Lucky No. 14 Reading Challenge

Yup, another one. There are 14 different categories. My list may change throughout the year, but these are the books I'm thinking about reading for it right now:

1. Visit The Country: In a Sunburned Country

2. Cover Lust: Diverse Energies

3. Blame it on Bloggers: Silver Phoenix

4. Bargain All The Way: 13 Little Blue Envelopes

5. (Not So) Fresh From the Oven: Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish

6. First Letter’s Rule: Jessica Darling's It List

7. Once Upon a Time: Picnic at Hanging Rock

8. Chunky Brick: In the Garden of Beasts

10. It’s Been There Forever: Pretty Monsters

11. Movies vs Books: Gone Girl

12. Freebies Time: Attachments

13. Not My Cup of Tea: Eight Girls Taking Pictures

14. Walking Down The Memory Lane: Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret

2014 NetGalley & Edelweiss Reading Challenge

My reading challenges for last year didn't go so well (meaning I didn't actually do any of them), but this one is something I should be doing anyway: reading and reviewing ARCs I receive from NetGalley! I'm going for the bronze level (ten books) because I already have five that I've been approved for and haven't reviewed yet. Four of them are from the Jane Austen Academy series, which I'm really excited about.

Completed:
1. Fall For You
2. So Into You
3. When I'm With You
4. We Were Liars
5. Backward Compatible
6. Suddenly You
7. Alienated
8. Mafia Girl
9. Diverse Energies
10. Black Canary and Zatanna: Bloodspell
11. The Here and Now

Playing the game #gameondiet

After following @BethFishReads's, @toofondofbooks's, @myfriendamy's, and @fizzythoughts's progress in The Game On! diet, I decided to take the plunge and start a competition of my own. I bought a copy of the book yesterday and talked my friend/co-worker, Brandi, into doing a one-on-one game. We're going shopping for supplies today and then tomorrow, it's on!

I also picked up a copy of My Weight Loss Coach for my Nintendo DS; between that and my WiiFit, I'll be gamer-girl geeking my way to the top of this competition. I'm not going to review The Game On! Diet book; both Beth F and Dawn (and Amy and softdrink) have done a great job of that already. You can check it out online here if you're interested.

Brandi and I have already decided that if this four weeks goes well, we'll try to recruit some more teachers once school starts back up and get a bigger competition going. Wish us luck!

48 Hour Book Challenge

Mother Reader is hosting the 4th annual 48 Hour Book Challenge this weekend, June 5-7. I missed out on the 24-Hour Read-a-thon this past time, so I'm looking forward to this one. The rules:

1. The weekend is June 5–7, 2009. Read and blog for any 48-hour period within the Friday-to-Monday-morning window. Start no sooner than 7:00 a.m. on Friday the fifth and end no later than 7:00 a.m. Monday. So, go from 7:00 p.m. Friday to 7:00 p.m. on Sunday... or maybe 7:00 a.m. Saturday to 7:00 a.m. Monday works better for you. But the 48 hours do need to be in a row. Edited to add: But during that 48-hour period you may still have gaps of time in which you can’t read, and that’s fine. In the middle of the three different challenge weekends I’ve had to go to work, attend a ballet recital, and drive for a Girl Scout event. You can certainly work around the other events in your weekend.

2. The books should be about fifth-grade level and up. Adult books are fine, especially if any adult book bloggers want to play. If you are generally a picture book blogger, consider this a good time to get caught up on all those wonderful books you’ve been hearing about. Two graphic novels can be included in the reading. I’m not trying to discriminate, I’m just trying to make sure that the number of books and page counts mean the same thing to everyone.

3. It’s your call as to how much you want to put into it. If you want to skip sleep and showers to do this, go for it. If you want to be a bit more laid back, fine. But you have to put something into it or it’s not a challenge.

4. The length of the reviews are not an issue. You can write a sentence, paragraph, or a full-length review. The time spend reviewing counts in your total time.

5. On your blog, state when you are starting the challenge with a specific entry on that day. This makes it easier to track the participants. Write your final summary on Monday, and for one day, we’ll all be on the same page, so to speak.

6. Your final summary needs to clearly include the number of books read, the approximate hours you spent reading/reviewing, and any other comments you want to make on the experience. It needs to be posted no later than noon on Monday, June 8th.

7. Sign up in today’s comments. You’re more than welcome to post the challenge on your site. Point them to today’s post to sign up. On Friday, June 5, I’ll have a starting-line post where you can sign in to say you’re officially starting the challenge.

I have a huge stack of books to read, and an even bigger stack to review. Maybe next month I should host a 48-hour review-a-thon...

Sunday Salon 01 March 2009: Challenge Updates

For this week's Sunday Salon, I decided to update the various challenges that I'm working on. It seemed like a nice way to wrap up February.

