You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion

I noticed last year that I aimed a lot at reading for the yearly challenge, which was lots of fun, but it also meant I didn't get round to books I own and really really want to read, or reading actual paper books that I've owned for a while.

So, for 2015, I want to read the following every month:
1 YLTO group read
1 YLTO monthly challenge
1 YLTO serial challenge
1 stand-alone book that I'm very excited about, just for fun / book that I own in paper

Any hours left in each month will be spent on either series or on books that I really want to read.


Unread books on my real-life bookshelves (not part of a series)
✔ The Invention of Wings
✔ The Song of Achilles
✔ The Miniaturist
✔ A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar
On the Edge of Darkness
The Secret River
✔ Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man
✔ Forrest Gump
✔ The Call of the Weird: Travels in American Subcultures
Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook
✔ The Crown Tower
✔ The Rose and the Thorn
✔ The Secret Keeper
✔ Long Way Round: Chasing Shadows Across the World
✔ Long Way Down
The Lieutenant
The Girl with the Pearl Earring
Catch a Fire: The Life of Bob Marley
The Kite Runner
And the Mountains Echoed
The Paris Wife
22 Britannia Road
The Promise
The Nightingale


Owned ebooks that I really really want to read (not part of a series)
✔ The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender
✔ The Silence of Bonaventure Arrow
Memoirs of a Geisha
✔ My Name is Mary Sutter
Those Who Save Us
Mornings in Jenin
The Invisible Bridge
Rooftops of Tehran
The Lavender Garden
The Glass Castle
The Rose Garden
Mariana
The Art of Hearing Heartbeats
The Lost Wife
✔ Bridge of Scarlet Leaves
Orphan Train
The Golem and the Jinni
The Dry Grass of August
Winter Garden
✔ Life After Life
The Lost Hours
The Elegance of the Hedgehog
✔ Looking for Alaska
Sweetsmoke
✔ Cold Sassy Tree
The Secret Life of Bees
The Violets of March
✔ The Silver Linings Playbook
The Thread
The Husband's Secret
✔ The Orphan Sky
The Absolutist
✔ The House at Riverton
The Distant Hours



✔ = read
# = scheduled to read / currently reading
* = read for more than one purpose

January
YLTO Group Read:
✔ Dragonsong
YLTO Monthly Challenge:
✔ The Little Prince
YLTO Serial Challenge:
✔ Two Old Fools on a Camel: From Spain to Bahrain and Back Again
✔ Drums of Autumn
* Dragonsong
Stand-alone/owned book:
✔ The Orphan Sky

February
YLTO Group Read:
✔ Life After Life
YLTO Monthly Challenge:
* Life After Life
YLTO Serial Challenge:
✔ Two Old Fools In Spain Again
✔ Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!
✔ Can't Wait to Get to Heaven
✔ Dragonsinger
Stand-alone/owned book:
✔ Het voedsellabyrint
✔ The Housekeeper and the Professor
✔ The Invention of Wings

March
YLTO Group Read:
✔ Room
YLTO Monthly Challenge:
✔ Cold Sassy Tree
YLTO Serial Challenge:
✔ Dragondrums
Stand-alone/owned book:
✔ The House at Riverton
✔ The Call of the Weird: Travels in American Subcultures
✔ The Crown Tower

April
YLTO Group Read:
✔ Long Way Round: Chasing Shadows Across the World
YLTO Monthly Challenge:
✔ Bridge of Scarlet Leaves
YLTO Serial Challenge:
✔ Mammy Walsh's A-Z of the Walsh Family
✔ The Mystery of Mercy Close
✔ The Spirit Thief
✔ The Spirit Rebellion
Stand-alone/owned book:
-

May
YLTO Group Read:
✔ The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
YLTO Monthly Challenge:
✔ The Blood of Flowers
YLTO Serial Challenge:
*The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
✔ The Fiery Cross
✔ The Spirit Eater
Stand-alone/owned book:
-

June
YLTO Group Read:
✔ The Miniaturist
YLTO Monthly Challenge:
✔ The Ship of Brides
YLTO Serial Challenge:
✔ Forrest Gump
✔ Hexed
Stand-alone/owned book:
✔ The Silver Linings Playbook

July
YLTO Group Read:
✔ The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender
YLTO Monthly Challenge:
✔ Blueberry Muffin Murder
YLTO Serial Challenge:
✔ The Spirit War
✔ Spirit's End
✔ Hammered
✔ The Shadow of the Wind
Stand-alone/owned book:
✔ A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar

August
YLTO Group Read:
-
YLTO Monthly Challenge:
✔ Long Way Down
YLTO Serial Challenge:
✔ The Magician's Nephew
✔ The Golden Compass
Stand-alone/owned book:
✔ Looking for Alaska
✔ The Shadowy Horses
✔ The Song of Achilles
✔ The Rose and the Thorn

