Books on the Nightstand discussion

I finished my challenge last week with The Roundhouse as my 43 book. I'll probably add a few more before the end of the year.
...loving Where'd you Go Bernadette right now.

Ok people, the heat is on! There is no way I'll finish both of my challenges (12 books loaned or recommended and 22 books I already had, which is 12 more than last year). So, I am going to focus on completing the books from home challenge and try to get five more in before year's end (in addition to book group book that I haven't started yet). I'm planning to listen to at least one audio I've had for over a year (Shakespeare: The World as Stage, possibly another audio .
For print, I'll finish which I've been dabbling in for months, read which was loaned to me by a friend and I've had for more than a year and hopefully finish with a romance or two that have been hiding in a cabinet.

Wish me luck!

My 12 in '12 challenge was to read 12 new books (books published in 2012). I finished the challenge:

1. The Benefit And The Burden by Bruce Bartlett
2. Tough Shit by Kevin Smith
3. Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson
4. A Single Roll Of The Dice by Trita Parsi
5. Defending Jacob by William Landay
6. Quiet by Susan Cain
7. Drift by Rachel Maddow
8. The Age Of Miracles by Karen Walker Thompson
9. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
10. Talulla Rising by Glenn Duncan
11. Witch World by Christopher Pike
12. Both are sorta cheating, so I'll combine them and hope it counts: Lighter Shades of Grey by Cassandra Parkin and A Wrinkle In Time The Graphic Novel by Hope Larson

Overall I'm glad I did this. It was nice to be able to discuss books like Quiet, Defending Jacob and Gone Girl while they were on everyone's minds as opposed to months or years later. I'll probably do something similar next year.

Okay, I know I started this whole challenge, but I've not been as successful as I would have liked.

My original plan was to read 12 Books for Booktopia, 12 Books I've Been Meaning to Read and 12 Graphic Novels I've Been Meaning to Read.

Sadly, I only made it through 12 Booktopia Books (13 actually!), 1 Graphic Novel and 1 Book (though that was also a Booktopia title - it was put on my must read in '12 list before I knew the author would be joining us).

So, I'm sorry I didn't get more read, but I'm thrilled with the tremendous progress you all made!

Michael wrote: "Okay, I know I started this whole challenge, but I've not been as successful as I would have liked.

My original plan was to read 12 Books for Booktopia, 12 Books I've Been Meaning to Read and 12 ..."

I was a constant reader until a few years ago when I started getting most of my information from the internet. I got away from reading books and had devolved to only reading blogs and forum posts, and the occasional magazine article. I stumbled across the BOTNS podcast this past April and found myself scribbling book titles on every scrap of paper available. I joined this challenge to try to encourage myself to read 12, decided I'd wildly shoot for the sky and aim for 30. As of today I've read 40 books this year.

I'll be aiming for 50 in 2013.

Thank you for planting the seed, and getting this formerly voracious reader back into the wonderful habit of being bookish.

My goal was to read 12 more books than last year (for a total of 62) and to read exclusively from my existing TBR. I have passed my volume goal (66 and counting) but failed MISERABLY on the TBR goal. It turns out that my library has ebooks to lend - which has made me a kid in a candy store. Alas, hopefully I will chip away at the books I already own in 2013. Congrats to everyone on their progress!

Well, my original plan was to read 12 sets of 12 books for a grand total of 144 titles! I didn't make it though. I just broke 100 and I might make it to 112 if I get a break. I had a major reading slump from July through December so I guess the numbers shouldn't surprise me too much!

I also was not very good at checking in throughout the year; but in 2013 I'm going to be better about 1) setting a more realistic goal (113) and 2) updating regarding my progress :-)

