The Book Challenge discussion

In the past Melissa and I have created some good challenges.

In 2008-2009(ish) I challenged myself to read one fiction, one non-fiction, and one classic per month...and I did pretty well.

In 2010 Melissa did a page # challenge, which she blew out of the water.

In 2011 I need to be a bit more conservative. I don't expect to have a lot of excess free time, what with writing a text book, 2 kids, and my MIL living with us for half of the year. And I'd like to challenge myself to catch up on 18m of scrapbooking, too. So...what to do???

Every month I'd like to read 4 books, which averages to about 1 book per week. This is a realistic goal (IMHO), since I'll also be doing audiobooks during my daily commute. I won't have any other criteria, other than to try and diminish my TBR of purchased books on my basement shelves. At the end of the year I'll tally up how many pages (for those that are paper books) and how many fiction/non-fiction and see how I did. In 2012 I may have more lofty goals once again.

January:

1. Dinosaurs in the Attic: An Excursion into the American Museum of Natural History
2. Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story
3. Blockade Billy
4. Sizzling Sixteen

# of Pages:
1. 231
2. 240

February:

1.
2.
3.
4.

# of Pages:

March:

1.
2.
3.
4.

# of Pages:

April:

1.
2.
3.
4.

# of Pages:

May:

1.
2.
3.
4.

# of Pages:

June:

1.
2.
3.
4.

# of Pages:

July:

1.
2.
3.
4.

# of Pages:

August:

1.
2.
3.
4.

# of Pages:

September:

1.
2.
3.
4.

# of Pages:

October:

1.
2.
3.
4.

# of Pages:

November:

1.
2.
3.
4.

# of Pages:

December:

1.
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3.
4.

# of Pages:

Good luck! A lot of the books on my list are to help me get through books on my shelf or TBR. Guess maybe we'll be making another trip to the Book Nook (or the one near you) at the end of the year!

Okay, so here's my updated list. In order to even consider something like a Kindle, I'll have to start working through the pile of books on my basement shelves. So, that's what I'm doing in 2011. Here's the list, broken into 2 comment threads. And so then I should try and minimize my purchases (LOL) so I don't keep making the list longer.

1. Blockade Billy
2. What the Dog Saw
3. Playing for Pizza
4. Creating Magic
5. Anne Frank
6. My Best Friend is a Wookie
7. The Midnight Quarter
8. Curing Fatigue
9. Basket Case
10. The Angel’s Game
11. At Home
12. Full Dark, No Stars
13. The Greatest Generation
14. It’s all Too Much
15. Lost Souls (Frankenstein)
16. Duma Key
17. Bag of Bones
18. Mommy Wars
19. Down River
20. Confederates in the Attic
21. Secret Lives of US Presidents
22. Shipwrecks in the Americas
23. Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing
24. Think Big
25. The Green Book
26. Dog Days
27. The Wisdom of Crowds
28. Girl, Interrupted
29. My Sister’s Keeper

30. The Great Influenza
31. Take the Cannoli
32. Julie and Julia
33. The Three Musketeers
34. State by State
35. A Whole New Mind
36. The Book of Other People
37. In Over Our Heads
38. Falling
39. Into Thin Air
40. Aunt Dimity and the Next of Kin
41. On Death and Dying
42. Sherlock Holmes
43. Next
44. Coma
45. Twilight Eyes
46. Sphere
47. Congo
48. The Bourne Identity
49. The Bourne Supremecy
50. The Bourne Ultimatum
51. The Stand
52. Empire of Ashes
53. Blasphemy
54. Brimstone
55. The Winner
56. Divine Justice
57. The Whole Truth

I say, if you get half of that list done, then you can ask for a Kindle for your bday! ;-) Looks like a few are quick/easy reads. I finished The Book of Other People pretty quick, I think. Actually, a lot of them could be finished in a long evening, once Abby starts sleeping! lol And, I can see a few books on there that I would probably like to come my way.

I might add, I was really good last year about forcing myself to read what was already on my bookshelf at home by setting that list of books that I HAD to read by the end of the year. Hopefully this list of 57 will be kind of the same for you.