Friday, December 18, 2015

PopSugar Ultimate Reading Challenge 2015: Finished!

photo via @megtristao


I attempted the PopSugar Ultimate Reading Challenge this year, and I just finished today (December 18). Woohoo! The books I read for the challenge are listed below; feel free to check out my reviews/ratings for these titles, as well as other books I've read in 2015, on Goodreads.


1. A book with more than 500 pages: A Dance with Dragons, George R.R. Martin (1,019 pages)
2. A classic romance: The Awakening, Kate Chopin
3. A book that became a movie: Paper Towns, John Green
4. A book published this year: Vanishing Girls, Lauren Oliver
5. A book with a number in the title: Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel
6. A book written by someone under 30: The Tiger's Wife, Tea Obreht (born 1985, book published in 2010)
7. A book with nonhuman characters: The Bees, Laline Paull
8. A funny book: Modern Romance, Aziz Ansari
9. A book by a female author: Americanah, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
10. A mystery or thriller: The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins
11. A book with a one-word title: Attachments, Rainbow Rowell
12. A book of short stories: Stone Mattress, Margaret Atwood
13. A book set in a different country: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Ann Schaffer and Annie Barrows (United Kingdom)
14. A nonfiction book: This Book is Overdue!, Marilyn Johnson
15. A popular author’s first book: Before I Fall, Lauren Oliver (published in 2010)
16. A book from an author you love that you haven’t read yet: The Light in the Ruins, Chris Bohjalian
17. A book a friend recommended: Eleanor & Park, Rainbow Rowell
18. A Pulitzer Prize-winning book: All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr
19. A book based on a true story: The Bookseller of Kabul, Asne Seierstad
20. A book at the bottom of your to-read list: The Lightning Thief, Rick Riordan
21. A book your mom loves: The Mermaid Chair, Sue Monk Kidd
22. A book that scares you: Brain on Fire, Susannah Cahalan (I came down with a little flu while reading this book, and I just kept thinking ohmigodwhatifihaveencephalitas?!)
23. A book more than 100 years old: The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde (originally published 1895)
24. A book based entirely on its cover: We Need New Names, NoViolet Bulawayo
25. A book you were supposed to read in school but didn’t: Animal Farm, George Orwell (In complete honesty, my school probably didn't even assign this, but I know we watched the movie! And they should have assigned it, so I think it counts.)
26. A memoir: A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemingway
27. A book you can finish in one day: Everything I Never Told You, Celeste Ng (read May 20)
28. A book with antonyms in the title: Big Little Lies, Liane Moriarty
29. A book set somewhere you’ve always wanted to visit: Euphoria, Lily King (Oceania)
30. A book that came out the year you were born: The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien (published March 28, 1990)
31. A book with bad reviews: Go Set a Watchman, Harper Lee (controversial release and scathing reviews)
32, 33, 34. A trilogy: Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber and Voyager, Diana Gabaldon
35. A book from your childhood: To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
36. A book with a love triangle: The Husband’s Secret, Liane Moriarty
37. A book set in the future: The Girl with all the Gifts, M.R. Carey
38. A book set in high school: If I Lie, Corrine Jackson
39. A book with a color in the title: Paris Red, Maureen Gibbon
40. A book that made you cry: I'll Give You the Sun, Jandy Nelson (tears of happiness!)
41. A book with magic: The Book of Speculation, Erika Swyler
42. A graphic novel: Coraline, Neil Gaiman (adapted and illustrated by P. Craig Russell)
43. A book by an author you’ve never read before: We Were Liars, E. Lockhart
44. A book you own but have never read: Wicked, Gregory Maguire
45. A book that takes place in your hometown: I'll Meet You There, Heather Demetrios (No books are actually set in my hometown, but this book is set in a "blink town" off Highway 99 in the Central Valley, which definitely describes Hilmar!)
46. A book that was originally written in a different language: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Marie Kondo (translated from Japanese)
47. A book set during Christmas: The Book of Unknown Americans, Cristina Henriquez
48. A book written by an author with your same initials: Love Me Back, Merritt Teirce
49. A play: Doubt, John Patrick Shanley
50. A banned book: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot (challenged in 2015 by a parent from Knox County Schools in Tennessee)
51. A book based on or turned into a TV show: A Feast for Crows, George R.R. Martin (TV show: Game of Thrones)
52. A book you started but never finished: Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller (started reading in 2013)

Have you read any of these? What did you think? Time to start planning my books for the 2016 PopSugar challenge! I also just discovered Book Riot's Read Harder challenge, so I might attempt both next year. :)

No comments: