Last year in February I started this challenge with my boyfriend. The year 2014 has passed and here are our results:
Boyfriend
From the eleven books he had to read he managed to complete reading 5 books and got stuck on number 6. The book that gave him grief and made him stop reading since summer is Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carrey
From now on I shall refer to this book as “The doom of my beloved”. It is the first book in Kushiel’s Legacy series and I loved it so much I have bought the whole series. Just this first book has 900+ pages and the rest of the books are chubby in the page number department as well. There was one he complained about quite a bit. By my boyfriends own words he enjoyed the challenge and liked the books he read up until this last one. He even says that some of them were an eye opening experience.
Me
From the eleven books I was challenged to read I have read 5 books. Some of the books were very hard for me to read trough and I complained trough them quite a bit. I do plan to read all the books I was challenged with at my own pace. The book I loved the most was Mirror Dance(Vorkosigan saga book 12) by Lois McMaster Buyold
Even though this is book 12 in the series I found it easy to get into the story. I am not a fan of traditional science fiction but was delighted with this space opera. The characters were easy to relate to and their dynamic appealed to me. I will find time to read the rest of Miles Vorkosigan saga books.
Challenge conclusion
Neither of us have completed all the books in the challenge. In the end we read the same amount of books but he won by half a book. We both learned a bit about ourselves and our reading choices and habits. We both don’t work well when forced to read something we did not choose ourselves and have rather hedonistic views on our chosen reading material – if we cannot enjoy, we get grumpy. We might continue to challenge ourselves with some books we like but the time limitation will probably not be a part of the deal. We each like our own reading paces and we need to respect that.
In the end we are both glad we tried the challenge!
anastasiaadamov 