Zoe's 2013 Reading Goals

I always find it fun to see what people's reading plans are, so I thought I'd share some of my own. I didn't do an awesome job meeting my 2012 goals (found here), but they are really just guidelines for inspiration and with that in mind I'm happy with what I accomplished. I'd rather read things I love than follow some list, but I still adore making lists, so here I am again.

General Goals:
    •    Read at least 5 books of poetry
    •    Read at least 5 novels in verse
    •    Read at least 5 classics (Aesop's Fables by Aesop; )
    •    Read at least 2 plays
    •    Read at least 3 books of non-fiction (Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott; )
    •    Read at least 2 memoirs
    •    Read at least 5 middle grade novels
    •    Finish at least 5 series I've already started (Unearthly Trilogy by Cynthia Hand;)
    •    Read a steampunk book

   •     Read at least 10 YA debuts (Bruised by Sarah Skilton; Dancing in the Dark by Robyn Bavati; If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch; )

    •    Read at least 100 books

Some Specifics:

    •    Read a book by Scott Westerfeld
    •    Read a book by Mandy Hubbard/Amanda Grace
    •    Read a book by Tera Lynn Childs
    •    Restart and finish reading The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
    •    Read a book by Ellen Hopkins
    •    Read a play by William Shakespeare
    •    Read a book by Libba Bray
    •    Read a book by Haruki Murakami
    •    Read a book by Sarah Ockler
    •    Read a book by Jessica Martinez (Virtousity)
    •    Read a book by David Levithan
    •    Read a book by Abby McDonald (The Anti-Prom)
    •    Read a book by Katie Kacvinsky
    •    Read a book by Neil Gaiman

Do you have any 2013 reading plans? Is there anything I must read in the upcoming year and should therefore add to my list? Let me know :)

Classics Club Master List

I've decided to join a long-term classics challenge. I love reading contemporary titles, but getting books for review means that I've tended to neglect older ones. Anyway, I've made a starter list. They are almost all titles I haven't read before, with the exception of Le Petit Prince and Dorian Gray, and I also included fifty different authors for my own personal take on the challenge. The list is allowed be modified throughout the challenge– the real goal is simply to read fifty classics or more.

Start Date: August 5th 2012
Finish Date: August 5th 2015

Books Read (1/50):

1.  Aesop's Fables by Aesop
2. --
3. --

Original List:

1. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
2. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
3. The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury
4. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
5. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
6. My Ántonia by Willa Cather 
7. The Duel by Anton Chekov 
8. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
9. Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 
10. The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevesky
11. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas 
12. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier  
13. The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
14. Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald  
15. Madame Bovary by Gustav Flaubert
16. Room With a View by E. M. Forster
17. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
18. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
19. Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy 
20. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
21. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
22. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving 
23. Daisy Miller by Henry James
24. The Dubliners by James Joyce
25. The Trial by Franz Kafka
26. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
27. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
28. Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence
29. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
30. Beloved by Toni Morrison
31. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
32. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
33. The Wine of Solitude by Irène Némirovsky
34. Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust
35. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
36. Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger
37. As You Like It by William Shakespeare
38. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith 
39. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
40. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson 
41. Rosencratz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard
42. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy 
43. Candide by Voltaire 
44. The House of Mirth by Edith Warton 
45. The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells  
46. Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
47. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
48. The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams
49. The Waves by Virgina Woolf
50. Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates

Three years may seem like a lot, and I'll be happy if I can finish earlier, but I still have plenty of other books I want to keep reading. I want to make a conscious effort to include more classics, but I'm not going to be suddenly only reading them; at least at this point.

If you're interested in joining this Classics Club, you can learn more about it here. In the meantime, I hope that you enjoy seeing a few more older titles on In The Next Room. Hopefully it'll expose both you, and me, to classic literature in a fun and interactive way.

Time for me to get reading!

2012 Reading Goals

I'm kinda late with this but I wasn't really reading when 2011 ended. Now that I am again I figure it's a good time to think about what I want to read this upcoming year.

