Just like last year, I’ll be participating in the Verbeelding Bookchallenge. I even made it one of the challenges on the 28 in 28 list: complete the Verbeelding Bookchallenge. I started the year of fairly well: I’ve already ticked off 5 different books!

The 2016 Verbeelding Bookchallenge

First, lets see what’s on the list, shall we? The Verbeelding Bookchallenge is originally in Dutch, but I’ve translated it.

1. A book with more than 600 pages
2. A horror novel
3. A detective
4. A classic
5. A book with humor in it
6. An epistolary novel (a book constructed by letters or e-mails)
7. An author’s debut novel
8. A book around the theme of “family”
9. A book about mental health issue
10. A book centred around death
11. A book about faith/spirituality
12. A book about food
13. A book you don’t want other people to know you’ve read
14. A book written by an author with African roots
15. A book written by an author with Azian roots
16. A book written by an author with Latin-American roots
17. A retelling of a famous fairy tale
18. A book written by an author when he/she was older than 65.
19. A book written by an author who was younger than 25 years when he/she wrote the book
20. A book written by an author with whom you share your first name
21. A book with an LGBT main character
22. A book with a child younger than 12 as main character
23. A book with a non-human as main character
24. A book set in the future
25. A book set in a distant past (the further set in the past the better)
26. A book that jumps between different periodes of time
27. A book set in the closest Flemish city
28. 29. A book from an author you’ve already read in 2015
30. A book given to you by another participant from the Verbeelding Bookchallenge

Books I’ve read

4. A classic:  The Stranger by Albert Camus
I already started the book back in December, but as I finished it in January, it counts for this year’s bookchallenge. This book wasn’t really up my alley. Although the writing was good and I was mildly curious what would (if anything) happen in this story, I also kept wondering what the point of this book was.

10. A book centred around death: De Buitenkant van Meneer Jules by Diane Broeckhoven
This book is translated as “A Day with Mr. Jules”. It’s the story of Alice, who one day wakes up and find her husband is dead. It’s a quiet book and the way it’s written makes everything feels soft and brittle, which I really liked. That being said I didn’t really connect with the characters, I didn’t feel much of their emotions. That might just be me, as this book is definitely not something I would pick up normally, but I would read it again, just because of the way it’s written

14. A book written by an author with African roots: We Should All be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Although it’s very short, I really liked We Should All be Feminists. I was nodding the whole time I was reading this and making notes with my own examples in the margins. I did keep wondering if white people read this book, they’ll maybe think the examples are specific Nigerian problems. I can imagine people making that excuse when confronted with the content of this book.

17. A retelling of a famous fairy tale: A Wild Swan by Michael Cunningham
A Wild Swan is a bundle of short story retellings of fairy tales. There are a couple of well known fairy tales (Beauty and the Beast, Snowwhite, Rumpelstiltskin,..) in this bundle and a couple of lesser known tales, but they’re all retold with some serious dark twists. Cunningham writes in a very distinctive style, which works perfectly for creating dark and ominous settings. The cruelty and optimism in these stories made me think of the Grimm brother stories I read as a child, which I rather appreciated.

29. A book from an author you’ve already read in 2015: A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
After reading Vicious last year I really wanted to read another one of  V.E. Schwab’s books. I really had fun whilst reading this book. Schwab has written a couple of outstanding kick ass characters in this book. Kell makes me swoon a bit and I absolutely adored Lila, because she’s a cutthroat and a thief and a woman that knows how the stand her ground. I almost gave this book 5 stars on Goodreads, but the too clean ending bugged me a bit. I don’t know how the second book’s story arc can take off from this closed off arc. I guess V.E. Schwab shall have to surprise me…

And that’s it for the Verbeelding Bookchallenge up to know. I really started off the year with a bang, reading wise, but then I got into a serious reading dip. I’m currently reading All the Light We Cannot See (the reason of the reading dip), I started The Name of the Wind and The Tiger and The Wolf and I even got copies of Chew vol.3 and Saga vol.5 that need reading, but I just can’t be bothered. Sad. I hope I can start reading again at top speed soon!

Are you participating in any reading challenges this year? How are things going?