The World Citizen Challenge

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Rules:
There are six different levels of participation, and seven different categories of books to read. See Eva's post for complete details.
The challenge runs through 2009, and there will be mini-challenges and prizes each month.

I'll be participating in The Postgraduate Level, which means I'll be reading one book from each of the seven categories (Politics, Economics, History, Culture or Anthropology/Sociology, Worldwide Issues, and Memoirs/Autobiographies). Here are my tentative choices so far:

Team of Rivals, Doris Kearns Goodwin
American Lion, Jon Meacham
The World is Flat, Thomas L. Friedman
The Audacity of Hope or Dreams From My Father, Barack Obama

I'll post a more definitive (and complete) list later.

UPDATE: The List (will add to it as I find more books)
The World is Flat, Thomas L. Friedman (Economics)
Song for the Blue Ocean, Carl Safina (Worldwide Issues)
Zlata's Diary, Zlata Filipovic (Memoirs/Autobiographies)

What Book Am I?

You're Prufrock and Other Observations!

by T.S. Eliot

Though you are very short and often overshadowed, your voice is poetic and lyrical. Dark and brooding, you see the world as a hopeless effort of people trying to impress other people. Though you make reference to almost everything, you've really heard enough about Michelangelo. You measure out your life with coffee spoons.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Actually, my friend Ashley often teases me because of my esoteric allusions (which no one but myself ever understands). I should have been a pair of ragged claws. Scuttling across the floors of silent seas. . .

Quiz found via Vasilly.

Which Reindeer Are You?

You Are Blitzen

Always in good spirits, you're the reindeer who loves to party down with Santa. Why You're Naughty: You're always blitzed on Christmas Eve, while flying! Why You're Nice: You mix up a mean eggnog martini.

Which of Santa's Reindeer Are You?

An eggnog martini sounds gross, but I did have a gingerbread martini this week that was pretty tasty.

Best. Ornament. EVER!

I have this tradition with some of my friends from the MAT program I completed this summer. There are six of us who managed to get teaching jobs near Milledgeville, where we went to grad school, and every week we get together for dinner and tales of teaching (the good, the bad, and the ugly). A few weeks ago, we decided to do a Secret Santa gift exchange, rather than having everyone worrying about getting a gift for everyone else in the group. I unhelpfully listed "books" as my desired gift, because I'm a voracious reader and really not that picky. Lo and behold, my friend Annie pulled my name out of the hat (literally!) and pretty much picked out the perfect gift:


The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (which I've been wanting to read anyway) as a GRAPHIC NOVEL. It's too awesome, and I'm insanely pleased by it.

"But wait," you say. "What's that small green folded thing in the bottom right-hand corner?"

That, my blog-pals, is the second-awesomest thing I got tonight. See, every week, we pick a different restaurant. This week, someone suggested Chinese. Not my favorite, but lord knows I talk them into eating Mexican enough, so whatever. I actually really enjoyed my Spicy Bean Curd, and I have enough leftovers for the next 2-3 days. We were leaving to pay, and I noticed that there was a Christmas tree near the cash register decorated with origami ornaments. On closer inspection, I realized quite a few of them were Yoda! I asked the guy at the register if I could buy one, and he told me to take one off the tree gratis, provided I come back to eat again. How great is that?

A closer look:



And just cause that guy was so nice: if you're ever in Milledgeville, Georgia, and looking for a place to eat, I highly recommend Lieu's Peking Restaurant. Maybe next time I'll talk him into teaching me how to make one of these myself.

Booking Through Thursday: Time is of the Essence

Today's Booking Through Thursday question(s):

1. Do you get to read as much as you WANT to read?

2. If you had (magically) more time to read–what would you read? Something educational? Classic? Comfort Reading? Escapism? Magazines?

I definitely don't get to read as much as I would like to, at least not right now. Thankfully, this semester will be finished in a little over a week and I will have two glorious weeks of reading freedom. There are so many books I want to read; that's partly why I join so many challenges, so push myself and also to be introduced to new books and authors. I enjoy comfort reading (when I have the time) and I do have a few back-issues of Marie Claire that I need to get to. What I really miss, though, are comic books. I used to be able to pick up my new comics every Wednesday, but now that I live in the middle of nowhere, with no nearby LCBS (local comic book shop), they're really hard to come by.

But you don't have to take my word for it. Visit btt for more opinions.

Feelin' lucky

So, I wasn't going to join any more challenges. But then I heard about the A - Z Reading Challenge and said, "Well, I'll probably read at least 52 books next year anyway; why not?" And then I read about the Dewey's Books Reading Challenge and said, "Well, it's for Dewey, so I need to do it." And then I joined up on My Year of Reading Dangerously just because. Sigh. I am going to be a very busy reader next year. Well, at least I'll have plenty to do this summer...

