TWEM Starting Line

This post marks the starting line of my reading from the lists in The Well-Educated Mind by Susan Wise Bauer. The first three books arrived yesterday, and I've already started Don Quixote. It's huge. I didn't expect it to be so huge! But I'm not too intimidated because it should be funny and also I know that with the notes I can keep it all together.

Wish me luck and join me in reading TWEM books! And tell me, were you intimidated when beginning with TWEM, if you're doing/have done the lists? I mean, those are not very easy to read titles!

Language Freak Summer Challenge: Finish Line!

Hi, sweeties! Summer is over (can you believe it??) and it means it's time to wrap up this year's Language Freak Summer Challenge!

We did it! We've read quite some books in many (9!) different languages, and hopefully have brushed up our language skills and got more motivation to study! I truly admire your effort and thank you for your participation! I'd be happy to have you all as participants next summer!

As a host, I want to apologize for not being active enough myself, but this summer was not the best time in my life, so I slacked a lot. I'm so grateful for the enthusiasm of other participants, which kept the challenge rolling and helped me find motivation!

As usual, I'm giving you a grace period until Sept. 7. to finish your reviews. I'll add them to this review list at the end of next week. So if you've read something and haven't had time to write about it, use the time :)

Below, as usual, are all our reviews sorted by language. Note that August reviews have been marked by NEW!!! Please check that all your reviews are there and I haven't forgotten to include something!

Chinese
Frog is Sad by Max Velthuijs (Carola @ brilliant years)

Czech
Hoši od Bobří řeky (Boys from Beaver River) by Jaroslav Foglar (me) - NEW!!!

Dutch
The Solitude of Prime Numbers - Paolo Giordano (English) (Dutch) (Anja Kasap @ Reading 2011 (and Beyond))  - NEW!!!

French

Nuits de Juin by Victor Hugo (Cleo @ Classical Carousel)

Desiderata by Max Ehrmann (Cleo @ Classical Carousel)

Délicieusement Cru par Judita Wignall (Cleo @ Classical Carousel)

La Parure (The Necklace) par Guy de Maupassant (Cleo @ Classical Carousel) - NEW!!!

La Canne de Jonc - Alfred de Vigny (Anja Kasap @ Reading 2011 (and Beyond)) - NEW!!!
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling (alwaysopinionatedgirl) - NEW!!!

German

Im Wunderschönen Monat Mai by Heinrich Heine (Cleo @ Classical Carousel)

Krabat, by Otfried Preußler (Carola @ brilliant years)

Rotkäppchen (Little Red Riding Hood) by The Brothers Grimm (Cleo @ Classical Carousel)

Japanese

The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami (Carola @ brilliant years)  - NEW!!!

Latin
Ferdinandus Taurus - Munro Leaf (Cleo @ Classical Carousel) - NEW!!!

Russian

Magpie Beloboka (Anja Kasap @ Reading 2011 (and Beyond))

Spanish
Corre, Perro, Corre - P.D. Eastman (Cleo @ Classical Carousel)

Thank you for your participation and see you next summer!

My Classics Spin Title...

...is A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway! I'm not sure how I feel about this choice, as I've read The Old Man and the Sea and didn't like it... But I was little then, so who knows, maybe I'll enjoy Hemingway this time! Well, at least the novel is not as long as some other entries on my list :D

What do you think about my spin book?

The Classics Spin #7

I haven't done a spin for quite some time now, and it's a shame, because I've been really bad at making progress with my list this year. So I hope this will make me finally pick up something I've been putting off!

I don't have a lot of books left on the list, and most of those left I'm hesitant to start, either because they are long or complicated or because I've tried to read them before, unsuccessfully. So I've just picked the first 20! Wish me luck!