I. Audiobooks
01. Blood Rites (The Dresden Files #6; by Jim Butcher; narrated by James Marsters)
02. When She Woke (by Hillary Jordan; narrated by Heather Corrigan)
03. Goldfinger (Bond Novel #7; by Ian Fleming; narrated by Simon Vance)
04. The Year of the Flood (by Margaret Atwood; narrated by Mark Bramhall, Bernadette Dunne and, Katie McNichol)
05. Hater (The Hater Trilogy, Book #1; by David Moody; narrated by Gerard Doyle)
06. Devil in a Blue Dress (Easy Rawlins Novels, Book #1; by Walter Mosley; narrated by Michael Boatman)
07. Dispatches (by Michael Herr; narrated by Ray Porter)
08. Quantum of Solace/For Your Eyes Only (by Ian Fleming; narrated by Simon Vance)
09. Duchess in Love (first in the Duchess Quartet; by Eloisa James; narrated by Justine Eyre)
10. The Ghosts of Belfast (Jack Lennon Novels, Book #1; by Stuart Neville; narrated by Gerard Doyle)
11. The New Adventures of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer, Vol. 2: The Little Death (by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins; performed by a full cast starring Stacy Keach)
12. Thunderball (by Ian Fleming; narrated by Simon Vance)
13. The Spy Who Loved Me (by Ian Fleming; narrated by Nadia May)
14. Zombiestan (by Mainak Dhar; narrated by John Lee)

II. Summer Reading
15. The Last Werewolf (by Glen Duncan; narrated by Robin Sachs)
16. Half-Blood Blues (by Esi Edugyan; narrated by Kyle Riley)
17. A Discovery of Witches (by Deborah Harkness; narrated by Jennifer Ikeda)
18. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (by John LeCarré)
19. Knockemstiff (by Donald Ray Pollack)
20. Ten Things I Love About You (by Julia Quinn)
21. The Looking Glass War (by John LeCarré)
22. Darkness, Take My Hand (by Dennis Lehane)
23. A Small Town in Germany (by John LeCarré)
24. You Only Live Twice (by Ian Fleming)
25. Smut (by Alan Bennett)
26. The Weight of the Nation (by John Hoffman and Judith Salerno, M.D., M.S. with Alexandra Moss)

III. Short Novels/Novellas (books less than or at about 200 pages long)
27. Comedy in a Minor Key (by Hans Keilson; translated by Damion Searls)
28. The Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events, #1; by Lemony Snicket)
29. Heartstones (by Ruth Rendell)
30. Go With Me (by Castle Freeman, Jr.)
31. 84, Charing Cross Road (by Helene Hanff)
32. The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street (by Helene Hanff)
33. Man in the Dark (by Paul Auster)
34. Lesley Castle (by Jane Austen)
35. The Uncommon Reader (by Allan Bennett)
36. Coraline (by Neil Gaiman)
37. Tortilla Flat (by John Steinbeck)
38. The Year of the Hare (by Arto Paasilinna; translated by Herbert Lomas; foreward by Pico Iyor)

IV. Armchair Audies 2012
39. The Mark of Zorro (based on the novel by Johnson McCulley; dramatized by Yuri Rasovsky; performed by a full cast starring Val Kilmer)
40. The Graduate (based on the novel by Charles Webb and the screenplay by Calder Willingham and Buck Henry; dramatized by Terry Johnson; performed by a full cast starring Kathleen Turner and Matthew Rhys)
41. I, Claudius (by Robert Graves; performed by a full cast starring Tom Goodman Hill as Claudius and Derek Jacobi as Augustus)
42. The New Adventures of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer, Vol. 3: Encore for Murder (by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins; performed by a full cast starring Stacy Keach)
43. Unknown (A Special Edition of Out of My Head; by Didier Van Cauwelaert; translated by Mark Polizetti; narrated by Bronson Pinchot)
44. We're Alive: A Story of Survival: The First Season (by Shane Salk and Kc Waylan; performed by a full cast)
45. From The Arthur Miller Collection (by Arthur Miller; full cast performances)
"The Man Who Had All the Luck"
"All of My Sons"
"Death of a Salesman"
"The Crucible"

V. Classics
46. The Scarlet Letter (by Nathaniel Hawthorne)
47. Julius Caesar (by William Shakespeare; performed by a full cast starring Ralph Richardson; directed by Howard Sackler)

VI. TBR (pre-2012 backlist titles from my shelves)
48. The Blind Assassin (by Margaret Atwood) - 09/11/2009
49. Alias Grace (by Margaret Atwood) - 02/13/2010
50. The Blackwater Lightship (by Colm Tóibín) - 02/13/2010
51. The Kitchen House (by Kathleen Grissom) - 09/23/2010
52. Snow Falling on Cedars (by David Guterson) - 11/22/2011
53. Pest Control (by Bill Fitzhugh) - 11/26/2011

