I am not a very enterprising person. But my sister somehow manages to pass on her crazy ideas and gets me involved too. I still remember how she started playing a number of facebook games. Being a gemini, she quickly lost interest and moved on from one game to another. However, poor me got sucked in to those arcade games, always wanting to move higher up the never-ending levels and reluctant to leave a game half finished. This year she set me up for a reading challenge. Half way through the year, she called me from Germany and said she had seen a lot of challenges on pinterest. Given my epub collection and the fact that we are huge bibliophiles, a reading challenge was perfect for us. This seemed to align with my new year resolution too. So we drew up a list of genres we would like to cover. I even made this cute image, just because I could :P
We created pinterest boards too so that we could track each other’s progress. Soon, my sister pinned her first book. Not the one to be left behind, I started looking for books from each genre and powered the challenge with full thrust. My OCD rejoiced, having found something to track and obsess over. Here is a list I maintained, so that I could tick off or rather star the genres I had completed :D
* Based on a fairy tale - Beauty
Based on a protagonist having your occupation - Snow Crash
* Book transalated to English - In other words
* Award winning Book - Matilda
Romance set in future - The Host
* Under 150 pages - Memories
* Book that is becoming a movie - The girl on the train
* Self improvement book - Unposted Letter
* Book written by a celebrity - Mrs.Funnybones
* Book at least 100 years older than you - A Christmas Carol
* Science fiction novel - Deception Point
* Book published this year - The scandal
* Murder mystery - Girl on a train
Book written by a comedian - Bossypants
* Dystopian novel - Hunger Games
* Book with a blue cover - The Art of Racing in the Rain
* Autobiography - The Diary of a Young Girl
* Book about a road trip - A walk in the woods
* Book about a culture you are unfamiliar with - A Thousand Splendid suns
* Book that takes place on an island - Anne of Green Gables
* Book that is guaranteed to bring you joy - Harry Potter and the Half Blood Princ
* Satirical book - Animal Farm
Book based on summer - The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
* Political memoir - Malala
Being competitive by nature, I devoured books one after the other. But I was also careful to ensure that I was not carried away by the challenge. I tried to understand the book’s intent and what I was taking away from it, often writing reviews here debating the pros and cons. As December approached, I realized that I will not be able to finish the challenge with five more books remaining on the list. I shared my sorrow with my sister only to find out that she had made only one more addition to her board!! Now you know how sisters torture their younger siblings :(
Although I have made a mental note not to do any more challenges with my sister, I am glad I did this one. We handpicked genres for the challenge, including the ones we were not very fond of and some that we hated. For example, it is very unlikely that I would have picked up a travelogue and a satirical book was definitely not on my list. I finally read books such as ‘Matilda’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’ which I meant to do since a long time. I even found gems such as ‘Anne of Green Gables’ and ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’. A pleasant surprise came in the form of ‘Animal Farm’ which proved to be much more engaging than I expected. I also discovered a latent prejudice in me, which I knew existed but in much more magnitude than I thought. India and Pakistan share a strained relationship. However, I got to know how strained when my mind refused to read ‘I am Malala’ for the political memoir just because it was written by a Pakistani. I think my annoyance also stemmed from the fact that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2014 was shared between her and Kailash Satyarthi from India, which I thought was unfair. I boycotted the book for quite some time before realizing that even Kailash Satyarthi may not be as bothered about this issue as me. Good sense prevailed and I started reading the book. I have found it interesting so far, occasionally smiling at Malala’s showing off, which she deserves to do BTW :)
So, that’s the story of our great Reading Challenge. 20/24 is not a bad score I guess. I don’t know if I will ever complete the challenge. Chances of my OCD taking over are huge, but my laziness is a powerful opponent by itself. So, what do you think will happen? Who is betting against what? :P
We created pinterest boards too so that we could track each other’s progress. Soon, my sister pinned her first book. Not the one to be left behind, I started looking for books from each genre and powered the challenge with full thrust. My OCD rejoiced, having found something to track and obsess over. Here is a list I maintained, so that I could tick off or rather star the genres I had completed :D
* Based on a fairy tale - Beauty
Based on a protagonist having your occupation - Snow Crash
* Book transalated to English - In other words
* Award winning Book - Matilda
Romance set in future - The Host
* Under 150 pages - Memories
* Book that is becoming a movie - The girl on the train
* Self improvement book - Unposted Letter
* Book written by a celebrity - Mrs.Funnybones
* Book at least 100 years older than you - A Christmas Carol
* Science fiction novel - Deception Point
* Book published this year - The scandal
* Murder mystery - Girl on a train
Book written by a comedian - Bossypants
* Dystopian novel - Hunger Games
* Book with a blue cover - The Art of Racing in the Rain
* Autobiography - The Diary of a Young Girl
* Book about a road trip - A walk in the woods
* Book about a culture you are unfamiliar with - A Thousand Splendid suns
* Book that takes place on an island - Anne of Green Gables
* Book that is guaranteed to bring you joy - Harry Potter and the Half Blood Princ
* Satirical book - Animal Farm
Book based on summer - The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
* Political memoir - Malala
Being competitive by nature, I devoured books one after the other. But I was also careful to ensure that I was not carried away by the challenge. I tried to understand the book’s intent and what I was taking away from it, often writing reviews here debating the pros and cons. As December approached, I realized that I will not be able to finish the challenge with five more books remaining on the list. I shared my sorrow with my sister only to find out that she had made only one more addition to her board!! Now you know how sisters torture their younger siblings :(
Although I have made a mental note not to do any more challenges with my sister, I am glad I did this one. We handpicked genres for the challenge, including the ones we were not very fond of and some that we hated. For example, it is very unlikely that I would have picked up a travelogue and a satirical book was definitely not on my list. I finally read books such as ‘Matilda’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’ which I meant to do since a long time. I even found gems such as ‘Anne of Green Gables’ and ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’. A pleasant surprise came in the form of ‘Animal Farm’ which proved to be much more engaging than I expected. I also discovered a latent prejudice in me, which I knew existed but in much more magnitude than I thought. India and Pakistan share a strained relationship. However, I got to know how strained when my mind refused to read ‘I am Malala’ for the political memoir just because it was written by a Pakistani. I think my annoyance also stemmed from the fact that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2014 was shared between her and Kailash Satyarthi from India, which I thought was unfair. I boycotted the book for quite some time before realizing that even Kailash Satyarthi may not be as bothered about this issue as me. Good sense prevailed and I started reading the book. I have found it interesting so far, occasionally smiling at Malala’s showing off, which she deserves to do BTW :)
So, that’s the story of our great Reading Challenge. 20/24 is not a bad score I guess. I don’t know if I will ever complete the challenge. Chances of my OCD taking over are huge, but my laziness is a powerful opponent by itself. So, what do you think will happen? Who is betting against what? :P
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