1. Ovid: Metamorphoses 
2. Turold: The Song of Roland 
3. Chaucer, Geoffrey: The Canterbury Tales
4. Malory, Thomas: Le Morte d'Arthur
5. Swift, Jonathon: Gulliver’s Travels
6. Dickens, Charles: Great Expectations
7. Eliot, George: Middlemarch 
8. Hardy, Thomas: Tess of the D'Urbervilles
9. Hugo, Victor: Les Miserables
10. Scott, Sir Walter: The Lady of the Lake
11. Scott, Sir Walter: The Bride of Lammermoor
12. Twain, Mark: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court 
13. Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan: The Lost World
14. Dreiser, Theodore: American Tragedy
15. Du Maurier, Daphne: Rebecca
16. Fitzgerald, F. Scott: The Beautiful and Damned
17. Hemingway, Ernest: A Farewell to Arms
18. Hemingway, Ernest: For Whom the Bell Tolls 
19. Joyce James: Ulysses
20. Kundera, Milan: The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Language Freak July Update - Holiday Edition

Hellooo sweeties! That's me greeting you from northern Italy, where I was on vacation last week! I hope your summer is being wonderful too!

How are you all doing with the challenge? I'm still plodding through that Czech book which is supposed to encourage boys to do all these boyscout/pioneer activities... They have game descriptions and tasks in the end of each chapter now! Not exciting. At this pace and with an exam to prepare for, it will be a miracle if I finish it by the end of the challenge. I'll do my best though! :)

July was a down time review-wise, but we still have 2 new reviews! Below, as usual, are all our reviews by language. Note that July reviews have been marked by NEW!!!

Chinese
Frog is Sad by Max Velthuijs (Carola @ brilliant years)

French
Nuits de Juin by Victor Hugo (Cleo @ Classical Carousel)
Desiderata by Max Ehrmann (Cleo @ Classical Carousel) - NEW!!!
Délicieusement Cru par Judita Wignall (Cleo @ Classical Carousel) - NEW!!!

German
Im Wunderschönen Monat Mai by Heinrich Heine (Cleo @ Classical Carousel)
Krabat, by Otfried Preußler (Carola @ brilliant years)
Rotkäppchen (Little Red Riding Hood) by The Brothers Grimm (Cleo @ Classical Carousel)

Russian

Magpie Beloboka (Anja Kasap @ Reading 2011 (and Beyond))

Spanish

Corre, Perro, Corre - P.D. Eastman (Cleo @ Classical Carousel)

Don't forget that August is the last month of the challenge! So it's high time to reach your goals! :) I'll post a final recap of the challenge in the beginning of September, so don't forget to write about your reading experience!

Language Freak June Update

Hi everybody! How are you doing? Sorry about being so late with this update, I've had my mom visiting me, so I was never at home, always sightseeing! :) My leg muscles are so sore! Nevertheless, I've read half of my first Czech book! It's sooo boyish... I'm already tired of fights.

Our participants have been doing great this month! Let's see what we have accomplished!

First, let us welcome our new participant, alwaysopinionatedgirl who'll be reading in French!

And now reviews by language! Note that June reviews have been marked by NEW!

Chinese
Frog is Sad by Max Velthuijs (Carola @ brilliant years)

French
Nuits de Juin by Victor Hugo (Cleo @ Classical Carousel) - NEW!!!

German
Im Wunderschönen Monat Mai by Heinrich Heine (Cleo @ Classical Carousel)
Krabat, by Otfried Preußler (Carola @ brilliant years) - NEW!!!
Rotkäppchen (Little Red Riding Hood) by The Brothers Grimm (Cleo @ Classical Carousel) - NEW!!!

Russian

Magpie Beloboka (Anja Kasap @ Reading 2011 (and Beyond))

Spanish

Corre, Perro, Corre - P.D. Eastman (Cleo @ Classical Carousel)

Please, let me know if I've forgotten anything. June has been hectic and sometimes I had to skim through my RSS feed, although I did try to stop by and comment :)

Seems like we are making a nice progress altogether! Good luck next month to everybody!

Language Freak May Update

Hi, darlings, and welcome to the first monthly update post for Language Freak Summer Challenge! (BTW, it's still not late to sign up, if you wish!) How are you all doing! Me? Not so well, but it's hardly my fault :( I'm counting more on July and August to complete my goals. But some of the participants have already read a lot for the challenge! Let's see what was reviewed in May:

Chinese
Frog is Sad by Max Velthuijs (Carola @ brilliant years)

German
Im Wunderschönen Monat Mai by Heinrich Heine (Cleo @ Classical Carousel)

Russian

Magpie Beloboka (Anja Kasap @ Reading 2011 (and Beyond))

Spanish

Corre, Perro, Corre - P.D. Eastman (Cleo @ Classical Carousel)

Wow! 4 books, four languages already! You guys rock! :) Good luck with achieving your goals and don't forget to check out the posts of your fellow readers :) See you in the end of June! 

