I’ve already posted about the Cybil’s Shortlist Challenge – that’s a given for me. I enjoy these books too much to ever stop doing this one. And, I didn’t even come close to finishing the Nancy Drew Challenge that I started on the spur of the moment last year (I’m glaring at @Sassymonkey now) so I’ll be reading the Nancys all year long and hope to get much closer to finishing – if not completely finished by the end of the year.  So that’s two challenges but what else?

Well of course I’m going to do my From the Stacks by Color Challenge but I’m going to do it a bit differently this year. Every year I have a ton of trouble with it because I just wander around on the last day of the old year or the first day of the new year and pick a book, by color, that I have not read. I don’t take the time to really look at the books and so I end up with short stories that I don’t love – fiction that I really disliked – non-fiction I was bored with. I find myself looking longingly at books on my shelf that I DO want to read and wishing I had chosen those instead. And, of course I do also read books that I buy or am given throughout the year that aren’t on my challenge list at all. (In 2010, I read a total of 53 books that I own. That’s not a lot and many came from my Challenges but it’s still not bad…)

So this year I’m going to do this a little differently. I’m still going to read books from the stacks, by color, but I’m going to be more selective about it – and I’m going to make it harder because I love setting myself up to gripe about challenges.  Here are the new rules:

1) I will read 40 books from my shelves (that I haven’t already read) – preferably a few every month rather than waiting ’til the last six months of the year to read them all. (Not counting Nancy Drews – those are separate!)

2) I will read at least one book in each color (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black, brown, white). (Again, not counting Nancy Drews since they’re all yellow!)

3) At least one book will be short stories. At least one book will be poetry. At least one book will be a re-read of a novel I loved. At least one book will be a memoir or a biography.

So that’s that… what else?

Oh, @Firemom’s Adoption Reading Challenge. I have absolutely no idea about what I want to read for this challenge – I often read books with adoption themes, not necessarily chosen because they have adoption themes, so I’m sure I won’t have trouble. BUT, I’d like to choose some based on recommendations by others who are taking the challenge. I’d like to choose some specifically because they have adoption themes. Let’s see how I do…

Besides specific challenges, I’d like to do more books on audio. I’m a little surprised that I only have eight from last year (though we’re about halfway through a ninth) – I’d like to try for ten… let’s see how we do with that…

Oh – one more, I almost forgot. During the holidays, Sassymonkey wrote a post about Christmas books and I thought I might have some fun with those this year. If someone leads Christmas in July, I might join it. Otherwise, I’ll just make it a mini-challenge for myself to read three Christmas (or Christmas-y) books in 2011.

Alrighty, I think that’s enough, don’t you?

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*UPDATED Four Hours Later* – I felt oddly compelled to join the GLBT Challenge even after deciding against it last week. I know, I have a sickness. You feel sorry for me, don’t you?

Let’s see how I did this year:

229 books (I read 163 books last year)

31 were Non-Fiction

80 were YA

20 were Graphic Novels

Only 8 were audio books, that seems pretty low.

8 were short stories (and those short stories almost killed me.)

Only 6 were poetry (and most of those were Cybils… hmmm)

I dropped 114 in the “Favorites” category (which feels like a lot – except that some were Nancy Drews and several were from the Cybils shortlist and those are all really great books, every year.)

I put 10 in the “Don’t Read This” category and I couldn’t finish 3 books that I tried to read.

20 were for the Nancy Drew Challenge

9 Were for the From the Stacks by Color Challenge

71 Were from the Cybils Shortlist – I didn’t quite finish the short list this year, I’ve been waiting for one book to come in for six months. I may never read it because I can’t bring myself to buy it.

3 Were for the 1930’s Mini Challenge

So what should I do about reading challenges in 2011? I’ll let you know tomorrow – after I sleep on this…

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