Saturday, October 17, 2009

Ongoing Challenges for 2010?

I am a list person. For the longest time I thought I was a total B personality, but I am starting to suspect I am a little more type-A than I thought/was willing to admit. And the lists are the tip of the iceberg. But since I am a list person, I like to keep track of what I read and what types of books they are.

So I've been thinking lately of what type of challenge I want to have when I am done with Helluva Halloween, but then I thought, do I really want to limit myself to reading mostly one type of book for the forseeable future? Because the problem with book lists is that as soon as I get them organized and pretty and I've crammed every possible thing in that I can, along comes some shiny new book that doesn't follow the pattern at all, and then I want to read books like that, and the list is out the window. Plus, there were so many things I wanted to pick next, and how do I choose?

So then I thought, what if I do a full year of challenges, and make them continuous, so that they last through out the year, and the goal is just to keep track of how many I read in that year (and how many you read, if you want in), but each will have it's own page and graphic and lists.

I will have links to all in my sidebar, and people can pop in and tell me what they're reading in that genre, and who knows, maybe if something strikes my fancy, there will be a contest/giveaway or two...

There are a few I know I want to do (dystopian, fairy tale, magical realism) and some that I think I maybe want to do (award winners, banned/challenged, historical), and I am pretty wide open on the rest.

So my questions to you are
  1. Do you like the idea of a set of year-round challenges?
  2. Do you have any suggestions for genres? I'm thinking twelve total, so that even though they all run year-round, I can highlight one each month.
  3. Would you stop by and add your reviews in these genres?
Thanks for your input, all. :)

8 comments:

  1. output for your input questions:

    1. being a list person too, i like the idea to preparing for the next year. i tried to do this for this year but found that new ideas would be sparked by what i found from reading other blogs. i decided to keeping things open and planning only 3 months ahead at a time.

    2. i like the genres you've suggested. they are similar ones i have in mind as well. especially the dystopian one.

    3. yesssss, i would definitely feed you links!

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  2. "i tried to do this for this year but found that new ideas would be sparked"
    Yeah, that's why it's not going to be structured, and I'm not going to plan in advance what I "have" to read. It's just going to be, if I read something dystopian, I'll link it to the dystopian page, or if I want to post something about mag realism, I'll link that, etc.

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  3. Interesting. My thoughts:

    1.I agree with the comment from vvb32 reads, that keeping things open in some way is a good idea. I really like the idea though.
    2. Dystopian, *definitely*. I think it would be great if you included a challenge on LGBT fiction.
    3. I would definitely stop by and add reviews in any genres I read in. And knowing how much other bloggers' reading tends to impact on my own, it would probably inspire me to read outside my comfort zone a little more too.

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  4. 1) I do like the idea of a year round challenge. On Librarything, I did a 999 challenge where you choose 9 categories and read 9 books from each category in a year. In the rules, you can overlap 9 books in different categories, but I think that's cheating. ;)

    2)Like everyone else, I LOVE dystopia. Maybe you could have a graphic novel genre as well, if you were interested.

    3) I would definitely stop by and add reviews or suggestions for the genres you choose.

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  5. I like Dystopia and I like lists, but at times, I've done the commitment to a huge challenge, and as great as the accountability is, I don't like being tied down to certain books, especially when new books come out and I feel that I am not allowed to read them!

    Oh and I would most def add my reviews!

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  6. Yeah, I was thinking I'd include graphic novels. I want to balance things I love with things I want to read more of, and I haven't read that many GNs.
    And Lauren, I hadn't even thought of LGBT, but that could def. be a section. Mulitcultural probably will be.
    April, I definitely am not going to "set" books. I will probably dig through my tbr and choose some things to read that have been on there for awhile, but for the most part it will be, if I happen to read something in a chosen genre, I'll add it, and that way there is room for all the lovely new books that come my way.

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  7. What you plan on doing with the 12 genres is kind of like the 1010 challenge I'm participating in.

    http://readingwithtequila.blogspot.com/2009/10/1010-reading-challenge.html

    I found it as a LibraryThing group.

    http://www.librarything.com/groups/1010challenge#forums

    I think it's a great idea.

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  8. I'd definitely pop in to add comments, link to reviews, and join a few if you decided to participate!


    Natalie @ Mindful Musings

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