I know I won't complete any of them as I'm too far behind and it's too late in the day to catch up but it doesn't matter. Well, not to me anyway. It's not the winning that's important, it's the taking part. Right? Right. At the end of the year I can say I read some books. Can't say fairer than that.
Sooo, that being said I've got my eye on 2012 already. I chose a few new challenges yesterday that I liked the look of and only picked ones where I'd already decided to do that particular thing anyway, even before knowing there was a challenge for it.
There are 5 altogether (so far). Two challenges are similar to each other, another two are things I try to do every year anyway, with varying levels of success so maybe the official challenges will be that nudge I need to succeed, and the last one is an idea that I was toying with to try and achieve in 2012 so I've taken the challenge as 'a sign' that I'm supposed to do this :D. All of the challenges can be overlapped with other challenges so I'm all set.
The first challenge is being run by The Lit Bitch and involves the series of books I use to judge all others...
Rules: Read all SEVEN (7) books in The Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon
Books in Series Order:
- Cross Stitch
- Dragonfly in Amber
- Voyager
- Drums of Autumn
- The Fiery Cross
- A Breath of Snow and Ashes
- An Echo in the Bone
Easy. (famous last words?) Read all the books in the series. I had planned on doing this anyway as Diana has her new book 'The Scottish Prisoner' published next week (here in the UK) and I want to get up to speed and have a total series re-read before I get to it. I re-read them all in order roughly every two years (usually to co-incide with the release of the newest book) so I'm looking forward to this challenge as it's been a while. Do-able I'd say, on the 'how-likely-o-meter'
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This next challenge is being hosted by Literary Escapism and is an extension really of the above challenge. It too involves re-reading the whole Outlander series BUT also includes the additonal Lord John series which I also plan on reading as the aforementined 'The Scottish Prisoner' is the next title in that series and has links to the Outlander series.
Again, do-able on the 'how-likely-o-meter'
Books in series order:
Lord John and the Private Matter
Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade
Lord John and the Hand of Devils
The Scottish Prisoner
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This next challenge is definitely Do-able... but just how do-able will depend on how I get on with the final challenge below. At the moment this challenge all hinges on my success rate with challenge number 4.
Here's what the hosts have to say about the TBR challenge:
"We all have those books. We buy them, win them, they're gifted to us.. Then we put them up on a bookshelf and there they stay, collecting dust, waiting for the time when we'll finally decide to pick them up..
Join us on a quest to dust off your TBR Pile and read all the books you've been telling yourself you'll read next time you'll get a chance.. This is your chance! And we've got PRIZES!!! :D"
Levels:
1-10 - A Firm Handshake
11-20 - A Friendly Hug
21-30 - A Sweet Kiss
31-40 - Love At First Sight
41-50 - Married With Children
I'm signing up for the 'Freindly Hug' as I can move up a lvl but not down one and thought that even if I only manage one a month that would fall into the 11-20 category.
Sign up at any of the host's blog's below -
Evie from Bookis
Nicole from All I Ever Read
Bonnie from Hands and Home
Donna from Book Passion For Life
Caitlin from WatchYA Reading
Rie from Mission To Read
Vicky from Books, Biscuits & Tea
Christa from Hooked On Books
Jenna from Fans Of Fiction
Angel from Mermaids Vision
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I might need all 12 months to get this one in the bag. The Sookie Stackhouse (True Blood) books are a bit of an enigma to me. I like them, I enjoy them and I have them pre-bought and sitting on the shelf but I just can't seem to conjure up any kind of love for them. Doesn't really make any sense. I like them enough to have read the first six books but not enough to WANT to read the ones that follow. Any other series by the time I've made it though a half dozen books I'm desperate to see where it all leads. These one's...not so much. BUT, I do like them. Can't explain. Anyhoo, the challenge...
The 2012 Sookie Stackhouse Reading Challenge is being hosted by Darlene's Book Nook.
There are four levels for this challenge:
a. Level 1: Read 1-4 books in the series.
b. Level 2: Read 5-8 books in the series.
c. Level 3: Read 9-11 books in the series.
d. Level 4: Read all 12 books in the series!
