karenmarie's 888 challenge

8 is my lucky number, so I couldn't resist. I'm in the 75 book challenge but am intrigued with setting up categories and planning in advance. I'm going through my library to see what fits in the categories. * means I have the book already.

55 finished 12/28/08

Classics I should have Read by Now 4 finished
1. *The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy **** finished 12/20/08
2. *Beowulf audio tape of Seamus Heaney *** finished April 2008
3. *20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne **** finished 2/19/08
4. *Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott
5. *Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain *** finished 3/6/08
6. *The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
7. *Moby Dick by Herman Melville
8. *The Sea Wolf by Jack London

1001 Books to Read Before You Die 5 finished
1. *Candide or Optimism by Voltaire ***1/2 finished 2/13/08
2. *Independent People by Halldor Laxness ****1/2 finished 12/2/08
3. *Lucky Jim by Kinsley Amis
4. *The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
5. *The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler ***1/2 finished 2/24/08
6. *The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
7. *The Quiet American by Graham Greene ***1/2 finished 10/9/08
8. *The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides *1/2 finished 3/1/08

Biography/Memoir 7 finished
1. *Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet *** 1/2 finished 8/2/08
2. *Shakespeare The World as Stage by Bill Bryson **** finished 2/26/08
3. *Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass *** 1/2 finished 11/22/08
4. *The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls ****1/2 finished 4/13/08
5. *The Autobiography of Agatha Christie **** finished 5/8/08
6. *The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
7. *Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas **1/2 finished 11/5/08
8. *The American Journey of Barack Obama by The Editors of LIFE **** finished 12/28/08

Award Winners 7 finished
1. *Pulitzer - The Road by Cormac McCarthy ****1/2 finished 8/29/08
2. *Pulitzer - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay **** finished 4/18/08
3. *Independent Publisher Book Awards - Sojourn by Jana G. Oliver *** 1/2 finished 7/31/08
4. *Nobel Prize for Literature - Independent People by Halldor Laxness ****1/2 finished 12/2/08
5. *Pulitzer - The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara ***** finished 10/31/08
6. *Newbery Honor Book - Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine *** finished 5/18/08
7. *Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature - The Solitaire Mystery by Jostein Gaarder ***1/2 finished 11/11/08
8. *Falcon Award No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

Edmund Crispin 8 finished
1. *The Case of the Gilded Fly ****finished 4/3/08
2. *Holy Disorders finished ***1/2 finished 4/7/08
3. *The Moving Toyshop *** finished 4/14/08
4. *Swan Song *** finished 4/24/08
5. *Love Lies Bleeding *** finished 5/23/08
6. *Buried for Pleasure ***1/2 finished 11/23/08
7. *Frequent Hearses *** 1/2 finished 12/16/08
8. *The Long Divorce ***1/2 finished 11/27/08

Just for Fun and Bookclub 8 finished
1. *The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex ***1/2 finished 2/21/08
2. *Tumbling Through Time by Gwen Cready * finished 2/10/08
3. *Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen **** finished 2/9/08
4. *From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris ***1/2 finished 5/31/08
5. *The Dechronization of Sam Magruder by George Gaylord Simpson *** 1/2 finished by 4/30/08
6. *Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson ** FINALLY finished 3/30/08
7. Pretty Little Mistakes by Heather Mcelhatton * finished 9/12/08
8. *Shakespeare's Landlord by Charlaine Harris **1/2 finished 6/8/08

Non-Fiction 8 finished
1. *The Assault on Reason by Al Gore **** finally finished 4/26/08
2. *Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin *** 1/2 finished 9/13/08
3. Shades of Glory by Lawrence D. Hogan **1/2 finished 5/31/08
4. *The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell **** finished 9/18/08
5. *Reading Judas by Elaine Pagels ***1/2 finished 2/28/08
6. *Pirkei Avos With a Twist of Humor by Joe Bobker **ER Book!!!**** finished 5/16/08
7. *The Far Traveler by Nancy Marie Brown ** 1/2 finished 6/21/08
8. *Plato and A Platypus Walk into a Bar by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein ***1/2 finished 3/8/08