Language Freak April Update: Ready, Steady, Go!

Hi everybody! It's end of April which means you can already take out your books in foreign languages, arm yourself with dictionaries and start reading TOMORROW! Are you ready? I am! If you have no idea what I'm talking about now, go check out challenge announcement post HERE! Don't forget that it's never late to sign up! :)

And now let's meet our participants and see what languages they will be reading in!

1. Hellen @ Worlds Inside Books (French and German)
2. Cleo @ Classical Carousel (French, Spanish, German and Latin) 
3. Anja Kasap @ Reading 2011 (and Beyond) (French, Russian or Dutch)
4. Ekaterina @ In My Book (Czech, Spanish and German) 
5. Carola @ brilliant years (German, Japanese and Mandarin) 
6. Jean @ Howling Frog Books (Danish)

Go check out your fellow participants' plans for the challenge and start reading! I wish you good luck and I'm looking forward to see what you'll accomplish this summer!

See you in a month! :)

Language Freak Summer Challenge - My Sign-Up

Hi, Hi! I'm still alive, yes :) I suck at blogging lately, but getting ozone in your spine is no easy work, I tell you! Moreover, I wanted to make pictures of the books I want to read, and with my ancient phone that's a challenge in itself!

So obviously, I'm signing up for the highest level of my own challenge! And that is an advanced level, which means I pledge to read at least 3 books in foreign languages this summer. Easy-peasy! I also want to read a book in each language I know to complete the crazy linguist level, but we'll see how it'll go.

Let's go language by language now! For my history with this languages, you are welcome to read my last year's sign-up post, nothing has changed since then! And here I'll only list the books I'm going to read.

Czech

First, I have a book for boys about adventures in a summer camp (the left one) which I took from my friend last summer and haven't read yet. Shame on me! And second, my Czech teacher has lent me Hrabal's I Served the English King, which comes highly recommended not only by her and is supposed to be very funny!

Spanish

Here are the three books I have been trying to read for a couple of years now! Quiroga's even have a bookmark in it! They are all very thin, but have such a large vocabulary that reading them is anything but easy. But this year I want to finish at least one! Platero Y Yo, probably. It's about a donkey, what can be difficult? We'll see. And I'd like to continue my reading of Harry Potter series in Spanish and read The Goblet of Fire. I'm a bit afraid, as the fourth book is much more grown-up and log than the previous three, but I bet it'll still be easier than any of the three you see above :)

German

Nothing planned! I don't have any books in German left, and I'm open to suggestions! Do you know something easy and entertaining for an intermediate learner that hates complicated sentences? Please, recommend me something!

That's it for me! I hope I'll manage it by the end of summer! :)

Language Freak Summer Challenge (Second Edition): Announcement and Sign-ups!

You were waiting for it, right? Well, I hope so! :) I know I was! Summer is already in the air here, so I thought it was time to announce the second Language Freak Summer Challenge! Yay! While another people will relax and read some brain-softening holiday books, we will brush up our language skills, increase our market value, have some fun and become proud of ourselves! Last year the challenge went really well, and I got some positive feedback, so I've decided to leave the rules as they are. I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I'm going to!

What is it all about?

In short, I challenge you to read books in foreign languages this summer! Now let's expand on it:

1) What is a foreign language? It's any language that is not your first one! However, let's not count languages that you know really well, shall we? For example, English is not my mother tongue, but about 80% of the books I read, I read in English. So I will not count it. Otherwise, any language you want to improve is allowed!

2) What is a book? Anything! An adapted or a translated edition, a children's book, comics, a short story, an audio book - all are welcome! It depends only on your level and on the amount of free time you have!

3) What is summer? The challenge runs for four months: from May 1st to August 31st. I hope this will give you enough time to reach your goals!

How do I participate?

There are levels! Choose just how much you want to challenge yourself to read, and don't forget to mention it in your sign-up post!

