Challenge Countdown

This week’s Weekly Geeks theme is “catching up.” And one of the things I said I wanted to do was organize the rest of my reading challenges for the year – see what’s left to read, and how long I have to do it.

And after looking at my challenge blog, and checking the spreadsheet record I keep (well, I said I was a Geek, didn't I?), I realize that I still have about fourteen books left to read in the next three months. Actually, it looks like seventeen, but a few of those are cross-over reads, so it’s not quite as formidable as it looks. Well, actually it is pretty formidable at that.

So, the list:

R.I.P. III Challenge (ending October 31) – 2 books. Probably:
The House With a Clock in Its Walls, by John Bellairs, and The Penguin Complete Short Stories of M.R. James. I’m reading both of those right now, and enjoying them a lot.

342,745 Ways to Herd Cats (tl;dr) Challenge (ending November 30) – 1 more book, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon. I’ve started reading that one, too. Also enjoying it.

Man-Booker Challenge (ending December 31) – 5 books.
I’ve only read one of the six books for this challenge, so I’ve still got those last five to go. But one of them is Haddon’s Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, a cross-over with the Herding Cats Challenge – so only four “new” books for this challenge. The other books I’ve got lined up are:

Hotel Du Lac, by Anita Brookner
Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont, by Elizabeth Taylor
The Public Image, by Muriel Spark
The Road to Lichfield, by Penelope Lively

Young Readers Challenge (ending in December) – 8 books.
I know this sounds like lot, but kids’ books are usually very quick reads. And one of the books I’ll be reading is another crossover (Bellairs’ The House With a Clock in Its Walls), so only seven “new” titles. I made a list of books when I joined the challenge, but it’s sort of fallen by the wayside – I’ll probably just choose the books as I read them.

I also have the Short Story Challenge finishing up in December. But the M.R. James ghost stories will work there, too.

So, altogether, I think that’s fourteen separate titles. Now the question is will I be able to read (and blog about) almost five books a month for the next three months? All signs point to “NO,” especially since I’ll probably be traveling during a good part of that time. But I’m gonna give it a good solid try.