You know how people always say that good things happen in threes? Well, I recently won THREE book giveaways! Jill at Fizzy Thoughts sent me a copy of The Last Days of Dogtown, which she reviewed here. It's been bumped up to the top of the TBR pile. I also won a copy of The Willoughbys from Chris at Stuff as Dreams are Made on and a copy of Matrimony from Veens at Giving Reading a Chance. I need to spread the love and luck by hosting some giveaways of my own, I think. :)

Random bonus links:
Pride and Prejudice, facebook-style
And the inspiration: Hamlet, facebook-style

Too funny.

My Year of Reading Dangerously Challenge

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Rules:

Read 12 books you deem "dangerous." between January 1st and December 31st 2009. They may be banned or challenged books, new-to-you genres, books that seem to inhabit a permanent space on your stacks, or authors you're afraid of. The possibilities are endless! If it's dangerous to you, it's challenge-worthy to us!

For my year of reading dangerously, I decided to try new authors and genres. Some of these will be authors that I had previously scoffed at or dismissed due to their wide-spread popularity. Others are just something new for me to try.

1. The Tenth Circle, Jodi Picoult
2. James Patterson
3. a romance novel
4. Stephanie Plum
5. Nicholas Sparks

Any other suggestions?

Dewey's Books Reading Challenge

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Rules:

There are two ways to join this challenge:

1. Pick one book from each of the 6 years that Dewey has archives of. You can access her archives by clicking on the archive link in the sidebar of her website. It’s a dropdown menu. For instance, you would read one book that she reviewed in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 for a total of six books.

2. The other option is to read 5 books that Dewey reviewed. These can be from any year and I’m guessing that each of us has at least 5 books on our TBR list because of Dewey!

And the rules:

1. Choose either option 1 or 2 from above.

2. Commit to read your books (either 5 or 6 depending on which option you choose) throughout 2009. The challenge will end on December 31, 2009 but we’ll go ahead and unofficially start it right away! We’ll officially start it on January 1st, 2009.

3. Check back to the challenge blog that we’ve created, Dewey’s Books, often as I’ll put up Mr. Linky’s for reviews and I’ll mention prize giveaways!

I'm going for option 1. My pool of picks so far:
2003: The Corrections
Everything is Illuminated
2004: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
2005: The Birth of Venus
2006: Outlander
The Misfits
Speak
The Kite Runner
Madame Bovary
Lord Vishnu's Love Handles
2007: Einstein's Dreams
Ice Haven
It's Like This, Cat
Rant
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
The Penelopiad
2008: Nation
33 Things Every Girl Should Know About Women's History
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Totally Joe
The Book Thief

A - Z Reading Challenge

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Rules:

Option A: Read authors A to Z. Commit to reading 26 books theoretically speaking.

Option B: Read titles A to Z. Commit to reading 26 books theoretically speaking.

Option C: Read both authors A to Z and titles A to Z (52 books; this is the challenge Joy created)

Option D: Read internationally A to Z (books representing 26 different countries) (The books could be from international authors (writers from that country); however, it's fine if a book is only set in that country. If need be, instead of countries one could use cities, states, regions, etc. The idea is to use proper place names. If you'd like you could even use a few fictional countries.)

Option E: Read 26 Alphabet books. Embrace your inner child and go visit the children's section!

Sign ups begin December 1, 2008. (The challenge does NOT start until January 1, 2009, but early sign ups are definitely encouraged!) The challenge closes to new participants on June 30, 2009.

I'll be going for option C - thank goodness we can overlap with other challenges! :)

Book Title	Letter	Author Name
	A
	B
	C
	D
	E
Fables #11: War and Pieces	F
	G
	H
	I
	J
	K
	L
	M
	N
	O
	P
	Q
	R
	S
	T
	U
	V
	W
	X
	Y
	Z

The Sunday Salon - 7 December 2008

I can't believe it's been over a month since my last TSS post. Today I decided to post about my challenges. The year is coming to an end, and it's time to reflect on what I did in 2008 and set goals for 2009.

The challenges that I joined this year are:
* The 1% Well-Read Challenge - I've read 5 books, reviewed 4, and have 5 left to read. Yay!
* The Book Awards II Challenge - I've read and reviewed 1 book, and have 9 left to read. Yikes!
* A Midsummer Night's Challenge - I read and reviewed both books for this challenge. Yay!
* The July Book Blowout Challenge - I met (and exceeded!) my goal of reading 10 books during the month of July. Yay!
* Life Books Challenge - I have not read the three books I chose for this challenge. Yikes! I'd still like to complete it, even though the challenge is long gone. The books sound interesting, and I love the challenge concept.

The challenges I have signed up for in 2009:
* 100 Shots of Short - no time limit, no required books, just reading 100 short stories
* The Well-Seasoned Reader Challenge - read three books dealing with food, travel, or culture
* The YA Book Challenge - read 12 YA books
* The Year of Readers - donating money to a literary charity

Wish me luck! :)