Amanda's End of the Year Update

At some point, I lost track of which months I checked in, so I decided to just wait until the end of the year to give a final tally. I doubt there's anything left on my list that I'll be reading in the next 19 days, so I'll just give my stats now.

My full FitG list is here.

So far, I've read 32 of my 100 books, and started to read but abandoned 4. They are as follows (with links to my reviews):

Alexie – The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian
Asher – Thirteen Reasons Why
Austen – Mansfield Park
Bechdel – Fun Home
Black – Tithe
Bradbury – Fahrenheit 451
Burnett – The Secret Garden
Caletti – Wild Roses
Cather – Death Comes for the Archbishop
Chesterton – The Man Who Was Thursday
Collins – Woman in White
Forster – A Passage to India
Gaiman – The Graveyard Book
Gaiman – Stardust
Greenberg – I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
Hanff – 84, Charing Cross Road
Johnson – Suite Scarlett
Maugham – Liza of Lambeth
McEwan – Atonement
Nabokov – Ada, or Ardor
Paton – Cry, the Beloved Country
Pratchett – The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
Snyder – The Witches of Worm
Solzhenitsyn – One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Steinbeck – East of Eden
Tammet – Born on a Blue Day
Turgenev – Fathers and Sons
Westerfeld – The Last Days
Westerfeld – PEEPS
Westerfeld – So Yesterday
Woolf – A Room of One’s Own
Zusak – The Book Thief

Abandoned:
Bronte, C. – Villette
Doctorow – Little Brother
Martel – Life of Pi
Shelley – The Last Man

My stats for the full FitG list look like this:

-Classics/Modern: about 50-50%
-YA: about 25%
-Fiction/Nonfiction: 94/6%
-By women/men: about 33/67%
-Translations and World Lit: aprox 25%

Stats for what I've read (including the 4 abandoned books):

-Classics/Modern: 50-50%
-YA: about 42%
-Fiction/Nonfiction: 86/14%
-By women/men: 36/64%
-Translations and World Lit: 11%

What this says to me is that I've been reading a lot of YA, more nonfiction than I expected, and less translations and world lit.

Also of this list, I liked 14 books, disliked 12 (including the 4 I abandoned), and was pretty neutral about 10. Not bad for a gaps list, I don't think!

I'm looking forward to knocking out another chunk of these in 2010!

The Zen Leaf nominated!

So our own dear Amanda's book review site has been nominated for the best general book review blog over on Book Blogger Appreciation Website.

It would be great if we could all pop over and show our support :)

Amanda's progress - July & August

Well, I haven't been reading too many books off my list this last little while. Too many other reading challenges I've been trying to complete! Altogether, I've read 4 more in the last two months. Here's what I've read, with brief thoughts about each book and links to the full reviews. All my reviews are located at The Zen Leaf.

1. A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf - I would have preferred to listen to this one on audio, but it was pretty good. Still hard to get through like all Woolf seems to be. 3.5 Stars.

2. East of Eden by John Steinbeck - Excellent book, though not as good as the Grapes of Wrath. A little heavy handed with the biblical references near the end. 4 Stars.

3. So Yesterday by Scott Westerfeld - A standalone Westerfeld book that doesn't get anywhere near as much attention as it deserves. This ranks among my favorites of his. 4.5 Stars.

4. The Last Days by Scott Westerfeld - Eh. B-grade. Too many big white worms. Everything was too convenient. This is the first disappointing book by Westerfeld I've ever read. 2.5 Stars.

Okay, hopefully September will bring me back with another good set of progress on this challenge. So far, I'm at 24 books read, 3 skipped.

June Check-In

This month I read 6 books off my list, and started a seventh that I had to abandon halfway through. Here's my list, with brief thoughts about each book and links to the full reviews. All my reviews are located at The Zen Leaf.

1. The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett - This was my first book by Pratchett and my introduction to Discworld. I enjoyed it more than I expected. 4 Stars.

2. The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett - Cute book, I probably would have liked it better if I'd read it as a kid. 3 Stars.

3. Wild Roses by Deb Caletti - This is the best book I've read in years. Deb Caletti is fast becoming my favorite modern author. She writes books that ought to become classics. 5 Stars.

4. Atonement by Ian McEwan - I know everyone loves this book, but I just hated it. I had to force myself through every word. Sorry. 1 Star.

