The Reading Challenge Group discussion

I'm planning to complete the 50/50 challenge this year. It's a year long challenge that encourages people to read 50 books and watch 50 movies in a year. 2014 will be the year I'll finally complete it!

I'm also planning to take part in the Genre challenge of this group. I'll set a goal of reading two books from the genre of each month.

I'm also thinking of doing an alphabet challenge and read 26 books I've never read before with the title starting with each letter of the alphabet.

I'm sort of a challenge addict and I tend to start as many challenges as I can think of, but I usually fail to complete them. I'm planning to change that this year and finish what I start with success.

50/50 Challenge:
Start date: Jan 1. 2014
End date: Dec 31. 2014

Books read: 4/50
Movies watched: 15/50

Books:
1. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
2. Sinuhe egyptiläinen by Mika Waltari
3. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
4. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
5...

Movies:
1. The A-Team
2. Zoolander
3. Parker
4. Stargate
5. The Golden Compass
6. Office Space
7. Bridesmaids
8. Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
9. Star Trek Into Darkness
10. Lone Ranger
11. Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
12. Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
13. Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
14. The Croods
15. Blue Jasmine
16.
17.
18.
19.
20...

Genre Challenge
Start date: Jan 1. 2014
End date: Dec, 31. 2014

Books read: 2/24

January
1. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (DONE Jan 20)
2. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
3. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (DONE Jan 26)

February
1. RSVP by Helen Warner
2. Lessons in French by Hilary Reyl
3. Can You Keep a Secret? by Sophie Kinsella

March
1.
2.

April
1.
2.

May
1.
2.

June
1.
2.

July
1.
2.

August
1.
2.

September
1.
2.

October
1.
2.

November
1.
2.

December
1.
2.

The Alphabet Challenge
Start Date: Jan 1. 2014
End date: Dec 31. 2014

Books Read: 4/26

A - Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
B - The Brightest Star in the Sky by Marian Keyes
C ✔ Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
D - The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio
E - Emma by Jane Austen
F - The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
G - The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fizgerald
H - The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
I - Invitation to Provence by Elizabeth Adler
J - Jack and Jill by Lucy Cavendish
K - Killed At The Whim Of A Hat by Colin Cotterill
L - Lessons in French by Hilary Reyl
M - Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ranson Riggs
N - NW by Zadie Smith
O ✔ The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
P - Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Q - Quidditch Through the Ages by J.K. Rowling
R - RSVP by Helen Warner
S ✔ Sinuhe egyptiläinen by Mika Waltari
T ✔ A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
U - The Understudy by David Nicholls
V - Vadelmavenepakolainen by Miika Nousiainen
W - The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year by Sue Townsend
X - XVI by Julia Karr
Y - You Suck by Christopher Moore
Z - Zoo by James Patterson

I will take full liberty to change the books if I feel like it. I would see this list more as a guideline.

Good luck! :-)

I'll definitely be following your challenge closely, Inkeri. It sounds like a very interesting challenge!

Nice challenges! Good luck, Inkeri. :)

Am completing my A-Z challenge this year with any luck it has been an excellent excuse to try new authors.

Who hosts that 50/50 Challenge. I've never seen 50 movies in one year before. Hmmmm. :O)

Sending good challenge completing vibes your way! Happy New year!

Thank you all for your support! :)

LuAnn, the 50/50 challenge is hosted by people called Lilly and Jon. You should check the official challenge site for more info - www.fiftyfifty.me. It's a cool challenge!

Inkeri wrote: "Thank you all for your support! :)

LuAnn, the 50/50 challenge is hosted by people called Lilly and Jon. You should check the official challenge site for more info - www.fiftyfifty.me. It's a cool ..."

Thanks!

The 50/50 challenge is a great idea! Best of luck on both goals.

I just finished my first book of the year. I read The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman and I really liked it!

Awesome Inkeri! Glad you liked it. I read that one last year and enjoyed it. :)

The 50/50 book/movie challenge sounds like such a cool idea. I'm already a movie junkie so watching 50 movies sounds great to me! Maybe I'll change my challenge around.

Good luck with all your very cool challenges Inkeri! I'll be interested to see what films you choose.

Good luck Inkeri! I have been doing the alphabet challenge for a while now (like you, I am a challenge addict!). It's all good fun!

I read zoo a couple months ago.......really enjoyed it

@Lori - Watching 50 movies in a year has always been easy for me. I watch enough movies and due to Netflix and some of the movie channels on our TV getting the 50 movies won't be hard. I'll keep you posted.

