2009 9-9 Challenge

I love to read. I can remember my Mama taking me to the library during the summertime to pick out books. She used to get upset with me because I wouldn't read a book if it didn't have anything to do with an animal. I never wanted to read about people. While I still love to read about animals, I can handle reading about people now ;0) But I did notice that as I became older, got my driver's license, started dating, working, etc., my book reading fell to the wayside. I would still read but nothing like I used to. Back in 2007, I decided to read 24 books that year. Then a quarter of the way through the year, I came across an reading "challenge" That year, it was an A-Z author challenge. So I added it in with my previous number and read 48 books that year. Then in 2008, I uped it to 64. For 2009, I was tittering between 68 & 72. Well, I made the 72!!! Again, it was done according to a challenge I found. This one was to read 9 books in 9 different categories with only one book able to overlap a category. Ideally, you should have read 81 books, but if you took the easy route, it would be 72. I didn't want to push it, so I took the 72. But since I belong to a on-line book group and read at least one book a month for it, one of my categories would contain 12 books. So I simply adjusted the amount of books in each category to accommodate the difference. I still read 9 categories. And completed my goal of 72. It was fun, but not easy. And for this year, I am going with 10 categories, but only 50 books. I'm lowering my number because I have made myself a list of 10 personal goals for this year, and I am going to give them everything I've got, so I am preparing myself for more time spent on accomplishing these goals, yet still keeping my love of reading alive! I'm hoping that I will surprise myself and read more than this, but I am going on the low side so that I can feel confident about my reading and about accomplishing my Main Goals for 2010.
Below is a my list of categories and the books I read in each.

I have added a star rating to each book. There is my guidelines for how I rate them:
5 - These are books that have in some way changed me, made me think, shaken me up or impressed me with the writing style. They are books I will read more than once.
4 - Books that I enjoyed, they engaged me & took me for a great ride. I would recommend them to a friend.
3 - Okay books. I recommend borrowing or checking out.
2 - I wouldn't read again OR recommend
1 - An insult to my time!

1. Play Book Tag ( My on-line Book Club)

1. January - Music - Violin by Anne Rice 289 pages 4 stars
2. February - Chick Lit - Icing on the Cake by Laura Castoro 379 pages 3 stars
3. March - History- An American Plague by Molly Caldwell Crosby 308 pages 4 stars
4. April - Friendship - Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff 208 pages 3 stars
5. May - Suspense - Black by Ted Dekker 408 pages 4 stars
6. June - Time travel - The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers 387 pages 3 stars
7. July - American Literature - A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain 541 pages 4 stars
8. August - Humor - Where is Joe Merchant? by Jimmy Buffett 399 pages 3 stars
9. September - Coming of Age - The Hiding Place by Trezza Azzopardi 282 pages 3 stars
10. October - Contemporary Fiction - Mary Modern by Camille De Angelis 350 pages 3 stars
11. November - Thriller - Afraid by Jack Kilborn 346 pages 346 pages 4 stars
12. December - Satire - Animal Farm by George Orwell 128 pages 4 stars




2. Animal Farm

1. Second Chances: More Tales of Found Dogs by Elise Lufkin 180 pages 3 stars
2. Bunnicula by James Howe 98 pages 3 stars
3. Summer of the Monkeys by Wilson Rawls 272 pages 4 stars
4. Chicken Friend by Nicola Morgan 160 pages 4 stars
5. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski 576 pages 4 stars
6. Charlotte's Web by E.B. White 184 pages 5 stars
7. A Dog's Life by Ann M. Martin 182 pages 4 stars




3. Seriously Serial

1. The Spiderwick Chronicles, Book 1: The Field Guide by Holly Black 107 pages 3 stars
2. Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan 375 pages 3 stars
3. Every Dead Thing by John Connolly 395 pages 4 stars
4. Troll Fell by Katherine Langrish 355 pages 3 stars
5. Club Dead by Charlaine Harris 258 pages 2 stars
6. White Witch, Black Curse by Kim Harrison 5 stars
7. Moon Called by Patricia Briggs 288 pages 3 stars



4. Pile Up on the KL Expressway (Books from my To-Be-Read pile)

1. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls 288 pages 5 stars
2. The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank 274 pages 1 star
3. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway 127 pages 4 stars
4. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant 321 pages 5 stars
5. Angels and Demons by Dan Brown 569 pages 4 stars
6. Ghost Walk by Heather Graham 393 pages 3 stars
7. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen 335 pages 5 stars
8. The Sweet Potato Queens' Book of Love by Jill Conner Browne 213 pages 4 stars
9. The Little Prince by Antonine De Saint-Exupery 83 pages 5 stars
10. Wolf Boy by Evan Kuhlman 320 pages 3 stars
11. Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill 376 pages 4 stars
12. Astrid & Veronika by Linda Olsson 259 pages 5 stars



5. 28 Days Later (apocalyptic/plague)

1. Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson 272 pages 4 stars
2. The Stand by Stephen King 823 pages 5 stars
3. White by Ted Dekker 370 pages 4 stars
4. Red by Ted Dekker 381 pages 4 stars
5. The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan 310 pages 5 stars
6. Into the Forest by Jean Hegland 241 pages 5 stars
7. Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank 323 pages 5 stars



6. Something Wicked This Way Comes

1. Coraline by Neil Gaiman 194 pages 5 stars
2. Road to Nowhere by Christopher Pike 212 pages 3 stars
3. Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton 146 pages 4 stars
4. The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue 319 pages 5 stars
5. The Strain by Guillermo del Toro & Chuck Hogan 416 pages 5 stars
6. Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury 4 stars
7. I am Legend by Richard Matheson 312 pages 4 stars



7. Getting to Know You (History, Historical Fiction, Bio/Memoirs)

1. Lincoln by David Herbert Donald 720 pages 2 stars
2. The Colony by John Tayman 432 pages 4 stars
3. Roar of the Heavens by Stefan Bechtel 308 pages 5 stars
4. The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson 468 pages 4 stars
5. An Unlikely Friendship by Ann Rinaldi 241 pages 4 stars
6. Moloka'i by Alan Brennert 384 pages 5 stars
7. Sickened by Julie Gregory 244 pages 5 stars



8. Fried Green Tomatoes (Southern Lit/fiction OR Food)

1. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg 416 pages 5 stars
2. Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen by Susan Gregg Gilmore 293 pages 4 stars
3. Girls in Trucks by Katie Crouch 241 pages 2 stars
4. Mermaids in the Basement by Michael Lee West 291 pages 3 stars
5. The Madhatter's Guide to Chocolate by Rhett Devane 270 pages 3 stars
6. Love and Meatballs by Susan Volland 232 pages 4 stars
7. Cooking for Mr. Right by Susan Volland 240 pages 4 stars




9. Queen of Her Castle (Other Challenges & anything else I felt like reading!)

1. Nesting: It's a Chick Thing by Ame M. Beanland & Emily M. Terry 285 pages 4 stars
2. The Absorbent Mind by Maria Montessori 296 pages 3 stars
3. The Third Angel by Alice Hoffman 278 pages 3 stars
4. A Hard Man to Love by Kathleen Lawless 212 pages 3 stars
5. Swell by Cynthia Rowley and Ilene Rosenzweig 136 pages 3 stars
6. The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron 222 pages 5 stars

TOTALS FOR 2009:
Books Read: 72
Pages Read: 22,340 pages
Authors Read: 69