July - This Month in Reading

July was a fun reading month for me, for a few reasons.

First, a seriously exciting thing occurred:

I won the Hogwarts Reading Challenge!! 

I am still in disbelief over this! I have to thank Bunnitaz so much for hosting such a fun challenge. I can't get used to not having to put the books I read into the classes and adding up my score regularly. Although Hufflepuff, the house I got sorted into, didn't score the most points overall (Slytherin strikes again! :) ), I am really happy that I could win this for my house and see Hufflepuff get some well deserved glory. I do hope Bunnitaz does this challenge again next year, as I will do whatever I can to give Slytherin a run for its money in terms of getting points!

Second, my reading in July consisted of books entirely devoted to the theme of one of my favorite performers, Nat M. Wills. I had big plans to read a ton of books, but the reality of daily life intervened, and I only managed to read 14 books, which is a much smaller number than I expected, and one of the smaller numbers for books that I have read in a month so far this year. Oh well. The good news is that I still have plenty of books to read if I decide to do this theme again next year, which might be a fun tradition to start. As I have whined before, I am not a fan of the heat of summer, so having a fun reading theme helps July go by quickly.

Third, I managed to hit 100 books read in 2011 halfway through July - whew! This number includes books of all kinds, too - fiction and nonfiction, graphic novels, books read entirely on the computer through NetGalley.com, but mostly paper ("analog" - ?) books. Hitting this number means I have officially met the requirements of the 100+ Book Challenge, which is a good thing since I haven't managed to complete any other challenges (except, of course, the Hogwarts Challenge, which ended June 30).

So speaking of these other challenges, for August I really need to try to read at least one book for each of the other challenges I signed up for this year so far. In fact, I think I will list them all in this post and then keep track to make myself accountable. I am also seriously banning myself from the library. I meant to do that in June but wasn't able to, but I really do have WAY too many books piling up and this can't continue. In August I must devote myself to reading all of these books that are patiently waiting their turn. Also, I have to catch up with the War and Peace One Chapter a Day Challenge, I managed to get behind and I have to catch up so I can finish on schedule.

How was your reading in July?

READING CHALLENGES FOR 2011 - 1 book for each!

The Forgotten Treasures Challenge - read a book for this as of 8/28/2011
The Buck Stops Here Challenge  - managed to read more than 1 book for this as of 8/18/11
War and Peace One Chapter a Day (catch up)
Read Outside Your Comfort Zone Challenge
The Color Coded Reading Challenge
GLBT Reading Challenge - read a book for this as of 8/7/2011
Haruki Murakami Reading Challenge - read a book for this as of 8/28/2011
The TBR Pile Challenge - read a book for this as of 8/28/2011