The Sunday Salon – Challenges

It is being another lazy Sunday here for me. I have so much going on right now I am having a really hard time relaxing.  Even when things are lazy it doesn’t mean they are relaxed. I finally reached a true state of relaxation last night while catching up on some episodes from the last season of Bones. As nice as that was it also ate up a huge chunk of reading and cleaning time. Now Sunday is here and the weekend is headed out the door. I have so much left to do!

 

I am also trying to plan for the rest of my reading year and look at what I have already read.  This year I joined more challenges than I ever have before. I am taking today to check in on my progress with them and think about what I need to read before the end of the year to accomplish them.

 

The first challenge is the Support Your Local Library.  I will definitely not meet my goal of reading 50 library books this year because I have barely read 50 books TOTAL in 2010 so far, but also, I have decided to take a break from going to the library because I have so many wonderful books to read at home. I have read more books than I have listed on that post, so I would like to go back and update it. But I don’t expect to finish this challenge this year.

 

There is still a slim chance that I will read 100 books this year, but it doesn’t seem likely. As the year gets closer to ending I am putting more intentional focus on making time to read and sticking with my goals. It has been a bit of a meandering reading year for me. I spent a lot of time picking up books and not finishing them. I spent a lot more time away from home than I ever do. And I also ended up changing a lot of my other habits which made it harder to listen to as many audiobooks as I usually do. Of course, all the book I finish this year will be added to the list.

 

The Cybils Award Challenge is probably another impending failure! Why did I join so many challenges in 2010? I really thought that these challenges would refocus my reading and add some variety to my book choices, but life ended up getting in the way of all that! I joined the Cybils challenge at a level where I have to read 1/4th or 3/4th of the books nominated and I joined for two categories. That ends up being A LOT OF BOOKS!! There are about 140 books on the young adult science fiction and fantasy 2009 Cybils nomination list. To read a quarter of those would still be 35 books. If I count the books I read previous to the challenge starting and considering what I have on my TRB I *might* be able to make that by the end of the year, but I doubt I will be able to do it for BOTH young adult AND middle grade. Though, this challenge, more than any other, really did push me to read different books than I would normally select. Still to read for this challenge:

 

• Middle Grade
  - Skeleton Creek
  - (possibly) Softwire #3 (have it and the previous books, but I would have to read all 3)
  - Sent (same as above, would have to read first and second book)
• Young Adult
  - Bones of Faerie
  - The Carbon Diaries 2015
  - DupliKate
  - Fire
  - The Hunchback Assignments
  - Sacred Scars
  - Silver Phoenix
  - Zenith

 

Have you read any of these books from my TBR? Which one would you read first?

 

I joined the Terry Pratchet challenge and have not read a single book for it yet. Of course, in theory, there is still time. But how I am going to fit it in with my other intended reading, I am not quite sure. I was supposed to read 10 books written by Pratchet and unless something drastic happens I don’t seem me accomplishing that. I am also struggling with what Discworld book to read first. One person says this one, another says that one. I wanted to try and read them in order another person wasn’t sure that was a good idea. I am feeling a bit wishy washy about the whole thing.

 

The 42 Challenge was an exciting challenge for me to embrace. I have finally accepted that I love science fiction and this challenge was about just reading/viewing 42 separate pieces of sci fi. Originally I wanted to try and stick with books on this but I may have to include movies as well if I don’t get to my total by the end of the year. This is going to take sitting down with a notebook to really figure out what I want to list for the challenge.

 

The Young Adult reading challenge is an easy one for me since the majority of books I read are young adult. It is just a matter of going back and listing all the books that qualify for this! And most of my TBR for the rest of the year will fall into this category.

 

I was really excited about the PoC Challenge when it was first announced. But I kind of lost steam with it, as I did with reading in general and I really hope to finish strong and meet my minimum goal to read 7 books in 2010. So far I have read 2 books that classify and that leaves me with needing to read 5 more.

• Mississippi Trial, 1955 (currently reading)
• Green Boy
• Silver Phoenix
• Un Dun Lun
• Nancy Farmer book, maybe The Ear, The Eye, The Arm

 

It is starting to occur to me that maybe I joined a few too many challenges this year. Does that happen to you? The worst part? I am not even done listing all the challenges! Do you ever join a challenge and wish later that you hadn’t? I am not sure I can think of a single challenge I wish I didn’t join but I do wish I joined a few less.  Next year I am going to try and join fewer challenges and focus on those with a specific focus or smaller time frame.

 

The final challenge I have to focus on this year is the YA D2 challenge which focuses on young adult dystopian books. Considering my recent book purchases, this should be easy for me. Now it is only a matter of finding the time. I only have to read 5 books for this challenge and some of them overlap with other challenges I am participating in. Even though this challenge has just started I have enjoyed it so much. I love going around seeing what everyone is reading and what they are excited about. I love how much exposure challenges like these bring to dystopia. Here are some of the books I have to read:

• Bones of Faerie
• Matched
• Dead-Tossed Waves
• Crashed
• Green Boy
• Clone Codes
• Ransoms’ Revenge
• Zenith

I have so many books for this challenge in my personal library it is insanely hard to choose what to read. I figure I can pick anything I want to read, I just have to stick with it and not jump from book to book as I have been prone to do lately. Going around and seeing other people’s lists has made me realize I forgot some books I really should have listed and are reminding me of other books I have been wanting to read. It is going to be a fast and furious few months when it comes to reading these books and visiting the blogs of the other participants.

 

The final challenge I joined this year is the Steampunk Challenge. It is less of a concern at this exact moment because it is a year long challenge and I have until next October to get everything read. But there are some books I want to get read this year! Here are some of the books I will be focusing on:

• Boneshaker
• The Windup Girl
• Soulless
• Clockwork Angel

 

As you can see I have TONS of reading to do. What about you? Are you planning on taking it easy for the rest of your reading year? It can get a little hard to find all the time that you need around the holidays. I am hoping to power through and get back to reading over 10 books a month until the end of the year. It is going to be a challenge for me, but I was there before and I can be there again. Sometimes it is hard to adapt your life to include all the things you love AND reading.

 

Today I am going to try and finish up The Clockwork Three.  The title and cover are great and I heard rumors that this book can classify as steampunk. I am not quite sure if that is the case or not but I will decide by the end of the book and it looks like an enjoyable read either way.