Color Coded Reading Challenge: Wrap Up

In a burst of enthusiasm (a/k/a deadline adrenaline), I reviewed 3 books in a single day and hereby declare this challenge completed! Of course, I also ran out of time to finish reading the last book, but hey, it happens.

Considering I only signed up for this challenge at the half-way point in June, I'm quite pleased that I managed to read and review 8.5 of the 9 books I chose in my sign-up post. The blue, red, yellow, green, brown, black, white, and "color of choice" pale aqua books were no problem. Then came the holidays and I completely bogged down in the "implied color" book. I'll finish it eventually, though.

This is a very fun challenge hosted with aplomb by Bev at My Reader's Block. Bev is the most prolific reader I know and her challenges are well-organized and fun. She's hosting this particular challenge again in 2017 (info here) and I am highly likely to join. Hope to see you over there!

Forthwith, a few superlatives from my colored reading:

The best book by far and a new personal favorite of mine was Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall. This kind of writing is what makes the Man Booker winners worth reading; I might never have discovered it otherwise, because it's not the sort of book I'd choose for myself. Now I'm eagerly awaiting the third book in the series. Barbara Kingsolver's The Lacuna was also a favorite in this group. No surprise there--the Orange winners are also consistently good.  

My least favorite (as of this writing) is a tie between Jeet Thayil's Narcopolis and Michael Syjuco's Ilustrado, which I have yet to finish. I find both of them too disjointed for my taste. I've considered whether there could be a deficiency in my Western background, as well, making it harder for me to understand Indian and Filipino culture, but I don't think that explains it entirely. It's certainly not a quality issue, either. Maybe I'm just not ready for modern fiction.

At any rate, I shall soldier on. I'm hoping to do a lot of reading and reviewing in 2017!