Reading Challenges Check-In #6

At this point, we're almost two-thirds of the way through the year, and I've worked on my reading challenges some more, so I thought it was time for an update.

In April, I read two Rory Gilmore Challenge picks: The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty and The Secret History by Donna Tartt, neither of which I liked very much.

May was a very busy month, and since I was ahead by two books (thanks to January and April), I decided it would be okay if I skipped one, but as June wore on, I felt more and more reluctant to work on the challenge. I've been generally unimpressed with the books on the list, so I've been actively considering if I want to continue the challenge or not.

And with that new challenge I started up a couple days ago, I think I have enough on my plate. So... almost three years after I started it, I'm considering my attempt of the Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge over.

NOW. I'm going to keep trying for the Newbery Challenge, and I have the Bookish States of America one to do now, too. So hopefully I'll have made some progress on those by the next time I check in (likely late this fall).

Also, if we count my goal of reading more classics this summer...I'm not doing great on that either, lol. Clearly I should stop setting challenges for myself because it's almost like they make me want to read those books less. Ah well. Stay tuned for another update!

Emma's Bookish States of America Challenge

As if I don't already have enough on my plate, I'm starting another reading challenge. A few years back, I posted suggestions of books people could read that were set in almost every state of America. Well I decided to do a personal update of the list, and I actually managed to cover some of the states I had to leave blank last time (though eight states are still without YA books).

I've already mostly completed this challenge because I had to choose a lot of books I'd read and knew where they were set. (Goodreads is not great for trying to find settings...) But you'll see there are still a few states I need to cover. 

(There's a real dearth of YA books set in the west.)

Out of the blank states, I have books I could read for Iowa, Arkansas, and New Hampshire, but if anyone has more suggestions, please let me know. And if anyone has recommendations for YA set in Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma, West Virginia, and Rhode Island, please tell me!!

Here's what I have read (I've included multiple books where applicable so if you want to pick up this challenge, you have options):

Alabama - Don't Touch
Alaska - Not If I Save You First
Arizona - Vengeance Road, Just For Clicks
California - Outrun the Moon, If I'm Being Honest
Colorado - From Twinkle, with Love; Sadie
Connecticut - Since You've Been Gone, My Life Next Door
Florida - Don't Date Rosa Santos, First & Then
Georgia - Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, Dear Martin
Hawaii - Summer Bird Blue
Illinois - Famous in a Small Town, The Comeback Season, Love, Hate & Other Filters
Indiana - The Fault in Our Stars, The Start of Me and You
Kansas - Hearts Unbroken, Just Visiting
Kentucky - Tash Hearts Tolstoy, Breakfast Served Anytime, My Heart and Other Black Holes
Louisiana - Out of the Easy
Maine - This Is What Happy Looks Like, Wild Blue Wonder
Maryland - More Than We Can Tell, The Upside of Unrequited
Massachusetts - American Panda, Free to Fall
Michigan - The Names They Gave Us, A Million Junes
Minnesota - Cold Day in the Sun
Mississippi - Magnolia
Missouri - The Art of Lainey
Nebraska - Fangirl, Girl Out of Water
Nevada - Overturned, The Chapel Wars
New Jersey - Bookishly Ever After
New Mexico - Love Letters to the Dead, Your Destination Is on the Left
New York - Pride, Like No Other, Together at Midnight
North Carolina - Belles, The Sound of Drowning
Ohio - A Madness So Discreet
Oregon - Not Now, Not Ever; This Side of Home
Pennsylvania - With the Fire on High
South Carolina - The Inside of Out
Tennessee - Racing Savannah
Texas - Puddin', Lucky Few, The Field Guide to the North American Teenager
Utah - By Your Side
Vermont - Truly Devious, Two Can Keep a Secret
Virginia - To All the Boys I've Loved Before, The Raven Cycle
Washington - Serious Moonlight, The Game of Love and Death
Wisconsin - Better off Friends
Wyoming - Wild Hearts

So I'm doing pretty well on this challenge! We'll see if I can keep it up. :)

Reading Challenges Check-In #5

Since I've been semi-good about doing the Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge this year, I thought we should do a check-in. And maybe I'll surprise us all and have worked on the Newbery Challenge as well. This is my first true check-in since April of 2018 lol.