5. Tithe by Holly Black - Disappointing. I expected this to be wonderful, but it failed in almost every way. Bad writing, inane characters, glorification of unhealthy lifestyles...etc. 2 Stars.

6. Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather - My favorite Cather book so far. This is the only book I've ever read that makes me want to visit New Mexico. 4 Stars.

7. Villette by Charlotte Bronte (abandoned) - I really wanted to like this one. Jane Eyre is one of my favorite books. In Villette, I just couldn't get past the awful writing and the horrible prejudice of the narrator. One day I do plan to go back and try to read the second half of the book, but for now, I had to put it away. I've heard it gets much better.

That brings my total to 20 read, 3 abandoned.

May Check-In

Project Fill-in-the-Gaps is still going great! I read less books from that category this month, but I tried to lower my reading volume tremendously this month anyway, so that makes sense. Here are my reads for May, with links to the full reviews and a sentence or two about my thoughts (see link for full thoughts):

1. Liza of Lambeth by William Somerset Maugham - The only major Maugham book I hadn't read, this one was okay but definitely not his best. 3 Stars.

2. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn - Excellent book, much better than the majority of Russian lit I've read. Highly recommended. 5 Stars.

3. The Witches of Worm by Zilpha Keatley Snyder - A children's book by one of my favorite children's authors, this one frequently shows up on banned books lists (for no reason, in my opinion). I liked it, but would have liked it better had I read it as a kid. 4 Stars.

4. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher - A heartbreaking and un-put-downable book. Don't start this at 2 in the afternoon. 5 Stars.

5. The Last Man by Mary Shelley - A complete waste of time. There's a reason Mary Shelley was known for Frankenstein instead of this one. I had to abandon this one halfway through. 1 Star.

6. Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton - Beautiful book, and still relevant today. Highly recommended. 4 Stars.

That brings my totals so far to 14 read, 2 abandoned. See you next month!

Goodreads

Hey everyone, I'm curious - how many of you are on Goodreads (or one of the other book database networks)? Recently, I added a shelf on my Goodreads profile for my 100 Fill-in-the-Gaps books to help me keep better/easier track of my list. I know I've probably connected with some of you on Goodreads, but I wondered if anyone else would like to connect. We can get a whole FitG Goodreads ring together. :) If so, that link up there is to my profile.

First 10 down!

Project Fill in the Gaps is going well! Since I started on April 1st, I've knocked 10 books off my list. Here they are, with links to the full reviews and a short sentence or two about what I thought:

1. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen - Not my favorite Austen, but more well-rounded character development than the other books.

2. The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton - This one left me completely bewildered, and I no longer marvel that, until recently, I'd never heard of this classics author.

3. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins - Fabulous book, mystery and intrigue! I can't wait to read more of his.

4. Stardust by Neil Gaiman - My favorite Gaiman book so far, fast and easy to read, far superior to the movie.

5. PEEPS by Scott Westerfeld - Westerfeld continues to impress me. Who knew you could learn so much about biology from a vampire book?

6. Fun Home by Alison Bechdel - A disappointing graphic novel memoire about Bechdel's sexuality and her relationship with her father. I was expecting much more from this, and it didn't deliver for me.

7. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak - Don't hate me, but I didn't love this book. It felt too gimicky to me. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either.

8. Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev - Better than most Russian literature I've read, but still not superb. The second half is much better and faster than the first.

9. I Never Promised You a Rose Garden by Joanne Greenberg - Written along the same lines as The Bell Jar, this one didn't deliver. I could never feel connected with the narrator. The Bell Jar is highly superior.

10. Life of Pi by Yann Martel - My first casualty of the Fill in the Gaps project. I didn't get beyond page 36 of this one. Sorry. It's just not my sort of book. I have a nice copy that I'm giving away here.

So, 10 down, 90 to go, and I'm only a month in! Not bad.

first book down!

Erm, I wasn't sure if you guys wanted me to cross-post my book reviews here or not. I post on The Zen Leaf. I just finished my first book on my 100 list, Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. I thought I'd put my progress here and ask what you guys want to do for reviews. Just post progress here? Or post the reviews? If posting progress, how often? With each book, monthly, weekly, quarterly, etc? I'm happy to oblige, either way. Just let me know. :)

Amanda's Fill-in-the-Gaps List

Note: One year after starting this challenge, I've read 49 books from the list, skipped 6 more, and now I'm tired. I'm not good at longterm goals. While I will likely read most of the books on this list in the future - they are all books I want to read - I don't want to be pressured into doing it within a certain time frame. I am dropping this challenge.

