2014 Reading Challenges

2014 Reading Challenges

My 2014 TBR Pile Challenge List:

1.  One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenisyn
2.  A Room With a View by E.M. Forster
3.  O Pioneers! by Willa Cather
4.  The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
5.  Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain
6.  In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway
7.  The Princess Bride by William Goldman
8.  Insurgent by Veronica Roth
9.  Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
10.  The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
11.  Stolen by Lucy Christopher
12.  Crank by Ellen Hopkins

Alternates: 
A.  A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
B.  Ready Player One by Ernest Cline



The 2014 What's In a Name Categories are:
1.  A Reference to Time One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
2.  A Position of Royalty The Little Prince
3.  A Number Written in Letters  The Hundred Dresses
4.  A Forename or Names  Pudd'nhead Wilson
5.  A Type or Element of Weather Zane and the Hurricane
6.  School Subject in the Title  Foundations in Comic Book Art


Back to the Classics 2014

  Required:

1. A 20th Century Classic  A Room With a View by E.M. Forster
2. A 19th Century Classic  Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain
3. A Classic by a Woman Author  O Pioneers! by Willa Cather
4. A Classic in Translation  One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
5. A Wartime Classic  Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo or Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
6. A Classic by an Author Who Is New To You   Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Optional Categories:

1. An American Classic  As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner or something by Hemingway?
2. A Classic Mystery, Suspense or Thriller  The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
3. A Historical Fiction Classic.  The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
4. A Classic That's Been Adapted Into a Movie or TV Series.   As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
5. Extra Fun Category:  Write a Review of the Movie or TV Series adapted from Optional Category #4.  

50 States Personal Challenge:
I had signed up for this challenge hosted by Book Obsessed for a couple years in a row - but I didn't last year and I really wished I had.  Not because I stress about reading a book set in each of the 50 states, but because it is just kind of a fun thing to keep track of (at least I think it is fun).  So, I'm going to track it again in 2014, but I'm not bothering to sign up for an official challenge.  This is just for me - and so I'll list more than one book per state when it happens, because I'm also curious as what that will show at the end of the year.   


                                                                                   23/50

1. Alabama                                                                   
2. Alaska 
3. Arizona   
4. Arkansas
5. California - The Distance Between Us , The Beginning of Everything, Sinner, Landline, On The Fence, Something Real
6. Colorado 
7. Connecticut  Since You've Been Gone
8. Delaware
9. Florida - Where The Stars Still Shine, Paper Towns, Kiss of Broken Glass
10. Georgia 
11. Hawaii   
12. Idaho
13. Illinois - Insurgent, Allegiant, Yummy
14. Indiana  - Positive
15. Iowa  - Grasshopper Jungle
16. Kansas   
17. Kentucky - The Swift Boys & Me, Crash Into You, Take Me On
18. Louisiana - Zane and the Hurricane
19. Maine  - In The Shadows, This is What Happy Looks Like
20. Maryland  - Every Day, Little Fish
21. Massachusetts - The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, We Were Liars, Being Henry David, Forget Me
22. Michigan 
23. Minnesota
24. Mississippi
25. Missouri  - Pudd'nhead Wilson, The Art of Lainey
26. Montana  
27. Nebraska - O Pioneers!
28. Nevada - Crank
29. New Hampshire  - Half a Chance
30. New Jersey 
31. New Mexico - Love Letters to the Dead, Tomboy
32. New York - A Trick of the Light, Wonder, Panic, Game, Chopsticks, Okay for Now
33. North Carolina - Sweet Tooth
34. North Dakota
35. Ohio  
36. Oklahoma - The Spectacular Now, Ready Player One
37. Oregon  - If I Stay
38. Pennsylvania  Reality Boy, Bright Before Sunrise
39. Rhode Island  
40. South Carolina
41. South Dakota
42. Tennessee Breathe, Annie, Breathe 
43. Texas  Pivot Point , Skinny
44. Utah 
45. Vermont  
46. Virginia  
47. Washington
48. West Virginia  
49. Wisconsin  Better off Friends
50. Wyoming

2013 Back to the Classics Challenge

Back to the Classics Challenge

Now, for the Back to the Classics Challenge 2013:

 Click HERE for details and to sign up.

