Fall Into Reading Challenge Wrap-Up

Back in September, I signed up for the the Fall Into Reading 2011 Challenge, hosted at Callapidder Days,my first-ever challenge!  I decided to challenge myself to read 10 grown-up books and 10 kids/teen books before the end of December (you can find my wrap-up for the kids/teen/YA books at Great Books for Kids and Teens.)  I think I did pretty well for my first challenge.  I read 8 of the 10 grown-up books on my list:

1. Smokin' Seventeen by Janet Evanovich
2. The Songcatcher by Sharon McCrumb (my neighborhood book group's December pick)
3. She’s Not There by Jennifer Finney Boylan (December pick for my other book group)
4. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
5. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (for Banned Books week)
6. Midwives by Chris Bohjalian
7. The Hundred Dresses (the library's book discussion pick for November)
8. Wishin' and Hopin' by Wally Lamb (the library's book discussion pick for December - the rules were to read something holiday-themed)

 The two books on my list that I did not get to:

1. Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
2. Reservation Road by John Burnham Schwartz

I also wrote blog posts for many of the weekly questions which were lots of fun and sparked some good discussions!

As this was my first-ever challenge, I think I learned a good lesson - don't be overly ambitious!  I missed my goal by a bit here (and by a bit more for kids and teen books).  Also, I think I would prefer challenges where you aren't locked into reading certain titles ahead of time - I definitely missed having the flexibility to choose something new to read that wasn't on my challenge list.  Of course, that could also be solved with a shorter list, to leave room for in-the-moment choices!

All in all, it was a lot of fun....and I finally made a small dent in my TBR shelves!  Thanks to Callapidder Days for hosting.