• Read at least 5 books of poetry (The Chameleon Couch by Yusef Komunyakaa; Coming to That by Dorothea Tanning; The Smooth Yarrow by Susan Glickman; )
• Read at least 5 collections of short stories (Radio Belly by Buffy Cram; )
• Read at least 2 plays
• Read at least 5 novels in verse (I Heart You, You Haunt Me by Lisa Schroeder; Fallout by Ellen Hopkins; October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard by Lesléa Newman; Collateral by Ellen Hopkins; )
• Read at least 5 non-fiction books (The Untamed Garden by Sonia Day; The Skinny Rules by Bob Harper; Invincible Microbe by Jim Murphy and Alison Blank; The Storytelling Animal by Jonathan Gottschall; The Art of the Epigraph compiled and edited by Rosemary Ahern)
• Read at least 5 classics ( )
• Read at least 5 memoirs (Eating Dirt by Charlotte Gill; Blue Nights by Joan Didion; The Guardians by Sarah Manguso;  )

Some specifics: 

• Read a book by Laurie Halse Anderson
• Read a book by Sarah Addison Allen
• Read a book by Lauren Oliver (Pandemonium; Before I Fall; The Spindlers)
• Read Matched by Ally Condie 
• Read a book by Kelley Armstrong (The Calling)
• Read a book by John Green
• Read The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
• Read Waking Storms by Sarah Porter
• Read a series by Scott Westerfeld (Peeps; The Last Days)
• Read a book by Maile Meloy (The Apothecary)
• Read a book by Stephanie Perkins (Anna and the French Kiss; Lola and the Boy Next Door)
• Read Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
• Read a book by Kirsten Hubbard (Like Mandarin; Wanderlove)
• Read The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht
• Read a book by Haruki Murakami
• Read a book by Donna Freitas
• Read a book by Amy Reed
• Read a book by Laura Kasischke
• Read a book by Sarah Dessen 
• Read a book by Courtney Summers (Cracked Up To Be; Some Girls Are; This Is Not A Test)
• Read a book by Sarah Ockler (Twenty Boy Summer)
• Read a book by José Saramego

Well there they are. I don't plan to check back to this list often but I figure it can't hurt to have some inspiration if I feel like I can't find anything to read. Do you have any 2012 reading goals? Or anything I absolutely must add to my list?

2012 Sophomore Reading Challenge

I was looking across reading challenges I might enjoy in 2012 and came across this one. It is hosted by Chick Loves Lit, and it'll give me a chance to pick up second books by authors I enjoyed, or try out some I missed the first time around. You can click here to sign up.

What: Reading books by authors with their second MG or YA published in 2012
When: January 1st 2012-January 31st 2013
Level: Read at least ten books by sophomore MG/YA authors

Read:

1. The Way We Fall by Megan Crewe (Review)
2. Wanderlove by Kristen Hubbard (Review)
3. Monstrous Beauty by Elizabeth Fama (Review)
4. Zero by Tom Leveen (Review)
5. Insurgent by Veronica Roth (Review) 
6. First Comes Love by Katie Kacvinsky (Review)
7. Kill Me Softly by Sarah Cross (Review) 
8. Scorch by Gina Damico (Review) 
9. Waking Storms by Sarah Porter (Review) 
10. Burn by Heath Gibson (Review)
11. --
12. --

Here's my tentative list so far:

1. A Million Suns by Beth Revis
2. Fever by Lauren DeStefano
3. Try Not To Breathe by Jennifer R. Hubbard
4. Revived by Cat Patrick
5. Never Enough by Denise Jaden 
6. The Right & the Real by Joëlle Anthony
7. The Blood Keeper by Tessa Gratton  
8. Rebel Heart by Moira Young 
9. Arise by Tara Hudson 