1. The 1% Well-Read Challenge ended yesterday. I read 5 out of 10 books (and 1/2 of The Last Temptation of Christ) and posted 4 reviews. I wanted to do better with this one, but time got away from me. Michelle's hosting (Another) 1% Well-Read Challenge, but I don't think I'm going to sign up, just because I have so many other challenges for the year that I'm already behind on.

2. Book Awards II Challenge ends June 1. So far, I've read 5 out of 10 books and posted 3 reviews.

3. 100 Shots of Short is a perpetual challenge, but I set a personal goal to finish by the end of the year. So far, I've read 8 stories and posted 2 reviews.

4. The Well-Seasoned Reader Challenge ends March 31. So far, I've read 0 out of 3 books. Eep!

5. The YA Book Challenge ends December 31. I've read 14 out of 12 books (yay!) and posted 0 reviews (boo!).

6. The A-Z Reading Challenge ends December 31. I've read a bunch of books, but haven't updated my reading table for this challenge.

7. The Dewey's Books Reading Challenge ends December 31. I haven't read any of the books, but I have been participating in the mini-challenges.

8. The Year of Reading Dangerously Challenge ends December 31. I have read one book for this challenge and posted 0 reviews.

9. The World Citizen Challenge ends December 31. I'm currently reading one book for this challenge.

10. The Graphic Novels Challenge ends December 31. I have read 2 books for this challenge and posted 1 review.

11. The Winter Reading Challenge ends March 20. I've read way more books during this time period than I planned to, but I haven't reviewed them all.

12. The Science Book Challenge ends December 31. I'm currently reading 1 book for this challenge.

13. The Diversity Rocks! Challenge ends whenever I finish my other challenges. So far, none of my books have been very diverse. :(

14. The Dream King Challenge ends December 31. My own challenge, and I've barely done anything for it! I did see a movie (Coraline) but have yet to review it. Sigh...

I'm also working on the Blog Improvement Project, but don't get me started on how far behind I am on it. And as for Carl's Sci-Fi Experience, well, let's just say that these have not been the best of months for me to be doing non-school-related reading. But y'all just wait til this summer, when I'll have no papers to grade or lessons to plan - full-on read-fest, here I come! In about 3 months...

Getting back into the groove...

School started back up this week, so I've been crazy-busy trying to learn all my new students' names, helping the Drama Club get ready for their next one act performance, and just generally trying to keep my sanity. My classes are slightly bigger this semester (no inclusion classes this time), which means twice the papers to grade whenever I assign work. Sigh. I had over 1,000 unread items in Google Reader from this week; I've done a blitzkrieg on reading/commenting and have my fingers crossed that I didn't miss anything important.

As for my challenges...well, I'm much better at the reading than the reviewing part. :) I hit up a used book store a few weeks ago, and I've already made my way through a few YA novels.

Bonus links:
Not to brag or anything, but I got 100% on this logic test. The high school Math flashbacks that came with it weren't as great...
Leila over at bookshelves of doom, one of my favorite YA book blogs, is starting a YA-themed fiction magazine. Click on the link for more info and submission guidelines.

Reviews, Blog Improvement Project posts, and Dream King Challenge updates coming soon - hopefully

Dewey's Books Mini-Challenge: Dewey's Knit-a-Long

Robin is sponsoring the second mini-challenge for the Dewey's Books Reading Challenge: Dewey's Knit-a-Long! From the challenge blog:

Now that the holiday season is over, it’s time for new projects! Help celebrate Dewey’s love of books AND of knitting! This is a mini-challenge for those of us that are honoring her memory by reading the books she talked about on her blog, and who also share her love of knitting! How about dedicating at least one of your 2009 knitting (or other handwork!) projects to Dewey’s memory? Perhaps you would like to knit or crochet some things for a local charity? Or if you’ve never learned to knit, maybe it’s time to learn! (Come on, Chris!)

* Leave a comment on this post to sign up for Dewey’s Knit-A-Long by the end of January, and I will randomly pick one of your names and send you a free scarf pattern, some beautiful NORO yarn, and some bamboo knitting needles for the project.

* Post about your projects on your own blog as you finish them, (or post updates on your progress!), include photos, and then leave a comment on this post each time. I will update this blog throughout the next few months with links to your project updates, with reviews of knitting books, and with interesting and helpful knitting information.

* Please put one of the Knit-A-Long buttons on your sidebar with a link to this post for easy access.

* A drawing will also be held at the end of February, March, and April for more prizes: patterns, yarn (I have some Malabrigo for you sock knitters!), and knitting books!

* You don’t have to finish your project in that time. Just post about what you have on the needles and about your progress! But please keep us updated!

* If you prefer another type of handwork other than knitting…we welcome you, too! Please just make a note of that when you sign up here so that if your name is chosen for a prize, I can adjust it to your preferred handwork materials!

Visit the mini-challenge page for more info and to sign up. I'm not sure what I'll be knitting (or crocheting) yet, but I would like to try my hand at a pair of socks...

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! :)