2015 Reading Challenge Recap

| December 31, 2015

My 2015 Reading Challenge…Wow! I surpassed my expectations by reading 67 books this year. When I last wrote about my 2015 Reading Challenge, I challenged myself to read 52 books this year, one book each week. I set up my reading challenge in the 2015 Reading Challenge app on goodreads.com. I also used the prompts in Popsugar’s 2015 Reading Challenge.

I definitely went over my 52 books for the year, but not all of the books were from my Popsugar Reading Challenge list. At the beginning of this year, I joined a local book club. Several of the books I read this year were books selected for my book club, and all the remaining books are ones I just wanted to read or edited for my internships. Below is the completed reading list for my 2015 Reading Challenge.

Legend: ∗ Popsugar’s Reading Challenge List , † my book club’s list, ‡ for books I edited.

  1. Our Iceberg Is Melting by John P. Kotter – Completed January 1, 2015 ∗
  2. Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin – Completed January 2, 2015 ∗
  3. #Girlboss by Sophia Amoruso – Completed January 18, 2015 ∗
  4. The Fred Factor: How passion in you work and life can turn the ordinary into the extraordinary by Mark Sanborn – Completed January 24, 2015 ∗
  5. Killer Frost by Jennifer Estep – Completed February 12, 2015 ∗
  6. March by Geraldine Brooks – Completed March 14, 2015 ∗†
  7. Murder as a Fine Art by David Morrell – Completed March 15, 2015 ∗†
  8. Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops by Jen Campbell – Completed March 17, 2015 ∗
  9. By Royal Command by Mary Hooper – Completed March 21, 2015 ∗
  10. The Bookshop Book by Jen Campbell – Completed March 24, 2015 ∗
  11. The Turncoat by Donna Thorland – Completed April 7, 2015
  12. My So-Called Freelance Life: How to Survive and Thrive as a Creative Professional for Hire by Michelle Goodman – Completed April 30, 2015
  13. How to Become a Freelance Editor: Start a New Career in Less Than a Year by Dustin Schwanger – Completed May 6, 2015
  14. Night by Elie Wiesel – Completed May 18, 2015 ∗
  15. Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg – Completed May 19, 2015
  16. Inspector of the Dead by David Morrell – Completed May 31, 2015
  17. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey – Completed June 13, 2015 ∗
  18. The Last Bookaneer by Matthew Pearl – Completed June 13, 2015
  19. The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady by Elizabeth Stuckey-French – Completed June 22, 2015 †
  20. Dracula by Bram Stoker – Completed June 23, 2015 ∗
  21. The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future by Chris Guillebeau – Completed June 27, 2015
  22. Bossypants by Tina Fey – Completed July 6, 2015 ∗
  23. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen – Complete July 11, 2015 ∗
  24. How to Start a Home-based Editorial Services Business by Barbara Fuller – Completed July 11, 2015
  25. Side Hustle Blueprint: How to make an extra $1000 in 30 days without leaving your day job! By Lise Cartwright – Completed July 11, 2015
  26. More Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops by Jen Campbell – Completed July 12, 2015
  27. Babayaga by Toby Barlow – Completed July 19, 2015 †
  28. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak – Completed July 25, 2015 ∗
  29. The Vision by Heather Graham – Completed July 27, 2015 ∗
  30. The Betrayed by Heather Graham – completed July 29, 2015 ∗
  31. The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss – Completed July 29, 2015
  32. Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness by Alexandra Fuller – Completed July 31, 2015 †
  33. Death Callers by Raven Hudgins – Completed August 5, 2015 ‡
  34. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell – Completed August 23, 2015 ∗
  35. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee – Completed August 26, 2015
  36. Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy – Completed August 27, 2015 ∗
  37. Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee – Completed August 28, 2015 ∗
  38. Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She’s Learned by Lena Dunham – Completed August 29, 2015 ∗
  39. The Elements of Editing by Arthur Plotnik – Completed September 1, 2015 ∗
  40. Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James – Completed September 2, 2015 ∗
  41. Get Motivated!: Overcome Any Obstacle, Achieve Any Goal, and Accelerate  Your Success with Motivational DNA by Tamara Lowe – Completed September 12, 2015 ∗
  42. The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness by Dave Ramsey – Completed September 28, 2015
  43. Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind: How to Be Seen and Heard in the Overcrowded Marketplace by Al Ries – completed October 5, 2015 ∗
  44. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger – Completed October 6, 2015 ∗
  45. Blog, Inc.: Blogging for Passion, Profit, and to Create Community by Joy Deangdeelert Cho – Completed October 6, 2015
  46. Hedy’s Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World by Richard Rhodes – Completed October 7, 2015 ∗
  47. Thornfield Hall by Emma Tennant – Completed October 14, 2015 ∗
  48. The Evidence of Love by Nancy Adams – Completed October 15, 2015 †
  49. As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes – Completed October 28, 2015
  50. McGraw-Hill’s Proofreading Handbook by Laura Killen Anderson – Completed November 1, 2015 ∗
  51. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury – Completed November 5, 2015 ∗
  52. The Thousand-Dollar Tan Line by Rob Thomas – Completed November 6, 2015 ∗
  53. The Vactioners by Emma Straub – Completed November 8, 2015 ∗
  54. 1984 by George Orwell – November 9, 2015 ∗
  55. The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger – Completed November 11, 2015 ∗
  56. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell – Completed November 11, 2015 ∗
  57. Song of the Nibelungs by Anonymous – Completed November 12, 2015 ∗
  58. Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare – Completed November 12, 2015 ∗
  59. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis – Completed November 12, 2015 ∗
  60. Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White – Completed November 18, 2015 ∗
  61. The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien – Completed November 18, 2015 ∗
  62. The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien – Completed November 19, 2015 ∗
  63. The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien – Completed November 22, 2015 ∗
  64. V for Vendetta by Alan Moore – Completed November 22, 2015 ∗
  65. The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri – Completed November 24, 2015 ∗
  66. Eragon by Christopher Paolini – Completed December 30, 2015 ∗
  67. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Illustrated version) by J.K. Rowling – Completed December 31, 2015