I have already read the following titles: Hallowed by Cynthia Hand

Canadian Book Challenge 2010-2011

Canadian Book Challenge 4

Read 13 Canadian Books between July 1 2010 and July 1 2011
Reading...
1) Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
2) Vanishing and Other Stories by Deborah Willis
3) Ape House by Sara Gruen
4) Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures: Stories by Vincent Lam
5) Room by Emma Donoghue
6) Bride of New France by Suzanne Desrochers
7) Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel
8) The Penelopiad: The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus by Margaret Atwood
9) As Long As The Rivers Flow by James Bartleman
10) Is by Anne Simpson
11) The Beauty of Humanity Movement by Camilla Gibb 
12) Better Living Through Plastic Explosives by Zsuzsi Gartner
13) Small Mechanics by Lorna Crozier 
14) Bees by Candace Savage
15) Folk by Jacob McArthur Mooney
16) Origami Dove by Susan Musgrave
17) Far To Go by Alison Pick
18) The Gathering by Kelley Armstrong
19) The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong
20) The Awakening by Kelley Armstrong
21) The Reckoning by Kelley Armstrong
22) Ashes, Ashes by Jo Treggiari
23) Once Every Never by Lesley Livingston
24) Creep by Jennifer Hillier
25) Underground by Antanas Sileika

Completed: April 11th 2011

I Want More Book Challenge

Hosted by Tea Time With Marce, I Want More Book Challenge 2011 is a great way to get you to pick up another book by that author you loved and then never read again. I'm also hoping to do this one mostly from my shelves.

What: Read a second book by an author whom you have previously only read one book by, cannot be a part of a series
When: January 1st 2011-December 31st 2011
Level:  Never too much: 9-12 books

Completed:

1.  The Girl in the Green Raincoat by Laura Lippman (Review)
   -Previously read: I'd know you anywhere 
2.  Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel (Review)
   -Previously read: Life of Pi 
3. Beastly by Alex Flinn (Review)
   -Previously read: Cloaked
4. I Am The Messenger by Markus Zusak (Review)
   -Previously read: The Book Thief
5. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens (Review)
   -Previously read: A Christmas Carol
6. Wake by Lisa McMann (Review)
   -Previously read: Cryer's Cross
7. The Island of Lost Girls by Jennifer McMahon (Review)
   -Previously read: Promise Not To Tell
8. Blood & Flowers by Penny Blubaugh (Review)
   -Previously read: Serendipity Market
9. Everything We Ever Wanted by Sara Shepard (Review)
   -Previously read: The Lying Game
10. The Secret Lives of People in Love by Simon Van Booy (Review)
    -Previously read: Love Begins in Winter
11. Along For The Ride by Sarah Dessen (Review)
    -Previously read: Keeping The Moon
12. Insatiable by Meg Cabot (Review)
    -Previously read: Abandon
13. Swing Low by Miriam Toews (Review)
    -Previously read: Irma Voth

Tentative List

1. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver *
   -Delirium
2. Vacation by Deb Olin Unferth *
   -Revolution: The Year I Fell in Love and Went to Join the War
   
3. A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon
   -The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
4. Hard to Admit and Harder to Escape by Sarah Manguso *
   -The Two Kinds of Decay
5. Dubliners by James Joyce *
   -Portrait of The Artist As a Young Man
6. The Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood *
   -A Single Man
7. The Believers by Zoë Heller *
   -Notes On A Scandal
8. If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor *
   -So Many Ways To Begin
9. Half In Love by Maile Meloy *
   -Both Ways is the Only Way I Want It 
10. Suite Francaise by Irène Némirovsky *
    -Fire In The Blood
11. The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold *
    -The Lovely Bones
12. East of Eden by John Steinbeck *
    -Of Mice and Men
13. Luna by Julie Ann Peters
    -Define "Normal"
14. The Road by Cormac McCarthy *
    -All The Pretty Horses
15. This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald *
    -The Great Gatsby
16. She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb
    -I Know This Much Is True

- Indicates book I have previously read by the author
 *Already own

Short Story Reading Challenge

 An apparently defunct challenge- seems like the only kind I enjoy- I have decided to challenge myself anyway.

What: Reading short story collections

When: January 1st 2011-December 31st 2011

Level: Read at least fifteen collections of short stories. 