Since I've already read the first 6 books I'm signing up for Level 1: Read 1-4 books in the series. As the year goes on I'll know better if I'm able to up that estimate and read all the remaining 6 books but for now I'll stick with Level 1.
That means I'll be reading from books 7 to 12. Or hoping to...
Maybe this challenge is the push I need to get the series finished.
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And finally... This challenge, hosted by Butterflyometer Books is going to be my toughest challenge ever, I think. EVAAARR!
My resoloution is to challenge myself to not spend a penny on buying books for the 12 months from 1st Jan 2012 to 31st Dec 2012! Do-able? Who knows, but I'll give it a whirl.
Sounds scary!! I hope I'm up to the challenge. I can recieve books as gifts (which is not so bad..I've got a birthday during the year), I can WIN books (so entering a gazillion comps for me then), I can swap my books with friends etc for other books and I can even borrow books from people and/or the library BUT I'm not allowed to buy a single book. Doesn't matter if it's brand new or used I MUST NOT BUY!!
That's going to be easier said than done and I think it might impede on my other joy (other than books and reading) which is rumaging in charity shops for things to tart up for my house, either by recyling or upcycling or just general things to give a makeover to. Those sorts of shops invariably have a book section so I'll either have to go in wearing blinkers or not go in at all :(
MUST STAY STRONG!
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I'll particularly need all the help I can get with that last one, so please wish me luck! :D
**All linked Challenge Buttons also appear in my blog footer**
8 comments:
Looking back on my last years' New Years Resolutions, I didn't accomplish very many of my goals. LOL You're very ambitious with your aim to read all of the Outlander series! That's no easy task but the books are well-worth the read. Good luck and thanks for stopping by my blog! :)
Nah, I'm an old pro with the Outlander series, lol. We go back a long way and it'll be a breeze. I've read and re-read the series about 10 times in the last 20 years so it'll be like visiting an old friend :D
Haha, you're so awesome to read, love your humor :D
It's a very good tactic to sign up for challenges that mainly point to doing things you were already planning on doing or that you can easily see yourself doing even without setting up a goal for it. That's my policy when I sign up for challenges, but then again 2011 was my first time signing up for any and I did sign up for them like in September more or less so I knew I was on steady ground by then, haha.
Your resolutions is very very brave, I wish I could do that...I would have plenty of books to read without buying any, there's this mountain of ebooks I've impulse-bought so far, so I'd have reading material in spades; but I know I'll buy more next year *sigh* Maybe I'll get a Kindle tough and will be able to catch up on my reading much faster...pfft, yeah, right, because I'll be able t stash 100$ instead of impulse buying ebooks, rrrright...
Anyways, I will be cheering you on as best I'll be able to! You can do it, I have faith in you :D
Wow! This is quite a challenge. I wish you the best of luck. It is great that you can still get books- just not buy them. I know it would be hard for me to stay away from bookstores!
Can't wait to hear about what you end up reading.
~Jess
http://thesecretdmsfilesoffairdaymorrow.blogspot.com/
A whole year of not buying any books IS tough, but like you said, you've got enough books to read anyway. Somehow *cough* this sounds all too familiar.
BTW I bought the first three books in the Outlander series at a flea market a lil while ago and will probably include them in my "Tea & Books Reading Challenge" where you have to read tomes with 700+ pages. If it weren't for me creating this challenge I'd probably never touch those chunksters, hahaha!
Spookily enough Birgit, it was your Tea and Books challenge that led me to your blog :D
I envy you, just starting out on these. I still love them to bits, more with every re-read but nothing compares to that first time <3
So glad you decided to sign up for the Outlander Series Reading Challenge!!! I'm so excited, I LOVE LOVE LOVE this series!!
Thanks for joining the Sookie challenge, Silver Thistle! I, too, love True Blood but failed the 2011 Sookie challenge miserably - I did not even read one! Hopefully this will give us both a push :)
Another challenge I failed at this year was the Outlander one. I, too, am signed up again for 2012!
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