The Required Categories:

1. A 19th Century Classic  Sense & Sensibility by Jane Austen
2. A 20th Century Classic  The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
3. A Pre-18th or 18th Century Classic:  The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio
4. A Classic that relates to the African-American Experience - Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston 
5. A Classic Adventure  Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
6. A Classic that prominently features an Animal - The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

Optional Categories:

    A.  Re-read a Classic  Animal Farm by George Orwell 

   B.  A Russian Classic  The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky

   C.  A Classic Non-Fiction title  The Story of My Life by Helen Keller

   D.  A Classic Children's/Young Adult title  The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

   E.  Classic Short Stories - Tales of Terror by Edgar Allan Poe

2013 TBR Pile Challenge

Hosted by Adam at RoofBeamReader.com

Click HERE for official rules and info.  The bottom line is that I pledge to read my list of 12 books (or substitute either of the two alternates) by the end of 2013.  The books on my list have been in my TBR pile for at least a year!



My official Sign Up Post.

My List:

1.  A Room With a View by E.M. Forster
2.  The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton (DNF)
3.  The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
4.  O Pioneers! by Willa Cather
5.  The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
6.  Looking for Alaska by John Green
7.  One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenistsyn
8.  Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain
9.  No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
10.  Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
11.  When She Woke by Hillary Jordan
12.  The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

Alternates:

1.  Divergent by Veronica Roth
2.  The Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Random 2012 Challenges

Hosted by Beth Fish Reads

Categories for 2012:

1.  A book with a topographical feature in the title
                              Island of Lost Girls

2.  A book with something you'd see in the sky in the title
             The Fault in our Stars

3.  A book with a creepy crawly in the title
                                                      The Maltese Falcon

4.  A book with a type of house in the title
                                             The Red House

5.  A book with something you'd carry in your pocket, purse or backpack in the title
                                           The List   

6.  A book with something you'd find on a calendar in the title  

                                             The Evening Hour



Hosted at Dead End Follies

Categories are as follows:  (Just making notes for possible titles!)

1.  Hardboiled Classic  The Maltese Falcon/Dashiell Hammett
2.  Noir Classic  In A Lonely Place/Dorothy B. Hughes
3.  Prison Book
4.  Book Written by an author who did time The Importance of Being Earnest / Oscar Wilde
5.  Book with a Psychopath Protagonist The Talented Mr. Ripley/ Patricia Highsmith
6.  Gothic Novel  The Yellow Wallpaper/Charlotte Perkins Gilman
7.  Classic Where the plot revolves around a crime  True Grit/Charles Portis
8.  The "Why The Hell Am I Doing This To Myself?" Book Anna Karenina/Leo Tolstoy

Hosted by Books and Movies

1.  The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
2.  The Absolutist by John Boyne
3.  Broken Harbor by Tana French
4.  Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan

Hosted by Book Obsessed.

This is where I pledge to read pairs of books with antonyms in their titles.

The levels:

Diploma:  6-10 books

Bachelors: 12-20 books

Masters:  22 - 30 books

Doctorate:  32+ books

I'm signing up conservatively, and choosing the Diploma Level...  but depending on how this works out, I may move on to my Bachelors!  (Helpful websites:    Opposite Word and Thesaurus. )

Book List:
1.  Lola and the Boy Next Door
2.  Such a Pretty Girl

3.  When the Night
4.  Around the World in Eighty Days

5. The Discovery of Jeanne Baret
6.  Island of Lost Girls

Hosted by November's Autumn
Read 7 Classics - 3 can be re-reads.  Then participate in discussions on the 4th of each month.

1.  Anna Karenina
2.  The Color Purple
3.  Pride and Prejudice
4.  The Importance of Being Earnest
5.  Oliver Twist
6.  The Stranger
7.  Around The World in Eighty Days









Hosted by Literary Escapism.

This is where I pledge to read 50 new-to-me authors in 2012!
The list of authors, titles with links to the review:





1.  Tolstoy, Leo (Anna Karenina)                                                     
2.   Keener, Jessica (Night Swim)                                                                     
3.  Walker, Alice (The Color Purple)                                                                     
4.    McKenzie, Catherine (Spin)                                                                     
5.    Watson, S.J. (Before I Go To Sleep)                                                                     
6.     Valentine, Jenny (Double)                                                                  
7.    Sickels, A. Carter (The Evening Hour)                                                            
8.     Alcott, Kate (The Dressmaker)                                                                  
9.    Green, John (The Fault in our Stars)                                                                   
10.    Highsmith, Patricia (The Talented Mr. Ripley)                                                                 
11.    Jahn, Ryan David (The Dispatcher)                                                                   
12.    Austen, Jane (Pride and Prejudice)                                                                   
13.    Ridley, Glynis (The Discovery of Jeanne Baret)                                                                   
14.     Ivey, Eowyn (The Snow Child)                                                                 
15.   Wallace, Daniel (Big Fish)                                                                    
16.   Vivian, Siobhan (The List)                                                                   
17.   Eulberg, Elizabeth (Take a Bow)                                                                      
18.   Portis, Charles (True Grit)                                                                     
19.   Camus, Albert (The Stranger)                                                                   
20.    Whitney, Daisy (The Mockingbirds)                                                                    
21.   Hughes, Dorothy B. (In A Lonely Place)                                                                     
22.   Stuber, Barbara (Crossing the Tracks)                                                                     
23.   Comencini, Cristina (When the Night)                                                                     
24.   Brooks, Ben (Grow Up)                                                                
25.  Gilman, Charlotte Perkins (The Yellow Wallpaper)
26.  Webb, Charles (The Graduate)
27.  Foer, Jonathan Safran (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close)
28.  Verne, Jules (Around the World in Eighty Days)
29.  Esquivel, Laura (Like Water for Chocolate)
30.  Lawson, Jenny (Let's Pretend This Never Happened)
31.  Riggle, Kristina (Keepsake)
32.  Goolrick, Robert (A Reliable Wife)
33.  Walker, Karen Thompson (The Age of Miracles)
34. Gifford, Barry and Lawrence Lee (Jack's Book: An Oral Biography of Jack Kerouac)
35.  Woolf, Virginia (Mrs. Dalloway)
36.  Doller, Trish (Something Like Normal)
37. Joyce, Rachel (The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry)
38.  Klein, Alina (Rape Girl)
39.  Matson, Morgan (Amy & Roger's Epic Detour)
40.  Lawton, Stephanie (Want)
41.  Voltaire (Candide)
42.  Brennan, Sarah Rees (Demon's Lexicon)
43. Groom, Winston (Forrest Gump)
44.  Rowell, Rainbow (Attachments)
45. Hammett, Dashiell (The Maltese Falcon)
46. Zusak, Markus (The Book Thief)
47. Strohmeyer, Sarah (Smart Girls Get What They Want)
48.  Tolkien, J.R.R. (The Hobbit)
49.  Gaiman, Neil (The Graveyard Book)
50.  Baum, L. Frank (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz)



Hosted by My Reader's Block.

This is where I pledge to read books from my already overflowing TBR Shelf
TBR Bookcase.  I will make a list of all the books I own on January 1, 2012 and do my best to work through the list.

The levels of completion are:
Pike's Peak: Read 12 books from your TBR pile/s
Mt. Vancouver: Read 25 books from your TBR pile/s
Mt. Ararat: Read 40 books from your TBR piles/s
Mt. Kilimanjaro: Read 50 books from your TBR pile/s
 El Toro: Read 75 books from your TBR pile/s
Mt. Everest: Read 100+ books from your TBR pile/s


I am starting conservatively, and choosing the Mt. Vancouver level.  After all, you can go up a level, but not down!

1.  Anna Karenina                                                                       

2.  The Color Purple

3.  The Talented Mr. Ripley

4.  Lola and the Boy Next Door

5.  Pride and Prejudice

6.  Big Fish

7.  The Importance of Being Earnest

8.  Oliver Twist

9.  The Stranger

10.  The Mockingbirds

11.  In A Lonely Place

12.  The Yellow Wallpaper
13.  Such a Pretty Girl

14.  Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

15.  Like Water for Chocolate

16.  The Shining

17.  A Reliable Wife

18.  Mrs. Dalloway

19.  Island of Lost Girls

20.  Candide

21.  Flowers for Algernon

22.  Fixing Deliliah

23.  The Maltese Falcon

24. The Book Thief

25.  The Hobbit

Hosted by Babies, Books and Signs.

Read 26 books, each starting with a different letter of the alphabet.  X just needs to be in the title somewhere. 







A.  Anna Karenina
B.  Before I Go To Sleep
C.  The Color Purple
D.  The Discovery of Jeanne Baret
E.  The Evening Hour
F.   The Fault in our Stars
G.  The Great Gatsby
H.  The Hobbit
I.  The Importance of Being Earnest
J.  Jack's Book: An Oral Biography of Jack Kerouac
K.  Keepsake
L.  Lola and the Boy Next Door
M.  The Mockingbirds
N.  Night Swim
O.  Oliver Twist
P.  Pride and Prejudice
Q.
R.  The Red House
S.  Spin
T.  The Talented Mr. Ripley
U.  The Unwritten Rule
V.
W.  When the Night
X.  Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Y.  The Yellow Wallpaper
Z.