Beginner: read 1 book in any foreign language
Intermediate: read 2 books in any foreign language
Advanced: read 3+ books in any foreign language

The books can be in one or in several different foreign languages. You choose what you want to practice! But for really crazy linguists I have a special offer, which is called accordingly:

Crazy Linguist: read at least 1 book in EACH foreign language you know. Of course, this one is additional to the above listed three levels!

Bonus level is for films:

Subs Fan: watch any number of films in a foreign language (Why is it called so? Because subs are allowed, of course!)

After you read your book (or watch a movie), you are encouraged to post about your experience! It can be a review, or a reflection, or a rant, whatever! If the book's language affected your experience, write about it! Is it easy or difficult? Does it have crazy grammar or so many rare words that you couldn't put down your dictionary? Share!

For the hardcore language freaks I have another optional task! Try to write about the book in the language you read it in! Just a few phrases, to practice your writing! Last year native speakers were known to friendly explain the mistakes in the reviews, so don't be afraid to make them! It's all for your benefit, you know. :)

How do I sign up?

It's easy! Just write an introduction post and link it to the linky below! To help you write it, I've prepared some questions! You may answer them, or write anything else - your choice! The minimum info that I need about you is the languages in which you are going to read and the level you choose. But the more you tell us, the more fun it is! So, the questions:

• What languages do you know? Note: even if you are a beginner, it totally counts! And don't forget to mention what your mother-tongue is!
• What is your history with these languages?
• Do you use them or are you out of practice?
• Have you read some books in these languages? Did you like it?
• What are your plans for the challenge?
• For veteran participants: have you read and/or reviewed some books in foreign languages since the last challenge? Boast about it and link the reviews!

How does it work?

When you sign up, I add you to my RSS feed. Since then, whenever you mention in your post that the review is for the challenge, I note it and put it into each month's recap post. This recap post will list all the participants' reviews since the beginning of the challenge sorted by language. I hope it will be fun for you to see what other participants are reading in the same language you are! I also introduce new participants in these posts. The post will go live in the end of each month, so don't forget to stop by and check it out! Or follow me not to miss it :)

Take out your dictionaries and get ready to have fun! :)

And here's the linky for sign-up posts:

2014 TBR Pile Challenge

I was pondering if I want to join Adam's TBR challenge this year, because I failed miserably in it last year. You see, I'm really bad at planning ahead, so sticking to the list was really difficult. However, I guess I made it so difficult myself, as I chose some really daunting books. This year, I'm listing only the books from my TBR I'm really looking ahead. I hope that will help!

Books to read:

1. Historia Brittonum by Nennius
2. Historia regum Britanniae by Geoffrey of Monmouth 
3. Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory (what? I'm really looking forward to these three!)
4. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (this one is supposed to be amazing and I'm surprised I'm putting if off)
5. Watership Down by Richard Adams
6. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (I own these two in print, and they are calling to me from the shelf)
7. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (there are movies that I want to see!)
8. Paradise Lost by John Milton (I started it yesterday, and I need some extra motivation)
9. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (no reason whatsoever, only let's throw more Spanish guys here, maybe?)
10. Platero y yo by Juan Ramón Jiménez (this I have in Spanish, and in Spanish I must read it)
11. Foundation by Isaac Asimov
12. Roadside Picnic by Arkady & Boris Strugatsky (I have these two on my reader already, so why not?)

Alternates:

1. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
2. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

2014 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

Historical Fiction is a genre I've always wanted to read more of. I have Wolf Hall lying on my desk for months, and this year I will also be joining some discussions at Plagues, Witches and War Historical Fiction Book Group. So this challenge is perfect for me! The full rules can be found here.

I'm joining for Renaissance Reader level, which means I aim for 10 HF books in 2014.

Books read:

1. Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks
2. The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl
3. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
4. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
5. A Burnable Book by Bruce Holsinger
6. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
7. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
8. Seduction by M.J. Rose
9.  
10.  

Pre-Printing Press Challenge 2013-2014

The idea of this wonderful challenge is to read books that came out before 1440, when the printing press was invented. The full rules can be found here. As for me, I'm aiming to read 10 books that count, which is totally doable, I think!