ARCs and ER books 8 finished
1. *Zoe's Tale by John Scalzi ***1/2 finished 6/12/08
2. The Aviary Gate by Katie Kickman *** finished by 7/11/08
3. *Stealing Athena by Karen Essex **** finished 7/23/08
4. *The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent **** finished 8/11/08
5. *The Grift by Debra Ginsberg ***1/2 finished 9/14/08
6. *The Fire by Katherine Neville **1/2 finished 9/9/08
7. *Any Given Doomsday by Lori Handeland **1/2 finished 9/21/08
8. *Midwife of the Blue Ridge by Christine Blevins **** finished 9/24/08

Well, this is about the 20th iteration and I still have one category to name. I'm trying to be ambitious but realistic. If, of course, I could sit around and read all day...... ah heaven.

I've named the category Award Winners and have a few more to add.

I think the ambitious is outweighing the realistic.

Well, I've finished Candide: or Optimism. A wonderfully incisive vicious and outrageous book. Candide, Pangloss, Cunegonde, Martin, and the rest are all deftly portrayed.

I have the absolutely joy of picking from my 888 list - perhaps Snekday? We'll see.

I've picked 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne. So far so good. This is the Miller/Walter transltion of 1989-1991 - apparently earlier translations were incomplete and misleading. Page 42 and it's a great read so far.

Once again, I've finalized the list. And, I picked all the books from my shelves and put them on a new shelf in the sunroom. This is fun.

Listened to 1776 by David McCullough. Fantastic book. I'm torn about using audio books for the 888 challenge, and so far have only noted it in the non-fiction category. Haven't displaced another book. I'll have to give serious thought to whether using audio books is 'allowed' - my rule for myself only.

Wow! 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is a great read. I'm starting The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex. Neither touchstone is working.

Zoomed through Smekday. A fun, lighthearted read with some witty political insights for the adults. I enjoyed watching J.Lo take on human characteristics. Next? I think The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler. And a trashy romance - Hard to Handle by Lori Foster - totally awful. Got rid of it yesterday. And, of course, finishing The Assault on Reason by Al Gore.

Just finished The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler. I just love reading about LA - I'm from there - and I enjoyed the descriptions of the people, their clothes language and behavior. Phillip Marlowe is an enigma in some ways. Good book.

Next is Shakespeare The World as Stage by Bill Bryson.

Finished Shakespeare the World as Stage. I've decided to continue with non-fiction, Reading Judas by Elaine Pagels.

Reading Judas was a fantastic read. I've started The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides. Strange.

I'll be watching for your reaction to The Virgin Suicides. I read Middlesex a couple of weeks ago, and was thinking about adding The Virgin Suicides to my list.

Hey ivyd - I just finished The Virgin Suicides. I have rarely been happier to finish a book. Starting about page 50 or so I couldn’t wait to be finished with this book. Normally, if I don’t like a book, I put it down. However, in the spirit of the 888 challenge and my own personal rule that for this year at least, whatever I start I finish, I read the whole thing.
It was very well written. I loved Middlesex and bought this book after on the strength of that book. There was no mystery about how the story would end, and the despondency of the narrators throughout the entire book is a testament to what they felt for the girls. The language was vivid, the descriptions of the neighborhood spoke to my own experience growing up, and all the references to the music were MY music.
It was just so depressing, though! Deft portrayals of 70s neighborhoods, high school, teenage sexual tension, lives slowly playing out their destiny. The absolute strangeness of Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon and their total betrayal of their daughters struck me from the first moment. And, for better or worse, society left people alone to their fates more then than now. Now there would be social workers and legal involvement in the girls dropping out of school, and criminal investigations for the second set of suicides. All the involvement by all authority figures seemed so vague and useless.
Nothing good seemed to come to anybody in this book. Lives played out sadly, wistfully, yearning towards the Lisbon girls. I honestly can’t figure out why the author wrote this book.
I would say I was sorry I read the book except that it will probably be one of those books that haunt me and make a mockery of my wishing I hadn’t read it.

