March Reading Reflections

It's been a busy month here at Adventures of an Intrepid Reader. It is still a surprise to me to get emails saying that I have received a comment from that blog name, after having been Reading Adventures for so long, but I like it! Not only was there the makeover here and at Historical Tapestry but we also managed to get a few days away. Hopefully by the end of the weekend I will get a few photos up. Maybe.

Reading wise, I continue to surprise myself by managing to read more than the eleven or twelve books that I figured I would be able to read each month when I was looking at my goals for the year in January. This month I managed a respectable total of 15 books:

Lord Sunday by Garth Nix (4/5)
Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett (4/5)
Devil's Cub by Georgette Heyer (5/5)
Dance of Seduction by Elle Kennedy (3.5/5)
The Struggle by L J Smith (4/5)
Then Comes Seduction by Mary Balogh (4/5)
Tempted by PC Cast and Kristin Cast (4/5)
Dance Upon the Earth by Nora Roberts (4/5)
The Champion by Elizabeth Chadwick (4.5/5)
A Duke of Her Own by Eloisa James (4.5/5)
The Postmistress by Sarah Blake (4.5/5)
The House on Tradd Street by Karen White (4.5/5)
The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen (4/5)
Fireworks Over Toccoa by Jeffrey Stepakoff (4/5)
The Stolen Crown by Susan Higginbotham (4/5)

I actually managed to read quite a few books for challenges this month, so let's see what progress I made, or didn't make as the case may be.

Yet again, I made no progress with the Period Drama Challenge or with the Harry Potter Reading Challenge. The Pacific is about to be shown here though so I am going to make a special effort to watch that, which will count for the first of those two challenges! The other challenges I made no progress with were the French Historical Reading Challenge (although quite a bit of The Champion was set on the tourney fields of France so I did think about counting that book for the challenge), the Art History Reading Challenge, the Tudor Challenge, In Death Reading Challenge, the Ireland Reading Challenge, but I should be able to do something with those in the not too distant future...hopefully. The Champion does however qualify as a chunkster so I am now half way through the Chunkster Challenge.

Another challenge that The Champion qualifies for, along with Susan Higginbotham's The Stolen Crown, is the Tournament of Reading. In theory I have now met the challenge requirements for this challenge, but I the first book I read for it only just qualified (should have a medieval setting where medieval is quantified as occuring between 500-1500 AD) I might read another book just to be sure!

The Struggle is the second book in the original Vampire Diaries series, which means that I am halfway through The LJ Smith reading challenge. This book and Tempted also counted for the Vampire Series Challenge, so I am third of the way through that challenge now.

Lord Sunday is by Australian author Garth Nix, so that book counted towards the Aussie Authors Challenge, which I am have now read 5 out of the 8 books required to finish this challenge.

The book that I have used as my Year of the Historical read for March was Devil's Cub by Georgette Heyer, which is also the book that I reviewed when the Classics Circuit came to visit earlier this month. This book also qualified as a read for the Romance Reading Challenge, along with Dance of Seduction, Then Comes Seduction, Dance Upon the Air, and A Duke of Her Own. I only have two more books to read before I have completed the Romance Reading Challenge.

Another challenge that I only need to read another couple of books before I can say I have completed it is the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. This month The Champion, The Book of Unholy Mischief, The Postmistress, The Stolen Crown and Fireworks Over Toccoa all counted towards this challenge. Those last three book were all published this year and so also count towards the Pub 2010 Reading Challenge as well.

The new challenge I joined this month was Once Upon a Time IV, and The Girl who Chased the Moon qualifies for that challenge, so I am on the way for that one too!

Phew! That's a lot of books for challenges, or challenges for books, whichever way around you want to see it! All that is left is to update my progress on the 100+ Reading Challenge (I have read 42 out of the 100+ I am aiming for), and the Support Your Local Library Challenge where I have read 35 out of the 100 books I was aiming for.

On Sunday I will be posting about Reading Our Own Bookshelves, which is going to put a bit of a dent in my library reading, but I am very excited about participating in!