Reading Challenges 2011 and past; progress, goals and epic failures. :)

Reading Challenges 2011 (it was a failure, *g*)
So far I've only entered, officially entered, one reading challenge- I think
runs from January 1st to December 31st 2011
  1. the Bitter Seed of Magic - Suzanne McLeod UF
  2. Black Wings - Christina Henry UF
  3. Blood Song - Cat Adams UF
  4. Day by Day Armmageddon - J.L. Bourne (horror)
  5. Defiance - Lili St. Crow UF/YA
  6. Magic On The Hunt - Devon Monk  UF
  7. Married With Zombies - Jesse Petersen UF
  8. River Marked - Patricia Briggs UF
  9. Zoo City - Lauren Beukes UF
2011 Fantasy Reading Challenge
  1. Afterlife - Naomi Clark
  2. Bleeding Violet - Dia Reeves YA/Fantasy
  3. Bone Song - John Meaney
  4. Iron Witch, the - Karen Mahoney YA/Fantasy
  5. Nocturne - Syrie James
  6. Spirit Thief, the - Rachel Aaron





Potential challenges for 2011I am considering some reading challenges for 2011 - haven't yet made up my mind.  To be perfectly honest, I didn't do so well on the challenges for 2010 - and recently I keep forgetting to even post my reviews on the challenge hosts' blogs.....

But just in case...

Dollycas posted about this challenge-

Dollycas posted guidelines, and you can sign up at BethFishReads (just click)

More when I come across them


here's more -
Outdo Yourself Reading Challenge 2011 is hosted by the Book Vixen.  She has a signup page and complete rules and levels there.  Basically, you sign up to read more books in 2011 than you read in 2010.  I might be able to do the easiest level (1 to 5 more books) - maybe.  I'm frankly surprised that I've read as many as I have, surprised and at the same time I'm disappointed that I wasn't able to do even more.  Se La Vi - that's life.  And sometimes it's just more important to play with grandchildren than to read.  Of course, sometimes it's better for my sanity to read even when the grandchildren are over.....mwhahahaha
How about: The 2011 Fantasy Reading Challenge?  I'm thinking about this.  dArLyN & BOoks is hosting the 2011 Fantasy Reading Challenge.  There are four levels to participate.  All the guidelines are at Darlyn's blog.  Sounds like a fun (and do-able) challenge.  And check out the cool button!   -->

From and Hosted by Literary Escapism is the New Author Challenge 2011.  There's a cool button for it, but my blogger won't let me upload a picture for some reason. Choices are 15, 25 or 50 new authors.  All the guidelines are at the link above.  I'm thinking of trying the lowest level.  I've had a lot of new authors turn out to some of the best writers I've read in a while.  I'll upload the picture as soon as blogger lets me.  picture is now uploaded.  :)

 I found this challenge through  There's A Book's Danielle's blog.  The 2011 E-Book Challenge is hosted by A Ladybug Reads, and has a few levels ranging from curious to obsessed.  My level would most likely be curious (three books) since I'm not a fan of e-books.  I do want to read a friend's soon to be published e-book though, so I'll use it as a challenge book.  Let me say here, that the only reason I'm not a fan of e-books is because I can't hold them, riffle through pages (is riffle even a word?), or stare at the cover for long periods of time, trying to see if the cover models match the character description....etc.  Now that I have a laptop, it'll much easier for me to read an e-book here and there.  So I'm probably going to join this challenge.

Horror & Urban Fantasy Reading Challenge


Here is another fun challenge. 
Horror & Urban Fantasy - I like urban fantasy anyway.
From Book Chick City

update-oh, I'm doing this one!  yes I am! (1/20/11)


I combined my reading challenge progress page, and the completed challenges for 2010.  This is now going to be titled Reading Challenges 2010:

Reading Challenges 


as of December 31st, 2010- Some of the reading challenges were an Epic Fail...and yet I didn't do as bad as I thought I did on the others...So here goes:



the 2010 Colorful Reading Challenge: stayed steady at 2 books out of the 9 book goal. (sigh)

The 2010 Flashback Challenge: I did the worst at this challenge. Out of the 6 minimum, I did....0. a big FAT ZERO.

