Saturday, January 4, 2014

HM&SL Book Challenge 2014



Here are the categories for this year's challenge along with the required number of books for each category:

Science Fiction/Fantasy - 4 books
Travel (Books about travel or set in places you've never lived) - 4 books
Nonfiction - 4 books
Mystery - 4 books
History/Historical Fiction - 4 books
Award Nominees/Winners - 4 books
Religious - 4 books
Classics - 2 books
Adult Fiction by an author you've never read - 4 books
Books You Own - 6 books
Books on Your To-read List - 6 books
Other - 4 books

Books have to be at least 100 pages long to count.

SCORING GOES AS FOLLOWS:

In all categories except for Books You Own and To-read Books, each "required" book is 10 points. (In other words, the first two or four books in the category.) After you have read the required number of books, each book is 5 points in a given category.

For Books You Own and To-read Books, each book is 25 points - no matter how many you read! (But you are required to read at least 6 in these categories for full credit.)

Also, for Books You Own and To-Read Books, if those books fit into another category, you can count them in both categories! Hooray!


Those are the rules. Any questions?

Friday, January 3, 2014

HM&SL Book Challenge 2013 Report

Like Heidi-Marie, my goal this past year was to read less books than usual. I did better than she did, but then again, I don't have to read for my job. :)

Here are some of my favorite books from the year:

Troubled Waters - Sharon Shinn
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Because of Winn-Dixie - Kate DiCamillo
Happier at Home - Gretchen Rubin
Wife for Life: The Power to Succeed in Marriage - Ramona Zabriskie
The Many Loves of Marriage - Thomas and Nannette Kinkade
Seven from Heaven - Kenny and Bobbi McCaughey
The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap - Wendy Welch
My Life with Eleanor: A Memoir - Noelle Hancock
Crooked House - Agatha Christie
The Franchise Affair - Josephine Tey
Bewitching Season - Marissa Doyle
Edenbrooke - Julianne Donaldson
Blackmoore - Julianne Donaldson
Squashed - Joan Bauer
Wonder - R. J. Palacio
Death in the Stocks - Georgette Heyer
Carry On, Jeeves - P. G. Wodehouse
The Mansion - Henry Van Dyke
Spare Change - Aubrey Mace
Life's Lessons Learned: Personal Reflections - Dallin H. Oaks
A Heart Like His - Virginia Pearce
The Continuous Conversion - Brad Wilcox
For Times of Trouble - Jeffrey R. Holland
The Great Divorce - C. S. Lewis
The Lauren Holbrook series - Erynn Mangum
The Christmas List - Richard Paul Evans
Time and the Hour - Faith Baldwin

I got a higher total of points than I anticipated. This was because I either owned or had on my to-do list 51 of the books I read. That helped my score immensely!

Total points - 1080

My highest scoring category was Mystery, which was kind of funny to me as I didn't realize I read that many mysteries. :)