VII. Graphic Novels
54. The Walking Dead, Volume 1: Days Gone Bye (by Robert Kirkman et al) (Re-read)
55. The Walking Dead, Volume 2: Miles Behind Us (by Robert Kirkman et al) (Re-read)
56. The Walking Dead, Volume 3: Safety Behind Bars (by Robert Kirkman et al) (Re-read)
57. The Walking Dead, Volume 4: The Heart's Desire (by Robert Kirkman et al)

VIII. eBooks
58. The Handmaid's Tale (by Margaret Atwood)
59. Tilt-a-Whirl (by Chris Grabenstein)
60. "Countdown" (by Mira Grant)
61. Discount Armageddon (by Seanan McGuire)
62. Heartless (by Gail Carringer)
63. The Boy in the Suitcase (by Lene Kaaberbøl and Agnete Friis)
64. One Night Rodeo (by Lorelei James)
65. The River Witch (by Kimberly Brock)
66. The Gun Seller (by Hugh Laurie)

IX. Studio A (Titles I worked on professionally; No Reviews)
67. Soldier Dogs (by Maria Goodavage; narrated by Nicole Vilencia)
68.By Blood (by Ellen Ullman; narrated by Malcolm Hillgartner)
69. Say Nice Things About Detroit (by Scott Lasser; narrated by Kevin Kenerly)
70. First Evidence (by Ken Goddard; narrated Kevin Kenerly)
71. The Indispensable Milton Friedman (edited by Dr. Lanny Ebenstein)
72. Oregon Hill (by Howard Owen; narrated by Kevin Kenerly)
73. North and South (by John Jakes; narrated by Grover Gardner)
74. The Sword of Allah (Black Samurai #7, by Marc Olden; narrated by Kevin Kenerly)
75. Black Geniuses: Inspirational Portraits of African American Leaders (by Dick Russell; narrated by Kevin Kenerly)

X. Library Books
76. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (by Sherman Alexie)
77. The Sense of an Ending (by Julian Barnes)
78. Götz and Meyer (by David Albaharai; translated from the Serbian by Ellen Elias-Bursać)
79. The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains (by Nicholas Carr)
80. The Gates (by John Connolly)
81. Wordy Shipmates (by Sarah Vowell)
82. From the Land of the Moon (by Milena Agus)
83. The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine (by Alina Bronsky)
84. Invisible Murder (by Lene Kaaberbøl and Agnete Friis)
85. The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt (by Caroline Preston)
86. The Infernals (by John Connelly)

XI. Children's Books
87. Zombie in Love (by Kelly DiPucchio; illustrated by Scott Campbell)
88. Coraline (written and narrated by Neil Gaiman)
89.The Reptile Room (A Series of Unfortunate Events #2; by Lemony Snicket)
90. The Worst Best Christmas Pageant Ever (by Barbara Robinson)
91. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (by Roald Dahl)

XII. Other
92. Jones of Colorado (written and illustrated by Ralph Steadman)
93. Accidents of Providence (by Stacia M. Brown)
94. Invisible (by Paul Auster)
95. On Her Majesty's Secret Service (by Ian Fleming)
96. Sacred (by Dennis Lehane)
97. The Man with the Golden Gun (by Ian Fleming)
98. Quantum of Solace/Octopussy/The Living Daylights (by Ian Fleming; narrated by Simon Vance)
99. The Marriage Mistake (Marriage to a Billionaire series #3; by Jennifer Probst)
100. Maximum Bob (by Elmore Leonard)

I finished my challenge and read the 12 urban fantasy/paranormal romance I had on my shelves.
None of them was a 5 star and I think they might be responsible for my reading slump.
I think I need some military scifi to perk me up.

Well, I made it. My challenge was to read 12 I already owned and I just reviewed my 2012 shelf and I actually read 14 that I had on hand. If only my resolution to diet went as well :)

I had 4 challenges in 2012 (recap):

*Read 80 books: completed awhile ago (will probably get to 120 by the end of the year).

*Read the 12 oldest books on my TBR list: Completed this one last week.

*Read the 12 oldest books on my bookshelf TBR: Should be finishing up the last one later this week.

*Read 12 books published in 2012: Last time I counted I think I was at 16, and have added a couple since then.

Oh, 2012, I have not been kind to you.

+12 in '12- I am 18 books behind, which means I read fewer books this year than last year. I do think that I read more pages possibly. Let's say that's what happened.

12 oldest books on my TBR- I did really well with this until September, when my library couldn't get the book I wanted, and so I distracted myself with other reads. I think I'm going to roll this one over to 2012, and start with the four that I missed.

