2021 Big Book Summer Wrap-Up

The 2021 Big Book Summer Challenge officially wrapped up on September 6 (Labor Day in the U.S.), ending its 9th year! I host this challenge every summer and always enjoy participating in it myself. You can read all the details at the challenge page linked above, but the basic idea is to read books of 400 pages or longer during the summer - just one or a few or as many as you want! What I really love about this challenge is that it gives me the extra incentive I need to finally tackle some of the longer books I've put off reading. I always end up reading some really amazing books, and I make a (small) dent in my overflowing TBR bookcase, too.

My plans for Big Book Summer

We'll start with my own Big Book Summer, and then I'll wrap up the whole challenge, too. As usual, I picked out a stack of Big Books from my shelves back in May, which you can see here and at the link. I didn't get through all of these, added some others, and also added a bunch of Big Book audios! Here's a full list of the Big Books I finished this summer--I think, perhaps, my best year ever! My reviews are at the links:

• End of Watch by Stephen King (400 pages)
• The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna by Julia Grames, on audio (464 pages)
• The Lost Time Accidents by John Wray (491 pages)
• All of This Is True by Lygia Day Peñaflor, YA on audio (432 pages)
• The Air You Breathe by Frances de Ponte Peebles (449 pages)
• Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton, on audio (464 pages)
• Blackout by Connie Willis (491 pages)
• After the Flood by Kassandra Montag, on audio (432 pages)
• Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (864 pages)
• The Accidental Further Adventures of the 100-Year-Old Man by Jonas Jonasson, on audio (448 pages)
• A Better Man by Louise Penny, on audio (464 pages)
• Dragon Hoops by Gene Luen Yang, graphic novel (446 pages)

As you can see, most of my Big Books came in at under 500 pages, which is why I fit in so many (that, plus listening to half of them on audio). My Biggest book, Anna Karenina, took me a full month to finish! It was a fun Big Book Summer, and I enjoyed all of these.

That was my Big Book Summer, but lots of other people participated in the challenge, too! We had a total of 53 participants. Of those, 19 people participated through their blogs and YouTube channels, 32 readers participated through the Goodreads group, and 2 more signed up by leaving comments on the sign-up page. You can visit the Goodreads group to read some great discussions on everyone's Big Books this summer.

And, the winner of the annual Big Book Summer Giveaway is ...

Deb, from Chicago, who participated through the Goodreads group!

Deb will be receiving a gift certificate from Bookshop.org, a great website where you can buy books conveniently online while supporting indie bookstores.

Congratulations, Deb!!

And a Big Book Congratulations to everyone who participated in the challenge this year! Whether your goal was to read one Big Book or as many as possible, I hope you had fun reading and sharing your reading adventures through the challenge. If you missed it this year, you can sign up for Big Book Summer 2022 next May!