Well, I think it’s time to throw in the towel on some reading challenges. There’s still a bit of time left but I already know the next few weeks will be super busy for me so any reading I do may be more of the comfort variety (i.e., lots of mysteries). It’s not that I don’t want to read the books I chose for the challenges, I still plan on reading them someday after all I own the books, but I want to get things a bit more under control.
So I’m dropping out of the What’s in a Name challenge, Dewey’s challenge, the Reading Art History challenge and also the 9 for 09 challenge (which I really hate to do as my girlfriend Isabel is hosting). I really enjoyed participating in these and reading books for them but as you know, I’m quite a moody reader so it’s hard to stay with those reading commitments even when I change out the lists. So thank you so much to all the challenge hosts!
I read some wonderful books for these challenges and looking back I can tell you some of my favorites were Speak by Laurie Halse Andersen, The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters, Matrimony by Joshua Henkin, The Year of Fog by Michelle Redmond, The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh, and In A Dry Season by Peter Robinson.
For now I’m still in for the Everything Austen, Japanese Literature and Women Unbound (which just started) challenges. And, I keep saying I’m going to limit the number of challenges I join next year but we know that as soon as I hit “post” on this I’ll find more challenges to join. ha.
Anyway, how are you doing on your challenges now that it’s getting closer to the end of the year? Have you thrown in the towel on any? Please tell me I’m not the only one.
I’m behind on my reading challenges too, and yes I’m thinking of dropping some of them. I’ll have to update mine too. 😉
And guess what? I’m already looking at some of the new challenges for next year, LOL.
Too many challenges! Almost all of them interest me, but I don’t join many any longer as I’m not so good at completing them. Sometimes I just read a book or two that someone recommends for a challenge–without joining the challenge.
I am definitely struggling with my challenges for the end of the year. I am determined to finish the 1% Well Read Challenge as I only have two books to read and I have already started one. Not sure if I will finish the Ato z ones or the Fall Into Reading one. I need to focus on smaller challenges next year,so that I can still read what I want.
I rarely join in on challenges because I have too many books on my want to read list as it is. I do like to check them out and see what others are reading though 🙂
I only did RIP and Sylvia’s astronomy challenge. I completed RIP thanks to some short graphic novels, but the astronomy challenge? Not doing so well and unlikely to finish do to the lure of so many other books.
Oh, I am dreadful at reading challenges so I have yet to join one. I do like seeing what others are reading. I have been on a reading spurt at the moment so perhaps I will join one in 2010!
I should probably drop out of the Fall Into Reading challenge, as I have yet to read a single one of the five books I selected for the challenge!
I have thrown in the towel on all of my challenges. I’ve had to make peace with the fact that I am a reading rebel and a moody reader. I want to read what I want or feel like reading when I want to read it. The minute I join a challenge I seem to resist the books I should be reading. I’m sure I’ll be tempted by future challenges but I will resist. I’m going to use the challenges to discover more books that I might read when I feel like it! Good luck with your pared down list!
I bombed on one, the Outlander Challenge. Got through them all but the last one. I love challenges, and have absolutely no self control when it comes to them. The great thing is, we don’t get grades, we don’t get our kneecaps smashed, or have to cough up money if we dump them. It is all in the fun!
It makes perfect sense to drop out of challenges if they aren’t going to work for you. I haven’t dropped out of any, but that’s because I never joined any this year. I get too stressed out about them, so it makes more sense for me to stay away. I can see the appeal, though!
i will have drop out of 999 challenge, which i knew i will never complete.
i have 1 book left for Dewey’s challenge and 1 left for what’s in a name? challenge
4 left for YA
2 left for classics
and so on.. i m not going to fill your form with my whinning… lemme just say i will tell u nxt month… hw many i did complete! 😀
If nothing happens, I will be able to finish my challenge (9 for ’09), What’s in a Name, 2009 Mini-challenges. I have one or two books for these.
If it’s absolutely quiet, I have 3 to finish for Casual Classics and will be able to finish them. I am determined to finish War and Peace this year. I am pushing to finish the Daily Lit of Moby Dick also. Aesop’s Fables won’t take too long; the stories are fun.
However,I don’t think I can finish TBR Lite Challenge. The Albion book is really scholarly and dense.
Gah challenges! I think I’m going to call the YA challenge done (I read 25 YA books, just missing two from my original list of 12 choices) and learn not to make definite lists from now on, just possibility pools. I really want to finish Dewey’s challenge, but I’m not sure I want to read Philip Roth’s novel so I might have to switch it out for The Sea. Othewise I think everything else (apart from those going into next year) are kind of getting pushedunder the rug.
I haven’t really gotten into many challenges this year. I feel it puts me
under too much pressure and I don’t handle that well.
Hey Guys – I’m glad I am not the only one not keeping up with the challenges 🙂 Ah well, as long as we are all having fun with them right! To those of you still going forward with challenges good luck! Have a wonderful week 🙂
Don’t worry about it! I’m doing better this year on challenges than I expected. It’s tempting to go back and see if anything I did read would fit ‘after the fact’ for a few. But I’ve been teased that such is NOT ALLOWED. 🙂
(but I’ll maybe allow it for the Women Unbound – I mean, it should be really easy to complete that challenge without even trying unless you just don’t read NF – check in at 6 months and see?)
I dropped out of quite a few challenges earlier this fall that I knew I wouldn’t be able to complete. I’m doing okay in my remaining challenges. I may finish them in time, but I’m getting down to the wire.