12 new Indies- This one I did complete this past weekend, when I visited the new RiverRun location in Portsmouth. This challenge has been the best thing ever, even if it has left me with a rather lighter wallet and much heavier bookcase! It became such a part of my life that whenever I planned on driving anywhere out of the way, I would check to see if there were stores I could stop in on the way (which is how I found the delightful Water Street Books in Exeter, NH). What I have learned is that Independent Book Stores are the best, the booksellers who run them are amazing, and each store has its own wonderful personality. For next year I will try for 10 new stores (since I'm going to have to drive farther to find them!). Plus I'm going to start a blog to keep track of how it goes- I know that what the world desperately needs is another blog, but that's ok.

DebbieB wrote: "Michael wrote: "Okay, I know I started this whole challenge, but I've not been as successful as I would have liked.

My original plan was to read 12 Books for Booktopia, 12 Books I've Been Meaning..."

Good for you, Debbie! Good for BOTN, too.

As of Dec. 22 I had read/listened to 96 books, surpassing my goal of 75. I'll probably read at least one more print book and maybe get through one more audiobook by the end of the year.

I mostly met more specific goals, such as reading at least one book by authors whose names began with every letter of the alphabet; I haven't read an X book yet but have a nonfiction library book by Xinran called Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother. I may not get to it by the end of the year, but since the book is in my house, I'll give myself credit. I also read a number of books that I own, as opposed to library books, but not as many as I had hoped, and most were rereads of old favorites, not first reads of books I had never gotten around to despite being interested enough to buy them. That goal will roll over to 2013.

I did not read a book on my Kindle, unless I count skimming through a short book of Scrabble hints. I won the reader a couple of years ago but haven't developed the habit of being an e-reader despite downloading several novels to try to force myself to use the device. I specifically downloaded several free books by Charles Dickens, intending to read them for the 2012 bicentenary of his birth, but couldn't tear myself away from print (although I confess my print/audio reading didn't include any Dickens either). Reading A Christmas Carol, which is short, would be cheating, whether it's Kindle/audio/print, since the goal was to read a full-length novel, preferably one I hadn't already read. I'll try to get to Dickens soon, even if I'm a year late.

I'm a 2012 challenge bust this year. Of my goal of 36 books this year I've read and listened to 27. Work and meds got the best of me.

I definitely did not succeed in my quest to read 12 books that have been on my real and virtual bookshelves the longest. There were just too many good new books and meeting my significant other last year did nothing to help this as he has book connections. He's become the equivalent of a crack dealer. Not that I'm complaining in this case. Still thinking about what I should do for 2013.

OK, I've read three more books and will have two more read by the end of the year for a total of 105 books, seven short of my revised goal:

101. The Power and the Glory (by Graham Greene)
102. The Wide Window (The Series of Unfortunate Events #3; by Lemony Snicket)
103. The Witches (by Roald Dahl; narrated by Jean Marsh)

104. Empress (by Shan Sa)
105. Love and War (North and South Trilogy #2; by John Jakes)

I too am trying to figure out how to manage my reading for 2013. I want to cover backlist and new releases, reading for challenges and "drop-ins!" LOL, My OCD-self wants to make a chart!

As my teenagers say "Epic fail!" I was supposed to read 12 from my TBR and only did 6, 12 from Booktopia authors and only did 3 and 12 from Ann and Michael and only read 7. I think I will make my 2012 total of 60 ( the GR widget has me @ 59, but my own shelf has only 57. I will try to reconcile). Next year, less goals and more reading!

I'm three books over my goal of 80 books ... and have several almost finished, so I might get a few more down by Dec. 31 midnight! My goal next year (whether we have a challenge or not) is to read at least 2 books a month from those already on my shelf. I should not have any trouble with this ... they are all books I really want to ready. I just keep getting distracted by all the wonderful new books coming out! And Booktopia's makes it even harder 'cause I want to read most of the authors who will be attending.

And, one more!