I've decided to read Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain.

Thanks for the review, karenmarie! Based on your comments, I think I'll hold off on it, at least for now. I'm not a fan of depressing books, and I've read several recently. And, though I really liked Middlesex, I have learned that just because I like one book by an author, I won't necessarily like others.

I see from your list that you gave Water for Elephants 5 stars. It was my favorite book of 2007(everyone who hadn't read it got it from me as a Christmas present). I also would give 5 stars to two other books on your list: The Glass Castle and The Road.

Hey ivyd! Tonight is my bookclub meeting, first of the new reading year - Water for Elephants is the book. I loved it. Zoomed through it.

This is our bookclub's 12th year. The number has varied over the years, but right now there are twelve members and we each choose a book. My book is The Glass Castle! Here's our list for 2008(2009):

DATE BOOK AUTHOR
March 2 Water for Elephants Sara Gruen
April 6 Snow Crash Neal Stephenson
May 4 The Glass Castle Jeanette Walls
June 1 The Merry Wives of Windsor & Hamlet William Shakespeare
July 13 The Far Traveler Nancy Marie Brown
August 3 Born on a Blue Day Daniel Tammet
September 7 The Road Cormac McCarthy
October 5 Pretty Little Mistakes Heather Mcelhatton
November 2 The Quiet American Graham Greene
December 7 Independent People Halldor Laxness
January 11 Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart Gordon Livingston
February 1 The Uncommon Reader Alan Bennett

Glad to hear you gave Glass Castle and The Road 5*s. I'm looking forward to every book in the bookclub this year.

FYI, I am thoroughly enjoying Life on the Mississippi. Not everybody would like his chapters and chapters of steamboat piloting science, but I find them terribly interesting. I'd forgotten how much I love Mark Twain's language and humor. I surely did need humor after The Virgin Suicides. This is a long book too - almost 500 pages, and I'm about 125 in. Meaty.

What are you reading now?

What an interesting and eclectic list for the Book Club!

And just in case I left a false impression, I should mention that The Glass Castle and The Road are very different from Water for Elephants.

I just finished The Book Thief, another 5* book for me (and I'm pretty stingy with 5*s -- last year of 64 books, only A Thousand Splendid Suns, Water for Elephants, and The Road). I'm currently waiting for Cloud Atlas from my son-in-law, The Time Traveler's Wife from my daughter, and 2 Margaret Maron books that I have on order. In the meantime, I picked up Luke's Quest, one of my old children's books by Caroline Dale Snedeker, about St Luke, and it's sending me into reading the Bible and the history of the Gospels.

We have a very interesting group of women in my club - we're in our 11th year. We limit to 12 so we can each choose a book for the year - which shifts by one month every year because we have one meeting just to choose books! That meeting's fun, too.

I loved The Time Taveler's Wife - it was my book choice for the bookclub's 2005 year. Pretty everybody in our bookclub enjoyed reading it.

I gave A Thousand Splendid Suns to a friend recently but haven't read it myself. Somebody said it was even better than The Kite Runner - which I guess I'd give 5* to.

Regarding Luke's Quest - I just finished reading Reading Judas The Gospel of Judas and the Shaping of Christianity by Elaine Pagels. Don't know if it would interest you or not because it's not part of the New Testament, but Elaine Pagels is a wonderful writer.

