2016: 100 Book Challenge

Hello!

The end of the year usually means a lot of looking-back/reflection/summary posts. This one is no exception. Also, if you ever needed more proof that I am a gigantic nerd, this is it.

At the beginning of the year, I raised myself a challenge – to read 100 books and to keep track of them. I mainly did that because 1. I wanted to read more – I used to read a lot during childhood but couldn’t find time for books in later years, due to watching a lot of films and 2. since I read/watch/hear so many stories, I wanted to have a list of them so that I would not start reading a book which I have read before.

I’m glad to announce that I did achieve my goal and did finish 100 books in 12 months. I covered a variety of genres, authors, and languages.

Some statistics before I give you the list: out of the 100 books:

• 23 were in my native Lithuanian language and 77 were in English.
• 20 of them were for study purposes, 80 – for leisure.
• 60 authors were covered: I read only one book by 44 authors and a few books by 16 authors. W. Shakespeare came in first with 8 repeats, T. Morrison followed second with 6 and J.K.Rowling with 5. D. Brown had 4, while A. Moore, R. Riggs, M. Strandberg and S.B. Elfrgen and Sir A. Conan Doyle all had 3. Lastly, I read 2 books by each of the following authors: A. Miller, H. Ibsen, A. Spiegelman, S. Plath, J. Conrad, J. Moyes, G. Flynn, and H. Lee.
• 30 writers were American, 15 – British, 5 – French, 2 (each) were Lithuanian, Irish, Japanese, and Scandinavian and 1 (each) – Russian, Polish, Nigerian, and Pakistani.
• 72 were stand-alone books, while 28 belonged to 11 series.
• 53 were modern books, while 47 were classics.
• 56 were prose and 2 – poetry books. 15 were plays, 18 – graphic novels, and 9 – memoirs.
• 8 was my monthly average.

Before I give you the long list by genre, here is my TOP 10 in no particular order:

• A. Spiegelman – ‘Maus’
• A.Moore and D.Gibbons – ‘Watchmen’
• J.K.Rowling – ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’
• S. Plath – ‘The Bell Jar’
• H. Lee – ‘Go Set a Watchman’
• A. Weir – ‘The Martian’
• G. Flynn – ‘Sharp Objects’
• E. Cline – ‘Ready Player One’
• L. Wacquant – ‘Body and Soul: The Notebooks of an Apprentice Boxer’
• C. McDougall – ‘Born to Run’

Now the actual list by genre:

Prose:

1. E. A. Poe – collection of short stories titled ‘The Gold-Bug’
2. A. de Saint-Exupéry – two stories ‘Southern Mail’ and ‘Night Flight’ in one novel.
3. M. Shelley – ‘Frankenstein’
4. J.M.Barie – ‘Peter Pan’
5. W. Golding – ‘Lord of the Flies’
6. V. Nabokov – ‘Lolita’
7. K. Ishiguro – ‘Never Let Me Go’
8. S. Plath – ‘The Bell Jar’
9. J. Conrad – ‘Hearth of Darkness’
10. J. Conrad – a trio of short stories ‘An Outpost of Progress’, ‘Karan’, ‘Youth’.
11. J. Baldwin –  ‘Giovanni’s Room’
12. C. Achebe – ‘Things Fall Apart’
13. T. Morrison – ‘Beloved’
14. T. Morrison – ‘Sula’
15. T. Morrison – ‘Song of Solomon’
16. T. Morrison – ‘A Mercy’
17. T. Morrison – ‘The Bluest Eye’
18. T. Morrison – ‘Home’
19. M. Mauss – ‘The Gift’
20. H. Melville – ‘Moby Dick’
21. J. Austen – ‘Sense and Sensibility’
22. J. Moyes – ‘Me Before You’
23. J. Moyes – ‘After You’
24. H. Lee – ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’
25. H. Lee – ‘Go Set a Watchman’
26. A. Weir – ‘The Martian’
27. G. Flynn – ‘Sharp Objects’
28. G. Flynn – ‘Dark Places’
29. M. Strandberg and S.B.Elfgren – ‘The Circle’
30. M. Strandberg and S.B.Elfgren – ‘Fire’
31. M. Strandberg and S.B.Elfgren – ‘The Key’
32. K. Vonnegut – ‘The Breakfast of Champions’
33. I. Fleming – ‘Casino Royale’
34. D. Brown – ‘Angels and Demons’
35. D. Brown – ‘The Da Vinci Code’
36. D. Brown – ‘The Lost Symbol’
37. D. Brown – ‘Inferno’
38. G. DeWeese – ‘Into the Nebula (Star Trek: The Next Generation #36)’
39. R. Riggs – ‘Miss Peregrine’s Home for the Peculiar Children’
40. R. Riggs – ‘Hollow City’
41. R. Riggs – ‘The Library of Souls’
42. E. Blyton – ‘The Famous Five: Five Go Down to the Sea’
43. E. Blyton – ‘The Famous Five: Five Go to Mystery Moor’
44. E. Blyton – ‘The Famous Five: Five Have Plenty of Fun’
45. E. Blyton – ‘The Famous Five: Five on a Secret Trail’
46. K. Keplinger – ‘The Duff’
47. P. Hawkins – ‘The Girl on the Train’
48. J.K.Rowling – ‘The Casual Vacancy’
49. J.K.Rowling – ‘Fantastic Beast and Where To Find Them’
50. J.K.Rowling – ‘Quidditch Through The Ages’
51. J.K.Rowling – ‘Tale of Beedle The Bard’
52. Sir A. Conan Doyle – ‘The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’
53. Sir A. Conan Doyle – ‘The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes’
54. Sir A. Conan Doyle – ‘The Return of Sherlock Holmes’
55. E. Cline – ‘Ready Player One’
56. G.R.R.Martin – ‘The World of Ice and Fire’
57. D.Grayson – ‘Doctor Strange: The Fate of Dreams’