@Lucy - Yeah, it sure is good fun. I've done the A-Z challenge a couple of times before, but this time I decided I wouldn't allow any re-reads on my list, so I would read more books that are new to me. I re-read a lot of books. I usually re-read the Harry Potter series and the Sookie Stackhouse series every year, and on top of those I re-read the books of Marian Keyes, which I love. So, in order to introduce me to something new I made the list of books I've never read before. I can't wait to be finished with the list! :)

@Amber - I read the blurb on the book's Goodreads page and thought I would probably like it too. I hope I do! :)

Hey guys!

I just thought I'd let you know that I have a blog where I blog whatever I feel like talking about. I blogged every day for a year, but that stage of my blogging life is all over. Now I try to blog about three times a week about stuff that interest me or things I've been doing lately.

I also have another blog that I started two years ago when I first attempted to complete the 50/50 challenge, but I didn't really update it too much. Now that I'm serious about the challenge again I thought I'd bring that blog to life again and started writing my book and movie reviews there.

So if you're interested check them out!
My Thought Exactly is my main blog and Movies/Books - The Challenge is the blog that concentrates on completing the 50/50 challenge.

Hope you'd all pay a visit and follow my blogs if you like them!

Nice blog on the movies and book challenge Inkeri! ^_^

Thanks Amber! I'm glad you liked it! :)

I just finished my second book, Sinuhe egyptiläinen by Mika Waltari, and I liked it! I've also watched two movies this week!

48 books and 48 movies to go!

Oh no! The A-Team? Zoolander? OMG! Please don't subject yourself to such a lopsided treatment. Try to watch movies as good as your books. Sincerely, Luffy.

Luffy wrote: "Oh no! The A-Team? Zoolander? OMG! Please don't subject yourself to such a lopsided treatment. Try to watch movies as good as your books. Sincerely, Luffy."

I'm glad you approve of my choice of books, but sad you don't think the movies are worth to see. :) Yes, they aren't the best the movie industry can offer, but they were perfect for my mood at that moment.

For future reference, I have multiple movie channels on my TV and I'm also in love with Netflix, which means I have access to a lot of movies. Sometimes I watch something great and amazing, but sometimes I just want to let my brain cool off. Zoolander was perfect for that by the way. :)

And please don't judge my movie taste based on the list I make. I will add every movie I see on that list whether I like it or not. If you want to know what I thought of the movies I've seen (or the books I've read), please read my thoughts on my blog.

I understand, Inkeri, and I hope you show some variety. After all, you're going to watch about 50 movies this year. Make them count. Your blog is lovely. Good luck for future viewing!

if you need any movie reccomendations, let me know. I've seen some pretty good films too. :) good luck on your book and movie challenge inkeri.

Luffy wrote: "After all, you're going to watch about 50 movies this year. Make them count. Your blog is lovely. Good luck for future viewing!"

Last year I made it to almost 100, and I'm sure the number will be bigger than 50 by the end of the year. I'm sure I'll show you variety. Great that you thought of my blog as lovely. :)

Amber wrote: "if you need any movie reccomendations, let me know"

I always welcome recommendations! Fire away!

Amber wrote: "if you need any movie reccomendations, let me know. I've seen some pretty good films too. :) good luck on your book and movie challenge inkeri."

What's your most favorite movie Amber? For me it's 12 Angry Men.

Inkeri wrote: "Great that you thought of my blog as lovely. :)"

Yeah, the layout, the colors, the content, I liked them all. I love the length of your reviews. I hope you get plenty of new visitors.

My top three favorite films of all time Luffy are Ferris Bueller's Day off, Dirty Dancing, and 2001 Maniacs. Those are my fave films to check out.

Last year I enjoyed the films From Up on Poppy Hill, Upside Down, Quartet, Dawn of the Dragonslayer, Struck by Lightning, Robot & Frank, Perks of being a wallflower and Ruby Sparks. I've seen more than that though as I watched and reviewed a movie a week for friends and family. these are pretty good though.

I must admit I haven't seen any of your titles! I've heard of your first two movies, that it. I used to watch a lot of movies before I got tired of wading through insipid or confusing films. I prefer books these days. Anyway thanks for the reply, see ya.

EDIT : It's 12:51 AM here. Good night from me. :-)

No prob Luffy. It's 2:52 pm CST here. Have a good night. :)