I "guess" I'd give 5* to The Kite Runner also. I thought it was amazing and powerful. The problem is that it is NOT a pleasant book. I liked A Thousand Splendid Suns better, but on the whole it is not a pleasant book, either, dealing as it does with the horrors of living in Afghanistan, and most especially of being a woman living there. Nevertheless, it is very well written and the main characters are engaging, though I thought Hosseini did a slightly better job of characterization of his protagonist in The Kite Runner (which I believe is largely autobiographical). I found both books depressing, but most definitely worth reading.

Elaine Pagels' books showed up in my internet research of the Gospels, and they sound very interesting. I find all of it (newly discovered texts, early Church history, alternative theories, historical basis, etc) fascinating, though it wasn't something I had intended to delve into this year. Guess I'll just see where my reading takes me (and maybe have to change some categories)!

What did your Book Club think of Water for Elephants?

Most everybody loved it. There were several comments on the violence and murder.

I commented that I must be desensitized because it didn't bother me. It truly represented the times.

Several people commented on the if-you-didn't-read-it-carefully issue of whether Rosie or Marlena killed August. Some people felt led on. I took it that Marlena killed him but it never bothered me throughout the book - I didn't focus on it. It was the means to the end of Jacob getting Marlena. At the end when it was revealed (?) that Rosie actually killed him, I admired Sara Gruen for setting it up so nicely. And of course I loved Jacob and Marlena for taking the 12 horses, Rosie, and Bobo.

I particularly appreciated the photos and everybody agreed that they added to the book. I don't think I've ever seen photos in a novel before.

A couple of people were disappointed that the guy got the girl and things ended up happily ever after; Jacob even got to run away to the circus the second time. I guess they want it to be more "real". I think it was "real" enough.

I like fiction where there's a happy ending - not every book has to end that way of course - but one of the purposes of fiction is to entertain, and I like to be entertained by being happy for the characters by the end of the book.

What interested me was how much some people LOVED it and some people just thought it was a good read. There isn't usually so much high level enthusiasm by as many people.

Remembering how depressing The Virgin Suicides was, I really appreciated how good Water for Elephants made me feel.

And to The Kite Runner. I felt depressed when all those horrible things were happening, but I felt very happy during the good parts (read it a year or so ago so don't remember too many details). I simply loved the book and was entranced with knowing why kite flying was such a big deal after the Taliban were kicked out. I didn't understand it at the time - big deal people were flying kites - but after reading The Kite Runner I understood. It's also one of the first books I've read about such a foreign culture that kept me mesmerized.

I don't remember feeling depressed after reading it.

Finally, Elaine Pagels. Is there a particular subject you were going to delve into this year? Just curious if you have specific plans or not.

My plans are just to read a whole bunch of things I might not have read otherwise.

Just finished Life on the Mississippi last night and started Plato and a Platypus. I'll write a review of Life later.

Next after Plato is Snow Crash for my bookclub's April meeting.

I've taken a brief 888 break and read two romances. The first, a trashy one, is The Last Twilight by Marjorie M. Liu. It's the latest in a series and the last one I'll buy of hers, since the last two have been very disappointing.

The other is NOT a trashy one, although one of my less-favorite Georgette Heyer's - Sylvester or The Wicked Uncle. Her characters are clearly defined as always but poorly motivated. I never really understand why Phoebe falls in love with Sylvester.

Started Snow Crash but am also reading Envious Casca also by Georgette Heyer.

Starting The Murder of My Aunt from the"Started But Never Finished category after reading a Georgette Heyer mystery.

Still slogging through Snow Crash. It's a hard read for me but I have bursts of enjoyment.

Fewer bursts of enjoyment, but still slogging. Read a second Georgette Heyer mystery, Penhallow. I really liked it. I think I'll read another GH mystery - No Wind of Blame as a reward for continuing Snow Crash. Why oh why did I commit to finishing everything I started this year? I don't want to break it THIS early.

Oh, yes! Finally finished Snow Crash. I'm proud of myself for finishing it, and there were actually some good parts - mostly the discussions of viruses, archaeology, history, computers, and religion.

I'm starting The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.

