2016 Reading Challenges: January Update

Finally, January is over and done with!

Why am I so happy about that? Because it also means that I am now completely exam-free – until mid-February, that is, when the usual school work starts back up and I’m back at having a test every other week (or so it seems).

However, that January is over, also means that it’s time to look back and see what I got done, Reading-Challenges-wise. As I just said, January was stuffed to the brink with exams, but luckily that also meant I had to get through a whole bunch of set reading – it’s basically the only thing I’ve read all month, but at least it’s something…

So let’s take a look at what, exactly, “it” is!
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First things first: I managed to read 21 books this month, 12 of which counted for my Goodreads Challenge (the ones in bold) – keep in mind, almost all the books were read in function of my classes, so I guess it’s just chance that I hadn’t already marked all of them as read…

• Northern Lights, Philip Pullman: 5/5
• The Subtle Knife, Philip Pullman: 5/5
• The Amber Spyglass, Philip Pullman: 5/5
• L’Enigme Du Retour, Dany Laferrière: 3/5
• L’Ignorance, Milan Kundera: 3/5
• Nord Perdu, Nancy Huston: 3/5
• Persuasion, Jane Austen: 5/5
• Merlin, Robert de Boron: 4/5
• Le roman de l’histoire du Graal, Robert de Boron: 4/5
• Perceval ou l’Histoire du Graal, Chrétien de Troyes: 4/5
• Lancelot ou le Chevalier de la Charette, Chrétien de Troyes: 4/5
• Vita Merlini, Geoffrey of Monmouth: 2/5
• Don Quichotte de la Manche – First Book, Cervantes: 4/5
• Don Quichotte de la Manche – Second Book, Cervantes: 4/5
• Le Cinquième Livre, Rabelais: 4/5
• Le Roman De Brut, Wace: 3/5
• Les Laids, Marie de France: 4/5
• Moby Dick, Herman Melville: 2/5

The biggest advantage of having to (re-)read all those books, though, is that they really helped me along for the Reading Around the World Challenge.

Not only did I already “visit” 27 different places, I’m actually doing pretty well on the mini-challenges as well: I’ve visited 4 of the 7 continents, 2 of the 50 states, 2 of the 5 oceans and 12 different countries. What’s more, I’ve read books by authors from 5 different countries, ànd I’ve visited 10 places that had a different first letter – so only 16 more to go to finish the A to Z challenge!

(if you have no idea what all of this means, I’d advise you to check out either my first post on the challenges or the original post on itsallaboutbooks!)

Next up, there’s the challenges with specific goals: for the Modern Mrs Darcy Challenge, I’ve already read:

• A book you should have read in school: L’Ignorance, Milan Kundera
• A book published before you were born: Persuasion, Jane Austen (which is the first in my “Reviewing the Classics”-series!)
• A book that was banned at some point: Moby Dick, Herman Melville (although I guess this one could also count for “A book that intimidates you” – I’ll just have to see which other books I read that may fit this criterion 🙂 )
• A book you’ve already read once: Northern Lights, Philip Pullman

And you have no idea how proud I am that I’ve actually managed to keep all of those straight, because let me tell you: I have to save them in my own excel, in the Google Spreadsheet from Reading Around the World, ànd the Google Spreadsheet from itsallaboutbooks, where I keep track of everything I’ve read.

Finally, there’s the Rory Gilmore Challenge – this is basically the only challenge which I’m sure I’ll never finish – if only because I just don’t like Stephen King’s work, and there’s at least 5 of his books in that list… Anyways, at the beginning of this month I had already read 67 of those books, this month I added two more works to that: Don Quichotte de la Manche and Moby Dick – I’d like to do slightly better on that one next month, but I guess we’ll just have to see to what extent school actually allows for that… 🙂

Anyways, there you have it! This month’s update for my Reading Challenges – how did you do this month? What books did you read? Be sure to let me know below!

-Saar