Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Challenge Complete: Off the Shelf


Thanks to Cheryl at CMash Loves to Read...I found this reading challenge last year. The Off The Shelf Challenge was a made-for-me kind of challenge...it was meant to make the participants actually dig in to those TBR piles that are lying aroung everywhere in taunting stacks. And it certatinly did its job. I managed to knock off 50 books that had been sitting around the house...some of them for over 20 years.


Challenge Levels

1. Tempted~ Choose 5 books to read
2. Trying~ Choose 15 books to read
3. Making a Dint~ Choose 30 books to read
4. On a Roll~ Choose 50 books to read
5. Flying Off~ Choose 75 books to read

For extra hard challenges
1. Hoarder~ Choose 76-125 books to read
2. Buried~ Choose 126-200 books to read

I decided on #4 On a Roll. And even though, at times, I wasn't on a roll (and had a hard time finishing some of them), I finally did it! Here's the list of books removed from the TBR stacks...

1. Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne (5/24/11)
2. Leave It to Psmith by P. G. Wodehouse (3/2/11)
3. The Blood Detective by Dan Waddell (9/8/11)
4. Death in the Garden by Elizabeth Ironside (2/4/11)
5. The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (7/6/11)
6. A Flaw in the Blood by Stephanie Barron (1/30/11)
7. The Praise Singer by Mary Renault (12/20/11)
8. The Silk Stocking Murders bt Anthony Berkeley (2/19/11)
9. The High Crusade by Poul Anderson (11/25/11)
10. Tom Brown's School Days by Thomas Hughes (5/13/11)
11. The Habit of Widowhood by Robert Barnard (12/4/11)
12. The Porcupine by Julian Barnes (4/20/11)
13. Colour Scheme by Ngaio Marsh [2/28/11]
14. A Time to Be in Earnest by P. D. James (1/18/11)
16. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (8/30/11)
17. Robert F Kennedy: In His Own Words by Edwin O. Guthman & Jeffrey Shulman (eds) [7/19/11]
18. The Master of Ballantrae by Robert Louis Stevenson [8/17/11]
19. Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice [9/13/11]
20. The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte [12/5/11]
21. The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux (4/11/11)
22. Emma by Jane Austen (1/9/11)
24. Middlemarch by George Eliot (9/27/11)
25. The Detections of Dr. Sam Johnson by Lillian de la Torre (6/19/11)
26. The Fashion in Shrouds by Margery Allingham (1/25/11)
27. The Woman in Black by Susan Hill (3/15/11)
28. A Graveyard to Let by Carter Dickson (1/31/11)
29. Jerusalem Inn by Martha Grimes (4/2/11)
30. The Prince Lost to Time by Ann Dukthas (11/29/11)
31. Sir Nigel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (8/21/11)
32. The Leavenworth Case by Anna Katherine Green (2/8/11)
33. Evvie by Vera Caspary (8/1/11)
34. Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon (8/24/11)
35. My Foe Outstretch'd Beneath the Tree by V. C. Clinton-Baddeley (4/16/11)
36. No Case for the Police by V. C. Clinton-Baddeley (8/14/11)
37. The Caravaggio Books by Bernard Peterson (6/2/11)
38. Blood upon the Snow by Hilda Lawrence (3/16/11)
39. The Ampersand Papers by Michael Innes 1/23/11)
40. Black Orchids by Rex Stout (1/21/11)
41. Alfred Hitchcock: The Best of Mystery (from his Mystery magazine) [7/9/11]
42. Therapy by David Lodge (7/3/11)
43. Dragons of Light by Orson Scott Card (11/24/11)
44. Shroud of Darkness by E. C. R. Lorac (3/10/11)
45. An Incomplete Revenge by Jacqueline Winspear (12/12/11)
46. Seven Gothic Tales by Isak Dinesen (8/15/11)
47. The Last Defender of Camelot by Roger Zelazny (3/19/11)
48. Out of the Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis (1/22/11)
49. Perelandra by C. S. Lewis (9/2/11)
50. That Hideous Strength by C. S. Lewis (12/17/11)


4 comments:

redhead said...

that was my goal for 2011, to read books I owned instead of library'ing tons of stuff. So what did I do? spent a metric ton of money on books. . to add to the bookshelves. I'm gonna do the math next week and see how I actually did.

CMash said...

WTG!!! Congratulations!!

Col (Col Reads) said...

Congratulations on finishing such a huge challenge! And what an interesting range of books.

Unknown said...

Good Job, I think I'm doing this one or a similar one for 2012, and I am going to clear out some books!!!