And, I'm starting The Case of the Gilded Fly, which is NOT 888, but which I will read when K & C needs a rest.

I'm feeling overwhelmed. Books are supposed to be fun, not 'homework', so I am making my last category easy. I'm going to re-read (after 20 years, so mostly they're like new), all of Edmund Crispin's Gervase Fen novels. There are 9. I've had a blast reading the first two. I'll intersperse them with other 888 books when I'm feeling the need for something light.

I'm putting the Canadian author books in my other account (for review, borrowed, audio cd, wishlist) username 'kairfa'.

Got The Moving Toyshop and added it to Edmund Crispin category. Am loving The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls.

I finished The Glass Castle this morning and it was absolutely brilliant. Her perspective, acceptance, and love for her parents shines through all the horribleness, selfishness, and disfunction of the family.

Starting The Moving Toyshop today.

Karen, I too thought The Glass Castle was amazing. I think what particularly impressed me was her lack of self-pity. It so easily could have been one of those whiny books with pages and pages of agonizing over her situation, but instead she simply and beautifully told her story, leaving it to the reader to discern how those incidents were affecting her -- and to also discover that, despite the physical neglect, she was given something beyond what many (most?) children receive from their parents. In my opinion, that made the book more powerful. I read the book about 1 1/2 years ago and the episode that keeps coming back to me is the one of the mother with the chocolate bar. Somehow that epitomizes for me the unnaturalness of the parents -- as a mother, I simply can't imagine how a mother could do that.

Re #26: I know what you mean... I've found myself thinking I "should" read something from some of my neglected categories, or maybe some shorter books to complete a category. But I really joined this challenge just to see how the books I read fall into various categories, not to force myself to read things that I don't want to read. So, at this point, I figure that I'll just keep reading what I want to read -- and maybe re-organize my categories to accomodate them!

Hey, ivyd - I think the chocolate incident and the keeping of the diamond ring were two of the more selfish acts on her mother's part. They absolutely amazed me. I would do anything for my daughter, absolutely anything.

I think her Dad was (just) an alcoholic, but that her mother was seriously mentally ill. I wrote about this in my review of The Virgin Suicides - that the girls dropping out of school simply wouldn't be allowed now. And regarding the Walls children that now, in 2008, fewer children would be able to go to school in rags, with no lunch, and in filthy dirty clothes without authority figures stepping in to do something - right or wrong.

Thanks, too, re 26. Guilt is not supposed to be associated with reading, so I'm just going to keep going with what I'm doing. I have enjoyed some books this year that I wouldn't read otherwise, so whatever I'm doing so far is working.

Who knows - I may change things around again. We'll just see what the lists look like at the end of the year!

Too many books, too little year! I've added a 9th category. Couldn't resist when I heard about a book called Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin.

I listened to Beowulf yesterday and today, Seamus Heaney's version. This weekend I'll read the Harvard Classics version, translated by Francis B. Gummere.

Tonight I'll finish Kavalier & Clay - have 10 pages to go and didn't want to hurry through it today.

Finished Kavalier & Clay. Wow! What a wonderful book.

I've started The Dechronization of Sam Magruder by George Gaylord Simpson. I found it at the Friends of the Pittsboro Library book sale two weeks ago and I loved the cover and title. I opened it last night and read the forward by Arthur C. Clarke and look forward to the afterward by Stephen Jay Gould. I hope the middle is good.

Finished Magruder. What a wonderful little book! I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Am working my way through Beowulf translation by Francis B. Gummere, and Swan Song by Edmund Crispin.

Finished Swan Song. Stuck on Beowulf. Finally, finally finished The Assault on Reason by Al Gore last night after 3 months of on and off again reading.

Will continue with Beowulf.

Just finished Agatha Christie An Autobiography and just wrote my review. Fantastic book about one of my absolutely favorite authors.