What do you think of my reading list? I have all types of genres thrown in there for this year. Leave a comment below.

Please check back tomorrow for my 2016 Reading Challenge and list of books.

Book Review: The Catcher in the Rye

| October 5, 2015 
The Catcher in the RyeTitle: The Catcher in the Rye 
Author: J.D. Salinger
Publication: Originally published in hardcover by Little, Brown and Co., July 1951 and First Back Bay Paperback edition, January 2001.
Description: 224 pages
Price: U.S. $6.99 / Canada $8.50
ISBN-10: 0-316-76917-7
ISBN-13: 978-031676917

*Contains Spoilers*

This past week was Banned Book Week in the United States. To celebrate this event, I decided to read a book that has been challenged since 1961, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger.

I admit in high school when The Catcher and the Rye was assigned by my English Teacher my junior year, I never finished reading the book. In fact, I think I quit reading it only a few chapters in to the book. I felt the main character and narrator, Holden Caulfield, was an annoying, whiny teenager, which is the main reason why I quit reading the book in high school.

At the time, I did not understand why The Catcher in the Rye was, and still is, considered one of the great works of fiction. For nearly 20 years, whenever anyone said they loved the book and it was one of their all-time favorites, I looked at them as if they were crazy. What did they find so poignant about this novel?

Earlier this year, I decided to re-read novels I never finished when I was in school, to look at the novels with an adult’s point-of-view rather than a teenager’s. So when Banned Book Week came up, I decided to re-read The Catcher in the Rye.

Only four chapters in to the re-reading, I realized another reason why I did not finish the book: Holden Caulfield’s excessive use of a blasphemous word. Reading this book as an adult, the use of the word throughout the novel didn’t necessarily offend me, but the excessive use of it did offend me, personally. However, stepping back and reading it as an editor, who has read through the whole novel, I wouldn’t have deleted a single one because Caulfield’s use of the word helps to describe his personality right before he has a mental breakdown.

As I continued to read through the book, I could see the teenage angst most teenagers go through. Everything other people did bothered Holden Caulfield and it caused Caulfield to act out against whoever annoyed him. Teenagers are constantly acting out against their parents, siblings, adults, animals…the list goes on and on.

Reading The Catcher in the Rye as an adult, I forced myself to read it without using my bias from my teenage years, but it really was hard. Realizing four chapters in that Caulfield still was a privileged, whiny teenager made my desire to finish the book next to impossible. I successfully finished the book this time!

My final conclusions…I still don’t understand why The Catcher in the Rye is considered a must read. I am not a fan of the language, sexual content, and underage drinking and smoking to name a few of the challenges against the book. The main reason why I still don’t like The Catcher in the Rye is because the main character is a privileged, whiny teenager who is on the verge of a mental breakdown. I personally do not find any redeeming value from having read it, except to say, “Yes, I have read it.” Even though, I dislike The Catcher in the Rye I will never try to challenge or ban the book as I know people who have been deeply moved by the book.