Spring Reading Thing Wrap-Up

I started the spring with a list of thirteen books for this challenge, hoping to leave myself open to reading maybe another thirteen or so during the same period. (I'm trying to read 104 books this year - which means an average of two books a week.)

Here's how I did with my challenge list:

• The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak


• The Camel Bookmobile by Masha Hamilton


• Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult


• Dairy Queen: A Novel by Catherine Gilbert Murdock


• Dark Assassin by Anne Perry


• The First Patient by Michael Palmer


• The Kommandant's Girl by Pam Jenoff


• The Lady in the Tower by Jean Plaidy


• Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen


• People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks


• Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson


• A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini


• Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

Here are the other books I also read this spring:

• Dead Time by Stephen White


• Don't Know Much About the Universe by Kenneth C. Davis


• Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes


• The Off Season by Catherine Gilbert Murdock


• Picture Perfect by Jodi Picoult


• Someone Like Summer by M.E. Kerr


• Windfalls by Jean Hegland

Sixteen books is a ways off the two-a-week goal, but life has been particularly hectic the past month or so. I guess it'll have to do.

A big thank you to SRT host Katrina! The following are some of the questions she suggested we consider as we wrapped up the challenge:

Did you finish all the books you had planned to read? If not, why?

In Spring Reading Thing 2007, I completed a total of fifteen books, with two others in progress as the challenge ended. While I had truly hoped that I could read twenty-six books during the period of this challenge, I guess that the sixteen I completed (with two others currently in progress - The Devil in the White City and Eat, Pray, Love) would have been a reasonable goal. Spring is a busy time at work, and I also spent a good part of this month traveling. There is never as much time to read as I would like.

What was your favorite book you read this spring? Least favorite?

My least favorite reads of the spring were not on my SRT list: Someone Like Summer and Picture Perfect. Of the books I read from my SRT list, I'm not sure I can pick a favorite - and there is certainly not a "least favorite" among them. I do think that Speak and A Thousand Splendid Suns are particularly good novels - ones that will stay with me for a long time.

Did you discover any new authors or genres that you now love?

Laurie Halse Anderson and Catherine Gilbert Murdock are both young adult authors whom I will definitely read again.

Are you interested in another "Fall Into Reading" challenge this fall?

Absolutely!