Literary Ladies Summer Reading Challenge Final Link Up

When I first saw the info about this summer reading challenge on Kristen's blog, I immediately went to work writing down possible books for the categories. I did end up changing my mind a bit, but my final list was as follows:

YA Book - Sloppy Firsts 4/5 Stars  

A book with a one word title - Cinder 4.5/5 stars 

A book about summer, or a book with summer in the title - Twenty Boy Summer 2.5/5 Stars 

A book recommended by a blogger - The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry 4.5/5 stars 

A book by a non US author - Big Little Lies 5/5 Stars

A book on my TBR list for more than a year - The Perks of Being a Wallflower 4/5 Stars

A book with a female heroine - Jane Eyre 5/5 Stars 

A suspenseful book - Gone Girl 3.5/5 stars 

Book written by a celebrity or comedian: One More Thing 4/5

Book that will be a movie or TV show - The Martian -5/5

And as I mentioned in my last update post, I finished all the books from my list  in August!  

The books I would absolutely recommend that I read: The Martian, Big Little Lies, Jane Eyre, The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry. I also (obviously) loved Cinder and I have gobbled up the rest of that series in the past month or so.

I'd like to take a minute now though to reflect on the challenge and how I feel about reading challenges now that I've got this one under my belt ;)

One thing I absolutely LOVED about the reading challenge was that I really expanded my horizons in reading. There were some books on my list that had been on my "to be read" list for WAY too long and I knew that if I thought I "had" to read them, I would. And I'm so glad I did!! I also loved the interactive component of this challenge and the fact that it increased my participation on Goodreads/commenting on blogs/talking to other book lovers about similar choices. Additionally, I liked that I didn't binge on one particular series. Usually (like most people, maybe?), if I read a good book, I will read the sequel immediately after, and then the next in the series, etc until I'm done it and in withdrawal. haha. This really forced me to move onto another book for a bit and absorb each series bit by bit. I wouldn't necessarily do this moving forward, but it was interesting. Finally, I liked how this challenge made me fall in love with audiobooks. Throughout the challenge, I'd usually have 1 (or 2!) books on the go, and an audiobook, and I loved that because sometimes you have time to read, but sometimes you need to wash dishes or go for a run, and then you can turn to an audiobook at that time. 

The only thing that I didn't love about myself during this challenge was how intense I got about it...haha. By that I mean I really wanted to finish first so I felt like I chose books that weren't TOO TOO long or hard (although some were longer, and none of them were necessarily SUPER easy). I also rushed through a couple of them, and I felt like I should be reading every single second that I wasn't with the kids or working...so that was a bit weird, but I did enjoy all the reading I did this summer!! And this feeling isn't the challenge's fault, it's all mine. ;)

I'm not doing any other challenges at the moment (although a fall one would be great!!) but my current reading goals include finishing all of Jane Austen's books (I haven't read a few of them yet!) by Valentine's Day 2016, finish 100 books by December 31 (Goodreads tells me I am a few behind schedule but it doesn't realize that summer socializing is coming to an end LOL) and if I finish 100 books I will allow myself to read Harry Potter again for the 10th ish time ;) I am dying to read it again, and I know I should just say OK go ahead, but I'm also trying to really broaden my horizons a little bit. So many books, so little time!!!

Thanks for hosting such a great reading challenge ladies! I'm looking forward to the next one!! :)