- The Uninvited (Heather Graham)
- The Unseen (Heather Graham)
- The Unspoken (Heather Graham)
- he Night is Watching (Heather Graham)
- The Night is Alive (Heather Graham)
- The Night is Forever (Heather Graham)
- The Cursed (Heather Graham)
- The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Becky Chambers)
- The Betrayed (Heather Graham)
Blogger Shame Challenge 2019: My goal was to review 10 ARCs (review copies) that were more than 4 months overdue. I totally flunked this challenge. I didn’t get a single way-overdue review written. (hangs head) Hopefully I can do better in 2020.
2019 Library Love Challenge: I read 28 library books this year, so I surpassed my goal of 12 library books. But again, I’ve been pretty bad about posting reviews this year. Below are the books I read but haven’t yet reviewed. Some I still hope to review; others I will skip. (Note that some overlap with other challenges.)
- Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation (Cokie Roberts) – audiobook
- I’d Rather Be Reading (Anne Bogel)
- A Stash of One’s Own (Clara Parkes, ed.)
- Birthright (Nora Roberts)
- The Spinners Book of Yarn Designs (Sarah Anderson)
- Montana Sky (Nora Roberts) – reread
- Mary Poppins Comes Back (P. L. Travers) – audiobook
- Code Girls (Liza Mundy) – audiobook
- The Hills Have Spies (Mercedes Lackey) – ebook
- Ghost Walk (Heather Graham)
- All Shall Be Well (Deborah Crombie) – ebook; reread
- Under Currents (Nora Roberts)
- The Stalking (Heather Graham)
- The Uninvited (Heather Graham) – ebook
- The Unseen (Heather Graham) – ebook
- The Unholy (Heather Graham) – ebook
- The Unspoken (Heather Graham) – ebook
- he Night is Watching (Heather Graham) – ebook
- The Night is Alive (Heather Graham) – ebook
- The Night is Forever (Heather Graham) – ebook
- The Cursed (Heather Graham) – ebook
- The Betrayed (Heather Graham) – ebook
POPSugar 2019 Reading Challenge: I completed at least 22 of the 50 prompts. But I haven’t written reviews for most of them yet. (Are you sensing a theme here?) Luckily, I was only doing this challenge for fun, so I’m not worried that I didn’t check off all the prompts.
Read: 22/ 50 of the following prompts. (Links go to my reviews.)
- A book becoming a movie in 2019 – Little Women (Louisa May Alcott) (reread)
- A book that makes you nostalgic – Something Wonderful (Todd S. Purdum)
- A book written by a musician (fiction or nonfiction)
- A book you think should be turned into a movie – The Liar (Nora Roberts) (reread)
- A book with at least one million ratings on Goodreads
- A book with a plant in the title or on the cover – Death and Daisies (Amanda Flower)
- A reread of a favorite book – Locked Rooms (Laurie R. King)
- A book about a hobby – Start Spinning (Maggie Casey)
- A book you meant to read in 2018 – The Hills Have Spies (Mercedes Lackey)
- A book with POP, SUGAR, or CHALLENGE in the title – Mary Poppins (P. L. Travers) (reread)
- A book with an item of clothing or accessory on the cover – The Game (Laurie R. King) (reread)
- A book inspired by myth/legend/folklore – Perilous Gard (Elizabeth Marie Pope) (reread)
- A book published posthumously
- A book you see someone reading on TV or in a movie
- A retelling of a classic
- A book with a question in the title
- A book set on college or university campus
- A book about someone with a superpower
- A book told from multiple POVs – The Harp of Kings (Juliet Marillier)
- A book set in space – The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Becky Chambers)
- A book by two female authors
- A book with SALTY, SWEET, BITTER, or SPICY in the title
- A book set in Scandinavia
- A book that takes place in a single day
- A debut novel
- A book that’s published in 2019 – The Best of Us (Robyn Carr)
- A book featuring an extinct or imaginary creature – A Natural History of Dragons (Marie Brennan)
- A book recommended by a celebrity you admire
- A book with LOVE in the title – The Viscount Who Loved Me (Julia Quinn)
- A book featuring an amateur detective – Death with Dostoevsky (Katherine Bolger Hyde)
- A book about a family – The 101 Dalmations (Dodie Smith)
- A book by an author from Asia, Africa, or South America
- A book with a zodiac sign or astrology term in title
- A book that includes a wedding – The Designs of Lord Randolph Cavanaugh (Stephanie Laurens)
- A book by an author whose first and last names start with the same letter
- A ghost story – The Sherwood Ring (Elizabeth Marie Pope)
- A book with a two-word title – Devil’s Daughter (Lisa Kleypas)
- A novel based on a true story
- A book revolving around a puzzle or game
- Your favorite prompt from a past POPSUGAR Reading challenge
- A “cli-fi” (climate fiction) book
- A “choose-your-own-adventure” book
- An “own voices” book – Rebel (Beverly Jenkins)
- Read a book during the season it is set in – The Last Moriarty (Charles Veley)
- A LitRPG book
- A book with no chapters / unusual chapter headings / unconventionally numbered chapters
- Two books that share the same title (1)
- Two books that share the same title (2)
- A book that has inspired a common phrase or idiom
- A book set in an abbey, cloister, monastery, convent or vicarage
Overall… I’m happy with my total number of books read. I completed several of my challenges, notably The Backlist Reader Challenge and the Library Love Challenge. But I set my sights too high on the Audiobook Challenge, and bombed the Blogger Shame Challenge. I’ll have to rethink both of those next year.
Angela
That’s great that you completed so many challenges! Some are just harder than others.
Nicole @ BookWyrmKnits
It’s great that you got a lot of reading done, even if you didn’t always get reviews written!
Nicole @ BookWyrmKnits recently posted…Happy New Year!
Lark
Posting reviews on everything you read can be really hard. I totally suck at it. I think that’s why I struggle with reading challenges sometimes. Congrats on getting so many awesome books read in 2019. 😀
Lark recently posted…My bookish goals for 2020…
Katherine @ I Wish I Lived in a Library
Great job! I stumbled pretty badly in 2019 with my reading so I’m skipping all challenges and really lowering my Goodreads goal.
Cleo @ Mysteries and Memoirs
Nice effort for all of them! I see a few titles I’d like to add to my wish-for-list. Challenges are meant to be fun so it seems you had a lot of fun reading this past year.
Anne - Books of My Heart
I think you did great. More importantly, you read some wonderful books! Good luck in 2020!
I did all the challenges last year. This year I’m co-hosting Library Love and making a custom plan for myself with Bookish Resolutions. Of course, I’ll always do COYER.
Anne – Books of My Heart recently posted…Read-along & Giveaway: Moon Called by Patricia Briggs