My 2012 Reading Challenges

What a great challenge project! I love that the guidelines in each challenge allow me to read whatever book I want, in any format, and cross-over with other challenges. I wasn’t sure when I began writing a blog how I was ever going to keep up with the daily posts from so many talented writers. They have a daily this, a daily that, and I am a daily envious, a daily jealous. Fortunately for me I don’t need to reinvent the blog because there are so many ideas from which to choose -

• Foodies Read 2 Challenge for 2012

This afternoon I found a great blog and there was a domino effect!  Margot from Joyfully Retired has a reading challenge for her readers and even set up a new blog. I’m joining; I am so excited because this is definitely right up my alley.  I’ve signed up to at the level of a “Cordon-Bleu Chef” meaning that I need to read and review more than 19 “food books” by the end of 2012 as a part of Foodies Read 2 Challenge for 2012.

“If you are new to a food/reading challenge, you may be wondering – what is a “food book”? A food book is a book which is centered around food and/or drinks. That could be a cookbook, a food biography or memoir, a non-fiction book focused around a specific food, wine, chef or restaurant. Also allowed is a fictional story in which food plays a major role.” Margot, Foodies Read 2.

From there I jumped blog to blog, discovering great bloggers. Until now I’ve been concentrating on getting to know the homesteading and DIY remodeling blogs and I’m happy to include these new blogs as “friends”!

• Weekend Cooking Challenge (ongoing)

I found Weekend Cooking, a feature hosted by Beth at Beth Fish Reads.  It’s been a staple, hee hee, of her blog since 2009! Beth already busted out a homemade cracker recipe this weekend and I think I’m going to try it myself. I’ll be challenging myself not to get lazy [not cooking] on the weekends and actually try something creative that I might otherwise wait to do…

“Weekend Cooking is a feature hosted by Beth Fish Reads and is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog’s home page. For more information, see the welcome post.”

Isn’t this the best challenge ever? There isn’t a limit, just do what you normally do! It has fit the bill for my next post thanks to Tomcats Learning, a teacher supply store/ card shoppe/ book store/ educational gifts store in Casper, Wyoming, that had its 2 year anniversary Saturday and featured a wonderful new author, Casey Rislov, reading her book Time Together, Time Well Spent.

• What’s In a Name 5 Reading Challenge

Another good reading challenge from Beth at Beth Fish Reads! This is a little more challenging for me as I’ll have to locate a book in 5 different categories, which I can’t overlap. Beth gives us these choices:

“A book with a topographical feature (land formation) in the title: Black Hills, Purgatory Ridge, Emily of Deep Valley; a book with something you’d see in the sky in the title: Moon Called, Seeing Stars, Cloud Atlas; a book with a creepy crawly in the title: Little Bee, Spider Bones, The Witches of Worm; a book with a type of house in the title: The Glass Castle, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, Ape House; a book with something you’d carry in your pocket, purse, or backpack in the title: Sarah’s Key, The Scarlet Letter, Devlin Diary and a book with a something you’d find on a calendar in the title: Day of the Jackal, Elegy for April, Freaky Friday, Year of Magical Thinking. The book titles are just suggestions, you can read whatever book you want to fit the category.”

• Books Published in the First Years of My Life Challenge – 2012

I like the premise of this challenge from Emma at Words and Peace as it brings you back to the books of your past, just 1 book at a time, with the condition that the book be published during the first years of your life, for me that will be books published between 1978-1981.

Since I have young children I’m going with the Toddlers level. I’m going to enjoy sharing books that I read growing up with my children as they grow up. I can’t think of a better reading challenge that also works with my goals for the year in reading 20 minutes (hopefully more!) a day.

Although buying books is a pleasure, I am trying to keep some frugality so I’m going to use one of my favorite resources for reading – my local library. Have you ever participated in a reading challenge? How did you fair or fail? What did you learn for the next challenge?

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