Chunkster Challenge 2009 & J. Kaye's 100+ Reading Challenge completed

I am slowly but surely getting nearer to my goal of completing the challenges I signed up for in 2009. I know that I will not be finishing Ban On Spending Challenge hosted by wonderful Drey. I have way too many books to practice the restraint in buying any new ones until the books I own are read. However, I decided to just make my own little challenge out of it and simply try and see how many books of my own I can read next year as opposed to the ones I buy and get as review copies.

Let's move on to the challenge I did manage to complete:

I. Chunkster Challenge 2009 hosted by Dana. I really liked this challenge and I am very sad to say that Dana will not be hosting it in 2010 due to many things that have happened in her personal life. I read her post, it almost broke my heart how much this girl had to go through and I hope and wish that 2010 will be the best year yet for Dana. I signed up for the Mor-book-ly Obese option and read 14 chunksters (which were 450 pages or more).

1.The Book of Air and Shadows by Michael Gruber (466 pages)

2.The Book Thief by Markus Zusak(553 pages)

3.Gauntlet by Richard Aaron (488 pages)

4.The Hellfire Club by Peter Straub (463 PAGES)

5.Wizard by Trade by Jim Butcher (598 Pages)

6. The Traitor's Wife by Susan Higginbotham (490 pages) -

7. The Borgia Bride by Jeanne Kalogridis (509 pages)

8. The Woman In White by Wilkie Collins (626 pages)

9. The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory (514 pages) -

10. Labyrinth by Kate Mosse (487 pages)

11. Annette Vallon by James Tipton (480 pages)

12. God is an Englishman by R.F. Delderfield ( 634)

13. The Big Rock Candy Mountain by Wallace Stegner (563 pages)

14. To Serve Them All My Days by R. F. Delderfield (594 pages)

My two most favorite authors were Wallace Stegner and R.F. Delderfield. Their books were the ones that left the biggest impression on me and my mood and I am glad I discovered them as they definitely are making their way towards my all-time favorite authors list.

The book I disliked was The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory. This title brought the number of Gregory's books I read to three and with it I begin to think that maybe Ms. Gregory is a kind of a one-trick pony for me. I really enjoyed her The Other Boleyn Girl, I was somewhat disappointed by the Queen's Fool and there was just absolutely nothing for me in The Boleyn Inheritance.

II. J. Kaye's 100+ Reading Challenge

I have also managed to complete J.Kaye's 100+ Reading Challenge. As of today, I have read 101 books and obviously I will read more before the end of the year but the official challenge is completed. All I have to say is I am very astonished and proud of myself. I had never thought that I would manage to read more than 30 books in a year before I started blogging and signed up for this challenge. It is therefore a great accomplishment for me that I read over one hundred books in one year. I decided to not post the whole list here but to provide you with a link to my Google Doc if you wish to peek into what books I read this year.

Lilly's 101 books read for J. Kaye's 100+ Reading Challenge

I reviewed only about 60 titles from the list. My goal as far this blog is concerned was never to review every book I read but only the ones I had to (ARC, review copies) or the ones I felt strongest about (positive or negative). There are no links to reviews on the list. It would be a lot of work and besides, writing monthly wrap up posts had to have some reason behind it, didn't it? My Monthly Reads will have direct links to all the books I reviewed so if you are interested in what I thought about a certain title that would be a place to start. There are also many other useful tools that all other bloggers employ as well, i.e. 'the search' box, all labels where you can click on reviews, a particular genre or even an author's name.

Anyway, I enjoyed this wonderful challenge and will definitely be signing up for 2010 even though I highly doubt that with a newborn in the house I'll have enough time to even read half that amount.