Summer Book Trek Wrap-Up

All right....here's the wrap up for my LDS fiction reading experience through the LDS Publisher blog:

1. How many fiction books by LDS authors did you read? A whopping fifteen.

2. Did you read more than you would have read if you hadn't participated in this book trek? Yes, although I would have gotten to them eventually. I just read them ahead of other non-LDS stuff in my queue because of the challenge.

3. Did the reviews posted by other participants influence which titles you read? How? Not really. Most of the time I disagreed with the reviews. However, their book lists did. It gave me ideas for titles to look up, especially for national authors that I didn't know were LDS.

4. Did the Whitney awards influence which titles you read? How? No, but only because I already had a backlog of books I borrowed from sister that I needed to read and return. Now that I'm aware of the Whitney awards though, they will definitely influence what I buy first in the future. Since I can't check out LDS fiction from my local library, I want to be sure I'm getting some bang for my book when I buy it in the future.

5. Did the many, many virtual blog tours that happened this summer influence which titles you read? How? No, but only because I only saw the same book (Jeff Savage, I'm talking to YOU) on all of them. Oh, wait. I might read Heaven Scent but it kind of depends on if I remember to after I get through the rest of my borrowed pile.

6. Did you finish all the books you had planned to read? If not, why? Most, but I missed a few. I decided to break up my LDS fiction with some heathen reading every now and then.

7. Did you discover any new authors whom you now love? I would definitely read Tracy Hunter Abramson and Stephanie Black again. And the next Chandra Covington mystery. My favorite by far was Aubrey Mace with Spare Change and I also really liked the humor in The First Year by Crystal Liechty. They need to publish more books, though! (Yes, Aubrey. I'm talking to YOU).

8. Did you nominate any of the books you read for Whitney awards? No, because they were already nominated.

9. Would you be interested in another LDS themed reading challenge either this winter, or next summer? I'll be reading more LDS fiction either way so when doesn't really matter. Maybe a reading challenge centered around only the Whitney finalists. That might be kind of cool.....