Thanks to everyone who has posted their Fall Into Reading 2001 wrap-up post! I’ve really enjoyed reading through your results, seeing which books you loved, and hearing your overall challenge experiences. And if you haven’t done a wrap-up yet, feel free to jump in. I’ll leave the linky open for quite a while.

Now for a few winners.

Winner of the last book giveaway (Deeper Into the Word, 2-book set).

Comment #4: Heather

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Winner of the $15 Amazon.com gift certificate:

Link #24: Bonnie @ Dwell In Possibility

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Winner of the $10 Amazon.com gift certificate:

Link #13: S @ Snapsandsnippets

Congrats to all!

Looking forward to seeing you for Spring Reading Thing this spring. Check back around the beginning of March for more details!

Apparently the weather is confused as to what time of year it is (it was about 20 degrees warmer yesterday than it should have been! …not that I’m complaining). But the calendar confirms that Christmas is three days away. The decorations are in place, wrapped gifts are collecting under the tree, and I’ll be spending today baking way too many cookies. Which means, of course, that it’s time to bring an end to Fall Into Reading 2011.

I want to thank each person that participated in this year’s challenge. And a special thank you to those who answered the weekly reading questions or checked in to occasionally keep me posted on your reading progress over the last three months. You made this season of reading extra fun for me!

As we wrap things up, I just have one more thing to ask. Would you please write a final wrap-up post, letting all of us know how Fall Into Reading 2011 went for you?  I would love if you’d take the time to write a final post and link to it using the Mr. Linky below.

Earlier this week, I offered some suggestions for what you might want to write in your wrap-up post, but of course, feel free to write it however you’d like. Once your post is up, come here and sign up on the Mr. Linky below. Don’t forget—include the URL to your wrap-up post, not just your general blog web address, to make it easy for people to find your post.

And don’t forget…there are still two Amazon.com gift certificates ($15 & $10) up for grabs. To be eligible, please post your wrap-up post (and put it on the Mr. Linky) by midnight EST on December 24th to get your name in the drawing. I’ll announce the winner a few days after Christmas.

Thanks again to all the participants. I’ve enjoyed reading with you!

Well, here we are, at the conclusion of Fall Into Reading 2011. From the very beginning, I knew this fall would be crazy. In addition to the usual holiday and school busyness, we moved to a new house and got our old house empty, clean, and ready to be put on the market. Which I knew would leave less time for reading, and would leave me feeling rather frazzled, which could also interfere with my reading plans.

Not surprisingly, I didn’t finish all the books on my list. Here are the books I had hoped to read:

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
The Next Story by Tim Challies
Lit by Tony Reinke
Give Them Grace by Elyse Fitzpatrick
Microstyle by Christopher Johnson
Sleeping Murder by Agatha Christie
Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
The Dragon’s Tooth by N.D. Wilson
Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot
The Bone House by Stephen R. Lawhead

In the end, I finished all five of the fiction books, but only three of the nonfiction. I still need to read The Next Story and Microstyle. Clearly, I found myself unable to focus on much nonfiction this year, even though the fiction was often a welcome respite from the craziness all around me.

Still, I’m going to consider reading eight books in the last three months a decent accomplishment for me.

My favorite books from this fall were, by far, The Bone House and The Dragon’s Tooth. Both were page-turners and kept me reading late into the night. I passed The Bone House on to my husband and The Dragon’s Tooth on to my teen, and they would both concur with my opinions. The only problem with those books is that they are part of two different series, so now I am left waiting and waiting until the next installments come out. Oh well…it’ll be worth the wait, I’m sure.

My favorite nonfiction read was Lit — a great book about the whys and hows of reading. I intend to write a review of Lit at some point, and I also want to re-visit it and re-read parts once things calm down a little. It gave me lots to think about, but was also enjoyable to read a book by someone who has such an appreciation for reading. Good stuff.

I’m looking forward to some more spontaneous and unstructured reading this winter — but rest assured, I will keep reading, and I hope you will too!

Don’t forget to visit the official wrap-up post to read other Fall Into Reading participants’ wrap-ups.

In case you can’t tell, time is getting away from me! Here we are, on December 19th already — in fact, as I type this post, it’s past my bedtime on December 19th. Which means, I have about 48 hours to fit in any last-minute reading for Fall Into Reading 2011.

I’ll tell you right now — I’m not going to finish all the books I picked. But I’ll save the details for my wrap-up post.

And speaking of wrap-up posts, I’ll be posting the final wrap-up post (complete with a Mr. Linky to collect your links) on Thursday, December 22nd.

I’m looking forward to seeing how everyone did on their personal goals! I hope you will take time to write a post letting us all know how Fall Into Reading 2011 went for you. Once you have your post written and posted on your blog, you can come here on Thursday and add your link to the Mr. Linky I’ll have ready.

I don’t have any specific requirements for your wrap-up post. Feel free to just ramble about your fall reading experiences — that works for me! (And I admit, I tend to ramble, too.) But if you like a little more structure or direction, here are some questions that can help guide your post. (Remember — these are just suggestions and are optional. You can approach your wrap-up post in whatever way works for you!)

• Did you finish reading all the books on your fall reading list? If not, why not?
• Did you stick to your original goals or did you change your list as you went along?
• What was your favorite book that you read this fall? Least favorite? Why?
• Did you discover a new author or genre this fall? Did you love them? Not love them?
• Did you learn something new because of Fall Into Reading 2011 – something about reading, about yourself, or about a topic you read about?
• What was your favorite thing about the challenge?

The official wrap-up post and Mr. Linky will go live this Thursday at 9:00 a.m. EST.  If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

And don’t forget — you only have a few days left to see if you can finish your Fall Into Reading books!