2015 Reading Challenge

I've always been a reader, I was an early starter too being able to read before the age of two. I have never had a period of time during which I haven't read, however there have been times when I have just read less. Until around August 2014, I was going through one of the less reading stages when I came across people on Twitter, who are part of International Geek Girl Pen Pals Club, talking about their book challenges and adding books to their TBR list on Goodreads. This really peaked my interest and got me thinking more about reading. I had previously had a Goodreads account, but at that time, it didn't feel right and the people who I was friends with just didn't seem to understand the way I read or the wide variety of genres on my books list. Fast forward back to August and I set myself up a brand new account and started adding the people I'd now met and it has been a brilliant experience. So many like minded people that are friendly and willing to talk about their opinions on books and will recommend books that they feel you will like depending on what they know about you.

Following on from this I have read more and more each month and have been thoroughly enjoying myself to the point where I want to start reviewing books again and have been making brief comments on my most recent books. Being a part of this community I was made aware of some reading challenges for 2015 and I thought why not try them out and use it as a building block to restart my reviews and give me prompts for my blog. The two lists which I have chosen to complete are PopSugar's Ultimate Reading Challenge and BookRiot's Read Harder Challenge, where there has been a duplication of a topic I have only done one and on the PopSugar list, there was a topic "a book you were supposed to read in school but didn't" and as I was a good girl and read everything that I was supposed to, I substituted this with "a book your dad loves". There is only one topic which I missed out completely and that was "an audiobook" though I may try one out later in the year.

I have created a bookshelf on my Goodreads and I will be blogging my reviews of each book as I go along so that I can share my experience with others.

So without further ado, here is my list:

A book with more than 500 pages - A Dance With Dragons by George R. R. Martin
A classic romance - Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
A book that became a movie - Divergent by Veronica Roth
A book published this year - Burned by Karen Marie Moning
A book with a number in the title - Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
A book written by someone under 30 - Eragon by Christopher Paolini
A book with nonhuman characters - The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
A funny book - High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
A book by a female author - The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
A mystery or thriller - A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
A book with a one-word title - You by Caroline Kepnes
A book of short stories - Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman
A book set in a different country - Helen of Troy by Margaret George
A nonfiction book - Portrait of a killer: Jack The Ripper by Patricia Cornwell
A popular author's first book - Star Quest by Dean Koontz
A book from an author you love that you haven't read yet - Making Money by Terry Pratchett
A book a friend recommended - In the Dark by Richard Laymon
A Pulitzer Prize-winning book - The Shipping News by Annie Proulx
A book based on a true story - All I want for Christmas Is...Letters from Santa's Mailbag by Carl Anderson
A book at the bottom of your to-read list - A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
A book your mum loves - The Borrowers by Mary Norton
A book that scares you - The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
A book more than 100 years old - The Lair of the White Worm by Bram Stoker
A book based entirely on its cover - The Children's Book by A, S, Byatt
A book your dad loves - Perfect Victim by Christine McGuire and Carla Norton
A memoir - Marley and Me by John Grogan
A book you can finish in a day - Animal Farm by George Orwell
A book with antonyms in the title - War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
A book set somewhere you've always wanted to visit - The Count of Monte Christo by Alexandre Dumas
A book that came out the year you were born - The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers
A book with bad reviews - Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
A trilogy - The Maze Runner Trilogy by James Dashner - 1. The Maze Runner 2. The Scorch Trials 3. The Death Cure
A book from your childhood - The Enchanted Wood by Enid Blyton
A book with a love triangle - Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
A book set in the future - Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
A book set in highschool - Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
A book with a colour in the title - Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
A book that made you cry - The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne
A book with magic - The Tales of Beedle Bard by J. K. Rowling
A graphic novel - Secret Wars by Jim Shooter
A book by an author you've never read before - The Luck of Troy by Roger Lancelyn Green
A book you own but have never read - The Flying Sorcerers by David Gerrold
A book that takes place in your hometown - Mist Over Pendle by Robert Neill
A book that was originally written in a different language - The Art of War by Sun Tzu
A book set during Chirstmas - The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg
A book written by an author with your same initials - Little Toot by Hardie Gramalky
A play - Equus by Peter Shaffer
A banned book - American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
A book based on or turned into a TV show - The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
A book you started but never finished - Dreamcatcher by Stephen King
A book written by someone when they were under 25 - The Shadow Thief by Alexandra Adornetto
A book written by someone when they were over 65 - I Dream of Zenia with Bright Red Teeth by Margaret Atwood
A book published by an indie press - The Assassin Princess by Blake Rivers
A book by or about someone that identifies as LGBTQ - The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
A book by a person whose gender is different to your own - Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
A book that takes place in Asia - Women of the Silk by Gail Tsukiyama
A book by an author from Africa - Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
A book that is by or about someone from an indigenous culture - Dreamkeepers: A Spirit-Journey into Aboriginal Australia by Harvey Arden
A microhistory - The Map That Changed the World by Simon Winchester
A YA novel - The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
A sci-fi novel - Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
A romance novel - Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
A National Book Award, Man Booker Prize or Pulitzer Prize winner from the last decade - Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
A book that is a retelling of a classic story - Cinder by Marissa Meyer
A collection of poetry - A child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson
A book that you would consider a guilty pleasure - Hidden by Casey Hill
A book published before 1850 - Emma by Jane Austin
A self improvement book - Who Moved My Cheese? by Dr Spencer Johnson

There are 70 books in total on my challenge list and I hope to fit in some others to achieve my goal of 100 books this year.

Here's to a very productive and enlightening 2015!