My progress so far

It's been now 7 months of blogging... and I'm enjoying myself immensely!  I've discovered a whole new world of interest and as I'm organising my reading, I find that I end up reading even more than I schedule - Great!  I've progressed enough in my original challenges, but I've also found new challenges to keep me company.  

The reason I'm still thrilled with challenges, is because I step outside my comfort zone and try either new genres or new writers that I had not heard before.  Of course, I may not actually like what I'll read, but more often than not it will the case of a little gem that will open yet another door for me!  Still, I have to stress that I'm not bound by the challenges - if I don't feel like reading books from a challenge within the deadline, I simply will not...

These are my achievements so far:

• What's in a name 5 - completed!
• Mystery & Suspense reading: 5/12
• Back to the Classics: 6/9
• Ireland reading: 2/5
• Graham Greene reading: 1/4
• European Reading Challenge: 4/6
• We want you to read French authors: 1/3

As of June, I also participate in the Japanese Literature challenge: 0/5 so far

And then, there are the not-exactly challenges:

• The classics club: 11/52 (I have to watch out, otherwise I'll end it up in one year instead of the original five...)
• Century of books: 20/100 (here I have found very nice gems...)

My year-long project, War and Peace, has been left to its own devices, and I've set August aside for this book.

In July, now, there are several books in store for me, first of all for the Victorian Celebration :

• The Scarlet Letter, by N. Hawthorne
• Ten days in a Madhouse, by N. Bly
• The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, by A. Bronte (a re-read that I always enjoy...)
• Le tour du monde en 80 jours (Around the world in 80 days), by J. Verne 

as well as:

• The Quiet American, by G. Greene 
• Our man in Havana, by G. Greene
• Middlemarch, by G. Eliot (start at least...)
• something by A. Christie... A little Poirot while sunbathing?

All this should take me nicely into August... and from then on, it's beach reading:  

• 1Q84, by H. Murakami
• The importance of being Earnest, by O. Wilde - a read-a-long with the Unputdownables
• a little bit of French, a little bit of German... (to break the English monopoly...)

OK - I'm done with all my lists... Now, where is the sun hiding???