Completed: 100+ Reading Challenge!

It’s time for writing my wrap-up posts for various challenges that I’ve attempted this year. 

You know that saying, I’ve got good news and bad news …, well, I’ve got good news and bad news.  I’m starting with posts about my more successful reading challenges, and we’ll go from there.

J. Kaye hosted the 100+ Reading Challenge (she’s hosting again in 2010, and I’m joining again).  This challenge was to read 100 or more books – any genre, no review required.

I started by listing the books I’ve reviewed this year, since my goal is to review each book I read (or listen to, in the case of audiobooks).  I got to 91 read and reviewed (you should see my leaning tower of read-but-not-yet-reviewed books), then filled in nine children’s books that I haven’t minded reading over and over (and over!) again this year.

Here’s my completed list:

1. The End of the Alphabet by C. S. Richardson
2. Fodor’s New York City 2009
3. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
4. Writing Romance by Vanessa Grant
5. Blog Blazersby Stephane Grenier
6. Free to Be … You and Me by Marlo Thomas and Friends
7. Family Planningby Karan Mahajan
8. The Memorist by M. J. Rose
9. The Vigorous Mind by Ingrid E. Cummings
10. Testimonyby Anita Shreve
11. People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
12. Little Skink’s Tailby Janet Halfmann
13. Breathing Out the Ghostby Kirk Curnutt
14. ShapeShifter: The Demo Tapes, Year 1 by Susan Helene Gottfried
15. Outliers: The Story of Successby Malcolm Gladwell
16. The Brightest Moon of the Centuryby Christopher Meeks
17. Fodor’s Walt Disney World with Kids 2009 by Kim Wright Wiley
18. The Shack by William Paul Young
19. Things I Want My Daughters to Know by Elizabeth Noble
20. Tomato Gir lby Jayne Pupek
21. The Usborne Book of Science Activities, Volume One
22. The Ten-Year Nap by Meg Wolitzer
23. Drawers & Booths by Ara 13
24. The Red Leather Diary by Lily Koppel
25. Every Last Cuckoo  by Kate Maloy
26. The Middle Placeby Kelly Corrigan
27. The Man’s Book by Thomas Fink
28. A Wolf at the Table: A Memoir of My Father by Augusten Burroughs
29. To The World of Men, Welcome by Nuala Ni Chonchuir
30. Best Intentions by Emily Listfield
31. 101 Ways You Can Help Save the Planet Before You’re 12! by Joanne O’Sullivan
32. How Not to Look Old by Charla Krupp
33. The Painter from Shanghai by Jennifer Cody Epstein
34. Unpolished Gem: My Mother, My Grandmother, and Me by Alice Pung
35. Resistance by Anita Shreve
36. The World in Half by Cristina Henriquez
37. The Game On! Diet by Krista Vernoff and Az Ferguson
38. The Crypto-Capers: The Case of the Missing Sock by Renee Hand
39. The Castaways by Elin Hilderbrand
40. Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler
41. V is for Venus Flytrap by Eugene Gagliano
42. Step Back from the Baggage Claim by Jason Barger
43. Scottsboro by Ellen Feldman
44. The Twinkies Cookbook
45. Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel
46. The Center of the Universe: A Memoir by Nancy Bachrach
47. It’s Beginning to Hurt by James Lasdun
48. Seven Miles to Freedom: The Robert Smalls Story by Janet Halffman
49. Wife of the Gods by Kwei Quartey
50. Benny & Shrimp by Katarina Mazetti
51. Murder at Longbourn by Tracy Kiely
52. Fat Families Thin Families by Amy Hendel
53. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
54. The Curse of the Good Girl:  Raising Authentic Girls with Courage and Confidence by Rachel Simmons
55. Ned’s New Home by Kevin Tseng
56. Blame by Michelle Huneven
57. Love is the Higher Law by David Levithan
58. Beg, Borrow, Steal by Michael Greenberg
59. The Widow’s Season by Laura Brodie
60. Behind the Mask … No More by Byron Nease
61. Lopsided by Meredith Norton
62. The Listeners by Gloria Whelan
63. J is for Jack-O’-Lantern: A Halloween Alphabet by Denise Brennan-Nelson
64. 31 Hours by Masha Hamilton
65. The 13 Days of Halloween by Carol Greene
66. The Bog Baby by Jeanne Willis, illustrated by Gwen Millward
67. Work Hard. Be Nice. by Jay Mathews
68. Everything Asian by Sung J. Woo
69. Ripley’s Believe It or Not – Seeing is Believing
70. The Cake Mix Doctor Returns! by Anne Byrn
71. Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven by Susan Jane Gilman
72. Kristin Lavransdatter: The Wreath by Sigrid Undset
73. America’s White Table by Margot Theis Raven
74. The Magicians by Lev Grossman
75. The Puzzle King by Betsy Carter
76. The Random House Book of Bible Stories retold by Mary Pope Osborne
77. Vera and the Ambassador by Vera and Donald Blinken
78. What Should I Make? by Nandini Nayar
79. I Call My Grandma Nana by Ashley Wolff
80. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
81. What Darwin Saw by Rosalyn Schanzer
82. Love or Something Like It by Deirdre Shaw
83. Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
84. Leah’s Pony by Elizabeth Friedrich
85. Kids’ Kitchen by Fiona Bird
86. When She Flew by Jennie Shortridge
87. What Can I Bring? Cookbook by Anne Byrn
88. The Littlest Angel by Charles Tazewell
89. Requiem, Mass.by John Dufresne
90. Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois
91. Kim by Rudyard Kipling
92. Eggbert the Slightly Cracked Egg by Tim Ross
93. Try Again Sally Jane by Mary Diestel-Feddersen
94. Pigsty by Mark Teague
95. Quick as a Cricket by Audrey Wood
96. The Musical Life of Gustav Mole by Kathryn Meyrick
97. The Always Prayer Shawl by Sheldon Oberman
98. A Pocket Full of Kisses by Audrey Penn
99. The Fabulous Flying Fandinis by Ingrid Slyder
100. Cadillac by Charles Temple

How do I feel about completing the challenge?  I know I read at least 100 books this year, which was the goal of the challenge.  I wish I had reviewed them all in 2009, so I could start the New Year with a fresh start.  Like a lot of things in life, my reading list will never be a clean slate; I’m OK with that!

So, that’s the good news.  Stay tuned for the not-so-good news …

How are you doing with your reading challenges, as we wind down 2009?