Since May 8th I've finished:

Shades of Glory
Pirkei Avos
The Far Traveler
Ella Enchanted
From Dead to Worse
Shakespeare's Landlord
Love Lies Bleeding

28 out of 63 = 44%

A little behind where I should be.

I should have read 36 by now, but I've been reading ARCs and just having a reading block.

I just started Born on a Blue Day last night. It's very good so far and I love how he describes his mathematical solutions.

30 down, 33 to go (Life of Pi is in two categories). 47.61% complete.

Good Luck. The books you picked sound very interesting and varied.
I just joined LibraryThing and this is the first message I contribute..
Well, see you around..

Coming along! Finished The Fire by Katherine Neville and have just started Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin.

34 out of 63! Getting there.

Okay. I changed categories, got rid of Started but Never Finished (1/8) and put in ARCs and ERs (6/8). So now I'm up to 40.

Low stress.

I just finished Midwife of the Blue Ridge by Christine Blevins and enjoyed it immensely. A good book, well written.

Next, once again, a non-888 book. Unless I can floop it in somehow.

I knew someone was doing Edmund Crispin, but I had forgotten who. My husband, who isn't a big mystery fan, loved Holy Disorders because he is a big Poe fan. So dang funny in that one part.

I do love Edmund Crispin. In working the 888 challenge, I had to go out and find the last couple of his books, so I've got his complete collection now. I stopped a couple of months ago because I found that reading them too closely together blurred them too much. It's getting time to read another one.

The Poe scene is hysterical. I laughed out loud over that one.

I just read what I wrote in 43 and Midwife is an ARC, and an 888 book.

I just finished The Quiet American by Graham Greene and found it to be very well written and subtle. I liked it a lot.

The Flanders Panel was interesting but dated... and the heroine smoked and drank cold coffee way too much. It got in the way of the story. But there was a good story line and the characters were well drawn. It dragged a bit in the middle but picked up again.

I've started The Killer Angels and am stunned at how good the writing is - guess so since it won the Pulitzer. And I hadn't even heard of it!!! Shame on me.

Just finished The Killer Angels and have rated it 5* - only the second book I've ever considered a masterpiece. This book blew me away.

I wanted something light after The Killer Angels, so have decided to read Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas. Short, humorous, memoir - perfect reading for this week.

I've now read 45 out of 64 = 70%! 70% finished sounds better than 19 to read. But of course it's all psychological. I'll keep reading and see where the end of the year gets me. I've already chosen for the 999 challenge. I may need a category for "888 unfinished".

I'm working up a "funny" category for 999 and am glad to learn of Funny in Farsi.

Hey detailmuse - I'm really enjoying it - very very light reading. It's a quick read too, so save it for a time when you need something light between heavy reads.

Breezed through Funny in Farsi and pushed through The Solitaire Mystery. I'm not 100% sure I liked either one enough to ever consider re-reading. The Solitaire Mystery has layers and layers that are very thought-provoking.

47 out of 64 = 73%. 17 to read. I may or may not make it. Either way, it's an interesting journey.

47> Our local Civil War Round Table meets once a month and has dinner before a speaker presentation. One of the ways they raise money is by raffling off donated books at each meeting: if your ticket is drawn, you get to come pick a book out of that month's selection.

They found it was impossible to give Killer Angels away. Pretty much the entire round table membership already owned it....

IIRC, Michael Shaara's book was the basis for the movie "Gettysburg," and spawned renewed interest in Chamberlain. Some associated books: In the Hands of Providence by Alice Trulock, and Passing of the Armies by Chamberlain himself.

Dang. Now I'm going to have to rent "Gettysburg." Want to see it again.

Thank you, ReneeMarie. I just got Jeff Shaara's Gods and Generals today via BookMooch!

And I'm taking Killer Angels to work on Monday to loan to a friend.

I'll probably end up getting a hardcover of Killer Angels.

It is a truism that Jeff Shaara is not Michael Shaara. I don't know if he has become more like his relative (father, I think) now that he has more books under his belt.

