My Reading Challenge is complete at last

A few more books I might not have picked up had it not been for the Reading Challenge

It has been a long journey but I have finally completed the Reading Challenge on Shaz’s Jera’s Jamboree blog – I signed up in January 2017.

It’s a way of getting out of your comfort zone of always reading the same sorts of books and I pledged to tick off EVERY box in each section of the challenge. I have logged my progress here. I am continuing to note all the books I read and where possible I have linked in to reviews.

For the record, here are the last half dozen books that have enabled me to tick the boxes…

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Reading Challenge update: Young voices

Three novels with young narrators

Around 18 months ago I “signed up” for the Reading Challenge on Shaz’s Jera’s Jamboree blog. It’s a way of getting out of your comfort zone of always reading the same sorts of books.

Over the course of 2016 to 2018 I am trying to tick off EVERY box in each section of the challenge. I am logging my progress here.

In this post I thought I would recommend three books I have read that are very different from each other but all narrated by young boys.

These are:
# The Goldfish Boy by Lisa Thompson (2017), about a boy with OCD who turns amateur detective, recommended on Jera’s Jamboree (here).

# Room by Emma Donoghue (2010), very loosely based on the case of Elizabeth Fritzl, held captive for 24 years and abused by her father, who gave birth to seven children by him. There have been several similar cases in the USA involving abduction by strangers, which are perhaps more relevant to Room.

# Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer (2005), about a boy looking for answers after losing his father in the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers.

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Four remembered stories…

Girls reading, a painting by Henri Lebasque (1865-1937) (Source:Wikimedia Commons)

Once upon a training course we were asked to think back to the earliest stories we could remember. Some people recalled true stories, some recalled fairy stories. When we revealed our most persistent memories we realised they seemed to say something about ourselves and what drives us.

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Reading Challenge update: Science and poetry

Three books I read recently…

In January I signed up to the Reading Challenge on Jera’s Jamboree (details here). Shaz was encouraging us to step outside our comfort zone and read books we might not have considered before.

I decided to read something from EVERY category listed and you can see how I am getting on by looking at my blog page here.

Occasionally I will do a review and this time I am making notes on a non-fiction book, a book of poetry and a book chosen for me.

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Reading Challenge update: Three classics

Some of my recent reading

In January I signed up to the Reading Challenge on Jera’s Jamboree (details here). Shaz was encouraging us to step outside our comfort zone and read books we might not have considered before.

I decided to read something from EVERY category listed and you can see how I am getting on by looking at my blog page here.

Occasionally I intend to do a review. I started with Chris Beckett’s sci-fi Eden trilogy, which you can read about here. This time I am making notes on three classics I have read recently. They are from different genres and “of their time” but each brings vividly to life a society far removed from our own.

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Dark Eden is so illuminating…

Chris Beckett’s Dark Eden trilogy – the UK book covers – Dark Eden (pub 2012), Mother of Eden (2015) and Daughter of Eden (October 2016)

Sometimes I encounter SUCH a good book that I feel I must tell everyone to read it! This does not happen very often these days but I have just finished reading Chris Beckett’s Dark Eden trilogy on my Kindle, while riding on the bus to and from work. I couldn’t get enough of the world Beckett has created and polished off all three books in just over a month.

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I’m joining the Reading Challenge

The books I read in 2016 – click on the image to see a bigger version

I’m not a great believer in making resolutions on New Year’s Day – any day will do. So I have decided to “sign up” for the Reading Challenge on Shaz’s Jera’s Jamboree blog. It’s a way of getting out of your comfort zone of always reading the same sorts of books.

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Identifying your inner selves…

Five aspects of my personality…

It will soon be November, and November is NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), so for a change from my usual content I’d like to share this random writing exercise with you, as I found it very interesting when I tried it a decade ago.

I’ll say more about the source of the exercise later, but

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My third book of books…

My first, second and (new) third little red book of books read…

It’s a small thing, but I feel I need to note a milestone in my life. T S Eliot’s J Alfred Prufrock measured out his life with coffee spoons. In my case I have measured out my life in books.

Recently I came to the end of my second little red notebook listing “books I have read”. I was surprised to find I could

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