RGC Progress

I read The Art of Eating by M.F.K. Fisher in January. It was 749 pages and wasn't as interesting as I hoped. It was half information about food and how things should be cooked or eaten, and half random memories of the author's at various restaurants.


Then, at the end of the month, I squeezed in The Phantom of the Opera, officially putting me ahead of schedule for my 2019 RGC goal (to read one a month). It helped clarify some of the scenes in the musical, and I enjoyed it for the most part. I liked how Leroux truly was the narrator and sometimes had little asides for readers.


In February, I came one step closer to finally reading all of Jane Austen's work. I read Northanger Abbey in the middle of the month and found I enjoyed it greatly.

Then, to round things out, I read A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway in March. All I have to say is, let's be real: Hemingway is trash.

We'll see if I stay on track with the challenge as 2019 progresses. I feel like it's easy to stay dedicated in the first three months or so, but then taper off as the year goes on. I do have a list of the 12 RGC books I wanted to specifically read this year, so maybe that will help. It's less daunting than the whole giant spreadsheet.


Newbery Progress

Guess what! I read 2018's winner, Hello, Universe, at the end of February! 


I got lucky because it was a free Prime Reads pick, so I shrugged and downloaded it. The characterization was good, but the book felt lacking overall. I needed more about the characters, and the pacing felt off, and the story ended too suddenly. Also it really bothered me that there were no consequences for Chet's bullying?? Like, is that really a message we should give middle schoolers, that other kids can just get away with bullying? I know the world isn't perfect, but I worry about kiddos.

That's all I tackled for the Newbery Challenge, but I also added this year's winner to my spreadsheet, so I've got another book to read. I've also started thinking that it might be fun to do challenges themed around the Printz, Morris, and National Book Awards after I finish this one.

Are you doing any reading challenges this year? How are they going?

Reading Challenges Check-In #4

I planned this check-in, figuring that I would've been a prolific reader in the first few months of 2018 since I don't have a lot of classwork and because both Rory Gilmore Challenge and Newbery Challenge books are readily available from the library as e-books so I'd be able to read them despite the cold weather.

But here's my update anyways.

The Newbery Challenge

So first up, I added the 2015, 2017, and 2018 winners to the spreadsheet. And I did manage to read a couple Newbery winners!

At the end of February, I read Sounder, which I was super excited for but which also made me mad in the first 25%. (Dog books tend to do that to me.)

During spring break, I read The Crossover, which definitely wasn't my usual style, but it was a fun read. Very rhythmic. 

Overall, I'm 64% done with my Newbery challenge (which doesn't even include all the medal winners), so I'd say I'm doing pretty good!

The Rory Gilmore Challenge

I forgot to mention last time that I read A Room of One's Own in December, but that doesn't really count for this update.

I did read/reread the first Nancy Drew book, The Secret of the Old Clock, in January! The person who organized the Goodreads list put the entire series, but I thought it best to only read the first book specifically for the challenge. Otherwise, that would be, like, 64 more books for an already large challenge.

During a desk shift one night in February, I read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, so that was another book checked off the list.

Other than that, I have slacked off. Shame on me. 

I've read 47 RGC books so far, and, percentage-wise, I'm 21% done.


There're just so many books I want to read and so little time. D:

End-of-the-Year Reading Challenge Updates

So it's been quite a while since I told y'all how my reading challenges were going. And, not gonna lie, I definitely slacked off this fall. I had way too many new releases to read (plus reading for class). But I've managed to read a few, so here we go!

The Rory Gilmore Challenge

I'm going to start off by saying I've read 44 out of 225 books/plays/whatever. I have also straight up removed a couple books from the challenge because I decided they wouldn't be worth my time.

Next! Month(ish) by month(ish) updates:

I read Anna Karenina at the end of June, and I think that deserves an award. I think the only longer fiction book I've read is Les Miserables. 

Since I own The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, thanks to my Shakespeare class, I read another Shakespeare play in August: The Merry Wives of Windsor. It was interesting. Not my fave, but interesting. 

At the end of September, I tried to read the memoir Wild, which inspired Lorelai's trip in A Year in the Life: Fall, but it definitely wasn't to my taste, so I DNFed it. But I gave it a try, so I counted it.

