A new year, a new book challenge. Last year, I challenged myself to read 100 books. So far, I haven't limited myself to what I read as long as I'm reading. My list from 2011 included comics, novels, (some) kids' books, manga, and whatever else that I read. It will be mostly the same this year--with a heavier emphasis on comics and manga just because my TBR piles for those two genres have gotten so big that I really need to get some of those out of the way. I've challenged myself to 200 books this year, but it should be easily done since I plan to read more comics and manga for this year's reading challenge. I also wanted to add another element to my reading challenge for the year.
While looking through my old book review blog, which is where many of my recent reviews have come from, I stumbled on a few books that I'd rated pretty low. Most of these reviews are some years old (like 8+ years) and I couldn't remember exactly what I hated about some of these books. And for some of these books, I think I may have been unfairly harsh on them. Now that some time has gone by, I think I would appreciate and understand the themes better now for some of these. I've decided that part of my book goal for the year would be rereads of books that I disliked. Not that I wasn't going to reread a few books, anyway, but those rereads would've been books that I loved.
The short list of panned books:
The Awakening by Kate Chopin - Originally read December 2003. I couldn't really connect with the main character in this one, but at the time, I didn't really understand the pressures of a married woman with children (because I was neither a wife or mother at the time) much less how those pressures would be magnified in the character's era.
Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury - Originally read in September 2002. According to my review, this book bored me to death. I found it tedious and just a way for Bradbury to used as many descriptive synonyms as he could find for common words. Honestly, after 9 years, I don't even remember reading this book, so it must've been forgettable at the time.
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis - Originally read in October 2003. I was actually on the cusp of like and dislike with the book. I can remember tiring of the obsessive label dropping, even though I realized that it was to really show this shallow side. Also, I remember thinking the violence was redundant and boring after a while.
We'll see if a reread changes my opinion on any of these books. I may add more, but those were the first ones I found while going through my old journal. There are some that I remember too well, though, and I will NEVER read those again.
So, there should be quite a few reviews up at the end of year. Let's get to reading!
