Mount TBR Reading Challenge: Mountaineering Checkpoint #3

September is over and done with, and I've been taking part in the Mount TBR Reading Challenge for 9 months now. At the start of the year, I set myself the goal of reading at least 24 books from my To Be Read list - known as Mount Blanc. As my reading this year has gone beyond all my expectations, and I've really dug into my shelved books, I've managed a lot more so far than I expected, and I've been able to upgrade my goal not once, but twice.

1. How far up the mountain have you made it (how many books have you read so far?) At the end of September, I have actually so far read 49 books on my TBR list, meaning that I've not only completed my original goal of Mount Blanc (24 books), but my second goal of Mt. Vancouver (36 books), and amazingly enough, I've even cleared Mt. Ararat (48 books). If I keep going like this, I should be able to at least complete Mt. Kilimanjaro at the end of the year (60 books).

2. Who has been my favourite character so far, and why?
Victoria Wright from The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls was a wonderful character. While she's really quite horrible at the start of the book, you can't help but grow to like her as she goes on a very dangerous quest to save her best friend. Harry Rutledge from Tempt Me at Twilight is probably my favourite romance hero in a historical romance, whilst Beatrix Hathaway from Love in the Afternoon is most likely my favourite romance heroine. Taylor Markham and Jonah Griggs in Jellicoe Road are my favourite romantic couple, and probably my favourite YA characters so far this year.

3. What has been the most difficult book to complete so far, and why?
Without a doubt Anna Karenina, because it was so long and dense, and just different from what I was actually expecting. So much of the book has absolutely nothing to do with the doomed romance of Anna and Vronsky, and there are hundreds of pages devoted to reforms in farming, and stuffy political debates, and I only really finished it out of sheer determination to get it off my TBR list for good.

4. Which book read so far has been on your TBR the longest?
Anna Karenina is also the book that had been on my list the longest, as I first tried to read the book when I was about fifteen. I didn't buy the book myself until much later, having determined that I was going to read at least some of the great Russian classics. If I was less stubborn, I probably would have just decided to give it up, but now I can at least say that I've read it, and I never have to read it again.