My Insane Book And Movie Challenges Start Right Now

Happy New Year! It’s 2014!
The year to GET IT DONE.

Book Challenge

My goal is to read 347 books by December 31, 2014.

Why 347?
There are 722 books on my TBR list.
28 of these books release in 2015 and 2016 so for the purpose of this challenge, that brings my TBR list to 694.
694 divided by 2 equals 347.

Plan of Attack?
* Monthly blog updates for accountability

* Write as many reviews as possible (either as a full review here on the blog or as a mini review over on Goodreads)

* Divide my TBR list into mini challenges below:

YA Stand-Alones
191 books are on this list. See here.
* If an author has multiple stand-alones on my TBR list, I will attempt to read their books back to back, or “marathon” through their books.

YA Trilogies/Duologies
173 books are on this list. See here.
* I will start by finishing trilogies I’ve begun.
* Next, I will read duologues.
* Finally, I will start and finish trilogies I have yet to begin.

2014 Releases
130 books are on this list. See here.
* I will read my must reads for the year and ongoing or ending series, saving the rest for 2015 when I take care of the remaining half of my TBR pile.

YA Series
31 books are on this list. See here.
* I will start by finishing series I’ve begun.
* Next, I will start and finish series I have yet to begin, most likely in an order based on how many books are in a series (beginning with the smaller series).

Adult Fiction
61 books are on this list. See here.
* I will start by reading from authors I am already familiar with, then read stand-alones from “new to me” authors, and finally start the handful of series that are on my list.

Autobiographies/Biographies/Memoirs
48 books are on this list. See here.
* I will most likely read the “celebrity” memoirs first as they are typically quick reads.

Nonfiction & Other
19 and 9 books are on these lists. See here and here.
* No strategy needed.

Comics & Graphic Novels
12 books are on this list. See here.
* No strategy needed.

Classics
11 books are on this list. See here.
* I will read the classics in order of how many pages they have.

Writing
9 books are on this list. See here.
* No strategy needed.

Notes
* Every book on my “To Read” list is only on one other list.

* I’ve generalized my lists so 1) Middle grade and new adult titles are sprinkled throughout the YA lists and 2) If I was unclear about whether or not a series is a trilogy, I put the book in the trilogy list. Novellas are also in the trilogy and series lists.

* If a book belongs to a series/trilogy that I like, I will add the next book in the series/trilogy to its designated list since I typically don’t add entire series/trilogies to my TBR pile at one time in case I decide not to go on with a series/trilogy. Also note that I’ve placed companion titles in the “YA Stand-Alones” list.

* Once I’ve read a book, I will take it off its designated list above and it will then only be seen on my “Read” list. The above lists are to help me keep track of my reading, like a countdown. This means that once I’ve read all of the books on a list above, that list will disappear. My “Read,” “Currently Reading,” & “To Read” lists on Goodreads are the only lists that will never disappear.

* Yes, I am aware that while I will be cutting my TBR pile in half, I will come across more books that I’ll want to add to my TBR pile throughout the year. Adding books to my TBR pile that will release in 2015, 2016, and 2017 will not affect my goal. As the whole point of this challenge is to catch up on my TBR list so I can read frontlist titles as these new releases come out rather than continue to be drowning in backlist titles. Yes, it will be interesting to see how many more books that have already released (backlist) or will release this year (frontlist) that I’ll add to my TBR list come the end of the year…but let’s not think about that! Progress is progress! Onto movies!

Movie Challenge

My goal is to watch every movie from 1990-2013 that is on my “To Watch” List by December 31, 2014.

Plan of Attack
Give monthly updates with screenshots of my Netflix watch history for accountability and divide my “To Watch” list into 3 mini challenges below:

Read the Book First
The Chronicles of Narnia Trilogy (Have seen the first two movies, don’t quite remember the second)
Memoirs of a Geisha
Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (Want to read the series before watching the second film)
Millennium Trilogy (Have seen the original The Girl With a Dragon Tattoo)
Silver Linings Playbook
World War Z
The Spectacular Now
City of Bones
Ender’s Game

Movie Total: 11

Series I Need to Finish
The Lion King 1 1/2 (My sister is making me watch this.)
Men in Black 3 (Don’t jude me!)
The Matrix Trilogy (Seen many times before, have always fallen asleep.)
The Wolverine
Star Trek: Into Darkness
Planet of the Apes
The Bourne Legacy

Kill Bill 1 & 2 (Never saw the first one in one sitting in order.)
Thor: The Dark World
Movie Total: 12

Past Movies
Jacob’s Ladder
Pump Up the Volume
The Bodyguard
Se7en
Shine
A Time to Kill
Jerry Maguire
Fallen
There’s Something About Mary
The Cider House Rules
The Bone Collector
Magnolia
Shaft
Remember the Titans
Monster’s Ball
Adaptation.
The Rookie
Radio
Munich
The Upside of Anger
Oliver Twist
Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride
Volver
Half Nelson
Wall E
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Everything Must Go
The Lincoln Lawyer
The Grace Card
Sound of My Voice
Side Effects
The World’s End
Elysium
In a World…
Ain’t Them Bodies Saints
Salinger
Drinking Buddies
Baggage Claim
Gravity
Captain Phillips
The Wolf of Wall Street
Delivery Man
Saving Mr. Banks
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
August: Osage County
Labor Day
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

Movie Total: 47

Notes
* I watch Independent Movies, Made for TV Movies, & Documentaries as I go so making lists would be difficult. So no lists for these categories but if any of the made for TV movies/docs that I watch are worth recommending, I will let you know in a future “What to Watch This Weekend: Netflix Edition” post.

* If you are interested in the entire list of the movies I have seen/plan to see, click here. If you are interested in My Movie History in 21 Questions, click here.

*While I mentioned my TV goals in a previous post, I have decided to save that challenge for 2015.

To recap…yes, this is crazy, yes, I don’t get out much at the moment but that is in an effort to save up and move back to Los Angeles so don’t cry for me. I’m excited to see what stories await for 2014 and hope you’ll be along for the ride! Stay tuned for my monthly updates!