Poetry:

1. S. Heaney – ‘North’
2. S. Plath – ‘Ariel’

Plays:

1. J.M.Synge – ‘The Playboy of the Western World’
2. A. Miller – ‘The Crucible’
3. A. Miller – ‘Death of a Salesman’
4. H. Ibsen – ‘A Doll’s House’
5. H. Ibsen – ‘Hedda Gabler’
6. J. Lyly – ‘Galatea’
7. W. Shakespeare – ‘The Taming of the Shrew’
8. W. Shakespeare – ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’
9. W. Shakespeare – ‘Twelfth Night’
10. W. Shakespeare – ‘The Merchant ofVenice’
11. W. Shakespeare – ‘The Tempest’
12. W. Shakespeare – ‘Coriolanus’
13. W. Shakespeare – ‘Hamlet’
14. W. Shakespeare – ‘Troilus and Cressida’
15. J.K.Rowling – ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’

Graphic Novels:

1. A. Spiegelman – ‘Maus’
2. A. Spiegelman – ‘In The Shadow of No Towers’
3. M. Satrapi – ‘Persepolis’
4. J. Maroh – ‘Blue is the Warmest Colour’
5. C. Burns – ‘Black Hole’
6. M.Millar and S.McNiven – ‘Civil War’
7. Various authors – ‘Marvel’s Mightiest Heroes: Wolverine’
8. A.Moore and D.Gibbons – ‘Watchmen’
9. A.Moore and D.Lloyd – ‘V for Vendetta’
10. A.Moore and B.Bolland – ‘Batman: The Killing Joke’
11. M.Anusauskaite and G.Jord – ’10 litu’
12. Various authors – ‘The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told’
13. Various authors – ‘Marvel Platinum: The Definitive Iron Man’
14. J. Sacco – ‘Palestine’
15. C.Thompson – ‘Blankets’
16. M.Wolfman and G.Perez – ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths’
17. E. Brubaker – ‘The Death of Captain America’

Memoirs:

1. D. Howell and P. Lester – ‘The Amazing Book Is Not On Fire’
2. T. Oakley – ‘Binge’
3. C. Franta – ‘A Work in Progress’
4. G. Helbig – ‘Grace’s Guide: The Art of Pretending to be a Grown-Up’
5. L. Wacquant – ‘Body and Soul: The Notebooks of an Apprentice Boxer’
6. M.Youafzai and C.Lamb – ‘I am Malala’
7. I.Staskevicius – ‘Maratono laukas’ (‘Marathon running’)
8. H. Murakami – ‘What I talk about when I talk about running’
9. C.McDougall – ‘Born to Run’

I hope you enjoyed flicking through my 2016 reading list. I really want to start writing more book-centric posts next year, so this was like a taster-post. Have a great New Year and tell me in the comments your favorite book from last year!

A snapshot of my collection