Not another book survey.

This was one from 52 books. My husband laughs because I do love a good survey!

1. Did you reach the goal of 52 books or did you manage to beat your own personal best? I hope to reach it by the end of the week. We will be in the car driving to Miami on Friday and Saturday, so I’ll have some good long stretches to read!

2. What book are you ending the year with? Persuasion, The Mysteries of Udolpho, The Search for Significance, and something else SHORT! I hope I’ll make it!

3. Did you discover a new author or genre? Did you love them or hate them? I really enjoyed the two new cozy mystery series books that I found — The Haunted Bookshop and The Coffeehouse Mystery series. I also really loved Anna Quindlen.

4. Did you challenge yourself to read more non fiction if prefer fiction or more fiction if you prefer non fiction? I didn’t, but I would like to read more nonfiction in 2012.

5. Did you read from a list or wing it? I read from The Well-Trained Mind for some of my books, but mostly I (winged it? wung it?).

6. How many classics did you read? What did you think of the writing style or author? It’s hard to figure out what counts as a classic, but I think once I’m done with Persuasion it will be 12. Here they are:
* A Tale of Two Cities
* Sense and Sensibility
* Pride and Prejudice
* Emma
* Mansfield Park
* Northanger Abbey
* Persuasion
* The Old Man and the Sea
* The Great Gatsby
* Little Women
* Treasure Island
* Alice In Wonderland

Books I’m not sure count as classics but very well could:
* Night
* The Great Divorce
* Till We Have Faces
* Something Wicked This Way Comes
* Anne of Green Gables
* Five Little Peppers and How They Grew
* The Two Towers
* Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

7. Name one book that you thought you’d never read and was pleasantly surprised you like it.
* Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

8. What are your top ten favorite books?
* A Tale of Two Cities
* Little Women
* Sense and Sensibility
* Pride and Prejudice
* Families Where Grace Is In Place
* Emma
* How To Read the Bible for All Its Worth
* The Help
* Forgotten God
* The Great Divorce
* The Two Towers

9. What are your ten least favorite books?
* The Great Gatsby
* The Mailbox
* The Covenant
* Last Light
* Night Light
* Till We Have Faces (I liked it, but out of what I read it was down toward the bottom).
* The Reluctant Prophet
* Treasure Island
* Five Little Peppers and How They Grew
* Prodigal Summer

Again, I really did like some of the above books — especially those towards the bottom of the list. I enjoyed reading Five Little Peppers and How They Grew with Megan. But if I have to pick ten, I guess that’s it.

10. Did you start any books that you just simply couldn’t finish?
*Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman. I just wasn’t getting it.

11. What did you think of the mini challenges and did you join in or complete any?
* Jane Austen — LOVED it!!! I knew I would love Jane Austen, but I needed the challenge to prod me to read her.
* Armchair Traveler — It was fun to keep track of where the books took place. Places I went:
* Botswana
* England, over and over again.
* France
* Cuba
* Austria
* Middle Earth
* Heaven
* Hell
* California
* Pennsylvania Dutch country
* New York
* Massachusetts
* Mississippi

* 12 Classics — I do love the classics. I have always had a fondness for 19th century literature.
* The Well-Educated Mind — I didn’t read as much from the list as the challenge called for. I hope to do more next year. The only books I ended up reading were Pride and Prejudice and The Great Gatsby.

12. Did your family join in on the fun? My kids started, and my daughter even wrote one blog post. I don’t think my son wrote any at all. They weren’t all that enthusiastic to begin with.

13. How many books have you added to your wishlist since the beginning of the year?

14. What was your favorite thing about the challenge?
*Getting to know other readers, stretching myself to read more challenging books.