The Blonde Diaries

This challenge is being hosted by Jamie at Bumps in the Road. Between free Kindle books, under $5 Kindle books, and gifted books I have a ton of unread books!  My goal this year is to make a dent in my Kindle collection.  With my other challenges I shouldn’t have trouble getting up to  The Mega Size E-Book Reading Challenge – Read 25+ E-Books.

From January 1, 2012 – December 31, 2012

Here are the rules:

1. Anyone can join. You don’t need a blog to participate.  Create a post about the challenge and link your challenge post up in the linky below.

–Non-Bloggers: Post your list of books in the comment section of the wrap-up post.

2. There are four levels:

–The Mini E-Book Challenge – Read 5 E-Books.

–The “Fun Size” E-Book Challenge – Read 10 E-Books.

–The Jumbo Size E-Book Challenge – Read 20 E-Books.

–The Mega Size E-Book Reading Challenge – Read 25+ E-Books.

3. No Audio or Print books.

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. The Challenge starts on January 1, 2012 and goes until December 31, 2012.

I love earning Amazon gift cards from taking surveys online or earning my SwagBucks.  I tend to use these small gift cards to see how many Kindle books I can get.  If you like trying out new authors like I do, you can buy 5 $0.99 books with a $5 gift card.  Most of these books are self-published by indie writers and have some grammar/typos but it is fairly easy to overlook those things when the book is good (and cheap). So for that reason I'm joining in with the indie challenge.  My husband bought me quite a few indie books for my stocking that are waiting to be read.  I'm going with the Having a Go level - 15 books.

This challenge is brought to you by Bookish Ardour.

What It’s All About

Do you love Indie/Self-Pub publishers and authors? Are you considering trying out Indie written novels, but need that motivation to get going? Then this challenge might just be what you’re looking for!

The Deets

• The Main Rule: Read novels by self-published authors and Indie publishers.
  
• Running Dates: 1st of January – 31st of December 2012
• When Can I Sign Up: All the way up to the last two weeks of December 2012!
• Crossover Genres: Anything! As long as it’s Indie it doesn’t matter.
• Mr Linky: To use the Mr Linky you’ll need to click on the graphic then enter your link. These will be updated and posted into this page every couple of weeks or so.
• Further Details: Crossover challenges are fine, you can change levels at any time, this is eBook, short story, and graphic novel friendly, and you don’t need a blog to join in (read further for details).

The How To

1. Choose Your Level: These are listed further down and you can change levels at any time.
2. Grab The Badge: Place it somewhere on your blog, profile, or in a signature where possible and link back (main page or this page, it’s up to you).
3. Sign Up Post: Create a post on your blog, in a group, or on a forum (only if allowed) to let others see what you’re aiming for (a predefined list of books is optional).
4. Link Up: Grab the direct URL to your sign up post, not your blog, click the Mr Linky graphic and enter your link!
5. Blogless? Don’t worry, you can sign up with your social network profile (YouTube, Twitter, GoodReads, Shelfari included), just make sure you link to your review list, shelf, tweet, or category. If you don’t have any of those feel free to comment!

Afterwards

1. Your Reviews: Reviewing is optional, but greatly appreciated when it comes to indie novels! If you do review we’d love for you to share them, by submitting them on the Review Page (including social networks).
2. Finished: When you’re done it’s completion post time and you can share these on the Completion Post page!

Challenge Levels

1. Tentative– Choose 5 books to read
2. Having a Go – Choose 15 books to read
3. Getting Into It – Choose 30 books to read
4. Anti-Stigma – Choose 50 books to read
5. Won Over – Choose 75 books to read
6. Indie Lover – Choose between 76-135 books to read
7. Professionally What? – Choose between 136-200 books to read

Extra Challenges

If you feel like that extra kick to your reading challenges here’s a couple you can choose from.

• World: Choose a country as your theme, reading only books from that country or where it’s the setting. For how high you go you can choose more than one country;
• Level Tentative and Having a Go: Choose one country
• Level Getting Into It and Anti-Stigma: Choose two countries
• Level Won Over to end of Indie Lover: Choose three countries
• Level Professionally What?: Choose four countries.
• Gender Battle: Read books only by female or male authors. Another alternative is to read equal amounts of both.

Have you read a book by an author that you really enjoyed and felt moved to read another of the author’s works? Or are you thinking to give an author another try even if you didn’t like your first taste of their work? If yes, then this challenge is for you! You’re going to go back for seconds of an author that you’ve only read once. The great thing about this challenge is that it’s not just for your second in a series books, but the second time you’ve read an author as well.

(This challenge has previously been hosted at J. Kaye’s Book Blog, Royal Reviews, and A Few More Pages)

Interested in joining the fun? Here are the guidelines:

1. Anyone can join. You don’t need a blog to participate. If you’re not a blogger, you can post your reviews at a review site like Goodreads, LibraryThing, or Shelfari and link them up here.

2. There are four levels to choose from in this challenge:

• Just a spoonful - Read 3 books that are 2nd in a series or the second time you’ve read the author.
• A few more bites – Read 6 books that are 2nd in a series or the second time you’ve read the author.
• A full plate – Read 12 books that are 2nd in a series or the second time you’ve read the author.
• All you can eat – Read 20 books (or more) that are 2nd in a series or the second time you’ve read the author.

You can list your books in advance or just put them in a wrap up post. If you list them, feel free to change them as the mood takes you. Any genre counts. Any book format counts.

3. The challenge runs from January 1 through December 31, 2012.

4. You can join anytime between now and December 31, 2012.

5. A post will be created here where you can link-up your reviews and visit the reviews of other participants.

6. If you’re a blogger, write up a sign-up post that includes the URL to this post so that others can join in. Feel free to use the button! You can grab the code you need from the box in the right sidebar.

Yesterday one of the headlines on Yahoo News was about Ricky Martin announcing on his website that he is gay.  My response is so what!  I am over the whole coming out with who is gay and who is not.  What does it really matter?  At the end of the day, all that matters is how good of a person you are and that you lived a good life.  I could personally care less what your sexual orientation is.

I have always thought that we are all equal and that it doesn’t matter who is who and what we prefer.  At the end of the day social issues need advancement and fiscal responsibility is a needed requirement no matter what your personal preferences.  I actually look forward to the day when we don’t need to identify ourselves with our orientation. How awesome would it be to refer to our husband/wife as our “partner” with no need explanation with their sex. I mean Mike and I don’t identify ourselves with our name and sexual orientation and I hope the same happens for gays and lesbians in our near future. I look forward to the day when celebrities and non celebrities don’t have to announce their preference. As long as we are all financially sound/solvent, who really cares about these other things.

I found this “quiz” over on Samantha’s blog -> Simply Samantha.  Check it out when you have a chance.  I love quizzes and this one was no different.  So without further ado, I am going to share with you some of my favorite things.