The Blonde Diaries

I was super excited to run across this challenge on J. Kaye’s book blog. I have been hearing great things about Janet Evanovich and the Stephanie Plum Series. I haven’t read a single book in the series but I did read my first Evanovich book 2 weeks ago and it was pretty funny. The purpose of this challenge is to catch you up in the Stephanie Plum series but I am going to modify it a little since I haven’t read any of the books and there are a lot of books in this series. So I am aiming to read half of the books in this series by December 31, 2010. Anything over these seven will be a bonus   If you want to participate, click on the challenge photo and head over to J. Kaye’s blog and leave your link.

So here is my list:

1. One for the Money   Completed January 2010
2. Two for the Dough  Completed January 2010
3. Three to get Deadly  Completed January 2010
4. Four to Score Completed January 2010
5. High Five Completed January 2010
6. Hot Six Completed January 2010
7. Seven Up Completed January 2010

I’m extending the challenge!  I want to finish the entire series this year! Wish me luck!

1. Hard Eight Completed February 2010
2. Visions of Sugar Plums Completed February 2010
3. To the Nines Completed February 2010
   
4. Ten Big Ones Completed February 2010
   
5. Eleven on Top Completed March 2010
   
6. Twelve Sharp Completed March 2010
   
7. Lean Mean Thirteen Completed March 2010
   
8. Plum Lovin’ Completed March 2010
   
9. Plum Lucky Completed April 2010
   
10. Fearless Fourteen Completed April 2010
    
11. Finger Lickin’ Fifteen Completed April 2010

I am officially caught up (ok minus Plum Spooky). I can’t wait for the next book to come out in June 2010!

The Flashback Challenge will run from January 1, 2010 – December 31, 2010. If you’re super-excited and want to reread a book before that, feel free, and let me know. If many people do so, then I’ll do a December challenge linky post and you can all link to it here. Otherwise, we can hold them over to January.

You can sign up for the following levels:
Bookworm – Up to three books
Scholar – Four to six books
Literati – Over six books

Within these levels, we have mini-challenges! These are:

1. Re-read a favorite book from your childhood
2. Re-read a book assigned to you in high school
3. Re-read a book you loved as an adult

Thus, if you sign up for the Bookworm level, you could ostensibly choose to read one book from each mini-challenge. Or you could choose to do none of the above (though, granted, not sure what you could have possibly read that does not fit into either childhood, high school or adulthood).

Also, would just like to make clear that this isn’t specifically limited to books you loved reading previously and want to reread. It could also be a book you don’t remember enjoying. Or just don’t remember reading. It might be interesting to see how your perceptions may have changed.

Ok. So I am going for the Bookworm level right now. If things go well I might bump it up to the Scholar level. My books are as follows:
1. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
2. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
3. Can You Keep a Secret by Sophie Kinsella

To sign up for the challenge yourself, click on the picture above and leave a comment.  Good Luck everyone!

Another fantastic book challenge that I can’t wait to begin. Here are the details!
1. Anyone can join. You don’t need a blog to participate.
–Non-Bloggers: Post your list of books in the comment section of the wrap-up post. To learn how to sign up without having a blog, click here.
2. There are four levels:
–The Mini YA Reading Challenge – Read 12 Young Adult novels.
–Just My Size YA Reading Challenge – Read 25 Young Adult novels.
–Stepping It Up YA Reading Challenge – Read 50 Young Adult novels.
–Super Size Me YA Reading Challenge – Read 75 Young Adult novels.
3. Audio, eBooks, paper all count.
4. No need to list your books in advance. You may select books as you go. Even if you list them now, you can change the list if needed.
5. Challenge begins January 1st thru December, 2010.

I am going to aim to complete the Mini YA book challenge for 2010.  I have a few books that have been on my Amazon Wish list for a while so I’m just going to go ahead and put them on here to get started.  Hopefully the library will provide some inspiration as well.

1. Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Book 1) by Ann Brashares  Done
2. The Second Summer of the Sisterhood (Book 2) by Ann Brashares
3. Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood (Book 3) by Ann Brashares
4. Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood (The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants) by Ann Brashares
5. Airhead by Meg Cabot
6. Being Nikki by Meg Cabot
7. Runaway by Meg Cabot
8. The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot Read
9. The Princess Diaries Volume II: Princess in the Spotlight by Meg Cabot Read
   
10. The Princess Diaries, Volume III: Princess in Love by Meg Cabot Read
    
11. The Princess Diaries, Volume IV: Princess in Waiting by Meg Cabot Read
12. Project Princess (The Princess Diaries, Vol. 4 1 / 2) by Meg Cabot Read
13. Princess in Pink by Meg Cabot Read
14. The Princess Diaries, Volume VI: Princess in Training by Meg Cabot Read
    
15. The Princess Diaries, Volume VII: Party Princess by Meg Cabot Read
16. Sweet Sixteen Princess (Princess Diaries, Vol. 7 1/2) by Meg Cabot Read
17. Valentine Princess (Princess Diaries, Vol. 7 3/4) by meg Cabot Read
18. The Princess Diaries, Volume VIII: Princess on the Brink by Meg Cabot Read
19. The Princess Diaries, Volume IX: Princess Mia  by Meg Cabot Read
20. The Princess Diaries, Volume X: Forever Princess by Meg Cabot Read
21. Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief by Rick Riordan
22. Percy Jackson and the Sea Monsters by Rick Riordan
23. Percy Jackson and the Titan’s Curse by Rick Riordan
24. Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan
25. Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian by Rick Riordan
    

This is another great challenge from the J. Kaye book blog. The focus of this challenge is to support your local library by checking out books rather than buying books all the time. This is a great budget saving idea as well. I am aiming to check out most of my challenge books this year so I will go with the Just My Size level. Here are the official rules of the challenge, as always if you want to join in click the challenge photo to the right.

1. Anyone can join. You don’t need a blog to participate.

–Non-Bloggers: Post your list of books in the comment section of the wrap-up post. To learn how to sign up without having a blog, click here.

2. There are four levels:

–The Mini – Check out and read 25 library books.

–Just My Size – Check out and read 50 library books.

–Stepping It Up – Check out and read 75 library books.

–Super Size Me – Check out and read 100 library books.

(Aim high. As long as you read 25 by the end of 2010, you are a winner.)

3. Audio, Re-reads, eBooks, YA, Young Reader – any book as long as it is checked out from the library count. Checked out like with a library card, not purchased at a library sale.

4. No need to list your books in advance. You may select books as you go. Even if you list them now, you can change the list if needed.

5. Crossovers from other reading challenges count.

6. Challenge begins January 1st thru December, 2010.

7. When you sign up under Mr. Linky, put the direct link to your post where your library books will be listed. Include the URL to this post so that other viewers can find this fun challenge. If you’d prefer to put your list in the sidebar of your blog, please leave your viewers the link to the sign up page. Again, so viewers can join the challenge too.

Progress:

1. One for the Money ~ Janet Evanovich
2. Two for the Dough ~ Janet Evanovich
3. Three to Get Deadly ~ Janet Evanovich
4. Oh.My.Gods ~ Tera Lynn Childs
5. Four to Score ~ Janet Evanovich
6. High Five ~ Janet Evanovich
7. Hot Six ~ Janet Evanovich
8. Seven Up ~ Janet Evanovich
9. Dead Until Dark ~ Charlaine Harris
10. Hard Eight ~ Janet Evanovich
11. Living Dead in Dallas ~ Charlaine Harris
12. Visions of Sugar Plums ~ Janet Evanovich
13. Sizzling Sixteen ~ Janet Evanovich
14. The Trouble with Valentines Day ~ Rachel Gibson
15. Mr. Darcy’s Diary ~ Amanda Grange
16. Accidentally Engaged by Mary Carter

2009 was the first year I started participating in reading challenges since I was a young school kid participating in my local library’s summer reading program.  My passion for reading has never waned but challenging myself to read X number of books has off and on.  In 2009 though I vowed to change that and participated in 3 book challenges here in the blogosphere.  I only finished one challenge but I came fairly close on the other 2.  I had a lot of fun and learned a few lessons about picking books, pacing myself, and allowing room for changes.

2010 is shaping up to be my year of challenges.  I was blog hopping last night and came across a ton of challenges that seem really fun and fairly easy. Most of them allow me to pick books as I go along during the year rather than committing to specific books which was my problem last year.  I will be adding my beginning posts for each of the challenges I plan to participate in over the next couple of days. You can get to the master list by clicking on the page link to the left – 2010 book challenges. I am hoping to have better luck this year than I had last year.

Have you joined any challenges? Which ones are you looking forward to the most?