Fall Into Reading | 2011

It's September 23rd, and Fall 2011 is here! To celebrate, Katrina at Callapidder Days is hosting her annual Fall Into Reading challenge. To join, you just have to make a list of a some books you want to read this fall, and any other reading-related goals, and work on them from September 23rd to December 21st!

I'm going with a (hopefully) more modest list since I'm a bit preoccupied with school. (It's amazing how college can put a real downer on recreational reading.) One of these, Revolutionary Characters, is actually a book for my history class that I have to write a report on (though it looks really interesting to me). And because I have little time to read for recreational purposes, I'm attempting to be more purposeful in my reading.

Books I Really Want to Read:

Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different by Gordon S. Wood. Out of the many books I have to read for school this year, this is the only school book going on my Fall Into Reading list. Though I'm reading this in order to do a report on it for my history class, it looks pretty interesting to me.

East of Eden by John Steinbeck. I got this as a gift, and since I've read The Grapes of Wrath (and enjoyed it), I really want to get to this book.

The Mercy by Beverly Lewis. I should be getting this in the mail in the next couple of days for review. I'm excited to finish the Rose Trilogy. I've been "off" of Amish fiction for a while, but this series actually differs from most, and I'm stumped as to how the story is going to come together in the end.

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen and Lady Susan by Jane Austen. So I made this goal for myself at the beginning of the year that I would finish out Jane Austen's novels. I have yet to do so. It's been a while since I've had a Jane Austen fix anyway.


Books On the Possibly-Maybe List (Or, It's Okay If I Don't Get to These):

Bound by Guilt by C.J. Darlington. I'm partially into this already, but it isn't grabbing me as much as the first in the series did. I like the fact that it has a lot of interesting info about first edition books, and the storyline goes along well with the first book's.

Uncompromising: A Heart Claimed by a Radical Love by Hannah Farver. I won this on Carrie's blog, and I just had to start it, of course. It definitely looks like a good one!

A Chance to Die: The Life and Legacy of Amy Carmichael by Elisabeth Elliott. I still haven't gotten around to finishing this one.

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. This is long, very long. I'm taking my time.

Of course, there are so many more that I would like to read. I'll include updates of my Fall Into Reading plan in my Nightstand posts.

Happy First Day of Fall, and Happy Reading!

L.M. Montgomery Reading Challenge

It's here! It's here! Today is the day that the L.M. Montgomery Reading Challenge kicks-off. (Click the button to go to Carrie's original rules post.) The key to this challenge is to read some of Montgomery's titles from January 1 to January 28 in this new year 2011.

I don't really have a goal for this challenge, as in, I don't have a number of books of Montgomery's that I want to read. I do have the entire set of The Anne of Green Gables Novels, and I hope to read as many as possible. I'm hoping for at least the first three; we'll see if I can make it through them all. I'm excited to finally see what these books are like, and I'm hoping my viewpoint isn't tainted since I've watched the movie adaptations so many times.

Join the fun by clicking the button above!

Another challenge I'm in for 2011 is the Jane Austen Reading Challenge. See my post here.

Jane Austen Reading Challenge

Amy from A Faithful Journey is hosting a 2011 Jane Austen Reading Challenge (click the button to find out more). I am a huge fan of Jane Austen. I've already read Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, Emma, and Persuasion. But for some reason my roll with Jane Austen halted and I never got around to finishing her other novels.

This challenge, held the entire year of 2011, is perfect for me. I hope to finish up Austen's novels by reading

• Sense and Sensibility
• Pride and Prejudice
• Lady Susan

My library also has a collection of Jane Austen's minor works, which includes part of some of her unfinished novels and verses. I would love to at least glance through it, so I'm adding it to the list!

Chek Amy's blog and consider joining. You have an entire year to work through your selections!

Happy Reading!

Wrap-Up: Fall Into Reading 2010

Fall Into Reading 2010 is complete! It went by so fast . . . too fast even!

I didn't complete all of the books on my list, unfortunately. I eliminated two at the beginning of the challenge because I glanced at them and just realized that I didn't want to read them that much.

I enjoyed Crazy Love. It was eye-opening and convicting, and, after taking it with a grain of salt, I realized some things to work on in my relationship with Christ. Likewise, You Were Made to Make a Difference (the teen version of Outlive Your Life by Mas Lucado) gave me hope for myself and my generation.

My favorite book of the challenge? The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie of course!! It was more than I expected it to be, and I have the next book in the series, The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag, sitting on my nightstand, waiting to be read. Alan Bradley is my new favorite mystery author.

I have not yet finished Notes on Nursing, but I am so close and hoping to finish it in the next couple of months. Out of The Christmas Box Collection I have read The Christmas Box and am almost finished with Timepiece. That still leaves me with The Letter, but it shouldn't take long to finish. My Son, the Savior is also on my list of books to finish. I am nearly done with it, and it has been a lot better than I thought it would. Fiction books about Jesus' birth and this one about Mary always make me suspicious, but I'm really liking Melody Carlson's upfront approach that she made the story up and that the purpose of the book is to consider that Mary was a real life woman and mother. I like that.

So, though I didn't complete every single book on my list, I had fun trying! Setting goals helped me immensely. And thanks to Katrina from Callapidder Days for making this challenge so fun! This was the first challenge of hers that I participated in, and I will definitely do more in the future.

Merry Christmas and Happy Reading!