In November, I read The Poetry of Emily Dickinson. It wasn't the same edition Rory read, but I think it counts all the same. I also read The Great Gatsby for the first time ever. Fitzgerald is so extra at times, good grief, but it was definitely an interesting read.

At the beginning of December, I read A Girl from Yamhill, which is Beverly Cleary's memoir. The style of it was interesting but a bit dry. I followed that with Henry IV, part II and Othello in the middle of the month. Now I have only four Shakespeare plays to finish for the Rory Gilmore Challenge. 
I continued the Shakespeare theme and read his sonnets, thanks to my parents, who gifted me the Word Cloud Classics edition for Christmas. It's gold and shimmery and very pretty.

All in all, I'm 19.5% of the way through the challenge. Here's to hoping I'll be at least 25% through by the end of 2018!


The Newbery Challenge

I am ashamed to admit it, but I read zero Newbery winners from June to the middle of December. Go ahead and scold me.

I should point out that there are fewer books on my Newbery challenge than in my Rory Gilmore challenge, so it's not terrible if I spread it out a little and take my time. But I did read Ginger Pye right before Christmas. I thought maybe I'd read this when I was a kid, but I have no recollection of the storyline, so I'm thinking I didn't.

I'm 64% done with this challenge, hooray!


Do you have any reading challenges you're working on?

Reading Challenges Update #2

It's been a while since I told y'all how my reading challenges were going, so I thought I'd check in!

The Rory Gilmore Challenge

So when updating my spreadsheet for this challenge recently, I realized I had read one of the titles in November. Which helps since I don't think I read any books for this challenge in February, March, or April. Oops. 

Actually, I take that back. Thanks to my Shakespeare class, I read Henry IV, Part I from February 25 to March 1. And now that I own The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, I should be able to knock the rest of the Shakespearean plays off the challenge list (the ones I hadn't already read prior to this challenge, at least).

Anyways, in May I read Jane Eyre, which I'd bought the Word Cloud Classics edition of way back in December.
At the beginning of June, I read two Nora Ephron memoirs, one of which is referenced in A Year in the Life, with the other being displayed on Lorelai's nightstand during "Fall." I didn't like the first one, but I did like the second one okay, and I can see why a friend who read it last fall for an assignment in our creative nonfiction class enjoyed it.

There are so.many. books in this challenge that it's hard to know where to start. Going alphabetically seems lame, so I'm trying to start with the ones that spark my interest the most. I think I'd be more motivated to read for this challenge (and the other one) if I actually put the books on my Goodreads TBR list, but it's already so long that I feel guilty whenever it grows bigger and I don't take anything off of it. So we'll see...

Anyways, I've now read 34 books out of 229 (and that counts the A Year in a Life referenced books), so I'd say that's fair progress, considering it's only 15% of the total challenge.

The Newbery Challenge

Like my Rory Gilmore challenge, this one sort of fell by the wayside, thanks to the challenges of spring semester. I did read The Westing Game in February, though, so I only slacked off March through May.

But! On the very first day of June, I read Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright. I didn't really like it, and I don't think I would've enjoyed it when I was younger either, but at least it was a short book. A few days later, I read A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck, which was all right. I'm feeling a bit disappointed that I'm not enjoying more Newbery winners. There has to be a reason they won, right?

Total, I've read 20 out of 35 books, or 57%. So I'd say I'm doing pretty well with this challenge, even if I did fall behind.

Progress on My Reading Challenges

I first posted about my two reading challenges back in November, and I said I wanted to try to read one book for each per month. I decided to hold myself accountable to y'all and post a challenge update, also for my benefit so I can see how I'm doing.

The Newbery Challenge

At the end of November, I read The View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg, and at the end of December, I read A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle. In January, I read When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead, which has been my second favorite out of all the books I've read since I started the challenge

So I'm not behind on the challenge at all. It's nice, because a lot of the selections are available as e-books through my libraries so I can read them at school even during the colder months when I'm not getting books through the library boxes.

I still have 18 books to read. Obviously there are many more Newbery winners than that, but if you recall, I narrowed it down to the ones I was interested in.