Your mileage may vary, but I must say that Gods and Generals is one of the only books I haven't been able to finish for my historical fiction book group. I made it through probably less than 50 pages and couldn't stand it any more. My impression of Jeff Shaara's writing at that point in his career:

"Lee walked over to the fireplace. He put one hand on the mantel. He put his other hand in his pocket. He decided to leave the room so he walked to the door and turned the doorknob. He left the room."*

Reading that made me feel like he must have some hold over the publishing company that brought out his novel. Like maybe he's Michael Shaara's literary executor or something. :-/

I debated whether or not to mention this, but there's some law that covers it. Good samaritan something-or-other, I think. I'd recommend reading one before investing too heavily in books written by Jeff Shaara.

I'd be curious to hear what anybody else thinks of Jeff Shaara, and whether he did get any better. Anybody else listening?

*not an exact quote but you could probably identify the scene in the book

Ah, honesty! I appreciate it. The Jeff Shaara was bookmooched so technically free. I'm averaging about 2.30/book for those I send out (since I only ship within USA), so even if it stinks it's not too much of a loss.

I haven't been able to bring myself to get Michael Shaara's book about baseball because the subject doesn't interest me too much - have you read it? If so, is it worth getting?

Separate subject: I just switched out Benvenuto Cellini and switched in Frederick Douglass for my biography category. Small, bookmooched, and I've always wanted to read it.

I haven't picked up Michael Shaara's baseball book for the same reason you haven't. The only sport I watch on even close to a regular basis is horse racing.

I tend to stick to history and historical fiction for the majority of my book purchases. As far as time periods go, I mostly live in the 19th century. I have some (unread as yet) writings by Douglass. Two books I want but haven't acquired so far are Love Across Color Lines and Douglass' Women. The former addresses his relationship with a Jewish German journalist. The latter is a fictional account of the same.

Heading back to my book group and LT ER titles now....

Well, I've finished 49 out of 63 (there will be one duplicate by the time I'm done), for a 77.77% completion rate. I should be at 92% by the end of November, which is 58 books. Don't think I'll get there, but am having fun right now.

Hurrah! I finished Independent People by Halldor Laxness. This book is not for the faint of heart. It took me 20 days to read it - an amazingly long time for me. I read a few other books in the meantime, but still...

I have to think about my review. Whew. What a stunner.

Karenmarie,
I like all of your categories and might copy some for the 999 challenge. I have never heard of Edmund Crispin though, but will google asap.
Do you enjoy horseback riding as much as reading ?

Hi Ebba! Thank you. Copy away. I've had lots of fun with the categories this year. I did switch one out in September - got rid of "Books I Have Started but Not Yet Finished" because there was a REASON I hadn't finished those books - and put in my ARCs and ER books category.

I'm not the horseback rider in the family, my 15-year old daughter is. Occasionally. Lately she's been busy with Marching Band and some school activities, so the horsies aren't being challenged very much. Plus, it's starting to get colder, and my daughter weighs about nothing and gets cold easily. She won't want to be out there riding much in the cold.

Edmund Crispin is a British writer who wrote Gervase Fen mysteries in the 40s and 50s. They are very eccentric British humor, which I absolutely adore. In fact, I'm reading Frequent Hearses right now to finish up the category.

I'll keep an eye out for your 999 challenge thread!

karenmarie

I have finished the Edmund Crispin category and it was very satisfying to re-read his books. The Long Divorce and Holy Disorders are my two favorites.

I have two more of his- The Glimpses of the Moon and some short stories, but will continue reading The Scarlet Pimpernel.

Last update of the year..... I finished The Scarlet Pimpernel and all the Edmund Crispins.

55 out of 64 finished. Not too bad, could have been better, but I found lots of other good books to read this year so feel I had a VERY GOOD YEAR.

Onward to 999!

Congrats on reading so many books! :) I'll see you at the 999.
--BJ