This annual challenge run by my namesake Cathy at 746 Books is over for another year. It has a simple objective: pick 10, 15 or 20 books you’d like to read during the period of the challenge: 1st June to 1st September.
Once again, I aimed for the full 20 books. So, how did I get on?
Version 1 – I failed. I read only eight books from my list, stubbornly refusing to make use of the option to swap books in/out of my list during the period of the challenge. I am part way through another two though. The other ten? Let’s all meet again next year…
- Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz – Read
- Transcription by Kate Atkinson
- The Draughtsman by Robert Lautner
- The Legacy of Elizabeth Pringle by Kirsty Wark
- Appetite by Philip Kazan
- Anna of Kleve by Alison Weir
- Blood Orange by Harriet Tyce
- Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts – Read
- The Cross and the Curse by Matthew Harffy
- Swan Song by Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott
- The Second Sleep by Robert Harris
- To Calais, In Ordinary Time by James Meek – Currently reading
- Tidelands by Philippa Gregory
- A Place Without Pain by Simon Bourke – Currently reading
- In the Garden of Sorrows by Karen Jewell – Read
- French Windows by Antoine Laurain – Read
- Alvesdon by James Holland – Read
- Dark Frontier by Matthew Harffy – Read
- The King’s Mother by Annie Garthwaite – Read
- Heart, Be at Peace by Donal Ryan – Read
Version 2 – I succeeded. I read 22 books during the period of the challenge. Only eight were on my original list but who cares?
- The Comfort of Ghosts by Jacqueline Winspear
- French Windows by Antoine Laurain
- The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry
- Alvesdon by James Holland
- A Beginner’s Guide to Breaking and Entering by Andrew Hunter Murray
- The Days of Our Birth by Charlie Laidlaw
- The Housekeepers by Alex Hay
- In This Ravishing World by Nina Schuyler
- Dead Ground by Graham Hurley
- Dark Frontier by Matthew Harffy
- The King’s Mother by Annie Garthwaite
- In the Garden of Sorrows by Karen Jewell
- Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz
- The Trap by Ava Glass
- West Heart Kill by Dann McDorman
- normal rules don’t apply by Kate Atkinson
- Cabaret Macabre by Tom Mead
- Berlin Duet by S. W. Perry
- Heart, Be at Peace by Donal Ryan
- The Instrumentalist by Harriet Constable
If you took part, how did you get on?





















You read 22 books – that’s not a failure! Well done!
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Thanks, a vote for version 2!
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I read 29, however in a completely unplanned order. Whatever popped.
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I love your honesty and no you didn’t fail! I think it’s great you read as many as you did. I had committed to many I didn’t read as well. And I only chose 10. Next summer will be here before we know it!
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I think I might go for 10 next year.
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There is no failing in 20 Books of Summer! Well done and thanks again for taking part!
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And thanks for hosting. Sorry it’s come to and end – with you as host at least – but I completely understand your reasons. I’m sure many of us will continue our own personal version even if no-one else picks up the baton. I have plenty of still unread books from previous years’ lists to keep me going!
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I think then baton has been passed and you should see it back next year on someone else’s capable hands!
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I call it a success. 22 is larger then 20! Brava!
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I would call that success, Cathy. Well done!💖📚💐🥂🍾
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