September
YLTO Group Read:
✔ The Silence of Bonaventure Arrow
YLTO Monthly Challenge:
-
YLTO Serial Challenge:
✔ The Angel's Game
✔ Tricked
Stand-alone/owned book:

October
YLTO Group Read:
✔ Something Wicked This Way Comes
YLTO Monthly Challenge:
✔ Trapped
YLTO Serial Challenge:
✔ Sisterhood Everlasting
Stand-alone/owned book:
✔ The Secret Keeper

November
YLTO Group Read:
✔ My Name is Mary Sutter
YLTO Monthly Challenge:
✔ Tales of the Unexpected
YLTO Serial Challenge:
✔ The Prisoner of Heaven
Stand-alone/owned book:

December
YLTO Group Read:
✔ The Glass Castle
YLTO Monthly Challenge:
-
YLTO Serial Challenge:
✔ A Breath of Snow and Ashes
Stand-alone/owned book:
✔ Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man

Reserved

Good goals Peggy! :)

Thanks Lisa!

It's so much fun to organize books and reading :)

I approach each month similarly. I have a couple of additional "musts".

I also try to read a couple of 'just because' books each month. The challenges are great and lots of fun but it's nice to read some books outside of them too.

Lisa wrote: "I also try to read a couple of 'just because' books each month. The challenges are great and lots of fun but it's nice to read some books outside of them too."

Exactly!

I try to fit some of the books from my owned lists into the challenges, group reads, topplers, etc. as much as possible.

I try to do that too. But it's so much fun to obtain a high level in the yearly challenge, that last year I hardly read any books for no reason. I still read all books I wanted to read, but all with a reason. I hope to do it a little differently this year, even though I feel a strong urge to focus mostly on series!

Great list Peggy. You have some I have read like My Name is Mary Sutter,The Glass Castle, Orphan Train, Life After Life and The Secret Life of Bees. I liked all of them. Hope you enjoy them.

Some in your list I plan to read this year too are The Invention of Wings, Cold Sassy Tree and Looking for Alaska.

I usually have the same goals that you have indicated, Peggy. I also have my Australia reads that I am going to do again this year. Any time left over from series books will be stand alone.

I own The Golem and the Jinni and Life After Life but those are the only two that cross over between both of our lists.
A couple, I have already read too.

My owned physical and ebook list is just too huge to post.

How's it going, Peggy? I see check marks.

I'm managing my reading goals, that's where the marks are. Yay!

I've read quite some books already this year, not so many from the lists in the first post though... It also doesn't really help that the list keeps growing ;-)

Mine are growing too. I made two separate lists for books and audiobooks acquired since Jan 1/15, and I'm shocked at how many I've purchased.

How did I ever manage to read 8 books in a month with only 28 days? It makes January and March look like such poor reading months!

You powered your way through. The month isn't over yet, and you could finish more.

There wasn't anything else to do but read in Feb and there was the toppler. You were probably sleep deprived and don't remember. :0)

Topplers do funny things to your priorities.

Rusalka wrote: "Topplers do funny things to your priorities."

Don't they? It's surprising I have any friends left after blowing them all off in favour of the toppler.

Reading a massive chunkster really messes with your book count! Thanks to The Fiery Cross I'll end up with only 4 books read in all of May. For my yearly GR challenge I was one or two books ahead of schedule on May 1, and now I'm one behind.

Peggy wrote: "Reading a massive chunkster really messes with your book count! Thanks to The Fiery Cross I'll end up with only 4 books read in all of May. For my yearly GR challenge I was one or two ..."

I was looking at my lists yesterday and thinking how much some upcoming huge chunksters were going to slow things down even more than they are. Fiery Cross is around 1000 pages isn't it?

It has 1443.

And the next book in the series has 1438 :| The final two I don't own yet, but I don't expect them to be any less.

It's amazing how these authors can write such long books, and in a series too.

Recently I've become daunted by chunksters. perhaps it's because of last year's challenge

I have to say I'm doing pretty good with getting my real books done. Especially considering several were added during the year.

Ebooks is a different story though..

I have been avoiding my chunkster series books too, Sarah. I want to read TFC Outlander book too, but I keep thinking that I can read 4 or 5 other books in the same time and I keep putting it off.

You're doing great on knocking off those books!

Yep I've been avoiding the chunksters this time too - I think we must have had enough of them last year!

September and October have been such slow reading months!

Tell me about it! Now it's getting colder and darker though perhaps we'll have more time to dedicate to reading and get through a few more books.

Sarah wrote: "Tell me about it! Now it's getting colder and darker though perhaps we'll have more time to dedicate to reading and get through a few more books."

November and December are my worst reading months. I think one December I read 13 books.

Lol Bella, I don't think I ever read 13 books in a month!

You did well this year too!