The Rory Gilmore Challenge

I didn't read any of the 197 books left on my list in November, but I read both The Raven and The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe in December, so I think that makes up for November. In January, I read Ina Garten's cookbook, Barefoot in Paris, which appeared in season 5 of Gilmore Girls. Definitely a fun, quick read!

Also, my list source on Goodreads created a list based on books referenced in A Year in the Life, so I think I need to add those to my list. I'll let y'all know during my next update if I did or not.


Are you doing any reading challenges currently? How are they going?

New(bery) Reading Challenge

Just a few days ago, I posted about my first true reading challenge (beyond the annual Goodreads reading goal). Today I'm going to talk about my second reading challenge.

When I started my adolescent literature course back in August, the professor gave us a list of all the Newbery Medal winners, particularly since we would be reading three of the winners and a few Newbery Honor books. (Fun story: I always thought Princess Academy was a Newbery Award winner, but apparently it only has a Newbery Honor.)

I started looking over the list. It was fun to see which ones I've already read, and I'd actually love to reread a lot of those. I've read the following Newbery Award books:

• Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink (1936)
• The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth Speare (1959)
• Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell (technically my fourth grade teacher read it to us, but that counts in my book) (1961)
• From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg (1968)
• Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor (1977)
• Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson (1978)
• Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary (1984)
• Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan (1986)
• Number the Stars by Lois Lowry (1990)
• Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (1992)
• The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman (1996)
• Holes by Louis Sachar (1999)
• The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo (2004)
• Flora & Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo (2013)

So I've read 14 out of 95 books, and I thought that seemed pretty shabby. Obviously, some of the earlier ones aren't all that great. Still, I went over the list and checked Goodreads synopses and ratings and found 21 more books (plus the one we still have to read for class) that interested me.

I felt like this was a nice starting point to complete my Newbery Reading Challenge. Here are the 21 books I plan to read, hopefully within the next year:

• The Voyages of Dr. Dolittle by Hugh Lofting (1923)
• Hitty, Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field (1930)
• Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright (1939)
• Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski (1946)
• King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry (1949)
• Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes (1952)
• Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorensen (1957)
• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (1963)
• Up a Road Slowly by Irene Hunt (1967)
• Sounder by William H. Armstrong (1970)
• The Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byars (1971)
• Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien (1972)
• The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin (1978)
• Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson (1981)
• The Giver by Lois Lowry (1994)
• The View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg (1997)
• A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck (2001)
• A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park (2002)
• Kira-Kira by Cytnhia Kadohata (2005)
• The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron (2007)
• When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead (2010)

What Newbery Award books have you read? Do you want to read more of them, too? Oh! And if you can recommend any Newbery Award winners that I didn't list, please let me know in the comments below or on Twitter.

The Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge

If you're attuned to the Gilmore Girls fandom at all, you'd know that, a couple years ago, a guy came up with a list of all 339 books referenced in Gilmore Girls. As an avid reader, I decided it was time I take that challenge...but with some modifications.

First of all, some of the "books" referenced are really the movie adaptation like The Yearling and Bambi. So I didn't include those.

Second, I wasn't going to include any books that had been seen on bookshelves in bookstore/library scenes. Those are not true references, in my opinion, nor do they necessarily have Rory Gilmore's stamp of approval.

Third, I was a bit picky and tried not to include many books seen in Sookie's or Luke's homes, just because I wasn't sure those counted.

I found a pretty solid set of Goodreads lists, compiled by a girl named Amanda. If you scroll down to where it showed who voted, you can click on her name and see why she added each book to the lists. I used her lists to compile my spreadsheet of 219 books.

(Basically me right now.)

The good news is, I've already read 22 off the list. That means only 197 more to go. Which is still going to be a great feat. I'm going to pace myself, though. Maybe aim for one or two a month, especially since I have a lot of YA I want to read (and, if you remember my post from a few weeks ago, I want to try more memoirs). 

I would like to note that I'm not sure yet if my spreadsheet is complete. The lists on Goodreads mention several books on a Banned Books poster in Rory and Paris's dorm/apartment the last few seasons. I hesitated to include those because it's not a direct in-series reference. However, I included books that were spotted on Rory's bookshelves or that she was purchasing. Do y'all think the books on that poster count? And let me know if you've attempted this challenge, too! I'm happy to email my spreadsheet to anyone who wants it.