Books read:

1. Historia Brittonum attributed to Nennius (833)
2. The History of the Kings of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth (1136)
3. Life of Merlin by Geoffrey of Monmouth (1150)
4. Erec and Enide by Chrétien de Troyes (1170)
5. Cligès by Chrétien de Troyes (1176)
6. Yvain, the Knight of the Lion by Chrétien de Troyes (1170)
7. Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart by Chrétien de Troyes (1170)
8. Perceval, the Story of the Grail by Chrétien de Troyes (1190)
9.  
10.  

Around the World in 12 Books Challenge 2014

Last year I really enjoyed Giraffe Days' Around the World challenge in 2013, but it was quite... challenging, and I wasn't able to keep up. So I was very happy when Shannon announced that the rules would be more relaxed in 2014. So gladly I join for Casual Tourist level, which means I'll read 6 books set in different areas this year. I've chosen mine as following:

1. North America: Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks
2. South America: Dead Man's Tale by Joanna Chmielewska
3. Africa: 
4. Asia: 
5. Europe: The Shore by Yuri Bondarev
6. Australia, Oceania and Antarctica: At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft

Here I'll link the books I read for the categories, and I hope this year I'll cover all of them! :)

2013 Challenges Wrap-Up

2013 will soon come to an end, and it's time to wrap-up all the challenges I have participated in this year. It was my first full year of blogging, so I had no idea what would work for me. Thus so many challenges I failed in. So here they go in no particular order:

2013 TBR Pile Challenge

It seems challenges in which I have to stick to the list don't work well for me... So this one is rather a failure... But I've still read 5 books, and it's a win anyway! :)

My list:

1. Kerouac, Jack: On the Road
2. Kundera, Milan: The Unbearable Lightness of Being
3. Marquez, Gabriel Garcia: One Hundred Years of Solitude
4. Chaucer, Geoffrey: The Canterbury Tales
5. Hardy, Thomas: Tess of the D'Urbervilles
6. Eco, Umberto: The Name of the Rose
7. Du Maurier, Daphne: Rebecca
8. Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan: The Lost World
9. Fitzgerald, F. Scott: The Great Gatsby
10. Alcott, Louisa May: Little Women
11. Dickens, Charles: Great Expectations
12. Hugo, Victor: Les Miserables

Alternates:

1. Maugham, W. Somerset: Of Human Bondage
2. Woolf, Virginia: Mrs. Dalloway

What's in a Name Challenge 2013

This year I've discovered I don't like choosing books according to their titles... So all the challenges that require something in the title were failures too... But I was really productive in terms of emotional titles :)

Categories:

1. A book with up or down (or equivalent) in the title: Deep down True, The Girl Below, The Diva Digs up the Dirt
2. A book with something you'd find in your kitchen in the title: Loose Lips Sink Ships, The Knife of Never Letting Go, Breadcrumbs
3. A book with a party or celebration in the title: A Feast for Crows, A Wedding in Haiti, Cocktail Hour under the Tree of Forgetfulness
4. A book with fire (or equivalent) in the title: Burning for Revenge, Fireworks over Toccoa, Catching Fire
5. A book with an emotion in the title: Baltimore Blues, Say You're Sorry, Dreams of Joy
6. A book with lost or found (or equivalent) in the title: The Book of Lost Fragrances, The World We Found, A Discovery of Witches

Books read:

1. 
   
2. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson
3. 
   
4. 
   
5. The Reluctant Dragon by Kenneth Grahame, A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens
6. 
   

The Colorful Reading Challenge 2013

Faaaail, 5 instead of 8 books read...

Books read:

1. A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
2. The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett
3. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
4. The Golden Ass by Lucius Apuleius
5. Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch
6.  
7.  
8.  

Narrative Poem Reading Challenge 2013

Here I'm really ashamed: I was so excited with narrative poems, and wanted to read all of them, but this mood has disappeared and never came again for the whole year... I hope I'll read them sometime, though!

Books I plan to read:

1. Chaucer, Geoffrey: The Canterbury Tales
2. Ovid: Metamorphoses
3. Milton, John: Paradise Lost
4. Scott, Sir Walter: The Lady of the Lake
5. Virgil: Aeneid
6. Coleridge, Samuel Taylor: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
7. Turold: The Song of Roland
8. Re-read some Scandinavian mythology or Tolkien (?)

