Manda's 2011 Challenge!

So, here it is. I just found this group yesterday and absolutely had to join in.

At the start of the year, I set myself a goal of 30 books, but this is a bigger challenge and I'm looking forward to seeing how I do with it. I'll probably make less progress in January to June and September to December because of university work taking up more of my time, but summer holidays should make up for that!

Anyhow, my list so far (currently rather puny):
1. The Life of Pi by Yann Martel
2. The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury
3. Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl by Tracy Quan
4. The Twits by Roald Dahl
5. The Ghost Wore Yellow Socks by Josh Lanyon
6. Revolting Rhymes by Roald Dahl
7. The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson
8. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
9. Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl
10. The New World by Patrick Ness
11. A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift
12. Them: Adventures with Extremists by Jon Ronson
13. The Call Of The Weird by Louis Theroux

-- Start of the summer holidays (where I'm hoping to get most reading done) --

14. I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
15. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
16. The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis
17. The Shining by Stephen King
18. A Bag Of Moonshine by Alan Garner
19. The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
20. We'll Always Have Paris by Ray Bradbury

Welcome to the group!

Welcome!

FYI, we have a wiki page where we link to all our important threads. It might help you make sense of the chaos!

http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/Groups:75booksin2011

Thanks guys!

I'll have a wee look at that now, cheers!

Welcome welcome!

Welcome to the group!

Welcome - never to late to join in!

Hello! Nothing wrong with starting with Ray Bradbury. :)

Yeah! :) I really enjoyed reading The Illustrated Man. I wasn't sure what it'd be like when I picked it up, but I was really impressed by it. I'm looking forward to reading more by Ray Bradbury.

Hello! I am new to the thread as well and first time attempting the challenge. Good luck to you!! I love Roald Dahl as well :) Always great and quick reads!

I can't quite put a finger on what it is that makes me keep going back to Roald Dahl's stuff, even now that I've grown up. Maybe a mix of nostalgia and the fact that it's just really quirky and fun - no matter how old you are. Probably the same reason I still watch Disney movies quite often!

#11: Makes sense to me! I enjoy Dahl's books too, even at the advanced age of 48.

I just finished reading The Killer Inside Me and I'm not really sure how I feel about it. It wasn't the worst book I've ever read and I guess there were parts of it I quite enjoyed, but it's not a book I think I'd read a second time.

#13: I have that one in the BlackHole. I like noir so I am going to give it a shot.

#14: I did have a pretty enjoyable experience reading it (I kinda feel like my inital comment was probably a bit harsh). There weren't any parts where I felt like I was sick of reading it, and I did really like the characterisation. It's a good story and it comes together well with a satisfying end. I hope you enjoy it!

I think that I was maybe left feeling a little bit lost with it all straight after finishing - it didn't bring out much of an emotional reaction in me, if you know what I mean, haha.

Yeah, I understand.

I've just managed to get all of my university work done, so I can finally take some good time to relax and get reading properly again, because I've only really been managing to read the odd chapter here and there lately. The last couple I've finished have been by journalists, with each chapter like a story in itself, so I've been able to pick them up whenever I've had a spare half an hour here and there without needing to worry about remembering what's just happened in a story.

#17: Kudos to you on getting your uni work done. I hope you get a chance to get caught up on your reading!

So it's been quite a while since I actually updated this, but I've got it all up to date now. I've got through 20, which isn't really on par, but I don't think I ever really expected to keep up over the first half of the year.

Recently I set myself a goal of reading all of my Chronicles of Narnia books. I've had the box set since I was so young, but I'd never read one the whole way through (my grandma read me The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, but that's all). I have to say, I've enjoyed starting from the beginning and working my way through. I'm in the middle of reading The Horse And His Boy at the moment and I'm enjoying it. What I really like, though, is the fact that because I started from the beginning I understand bits which refer to the earlier books. Each book only takes me about 2 hours of reading time, so they're nice wee stories I can get through without too much trouble.

Another I really enjoyed reading recently was The Shining. Now, I'd never seen the movie which is a good thing, because I didn't want to have mental images of characters or anything before reading it. I think I can say that I enjoyed it more than I ever thought I would. It's definitely one of King's best (that I've read so far) and I would definitely recommend people to read it. There were definitely some chilling moments there and I found myself caring about the characters, so I can't grumble!

I would like to read the Narnia books through sometime from start to finish. I think I own the first four.