Completed so far:

1. The Mother Who Stayed by Laura Furman (Review) 
2. What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver (Review)
3. A Day in the Life of a Smiling Woman by Margaret Drabble (Review)
4. Better Living Through Plastic Explosives by Zsuzsi Gartner (Review)
5. Separate Kingdoms by Valerie Laken (Review)
6. Love Begins in Winter by Simon Van Booy (Review)
7. The Secret Lives of People in Love by Simon Van Booy (Review)
8. --
9. --

Tentative list of short story collections I have not yet read:

1. Self-Help by Lorrie Moore *
2. Like Life by Lorrie Moore *
3. Birds of America by Lorrie Moore *
4. Break It Down by Lydia Davis *
5. Almost No Memory by Lydia Davis *
6. Samuel Johnson Is Indignant by Lydia Davis *
7. Varieties of Disturbance by Lydia Davis *
8. Half In Love by Maile Meloy *
9. Girl Trouble by Holly Goddard Jones *
10. Dubliners by James Joyce *
11. My Mistress's Sparrow Is Dead edited by Jeffrey Eugenides *
12. Progress of Love by Alice Munro *
13. The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami 
14. Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami 
15. Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary by David Sedaris
16. Magic For Beginners by Kelly Link 
17. Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman 
18. Chemistry and Other Stories by Ron Rash *
19. Fishing the Sloe-Black River by Colum McCann 
20. How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer 
21. My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me edited by Kate Bernheimer *
22. Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk *
23. Because They Wanted To by Mary Gaitskill
24. I Cannot Tell a Lie, Exactly: And Other Stories by Mary Ladd Gavell *
25. The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury
26. Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King *
27. The Dead Fish Museum by Charles D'Ambrosio 

* Indicates books I already own

2010 Reading Challenges

GLBT Challenge 2010

Read books about GLBT topics and/or by GLBT authors.
Rainbow Level: Read 12 or more books.
Read:
1) Specimen Days- Michael Cunningham
2) Howl and Other Poems- Allen Ginsberg
3) Diving into the Wreck- Adrienne Rich 
4) A Single Man- Christopher Isherwood
5) Your Native Land, Your Life- Adrienne Rich
6) An Atlas of the Difficult World- Adrienne Rich
7) Weight: The Myth of Atlas and Heracles- Jeanette Winterson 
8) Boy Meets Boy- David Levithan 
9) Ash- Malinda Lo
10) Written on the Body- Jeanette Winterson
11) The Dream of a Common Language: Poems, 1974-1977- Adrienne Rich
12) Almost Perfect by Brian Katcher
Finished September 10 2010.

100+ Book Reading Challenge
Read 100 books in 2010
Finished September 18 2010.
For a list of books being read visit 2010 Reads.

Chunkster Reading Challenge

Read books of 450 pages (or more!).
Level- Mor-book-ly Obese. Commit to 6 Chunksters over the next twelve months. February 1, 2010 - January 31, 2011. Ebooks do not count.
Read:
1) What Is The What by Dave Eggers (480 pages)
2) The Book Thief by Mark Zusak (552 pages)
3) Crank by Ellen Hopkins (537 pages)
4) Identical by Ellen Hopkins (565 pages)
5) The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver (508 pages)
6) Burned by Ellen Hopkins (532 pages)
Finished September 22 2010.

Jewish Literature Challenge

 

I am joining this (now defunct it seems) challenge.

What: Reading books by Jewish Authors or about Judaism 

When: December 1st 2010-April 26th 2011

Level: Read at least five books from the following list: 

Completed:

1. Bending Towards the Sun by Leslie Gilbert-Lurie (Review)
2. The Memory Palace by Mira Bartok (Review)
   
3. Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart (Review)
4. An Exclusive Love by Johanna Adorján (Review)
5. History of a Suicide by Jill Bialosky (Review) 
6. Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel (Review) 
7. The Fifth Servant by Kenneth Wishnia (Review) 

Tentative:

1. The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson
2. Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer
3. Annexed by Sharon Dogar *
4. The History of Love by Nicole Krauss * 
5. Have a Little Faith: A True Story by Mitch Albom 
6. Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay *
7. Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky *
8. The Reader by Bernhard Schlink 
9. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon *
10. The Trial by Franz Kafka
11. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand *
12. Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow *
13. Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
14. Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
15. The Believers by Zoe Heller * 

*Indicates I already own the book

Completed: January 26 2011