2015 MERaT Reading List

Every year, my mother and my aunt and her best friend do this thing called the Moste Excellente Read-a-Thon.  The rules are simple, and I'm going to copy them over from our private Facebook group because I think my aunt says them better than I could.

1. Each reader shall compose a Moste Excellente Reading List, or MERL, of 24 books to read in the current MERaT year. Both new books and previously read books are acceptable for inclusion. Readers may modify their MERLs freely until January 10 of the current year, at which point they will be considered "locked in." Locked in MERLs may not be modified in any way.

2. Points for books read shall be awarded as follows. For each book read from a reader's MERL, that reader shall receive 3 points. For each book read that does not appear on the reader's MERL, that reader shall receive either 2 points (for books ≥ 150 pages) or 1 point (for books < 150 pages). All points shall be recorded on the reader's MERL in the forum. In addition, for each book ≥ 500 pages, the reader will receive one bonus point.

3. Exception to #3: For exceptionally long books that are divided (by the author/publisher) into volumes ≥ 150 pages each, the reader may choose -- pending majority agreement from the group -- to count each volume as a separate book and receive points accordingly. However, note that if the book is a MERL book, the reader may only receive 3 points for the first volume and must count following volumes as non-MERL books.

4. Each reader shall post his or her MERL to this group and shall keep count of points earned throughout the year.

5. On or about New Year's Eve, each reader's points for the current MERaT year shall be tallied, and the reader with the most points shall receive a Moste Excellente Reader prize (TBD)!

I didn't participate last year because I didn't feel like I'd be reading too many books anyway, making the list was daunting, and I had done a terrible job of keeping track the previous year.  This year though, I decided to give it a shot.  This round, I used the master list for one of the book clubs my mom organizes to make my list.  Each month has a category associated with it, so I basically just picked two I hadn't read out of each category.  If there was only one I hadn't read, I came up with another book from the category.  For the months that book club doesn't happen (June, July, and December) I invented my own categories.

Want to see my list?  Read on.