106. Bridget Jones's Diary (by Helen Fielding)

Next year, I want to hit more of my TBR stacks, so I decided to choose 13 titles a la the random number generator, plus 13 of the oldest titles on my TBR goodreads list. That should cover about 25% of my reading for next year, but you know that when the author announcements for the Booktopias are released, the best laid plans... ;-)

And I managed to squeeze these two in today (they were only a hour and ten minutes long, and two-and-a-half hours long respectively):

107. A Christmas Carol (by Charles Dickens; adapted by Shane Salk; performed by Maurice LaMarche, Rob Paulson, Neil Flynn and Robbie Rist)
108. Martin Misunderstood (by Karin Slaughter; narrated by Wayne Knight)

So I had a specific list of 12 books I'd been avoiding. I only read 9, although I did just read Anna Karenina, so I think that counts as number 10. I got caught up in another reading challenge and work got in the way a lot, but I did pretty well regardless... Two Tolstoy books in one year is an accomplishment alone!

Tracey wrote: "He's become the equivalent of a crack dealer. Not that I'm complaining in this case...."


Too funny!!! Lucky girl :)

Tanya/dog eared copy wrote: "I want to cover backlist and new releases, reading for challenges and "drop-ins!" LOL, My OCD-self wants to make a chart!..."


Haha - I did make a chart! Complete with a pivot table so I can view my 2013 plan in multiple ways.

Amy wrote: "Haha - I did make a chart! Complete with a pivot table so I can view my 2013 plan in multiple ways. "


Oooh! The spreadsheet geek in me has raised its head in alertness! What program are you using?/HOw do you do that?

109. It's a Book! (by Lane Smith)
I picked this book up off the floor this morning. It's a children's book (easy reader level) ; but I loved it! I want to buy copies for all my book-loving friends :-)

Tanya/dog eared copy wrote: "Amy wrote: "Haha - I did make a chart! Complete with a pivot table so I can view my 2013 plan in multiple ways. "


Oooh! The spreadsheet geek in me has raised its head in alertness! What program a..."

Just excel

So glad I'm not the only spreadsheet geek! My spreadsheet combines about 6 different lists of books (1001, BBC, NY Times, etc) and I track which ones I own, have read, whether I've read them since 2010 and the rating. It's not very sophisticated but it is color coded!

My reading challenges for 2013 have focused on books that appear on multiple lists - fortunately, they are all books I want to read (or re-read).

Tanya/dog eared copy wrote: "Amy wrote: "Haha - I did make a chart! Complete with a pivot table so I can view my 2013 plan in multiple ways. "


Oooh! The spreadsheet geek in me has raised its head in alertness! What program a..."
I love Lane Smith - usually when he is paired with Jon Scieszka - but he's excellent on his own, too.

Amy wrote: "Just excel"

I love figuring out formulas, but rarely play with the looks!
Right now I've been transferring a limited number of docs and spreadsheets onto Google Drive (just those that I need to share.) Unfortunately, Drive doesn't have all the features I would like:-/

I found two graphic novel trades that I had purchased last year and had shelved without reading them!

110. The Walking Dead, Volume 5: The Best Defense (by Robert Kirkman et al) and;
111. The Walking Dead, Volume 6: This Sorrowful Life (by Robert Kirkman et al)

Just one more and I will have completed by 2012 Reading Challenge!

Tanya/dog eared copy wrote: "Unfortunately, Drive doesn't have all the features I would like:-/..."

I'm an accountant and need Excel for my livelihood; when I hear I have to use Google Drive for something spreadsheet-based I cringe... LOL. Great concept, they just need to work on the functionality.

My goal for 2012 was to read 60 books. That was only two more than my total in 2011 but I thought five books a month sounded reasonable and I didn't want the challenge to start to feel like homework. The result: I'm in the middle of book #75 right now and should have it (and maybe another) finished by December 31. Amazing!

My spreadsheet reveals the following:

58 Fiction
17 Non-Fiction
14 Books by Booktopia authors
13 Young Adult books
39 were published in 2012

What I've learned:

YA fills in nicely when an adult book is dragging or I'm feeling too stressed or tired to concentrate on serious reading. Turns out, YA novels are just as relaxing as an episode of Project Runway!

I got caught up in reading too many new books. So in 2013 I will make more of an effort to read things I already own. (Waiting for Columbus and Matterhorn are two that instantly come to mind as books I've owned forever but haven't started.)

Reading Booktopia authors is never a bad plan! So far I've been really pleased with everything I've read from this group. One of my favorite books this year was The Bee Loud Glade from the original Booktopia.

I rated most books with 3 or 4 stars (25 of each). Three earned one star and four earned the coveted five star rating. I also stopped reading, and therefore didn't rate, about a half dozen books.