Books read: 49 of 100
Skipped: 6

The list:

1. Achebe – Things Fall Apart
2. Adichie – Half a Yellow Sun
3. Alexie – The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian
4. Allende – Ines of my Soul
5. Alsenas – Gay America
6. Asher – Thirteen Reasons Why
7. Austen – Mansfield Park
8. Austen – Northanger Abbey
9. Barbery – The Elegance of the Hedgehog
10. Bechdel – Fun Home
11. Black – Tithe
12. Blake – Songs of Innocence and Experience
13. Bradbury – Fahrenheit 451
14. Bronte, A. – Agnes Grey
15. Bronte, C. – Villette (abandoned)
16. Burnett – The Secret Garden
17. Caletti – Honey, Baby, Sweetheart
18. Caletti – Wild Roses
19. Carroll – Alice in Wonderland
20. Castellucci – Beige
21. Cather – Death Comes for the Archbishop
22. Chbosky – The Perks of Being a Wallflower
23. Chesterton – The Man Who Was Thursday
24. Christie – TBD
25. Cohn & Levithan – Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist
26. Colette – Claudine at School
27. Collins – The Moonstone
28. Collins – Woman in White
29. Cormier – The Chocolate War
30. Diaz – The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
31. Dickens – Bleak House
32. Dickens – Great Expectations
33. Doctorow – Little Brother (abandoned)
34. Dostoevsky – Notes from Underground
35. Dumas – The Black Tulip
36. du Maurier – Rebecca
37. Ellison – Invisible Man
38. Esquivel - Like Water for Chocolate
39. Eugenides – Middlesex
40. Fforde – Shades of Grey
41. Fitzgerald – The Great Gatsby
42. Fitzgerald – This Side of Paradise
43. Forster – A Passage to India
44. Gaiman – Anansi Boys
45. Gaiman – The Graveyard Book
46. Gaiman – Stardust
47. Gaskell – TBD
48. Gogol – Dead Souls
49. Greenberg – I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
50. Haddon – The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
51. Hanff – 84, Charing Cross Road
52. Hemingway – A Farewell to Arms
53. Hornby – About a Boy
54. Hurston – Jonah’s Gourd Vine
55. Ibsen – A Doll’s House
56. Ishiguro – The Remains of the Day
57. Johnson – Girl At Sea
58. Johnson – Suite Scarlett
59. Kafka – The Trial
60. Kundera – The Unbearable Lightness of Being
61. Lahiri – The Namesake
62. Lewis – Babbitt
63. Mann – Death in Venice
64. Marquez – Love in the Time of Cholera (abandoned)
65. Martel – Life of Pi (abandoned)
66. Maugham – Liza of Lambeth
67. McEwan – Atonement
68. Murakami – Kafka on the Shore
69. Nabokov – The Gift
70. Nabokov – Ada, or Ardor
71. Nemirovsky – Suite Française
72. Paton – Cry, the Beloved Country
73. Pratchett – The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
74. Radcliffe – The Mysteries of Udolpho (abandoned)
    
75. Sand – TBD
76. Saramago – TBD
77. Shelley – The Last Man (abandoned)
78. Snyder – The Witches of Worm
79. Sofer – The Septembers of Shiraz
80. Solzhenitsyn – One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
81. Spiegelman – Maus
82. Steinbeck – East of Eden
83. Suri – The Death of Vishnu
84. Tammet – Born on a Blue Day
85. Tolstoy – The Death if Ivan Ilyich
86. Toole – A Confederacy of Dunces
87. Turgenev – Fathers and Sons
88. Wallace – Mr. Sebastian and the Negro Magician
89. Waters – Fingersmith
90. Westerfeld – The Last Days
91. Westerfeld – PEEPS
92. Westerfeld – So Yesterday
93. Wharton – Summer
94. Wilde – The Importance of Being Earnest
95. Wodehouse – The Code of Woosters
96. Woolf – Freshwater
97. Woolf – A Room of One’s Own
98. Wright – Native Son
99. Zola – Germinal
100. Zusak – The Book Thief

Stats:

Male/Female: ~65/35%
Modern/Classics: ~50/50%
Fiction/Nonfiction: ~95/5%
Adult/YA-and-younger: ~75/25%
Translations & World Lit: ~35%