The New Author Mini Challenge, where we were supposed to pick five books from five authors of the League of Reluctant Adults, I did the best. Even though I couldn't finish the fifth book - I would have if it was more interesting to me, so I consider that a 4 and a half out of 5 book goal. Yeay ME! :)

The POC 2010 ReadinG Challenge I have mixed feelings about. I know the goal was to read books with either POC characters, or by POC writers, but I would rather have found books written by POC writers...HOWEVER! I prefer reading urban fantasy, or fantasy and it's very hard to find POC writers in the SciFi/Urban Fantasy dept. It's tough. So I ended up reading most of the books with POC characters. I did exceed my goal though - I had originally decided to go for the 3- 7 book goal, but I ended up reading 12 novels for this challenge, and after October I did kind of even forget to check my sidebars to see if I was updating my lists...so I might have read even more.

RYOB - Read Your Own Books reading list - another epic fail. 1 out of a 10 book goal. :(

2010 Speculative Fiction Reading Challenge. This is the challenge that I did the best in. When I stopped listing my books I was up to 34 books. I signed up for 24. EPIC WIN!

Stephanie Plum Reading Challenge - we were supposed to catch up on the series, the the number of books to read for each person was different. My goal was five books. I read 1. ONE. :(

The Typically British Reading challenge 2010: I signed up for a four book goal. I only listed three books that I read, but I also read two Terry Pratchett books, and he's from England...so I believe that's a completed challenge.

2010 Young Adult Reading Challenge - I signed up to read 12 books. I read at least 13. another completed challenge...yeay!

the 2010 Countdown Challenge Books...this one was the hardest to attempt. The total amount of books to be read was 55, but there was a breakdown of books vs year published.....I failed. I completed for the years 2009 and 2010...but the rest of the years was a fail....I think I probably only got about half the challenge done.

2010 Cat Book Challenge - read at least one book per month with a cat featured or a secondary character....I read five books. five out of 12. sad.

As a personal goal, I had wanted to read at least 50 books - or rather 55 to match the number of books for the countdown challenge. I ended up reading 54 - or I listed 54 books read. I seriously don't know if I actually read more and forgot to list them, it feels like I probably did. Whatever I did, 54 books for the year is really more that I managed to read the year before, so I should feel good about that. This year I am off to an even worse start, taking me two weeks to read a good, interesting book. Hard to concentrate at times, but then I need to remember that reading is for fun, not a job of mine, not a thing I have to do...but for fun. I think once I promise to read a book for review, my mind starts rebelling, because then I feel like I HAVE to read it, and really - I wanted to read books anyway, so my brain is being lame. So there. As of August 1st, 2010




2010 Colorful Reading Challenge: 2 out of 9 book goal (oops)

Flashback Reading Challenge: ummmm 0 out of 6 book goal (yikes)

New Author Mini Challenge (League of Reluctant Adults) 4.5 out of 5 (see July)

POC Reading Challenge: 12 out of 7 book goal (WOOTWOOT-Finished!!!) still looking for POC writers, though

RYOB Challenge (Read Your Own Books): ummmm 1 out of 10 book goal (oops version 3.0)

Speculative Fiction Reading Challenge: 26 out of 24 (officially finished, but still going)

Stephanie Plum Reading Challenge: 1 out of 5 book goal. (oops version 4.0)

Typically British Reading Challenge: 2 out of four (50%)

2010 Young Adult Reading Challenge: 8 out of 12(??) (getting there!)

2010 Countdown Challenge: 25 out of 55 book goal (OMG only 2.3 months to go!!!)

2010 Cat Book Reading Challenge: 5 out of 12 (not doing very well there)

Total books read so far for 2010 is 37 - but I keep thinking I'm forgetting some (old)

As of July 1st, 2010



2010 Colorful Reading Challenge: 1 out of 9 book goal

Flashback Reading Challenge : OOPS! 0 out of 6 book goal

New Author Mini Challenge (League of Reluctant Adults) 4.5 out of 5 book goal (could not finish one, had to put it down)

POC (Persons of Color) Reading Challenge : 5 from a 3-7 book goal (this is aWIN, but I'm going to go for 7)

RYOB (Read Your Own Books Challenge) : 0 out of no set goal.

