Reading Challenges

Seeing as how I read a lot anyway, I thought I would join a few reading challenges and see how many books I can read in each. Since this is my first time doing it, I'm starting with ones that overlap each other. I also don't want to limit myself to book choices either so I'm doing ones that don't have too much of a theme. I guess that totally defeats the purpose of actually doing a reading challenge, but eh ... I'll try again next year :)

First Challenge: The Young Adult Reading Challenge. I love reading teen books because they're sometimes shorter than your average adult novel, but just as good or even better. I'm an avid mystery reader and tend to stick to that genre, but YA books give me that chance to branch out since I don't really like to read regular adult novels. I'm going to start small with this challenge and pick the lowest level, the Mini YA Reading Challenge and read at least 12 books.

Second Challenge: The Support Your Local Library Reading Challenge. I get all my books from the library so this one's not a problem.

For this challenge, I'm going with the second level, Just My Size, and read 50 books. I average about one book a week and with 52 weeks in a year, I should definitely meet this goal. We're going into the second week of February and I'll finish my sixth fifth book so I'm almost on track

Third Challenge: Truth is Stranger than Fiction. This one goes until February 28, 2011 so I have a little more time to fit in the non-fiction books. Lately I've been interested in books about Marines and their experiences in OIF and OEF. The two I read last year, Joker One and Generation Kill, were excellent.

For this challenge, I think I'm going to aim a little high and go with the third level, The Whole Story, and read six non-fiction books.

Fourth Challenge: A Buck a Book Challenge. For every book you read, you're supposed to put away a dollar and at the end of the year, spend it on something fun for yourself. I could buy myself a new video game or a new outfit or maybe even a massage. I'd really like a Blu-Ray player, but could I really wait another 10.5 months for it?

Fifth Challenge: 2010 Pub Challenge. The rules are read at least 10 books published in 2010. I already have a list of 10 books being published this year and am currently reading one so this is definitely one challenge I will finish.

Sixth Challenge: Vampire Series Challenge. Yes, I have become somewhat interested in all the vampire series that are gaining popularity. No, I am not ever going to read Twilight. So far I'm interested in reading the following series: Sookie Stackhouse, Vampire Academy, Vampire Diaries (love love this show), and Blue Bloods. I'm going with Level 3 for this challenge, to read six vampire books.

Seventh Challenge: Celebrate the Author. Each month, read a book by an author who was born in that month. Even though I'm starting late, I just happened to read a book by an author with a January birthday in January. I hope some of my favorite authors have birthdays in each of the 11 remaining months or I'll have to find some new ones.

Eighth and final Challenge: Reading for a Cure. This challenge is about raising money and awareness to find a cure for childhood cancer. I really wanted to do ten challenges and donate $1 for every one I completed, with the hope that I would be able to give $10. With only eight, I will still donate $1 for every challenge completed and $10 if I finish them all. This is definitely an incentive to finish strong since anything to do with cancer means a lot to me. The blog hosting this challenge is donating to the Pediatric Cancer Foundation, but I have decided to give to St Jude Children's Research Hospital. Since there's no specific challenge for this one, I'm moving it to the finish column and there's already $1 waiting to be donated.

Wish me luck as I try to tackle these challenges!