Reading Challenge

Have you ever participated in a reading challenge? I have seen many and I usually have a certain goal about what kind of books to read or how many. But the other day while going through some lovely blogs I came across a "chunky book challenge". And this time, I signed up.

There are several levels from "The Chubby Chunkster" over "The Plump Primer" and "Do These Books Make my Butt Look Big?" to "Mor-book-ly Obese". Even though I liked the third title best, I signed up for the fourth level which means I want to read eight or more Chunksters (books over 450 pages) of which three must be 750 pages or more. Since I read 20 chunky ones of which 6 had more than 750 pages last year, and since I love large books, I am sure this will be an easy task.

If you are interested in the challenge, check out this link:

They also give you suggestions by page number, in case you can't find any chunksters yourself. ;-)

So far, I have already read:
Homer "Odyssey" (GR: Ομήρου Οδύσσεια, Odýsseia) - 800-600 BC - 450 pages

Faulks, Sebastian "Birdsong. A Novel of Love and War" - 1993 - 503 pages
Hislop, Victoria "The Return" - 2008 - 592 pages
Dostoevsky, Fyodor "Crime and Punishment" (RUS: Преступление и наказание) - 1866 - 801 pages 
Tremain, Rose "Music & Silence" - 1999 - 464 pages
Palma, Félix J. "The Map of Time" (E: El mapa del tiempo) - 2008 - 768 pages
Mitchell, Margaret "Gone with the Wind" - 1936 - 1010 pages
Boccaccio, Giovanni "The Decameron" (OT: Il Decameron, cognominato Prencipe Galeotto) - 1350 - 1072 pages
** Shriver, Lionel "We need to talk about Kevin" - 2003 - 496 pages
Cervantes, Miguel de "Don Quixote, vols. 1 and 2" (E: El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha) - 1605/1615 - 1488 pages Pamuk, Orhan "The Museum of Innocence" (TR: Masumiyet Müzesi) - 2008 – 752 pages
Navarre, Marguerite de "Heptameron" (FR: Heptaméron) - 1578 - 544 pages
Ghosh, Amitav  "Sea of Poppies" (Ibis Trilogy #1) - 2008 - 544 pages
Mahfouz, Naguib "Children of the Gebelawi/Children of our Alley" (Arab: اولاد حارتنا) - 464 - 1959 pages
Ghosh, Amitav "River of Smoke" (Ibis Trilogy #2) - 2011 - 592 pages
Marschner, Rosemarie "Das Mädchen am Klavier" (GE) [The Girl on the Piano] - 2013 - 512 pages
Grossman, David "To the End of the Land" (Hebr: אשה בורחת מבשורה/Isha Nimletet Mi'Bshora) - 2008 - 735 pages
Bánk, Zsuzsa "Die hellen Tage" (GE) [The Light Days] - 2011 - 544 pages
***
Oates, Joyce Carol "A Widow's Story. A Memoir" - 2011 - 450 pages
Rutherfurd, Edward "Paris" - 2013 - 1360 pages  Sendker, Jan-Philipp "Whispering Shadows" (GE: Das Flüstern der Schatten) - 2007 - 464 pages
Cabré, Jaume "I confess" (Cat: Jo Confesso) - 2011 - 847 pages
Hislop, Victoria "The Thread" - 2011 - 480 pages
Gillham, David R. "City of Women" - 2012  - 617 pages
Moyes, Jojo "Me Before You" - 2012 - 631 pages 
Clarke, Susanna "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell" - 2004 - 1,024 pages  
Basti, Abel & van Helsing, Jan "Hitler in Argentina" (GE: Hitler überlebte in Argentinien/[Hitler survived in Argentina] - 2011 - 576 pages
Collins, Wilkie "Armadale" - 1866 - 752 pages
Johnson, Adam "The Orphan Master's Son" - 592 pages
****
Gabaldon, Diana "Outlander" (UK: Cross Stich) - 1991 - 864 pages
Bernières, Louis de "Birds without Wings" - 2004 - 640 pages
Mann, Thomas "The Magic Mountain" (GE: Der Zauberberg) - 1120 pages
Allende, Isabel "Maya's Notebook" (E: El Cuaderno de Maya) - 447 pages
Keneally, Thomas "Schindler's Ark" - 492 pages
Modick, Klaus "Die Schatten der Ideen" (GE) [The Shadows of the Ideas] - 2008 - 464 pages
Sterne, Laurence "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman" - 735 pages
Garfield, Simon "On the Map. Why the World Looks the Way it Does" - 468 pages 
May, Karl "Durch die Wüste" (aka Durch Wüste und Harem) (GE) [Through the desert] - 1892 - 573 pages
George, Margaret "Elizabeth I" - 2011 - 688 pages
Austen, Jane "Pride & Prejudice" - 1813 - 512 pages

** We have just reached the end of three months, and I have already fulfulled my goal, eight chunky books with more than 450 pages and four of them have to have more than 750 pages. I will carry on listing my chunky books, though. 31.03.13
*** End of June: another ten chunky ones including three super chunky ones which makes eighteen chunky books, seven of them super chunky. 30.06.13
****  End of September, elven more chunky books including 4 super chunky books. Now I've read 29 chunky books, 11 of which are super chunky. 30.09.13
***** End of December, added another nine chunky books, 2 of them super chunky.
My final result is now 38 chunky books, 13 of them super chunky. I think I can easily say I have reached my "goal" of 8 and 3. ;-) 31.12.13 

(pages in bold - more than 750 pages = super chunky)