Speculative Fiction Reading Challenge - changed to 24 goal.: 21 out of 24. Might change again, since I love this genre

Stephanie Plum Reading Challenge : 1 out of 5

Typically British Reading Challenge : 2 out of 4 (might change goal- maybe)

2010 Young Adult Reading Challenge : 6 out of ?? I think 12

2010 Countdown Reading Challenge: 24 out of 55

Cat Book Reading Challenge : 5 out of 12

WELL! I was hoping for more overlaps on my reading challenges, but that's not happening so far. I really need to focus on some of my older books which will help for the Flashback Challenge and the RYOB Challenge.

as of April 20, 2010



2010 Colorful Reading Challege: as of April 20, two out of nine book goal

Flashback Challenge - literati : as of April 20, 0 out of six book goal

New Author MiniChallenge - February challenge- 4.5 out of 5. If the last book had held my interest, I would have been able to do this. Unfortunately I couldn't bring myself to finishe reading it. Not sure if that's a fail - but I tried.

POC Reading Challenge: 2 out of the 7-9 book goal as of April 20

RYOB (Read Your Own Books, from your shelf, to clear older TBR books): out of 10 book goad so far 0

Speculative Reading Challenge: changed goal to 24 (why!?!) as of April 20, 11 out of 24

Stephanie Plum Reading Challenge. My personal goal is five: As of April 20, I've read 1 out of 5

Typically British Reading Challenge, Gordon Bennett level (4): 0 out of 4 :(

2010 Young Adult Reading Challenge - I think I was going for 12 {?????}: 4 out of 12 as of April 20

2010 Countdown Challenge, total of 55 books: As of April 20, 16 out of 55

2010 Cat Book Challenge 12 book goal: as of April 20, 4 out of 12

I have a sad, sad feeling about this. It's been almost four months and I'm not doing to well with the 2010 challenges. As for the 55 books needed for the countdown challenge which has been going on since September.....
 

It's only February, though we're coming up to the end of February.  I haven't completed any challenges yet.  I can't even say that I'm off to a good start, with the exception of the 2010 Countdown Challenge.  I only (as of 2/21/10) have one more book to go for the year 2009.  (yeay, go me!)

I do have a goal of reading at least 55 books for the year of 2010.  As of 2/21/10 I've read 8 books.  Eight.  How many weeks in a year?  52?  I think I might have to step up my game.

New Author MiniChallenge.  The goal was to read at least five books from authors that belong to The League of Reluctant Adults.  There are quite a few authors in this blog.  I finished four book, and made a dent in the fifth, but couldn't get it read in time for the end of the month deadline. 
  1.  Personal Demons by Stacia Kane
  2. Three Days to Dead by Kelly Meding
  3. Tempest Rising by Nicole Peeler
  4. Street Magic by Caitlin Kittredge
  5. Dead To Me by Anton Strout- could not finish in time, didn't hold my interest.
I recently read The Better Part of Darkness by Kelly Gay, who has just joined the League of Reluctant Adults, but I had read it before this challenge. 

2010 Speculative Fiction Reading Challenge - I originally signed up to read 12 (what was I thinking?) and  changed it to "obsessed" which is 24 books or more.  I just realized that I have already hit 24. I have 27 read right now.  Does that mean I should stop? Hell No!!!  Urban Fantasy is my favorite genre (falls under speculative) and I also immensely(like that big word?) enjoy Science Fiction/space opera. (Love Sirantha Jax!)  So, though I'm going to call myself officially finished with the challenge, I'm going to keep listing the books in the sidebar AND at the review site page.  It seems silly for me to list them here at this time...maybe when 2011 rolls around, so in the meantime I'll keep listing them in the sidebar under..you guessed it!  Speculative Fiction Reading Challenge!

   1. Colorful Reading Challenge 2010 - runs 1/01/10 to 12/31/10

   2. Flashback Challenge - runs from 1/01/10 to 12/31/10

   3. POC Reading Challenge - hosted by Color Online
   4. RYOB - (read your own books) - 1/01/10 to 12/31/10

   5a. Speculative Fiction Challenge - reviews page

   6. Stephanie Plum Reading Challenge - from 7/23/09 to 12/31/10

   7. Typically British Reading Challenge - 1/01/10 to 12/31/10
   8. 2010 Yound Adult Reading Challenge - runs 1/01/10 to 12/31/10
   9. 2010 Countdown Challenge - runs 9/09/09 to 10/10/10

 10. New Author Mini Challenge - 2/01 to 2/28/10
 11. 2010 Cat Book Challenge - runs from 1/01 to 12/31/10