Around the World in 12 Books Challenge

I really liked it in the beginning, but then some difficult countries came, and I couldn't find anything inspirational set in them, so I dropped it in summer. I'm going to join 2014 challenge though, which has easier rules.

List of countries: 

JANUARY = France: The Story of My Misfortunes by Peter Abelard
FEBRUARY = Sudan: My Uncle Oswald by Roald Dahl
MARCH = Wales: Mabinogion
APRIL = South Pacific Islands: Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Bernard Nordhoff and James Norman Hall
MAY = Belgium: The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier
JUNE = South Korea
JULY = Israel
AUGUST = Palestine
SEPTEMBER = Brazil
OCTOBER = China
NOVEMBER = Egypt
DECEMBER = Argentina

Books On France 2013 Reading Challenge

One book short of my level! Well, I've done well anyway! :)

Books read:

1. The Story of My Misfortunes by Peter Abelard 
2. Dangerous Liaisons by Pierre Choderlos De Laclos
3. Germinal by Émile Zola
4. Manon Lescaut by Antoine François Prévost
5. Paris Spleen by Charles Baudelaire
6. 
   

TEA & BOOKS Reading Challenge
COMPLETED!

This challenge was one of my most favourite ones! I love big books, and monthly check-ins were encouraging. I hope I'll finish one more book for the challenge in the next two days, but I've completed it long ago anyway!

Books read:

1. Moby-Dick by Herman Melville (774 pages)
2. Dangerous Liaisons by Pierre Choderlos De Laclos (653 pages)
3. The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens (720 pages)
4. A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin (1074 pages)
5. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (851 pages)
6. Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell (713 pages)
7. The Thousand and One Nights (3624 pages, around 1500 of them read this year)
8. Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman (704 pages)

2013 Genre Variety Reading Challenge
COMPLETED!

I completed this challenge long ago, but I didn't enjoy it. Genres are fuzzy, and if you want, you can fit anything anywhere. 

Genres:

1. Children's fantasy: The Reluctant Dragon by Kenneth Grahame
2. Autobiography: The Story of My Misfortunes by Peter Abelard
3. Coming of age: Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
4. Southern gothic: A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
5. Sea story: Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
6. Detective: A Study in Scarlet & The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle
7. Science fiction: Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? by Philip K Dick
8. Epistolary: Dangerous Liaisons by Pierre Choderlos De Laclos
9. Social criticism: The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens
10. Speculative fiction: My Uncle Oswald by Roald Dahl
11. ...

7 Continents, 7 Billion People, 7 Books - Reading Challenge 2013

This was fun in the beginning, but then all the participants and the host him/herself disappeared... It's not fun when there is no crowd, right?)

Books read:

1. From the 7 countries with the most population: A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams (USA)
2. From the 7 highest countries in the world: Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson (Pakistan)
3. From the 7 oldest countries of the world: Aesop's Fables by Aesop (Greece)
4. From one of the 7 megacities of the world (Tokyo, Guangzhou, Jakarta, Seoul, Shanghai, Mexico City, Delhi)
5. From the 7 countries with the most immigrants (USA, Russia, Germany, Ukraine, France, Saudi Arabia, Canada)
6. From the 7 richest (or poorest) countries (Richest: Luxembourg, Qatar, Macau, Norway, Singapore, Brunei, Hong Kong; Poorest: Congo, Liberia, Eritrea, Burundi, Niger, Central African Republic, Sierra Leone)
7. From the 7 most rainy (or dry) countries (Rainy: Guinea, Solomon Islands, Sierra Leone, Gabon, Burma, Malaysia, Guyana; Dry: Peru, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Erimates, Kuwait, Syria, Djibouti)

The European Reading Challenge
COMPLETED!