Seeing all of these stats really makes me love the nerd-factor of Goodreads!

YAY! I did it! One more from the gn stash!

112. Hellboy, Volume #5: Conqueror Worm by Mike Mignola

Happy New Year, everyone! See you in 2013!

Well, I did it! I completed the extreme 12 in '12 challenge I set myself for this reading year. I read 125 books in all, and succesfully completed 12 books in each in 12 different categories (some books counted in more than one category):

(at least) 12 classics, 12 e-books, 12 audiobooks,12 literary fiction, 12 history, 12 non-fiction, 12 thrillers, 12 romance, 12 mysteries, 12 books I loved (5 star review), 12 Pulitzer Prize winners and 12 books from my shelves

Much as I enjoyed the challenge of this, I don't believe I'll try something similar for 2013... it was pretty restricting and I need to focus more on simply enjoying what I read instead of racing to the finish to meet a self-imposed goal.

My actual challenge was 12 books in each of 5 categories. I didn't finish a single category, but got to 11 in two categories. BUT, I read 75 books. Obviously there were a bunch that didn't fit into one of my categories. A completely different type of goal for 2013.

Amy wrote: "Tanya/dog eared copy wrote: "Amy wrote: "Haha - I did make a chart! Complete with a pivot table so I can view my 2013 plan in multiple ways. "


Oooh! The spreadsheet geek in me has raised its head..."

I also created a spreadsheet in 2012 as a better way of keeping track of the titles I wanted to read and those I had already read. I used Numbers, the spreadsheet program for Macs, and created one document that has several "sheets" for different categories: fiction, nonfiction, sci-fi/fantasy, and books I've read. It has columns for the author, title, genre, whether it's in the library, series title, whether it's in audio format, and any miscellaneous information, such as whether's it's won a prize, is a sequel, hadn't yet been published at the time I came across the title, etc. The sheet for books I've already read is slightly different since not all of the column headings from the other sections are applicable.

I color-coded the columns, both for readability and to avoid the monotony of a huge black and white document. I ended up with about 3,000 titles and seem to add a couple almost every day. I created the list on my laptop and do the updates there but email a copy to myself and download it onto the desktop computer frequently. The document is also set to make an automatic backup copy on the laptop.

Creating it took several months of off and on work, and a lot of hair-pulling, since I had never created a spreadsheet before, but now that it's done I think it will be very helpful. I had been using various handwritten methods for years and am glad my family finally prodded me into doing a computerized list.

Nancy wrote: "Amy wrote: "Tanya/dog eared copy wrote: "Amy wrote: "Haha - I did make a chart! Complete with a pivot table so I can view my 2013 plan in multiple ways. "


Oooh! The spreadsheet geek in me has rai..."

You all realize we're not OCD - we're CDO because it has to be in alphabetical order.

Linda wrote: "Nancy wrote: "Amy wrote: "Tanya/dog eared copy wrote: "Amy wrote: "Haha - I did make a chart! Complete with a pivot table so I can view my 2013 plan in multiple ways. "


Oooh! The spreadsheet geek..." Nope, your wrong, it's OCD because I have a need to get abbreviations right (hehee).

LOL, I broke down. I made a chart... Things are in sets of 13!

Sept-December Update for 12-in-12
Historical Fiction (12 of 12 DONE by Aug
Non-fiction: Complete 11 of 12
9. A Game for Swallows: To Die, to Leave, to Return 3 stars
10. Fun Home by Alison Bechdel (read earlier in the year) 5 stars
11. The Complete Maus by Art Speigelman 4 stars

Mystery: COMPLETED 12 of 12
9. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn 4 stars
10. The Expats by Chris Pavone 5 stars
11. The Hangman's Daughter by Olivier Potzsch 5 stars
12. In the Woods by Tana French 2.5 stars

Not too bad --- I do read a lot of knitting books about technique so I could fudge that for the NF one :-D

Well -- according to Goodreads I failed my challenge -- I used the little challenge thingy and it had me several books higher than I've actually read so if they had been using my REAL number I would be a miserable failure. I do NOT believe I failed -- this challenge was so flexible -- and I went at it so loosely organized -- how could it fail? I have had a wonderful year of reading and re-reading which has delighted me and left me free of the pressures of reading certain things at a certain time -- it just unfolded. Thanks, Michael K.!