2015 Reading Assignment Challenge

I saw this and couldn't resist.

The Rules

• The 2015 Reading Assignment Challenge runs from January 1st – December 31st 2015. You may sign up anytime between now and July 1st
• You may only participate for the months AFTER you sign up (so if you sign up in February, January doesn’t count)
• Commit to reading 1, 2, 3, or 4 books a month and MAKE A LIST of the SPECIFIC books you will read in 2015. This is the point of the challenge: You’re committing to reading a set list of books and a certain number of them each month. It’s your chance to finally hold yourself accountable for those books you keep promising yourself you’ll read!
• You may read any genre or any format (i.e., eBook, Audiobook, Paperback, Hardcover). But they must be published before January 1, 2015 and they must be at least 100 pages.
• Pick a level and make your list. REMEMBER: You’re committing to not just those books, but that number of books a month. You CANNOT read them all in one month. You get a certain amount of Extra Credit and Passes, depending on your level (as listed & explained below)
• At the end of each month, cross off the book(s) you read. There will be a link-up each month to link your reviews. This can be simply a link to a quick update on Goodreads or a blog review. The link-up will be open 1st to the 7th of each month and the hosts will randomly select a monthly winner of a $5 gift card to Amazon. Giveway will be open Internationally.
• Tweet your progress to #2015HW and keep an eye out for random tweets from the hosts.
• There will be a grand prize drawing in January 2016. To be entered in the grand prize raffle, you must have completed your Reading Assignment as you indicated in your sign up post. The monthly giveaways will be based on that month alone, so even if you can’t complete the challenge for the year, you will have plenty of opportunities to win!

The Levels

Reading Level 1:
6 books
No Extra Credit, No Passes

Reading Level 2:
12 books (1 book/month)
1 Extra Credit, 1 Pass

Reading Level 3:
24 books (2 books/month)
2 Extra Credits, 1 Pass

Reading Level 4:
36 books (3 books/month)
3 Extra Credits, 1 Pass

Reading Level 5:
48 books (4 books/month)
4 Extra Credits, 1 Pass

Extra Credit:
Each level gets a set amount of extra credit that they may claim throughout the challenge. So if you’re having a good month and want to get ahead (and haven’t used up your extra credit) go ahead and read an extra book from your Assignment List. Once you’ve used up your Extra Credit, you have to stick to your scheduled number of books per month.

Passes:
Level 2 and up gets 1 Pass. This means you can skip a month without dropping out of the challenge. You’ll have to use your extra credit to make it up, but you still have a chance.

CLARIFICATION  (edited 12/1/14): Extra Credit can ONLY be used for books on your list from January 1st – November 30th. The extra credit helps you recover from a month you may have used a pass on. However, if you do your assigned reading according to schedule, you will start December with unused extra credit. If you do you may add a book, for each remaining extra credit, to your assignment list, to be announced in your November post (which will be linked up from 12/1 to 12/7). If you choose to add books to your list, YOU MUSTread them to complete the challenge. IF YOU FAIL TO READ THEM, YOU ARE NOT ELLIGIBLE FOR THE GRAND PRIZE. IF YOU DO READ THEM, YOU’LL GET AN EXTRA ENTRY FOR EACH EXTRA CREDIT YOU CASH IN. So its up to you play it safe or gamble for more changes to win and rise to the top of the class!

---

And that’s it! This is a bit stricter than a lot of year long challenges, but that’s because the hosts want it to be a little harder and hopefully more satisfying when you rock it!

- See more at: http://www.becausereading.com/2015hw/#sthash.lxzXQyL8.dpuf

I am going for Level 5: 4 books a month for a total of 48 books. My TBR piles are out of control. When I had to move the books piled along the window wall of my bedroom recently, they filled a whole bookcase, including several double rows on some of the shelves. And I already had another full TBR bookcase in the living room, plus some random piles. 

1. The Sacred Cut by David Hewson. Finished January 25
2. Gently Down the Stream by Ray Robertson. Finished January 31
3. Carpentaria by Alexis Wright. Finished August 22
4. Biografi by Lloyd Jones. Finished December 29
5. Going Bovine by Libby Bray. Finished February 22
6. A Novel Bookstore by Laurence Cosse
7. Burned Alive by Souad. Finished July 18
8. The Children's Blizzard by David Laskin. Finished May 12
9. The Road Taken by Michael Buerk. Finished May 30
10. The Dog of the Marriage by Amy Hempel. Finished October 22
11. Domestic Violets by Mathew Norman. Finished February 25
12. Europe's Inner Demons by Norman Cohn

13. Last Train to Istanbul by Ayse Kulin. Finished August 28

14. Breathless: An American Girl in Paris by Nancy K. Miller

15. The Mathematics of Life by Ian Stewart

16. Ten Years in the Tub: A Decade Soaking in Great Books by Nick Hornby

17. The Ghost Runner by Parker Bilal. Finished November 26

18. The Novel: a Biography by Michael Schmidt

19. My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead

20. The Eye of the Day by Dennison Smith. Finished August 31

21. Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design by Charles Montgomery. Finished November 1

22. The Afterlife of Stars by Joseph Kertes. Finished April 18

23. Between Summer's Longing and Winter's End: a Story of a Crime by Leif GW Persson

24. Pack Up the Moon by Rachael Herron. Finished December 27

25. A Jury of Her Peers: American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx by Elaine Showalter. Finished April 13

26. On the Map: Why The World Looks the Way It Does by Simon Garfield

27. We Are Not Ourselves by Matthew Thomas. Finished March 27

28. The Empathy Exams: Essays by Leslie Jamison. Finished September 3

29. The Library at Night by Alberto Manguel 

30. The Crane Wife by Patrick Ness. Finished January 22

31. Clown Girl by Monica Drake. Finished January 31

32. The Twin by Gerbrand Bakker. Finished April 28

33. The Cry of the Sloth by Sam Savage. Finished June 29

34. The Wild Things by Dave Eggers. Finished March 31

35. How to Paint a Dead Man by Sarah Hall. Finished March 15

36. Shadow Tag by Louise Erdrich. Finished May 7

37. Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes. Finished February 8

38. The Lonely Polygamist by Barry Udall. Finished June 13

39. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender. Finished July 1

40. I Curse the River of Time by Per Petterson. Finished February 16

41. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen. Finished July 15

42. The Wilding by Benjamin Percy. Finished June 17

43. The Instructions by Adam Levin

44. The Fates Will Find Their Way by Hannah Pittard. Finished March 19

45. Townie: a Memoir by Andre Dubois III

46. State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

47. Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante

48. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Some of these are from my Indiespensable subscription from Powell's bookstore, others from my shelves more generally.