In Their Shoes Challenge Wrap Up

At the beginning of 2008, I decided to join the In Their Shoes Challenge hosted by Vasilly. The challenge was to pick any number of memoirs, autobiographies, or biographies and read them between January 1, 2008 and December 31, 2008. If you like these types of books, you can find a lot of great reviews on the In Their Shoes group blog.

I picked five memoirs off my TBR shelves for this challenge. These were my original picks:

Books read:
1. A Pirate Looks at Fifty by Jimmy Buffett
2. Kitchen Privileges by Mary Higgins Clark
3. Dispatches from the Edge by Anderson Cooper
4. Over My Head by Claudia Osborn
5. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

But then it turned out that I picked up a few more memoirs over the course of the year as well:

(alt) 6. Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
(alt) 7. Obsessive Genius by Barbara Goldsmith
(alt) 8. Time Bandit by Andy and Johnathan Hillstrand
(alt) 9. It's Not About the Bike by Lance Armstrong & Sally Jenkins

Favorite book of the challenge: Infidel

Least favorite book of the challenge: I hate to say it because I love Jimmy Buffett, but out of all of the books his was the weakest I think.

Any new authors read in this challenge? All were new except Mary Higgins Clark. I’ve read her fiction before.

What I learned: I really enjoy memoirs!

Would you do this one again if it were offered next year? I’ll probably sit out 2009 so that I can concentrate on other reading projects, but I would like to do the challenge again someday. Of course, I could still cave for 2009. I’m not ruling out any challenges at this point ;o).

Thanks for hosting this challenge, Vasilly! I enjoyed picking and reading books for it.