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Tuesday, September 2, 2008

The Irresistible Review Challenge comes to an end ...

Sept. 1 marks the end of the Irresistible Review Challenge hosted by Darla at Books & other thoughts. The rules for this challenge were to read 8 books between late May and Sept. 1. The books had to be ones that you wouldn't have read if not for another blogger's "Irresistible Review" - get it?!

I didn't QUITE complete the challenge, but I came close, completing 6 books and starting the final two.

Here are the books I chose, along with links to the reviews that inspired me to read them AND links to my reviews.
  1. King Solomon's Mines, by H. Rider Haggard ... because of the review from Books 'N Border Collie - here's the link to my review

  2. Last Chance to See, by Douglas Adams ... because of the review by Things Mean A Lot - here's the link to my review

  3. Bram Stoker's Dracula ... of course I've heard of it, but I've never wanted to read it until I saw this by The Sleepy Reader - here's the link to my review

  4. Stone Creek, by Victoria Lustbader ... not sure why bookclubgirl's blurb appealed to me, but it is something I would NEVER have picked up on my own - here's the link to my review

  5. In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan ... I've never wanted to read a "food book" but this one seems very "user friendly" according to The Inside Cover's review - here's the
    link to my review

  6. Pyongyang, by Guy Delisle ... I've never read a graphic novel but I came across this review at Naked without Books and had to add this one to my list -here the link to my review

  7. Life is So Good, by George Dawson ... never heard of it but the review on In Their Shoes was excellent - I would have finished this one in plenty of time to count it for this challenge but my Gram borrowed it (read that cool story here) and I don't want to rush her reading - UPDATE: Gram finished the book!!! She gave it back to me last night and said she absolutely loved it - yeah! Here's my review.

  8. Midnight's Children, by Salman Rushdie ... I've got several of his books on my TBR list since I figure I SHOULD read something by him, but this review on Musings really caught my attention - I started this one after reading this book and the writing is just so different that I'm having a hard time getting into it - I think I'll really enjoy it though - UPDATE: Yeah, not so much. I'm REALLY struggling to get through this one. I finally finished it though ... here's my review.
Did anyone else join this challenge? Were you more successful than I was? My only suggestion for next time is a little more time to read or fewer books to read in that time. Regardless of the end result I really did enjoy this one!

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Thank you to MizB at Should Be Reading for awarding me the Brillante Award! I'm honored - thank you. I won't be passing this one along because I've done it before but I'm still glad to get it.

2 comments:

Serena said...

I finished this challenge early, but failed to an all-encompassing post. I had a bunch of books gathered from reviews at other people's blogs when I started the challenge...so I guess I kind of had a head start.

I did review all of my 8 books on my site and had a great time.

However, I think some of my choices may have been a lighter read than yours, which may account for my ease at finishing the challenge.

Jill said...

Thanks so much for participating in the challenge - I have enjoyed reading your reviews. I think you are right - 8 books was perhaps a bit over-ambitious. I read so many children's and YA books, which are quite a bit shorter than the books you read for the challenge! I'm glad you did it, and let me know when (if) you write reviews for the last two books, and I'll happily add them to the wrap-up post I'm putting together!

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