In January, I foolishly decided to join Simon Thomas’s Century of Book Challenge, even though I knew that reading 100 books, one for each year in a century, from 1925-2024, would be tough because last year I only read 169. So, how am I doing?
Here are the holes in my project with the books listed for April below. If you want to see the details, see my Century of Books page.
- 1925-1934: entries needed for 1926-31
- 1935-1944: entries needed for all years except 1935, 1936, 1937, 1941, and 1943
- 1945-1954: entries needed for all years except 1947, 1952, 1953, and 1954
- 1955-1964: entries needed for all years except 1958 and 1959
- 1965-1974: entries needed for all years except 1965, 1966, 1972, and 1974
- 1975-1984: entries needed for all years except 1975 and 1976
- 1985-1994: entries needed for all years
- 1995–2004: entries needed for all years except 2004
- 2005-2014: entries needed for all years except 2009, 2010, 2012, and 2014
- 2015-2024: complete!
Read since March 27th:
Unfortunately, not qualifying for the project, The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy from 1878
Qualifying:
- Illyrian Spring by Ann Bridge from 1935
- An Infamous Army by Georgette Heyer from 1937
- Beginning with a Bash by Alice Tilton from 1937
- Forest Silver by E. M. Ward from 1941
- Family Ties by Celia Buckmaster from 1952
- A Stranger Came Ashore by Mollie Hunter from 1975
- Real Life by Brandon Taylor from 2020
- The Immortal King Rao by Vauhini Vara from 2022
- The Other Side of Mrs. Wood by Lucy Barker from 2023
- Prophet Song by Paul Lynch from 2023
- The Square of Sevens by Laura Shepherd Robinson from 2023
- The Guest Room by Tasha Sylva from 2023
What? Me Read? 
Looks like you’re still on track or maybe even a bit ahead! (If my mental arithmetic can be trusted, anyway, which is not necessarily the case… 😉 )
I’ve got a bit to go.
I’ve been trying to think of a book I’ve enjoyed from the ’20’s and everytime I look they’re actually from the 30’s, so sorry I’m not being helpful at all. But you look in charge!
I hope so!
Ah, it’s too bad the Thomas Hardy book didn’t count for the project, but it looks like you’ve made some good progress regardless. It’s a little funny to me that the late ’80’s / early ’90’s section still needs some titles, because I was recently thinking about a possible future reading challenge that would involve books from those years and I was having a heck of time finding things that looked super appealing. I don’t know if you’ve had the same problem, but I look forward to seeing your choices for those years!
I haven’t looked yet. I got a few books to fill the holes in the 1970s so far.