This one I liked a lot, but I can't say it made me choose books I wouldn't normally choose. I was just lucky my reading fit so well :)

Books read:

1. The Story of My Misfortunes by Peter Abelard - France
2. The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens - United Kingdom
3. My Uncle Oswald by Roald Dahl - Spain (Well, actually it happens ALL AROUND Europe, but I had to choose one, so I chose the place of their first business success)
4. Oedipus the King by Sophocles - Greece
5. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco - Italy
6. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak - Germany
7. The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier - Belgium
8. The Seagull by Anton Chekhov - Russia
9. The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas - Norway
10. The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson - Sweden
11. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle - Switzerland (Okay, only one of the stories is set in Switzerland, but it's one of the most important and the most well-known ones, and the scenery plays an important role in it, so I think it counts :))
12. Chess Story by Stefan Zweig - Austria

P.S. I've changed my UK book, because I've just noticed the books must be by different authors. Anyway, I've read gazillion of books set in UK :)

2013 Books in Translation Reading Challenge
COMPLETED!

This is not even a challenge for me, as I read in translation A LOT... Some of the translations here may seem crazy, but there are a lot of them :)

Books read:

1. The Story of My Misfortunes by Peter Abelard (French -> Russian)
2. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami (Japanese -> Russian)
3. Dangerous Liaisons by Pierre Choderlos De Laclos (French -> Russian)
4. Oedipus the King by Sophocles (Classical Greek -> Russian)
5. Germinal by Émile Zola (French -> Russian)
6. The Mabinogion by Anonymous (Medieval Welsh -> Russian) 
7. Harry Potter y la cámara secreta by J. K. Rowling (English -> Spanish)
8. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (Italian -> Russian)
9. Manon Lescaut by Antoine François Prévost (French -> Russian)
10. The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier (English -> Russian)
11. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson (English -> Russian)
12. Radost pro duši by Margaret Silf (English -> Czech)
13. Aesop's Fables by Aesop (Classical Greek -> Russian) 
14. Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges (Spanish -> Russian)
15. The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas (Norwegian -> Russian)
16. The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson (Swedish -> Russian)
17. Paris Spleen by Charles Baudelaire (French -> Russian)
18. The Thousand and One Nights (Arabic -> Russian)
19. The Golden Ass by Lucius Apuleius (Latin -> Russian)
20. If on a Winter's Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino (Italian -> Russian)
21. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke (German -> Russian)
22. Chess Story by Stefan Zweig (German -> Russian)

2013 Mystery/Crime Reading Challenge

I can't say I'm a fan of detective stories, so I probably shouldn't have signed up for anything with this topic

Books read:

1. A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
2. The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle
3. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
4. Murder in Two Flats by Roy Vickers
5. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
6. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
7. 
   

  Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge 2013

The same... Although the categories were fun!

Scattergories:

1. Colorful Crime: a book with a color or reference to color in the title
2. Murder by the Numbers: a book with a number, quantity in the title
3. Amateur Night: a book with a "detective" who is not a P.I.; Police Officer; Official Investigator (Nurse Keate, Father Brown, Miss Marple, etc.)
4. Leave It to the Professionals: a book featuring cops, private eyes, secret service, professional spies, etc.
5. Jolly Old England: one mystery set in Britain
6. Yankee Doodle Dandy: one mystery set in the United States
7. World Traveler: one mystery set in any country except the US or Britain
8. Dangerous Beasts: a book with an animal in the title (The Case of the Grinning Gorilla; The Canary Murder Case; etc.)
9. A Calendar of Crime: a mystery with a date/holiday/year/month/etc. in the title (Hercule Poirot's Christmas, Holiday Homicide, etc.)
10. Wicked Women: a book with a woman in the title--either by name (Mrs. McGinty's Dead) or by reference (The Case of the Vagabound Virgin)
11. Malicious Men: a book with a man in the title--either by name (Maigret & the Yellow Dog) or by reference (The Case of the Haunted Husband)
12. Murderous Methods: a book with a means of death in the title (The Noose, 5 Bullets, Deadly Nightshade, etc).
13. Staging the Crime: a mystery set in the entertainment world (the theater, musical event, a pageant, Hollywood, featuring a magician, etc)
14. Scene of the Crime: a book with the location of the crime in the title (The Body in the Library, Murder at the Vicarage, etc.)
15. Cops & Robbers: a book that features a theft rather than murder
16. Locked Rooms: a locked-room mystery
17. Country House Criminals: a standard (or not-so-standard) Golden Age country house murder
18. Murder on the High Seas: a mystery involving water
19. Planes, Trains & Automobiles: a mystery that involves a mode of transportation in a vital way--explicitly in the title (Murder on the Orient Express) or by implication (Death in the Air; Death Under Sail) or perhaps the victim was shoved under a bus....
20. Murder Is Academic: a mystery involving a scholar, teacher, librarian, etc. OR set at a school, university, library, etc.
21. Things That Go Bump in the Night: a mystery with something spooky, creepy, gothic in the title (The Skeleton in the Clock, Haunted Lady, The Bat, etc.)
22. Repeat Offenders: a mystery featuring your favorite series detective or by your favorite author (the books/authors you'd read over and over again) OR reread an old favorite
23. The Butler Did It...Or Not: a mystery where the butler is the victim, the sleuth....(gasp) the criminal....or is just downright memorable for whatever reason.
24. A Mystery By Any Other Name: any book that has been published under more than one title (Murder Is Easy--aka Easy to Kill [Christie];Fog of Doubt--aka London Particular [Christianna Brand], etc.)
25. Dynamic Duos: a mystery featuring a detective team--Holmes & Watson, Pam & Jerry North, Wolfe & Goodwin, or....a little-known team that you introduce to us.
26. Size Matters: a book with a size or measurement in the title (Death Has a Small Voice, The Big Four, The Weight of the Evidence, etc.)
27. Psychic Phenomena: a mystery featuring a seance, medium, hypnotism, or other psychic or "supernatural" characters/events
28. Book to Movie: one vintage mystery that has appeared on screen (feature film or TV movie).
29. The Old Bailey: a courtroom drama mystery (Perry Mason, anyone?Witness for the Prosecution...etc.) 
30. Get Out of Jail Free: This is a freebie category. One per customer. You tell me what special category the book fits ("It's got an awesome cover!"..."First book I grabbed off my shelf") and it counts. Only thing I won't take is "It's a Vintage Mystery!"--that's a given. :-)

