2025 Reading Challenge discussion

So I know it is already March which means we are 1/4 done with the year, but I have decided that I am going to do a personal reading challenge. I haven't been reading as much as I would like to so I am going to start out small with 20 books.

1. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
2. The Sun Trail
3. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
4. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
5. Of Mice and Men
6. Hollow City
7. White Teeth (DNF)
8. The Nine Lives of Chloe King
9.Library of Souls
10.Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster
11.Library of Souls
12.The Girls
13.Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
14.Speak
15.The Clique
16.Caraval
17.Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
18.Best Friends for Never
19.Revenge of the Wannabes
20.Uglies
21.Tales of the Peculiar
22.Illuminae
23.Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
24.Fairest of All: A Tale of the Wicked Queen
25.The Isle of the Lost
26.It's Kind of a Funny Story
27.Invasion of the Boy Snatchers
28.The Pretty Committee Strikes Back
29.Dial L for Loser
30.It's Not Easy Being Mean
31.Sealed with a Diss
32.Return to the Isle of the Lost
33.The Sun Is Also a Star
33.Rise of the Isle of the Lost
34.Bratfest at Tiffany's
35.Massie
36.Dylan
37.Pretties
38.The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
39.Alicia
40.Claire
41.P.S. I Loathe You
42.Boys "R" Us
43.These Boots Are Made for Stalking
44.Charmed and Dangerous: The Rise of the Pretty Committee
45.Cuando era Puertoriquena
46.The Catcher in the Rye
47.My Little Phony
47.A Tale of Two Pretties
48.Specials
49.A Study in Charlotte
50.Summer
51.La Travesía de Enrique
52.Extras
53. The Upside of Unrequited
54. It (Currently Reading)

I can't wait to see if I am able to achieve my 20 book goal! Maybe more? **UPDATE** As of July 17, 2017 I have read 20 Books**UPDATE**

***UPDATE*** I am actively updating the list above.***UPDATE***

I am so jealous that you are reading the first Harry Potter book for the first time! :D I hope you are enjoying it. :D

Nik wrote: "I am so jealous that you are reading the first Harry Potter book for the first time! :D I hope you are enjoying it. :D"

So far it's really good!

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by JK Rowling ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

My older sister LOVES this series and has been urging me to read it. I decided to read the first and let me say, I LOVED IT.

The next book I am going to read is Hollow City by Ransom Riggs. I enjoyed the first book so I have high expectations for this one.

Yaaay! Glad you enjoyed it. I'm still sad that Hogwarts isn't real. I keep trying to will it into existence. :D

Alyssa wrote: "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by JK Rowling ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

My older sister LOVES this series and has been urging me to read it. I decided to read the first and let me say, I LOVED IT.

The ne..."

I love Harry Potter books :) My daughter are own books now so I will borrow her books when I can lol. Also Hollow City are good so far. I just finish that book on march 22. Now I am read third novel call Library of Souls.

Nik wrote: "Yaaay! Glad you enjoyed it. I'm still sad that Hogwarts isn't real. I keep trying to will it into existence. :D"

What are you talking about? Hogwarts is real @ Universal! ;)

UPDATE
So school has kept me super busy these last two weeks. I have barely had any time to read. But I see the light at the end of the tunnel (3rd quarter ends next Friday).

I did on the other hand read a book in English so I will be counting this one.

Of Mice and Men ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This book was interesting to say the least. The way Steinbeck writes is so intriguing and he uses such subtle details to hint what will happen at then end of the book. Don't worry, I won't give away any spoilers, but the ending was CRAZY. Now on the other hand, most people in my class would probably give this book 3 stars and I can agree with some of their reasons why. For example, there are parts in the book that were a bit too slow. I, for one, like some action in my book, but there wasn't really any until the end. There were also some things in this book that Steinbeck could probably have done without, but I can also understand why he would want to put them there. Because of these reasons, I had to knock off a star :(. But other than that, it was a great school read!

I am going to try my hardest to squeeze in reading during the next two weeks. Let's hope I can juggle everything in my life XD.

Hollow City by Ransom Riggs ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Just a quick spoiler-free review:
Oh my. This book has messed me up honestly. It sooooo good, but I had to knock off one star because of the photo integration. In the previous book the pictures were really well woven into the story such as places where Jacob sees the photo and shows it to us. In Hollow City however, at random points in the story, we are shown these pictures but it feels sort of forced to me. On the upper hand, this book was well paced and so full of action. AND A CLIFF HANGER AHHHHHH!! (I hate cliff hangers, as do many others). Overall this was a great read, so sad I couldn't give it five stars like its predecessor :(.


Reading Updates: So happy I finally finished another book. School has lessened the work load so I have been having more time to read lately. The next book I will be reading is White Teeth along with other members of the Group. I also have just requested Library of Souls because I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED.

White Teeth by Zadie Smith ⭐️⭐️

When I found out about this book through this group I did a bit of research. From what I looked at, it seemed like this book was out of my genre preference so I decided to give it a chance because one of my goals this year is to step out of my comfort genres. So I dived in. This book had so much potential but at times it was very confusing and very slow. It was hard to keep up with what was going on. I tried so hard to push through it and finish it but I just couldn't do it. I couldn't finish the book. Will I pick up this book again at a later time? Maybe. But I don't know if I will ever finish it.

I have decided that this book will stay on my list of books in my first post but I will personally not count it as a "read" book this year. I am so sad I couldn't force myself to finish it (I shouldn't be forcing myself to read anything anyways) because I really wanted to get more involved in this group. Maybe I'll do a monthly challenge.

Reading Update: I am still waiting for Library of Souls (it takes a while to get books from my library; very annoying at times) and I am going to be out of town for a while so I am picking up a book that has been at the back of my bookshelf for a while. I will be reading the Nine Lives of Chloe King. I believe this is is a trilogy and it just so happens that the copy I own contains all 3 so I am super happy about that.

Hi Alyssa, you shouldn't be forcing yourself to read a book you don't like. Main goal of reading should be to enjoy yourself. And as to participating in this group, there are a lot of ways to do that!
Luckily White Teeth is holding my interest enough for me to finish the book, but it's a very slow read for me too and definitely not my favorite book as well. I hope you will enjoy your next book. Looking forward to hear your thoughts about it!

The Nine Lives of Chloe King by Liz Braswell ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Wow. Just wow. I picked up this book only because it has been sitting on my shelf for ages and I was going on a trip out of town. But I did not expect to be instantly hooked. If I had known that it would have been so enticing, I probably wouldn't have brought it on my trip (how was I supposed to enjoy my surroundings when there was world I could lose myself into in my bag?). Yes, the size of the book was intimidating (it was actually the whole trilogy between two covers) but the time it took me to read three books, THREE books went by so fast.

Yes, others may think that this was a "lovey-dovey" story for teens but the action in the book was so entertaining and captivating. The way Braswell describes the surroundings and the whole world, in general, created such a vivid image in my mind (I may have fallen asleep a couple of times and found myself in that world XD).

Final Thoughts: I really need to read more of the books on my shelf just waiting to be read because this book was a hidden treasure.

Reading Update: I can't believe it. I'm at eight books read and I am currently reading two more books. Do you know what this means? I am almost halfway!
I got the final book in the Peculiar Children trilogy yesterday (finally) so I am super excited to see where Ransom Riggs decided to take this story. The first one was REALLY good but the second was average so hopefully this one is like the first. I also have to read Into Thin Air which is a personal account of a Mount Everest disaster for English. This one is a bit out of my comfort genre being a nonfiction so I am interested in seeing if I enjoy it. Right now I am 30% of the way through and it's different than what I am used to say the least.

Wow. It has been FOREVER since I have typed in this. Just some updates I have read SO MUCH this summer. In total from June-August I read 17 books. That's amazing considering how I started this year! And I completed my goal for this year! YAYYYYYYYY

Also I started school again (2 days ago) so I probably won't be reading as much as I have but definitely more than last school year.

Finally, I am brainstorming how many books I want to read next year. Do I keep it at 20 or do I go higher to 30 or 40? More to come soon ;)

Congratulations on reaching your goal Alyssa!

Susy wrote: "Congratulations on reaching your goal Alyssa!"

Thank you!

Update: Wow. So school is in full force and I have begun my first book in English The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. I definitely have not read as much as I did last month but I am very pleased with how much reading I am doing (don't worry I'm not forcing myself). I have decided how many books I want to read next year but I'm going to keep that a secret until New Year's Eve ;). Currently I am trying to finish the series (is that plural also idk) that I started and did not finish during the summer. That would be
The Clique 12/27
Uglies 2/4
Harry Potter 3/7
Illuminae 1/2 (they are coming out with a third one soon :D)

Then I can start the books I want to read during fall/winter!

Wowza. It's been a while since I've gotten the time to post on this page huh? Well, that's what happens when school is in session! Anyways, I have definitely made myself busy reading all these books. My english class's books haven't necessarily been the best but I'm toughing that out XD.
I finished "The Clique" which let me say; what a guilty pleasure read that was. Wow, middle school cliques are catty. Anyways, I am so happy that I finished that series because now I can move onto another one!
I am currently reading Extras which is the final book in the Uglies series. I'm a bit disappointed that this one doesn't follow Tally because I really wanted to know what happened after the events of Specials. Oh well, maybe it's better that we have a fresh point of view in Extras.
The other book I am currently reading is "La Travesía de Enrique" for my Spanish class. That one is emotionally sad. It's about immigrants (specifically single mothers) and their journeys to America. What a sacrifice. I'm pretty sure there is an English version too. It's tough to read (since I'm not very good at Spanish) but I am slowly making my way through that one.
Well, that's all that is on my mind right now considering books so I'm going to sign off now. Until next time.

OH. MY. GOD. What a great ending to the Uglies series. I've heard from other people that Extras is pretty average but I thought it was amazing (maybe even a bit better than Uglies itself). I am just so happy that some of my favorite characters returned (although in this one they got a bit on my nerves). I have to say, I really enjoyed this book. 5 stars all the way.

So the next book I read was The Upside of Unrequited. I am a huge follower of booktube (shoutout to readbyzoe and haileyinbookland) and this book was brought up a lot so I was interested in this book even though I don't tend to read contemporary. But this book was relatable which is why I practically DEVOURED this book. Even with school I finished the book in two days. The characters were well developed and although the plot is based on a crush there were other underlying conflicts in the story which I appreciated. What a great read.

Now I am on to a monster of a book. "It" by Stephen King. I was scrolling through Amazon and just happened to come upon a good price for such a thick book so I was like "what the heck" so I bought it (wow, I am an impulsive buyer). The book appeared on my porch yesterday just as I finished Upside of Unrequited and I didn't have any other books I was planning on reading just yet so I cracked the book opened and dived on in. It's very detailed. Like VERY detailed. I was not expecting that and I haven't yet gotten to any horror but then again I am only on page 13 so we will see about that.

I'm going to log off now and read some more. So goodbye until next time.

You've killed your goal, Alyssa! Congratulations :)

Ilona wrote: "You've killed your goal, Alyssa! Congratulations :)"

Hahaha thanks! I wasn't really planning on reading this much XD