Books read:

1. Colorful Crime: A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
2. Murder by the Numbers: The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle
3. Repeat Offenders: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
4. Scene of the Crime: Murder in Two Flats by Roy Vickers
5. Dynamic Duos: The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

Game of Thrones Reading Challenge 2013

OMG, I don't even know why I signed up for this challenge, as I wasn't going to read more than one anyway!

Books read:

1. A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin
2.  
3.  

2013 Outdo Yourself Reading Challenge
COMPLETED!

I read 92!! I outdid myself by much more than I dared expect! I'm awesome.

Number of books read in 2012: 61

Number of books I plan to read in 2013: 70
  

New Authors Challenge 2013
COMPLETED!

I stopped counting at some point, because I read new authors all the time anyway :)

Books read:

1. The Reluctant Dragon by Kenneth Grahame 
2. The Story of My Misfortunes by Peter Abelard 
3. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami 
4. A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
5. Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
6. Dangerous Liaisons by Pierre Choderlos De Laclos
7. My Uncle Oswald by Roald Dahl
8. Wool and Proper Gauge by Hugh Howey
9. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
10. Oedipus the King by Sophocles
11. Germinal by Émile Zola
12. The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett
13. Stardust by Neil Gaiman
14. Murder in Two Flats by Roy Vickers
15. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
16. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
17. Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Bernard Nordhoff and James Norman Hall
18. Manon Lescaut by Antoine François Prévost
19. The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier
20. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson
21. Radost pro duši by Margaret Silf
22. Aesop's Fables by Aesop
23. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
24. Light in August by William Faulkner
25. Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges
26. The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas
27. Beloved by Toni Morrison
28. ...

2013 Ebook Challenge
DROPPED

Here I also stopped counting, as I read everything on my ereader. I'm just not rich enough to buy real paper books :)

Books read:

1. The Reluctant Dragon by Kenneth Grahame 
2. The Story of My Misfortunes by Peter Abelard 
3. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami 
4. A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams 
5. Moby-Dick by Herman Melville 
6. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? by Philip K Dick 
7. Dangerous Liaisons by Pierre Choderlos De Laclos
8. The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens
9. My Uncle Oswald by Roald Dahl
10. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
11. A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin
12. Wool and Proper Gauge by Hugh Howey
13. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
14. Oedipus the King by Sophocles

OK, that's all! I wrote a separate wrap-up post for Back to the Classics challenge in August, so I'm done with all of them :) I have not been very clever with signing up this year, and I hope I'll be more successful in 2014!

Happy New Year and some nice challenges to everyone!!