Challenges for 2012

Book bloggers love to sign up for Challenges – I’ve noticed this as I’ve visited a load of new blogs lately, and seems like a brilliant way to expand your usual reading habits to include new genres and types of story you might enjoy.

Thanks must go to Hannah –  her post reminded me I needed to get into this!

I’ve looked at so many different challenges, but I think the ones I will aim for this year include the following:

1. The Eclectic Reader Challenge (Book’d Out)
2. Steampunk Reading Challenge (Dark Faery Tales)
3. Immortal Reading Challenge (Under The Covers)
4. My own Year of the Dragon challenge

I’ll be keeping up a list of my progress on my Challenges page.

The Eclectic Reader Challenge

Hosted by Book’d Out, this challenge aims to push you outside your comfort zone and read books from twelve different genres throughout the year. The genres are (plus potential books I am thinking of including):

1. Literary Fiction – The Help, Kathryn Stockett
2. Crime/Mystery Fiction – ?
3. Romantic Fiction – Sleeping with Paris – Juliette Sobanet
4. Historical Fiction – Daughters of Iraq, Revital Shiri-Horowitz
5. Young Adult – Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Laini Taylor
6. Fantasy – A Storm of Swords, George R R Martin
7. Science Fiction – Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card
8. Non Fiction – ?
9. Horror – The Complete Works of H.P. Lovecraft
10. Thriller /Suspense – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larson
11. Classic – The Three Musketeers, Alexandre Dumas
12. Your favourite genre – (will be a fantasy book) ?

Steampunk Reading Challenge

Welcome to the world of STEAMPUNK, a fascinating subgenre of the fantasy world. Meet strong Victorian men and women and explore fantastic airships, crafts and other incredible inventions.

(from Dark Faerie Tales)

This challenge is hosted at Dark Faerie Tales. I’ve always thought that Steampunk sounded like an interesting sub-genre, but I’ve never really managed to read much of it. Here’s a chance to change that! I’ll only be going for the Gaslight level – 6 books, unless I discover I have more to read than I thought!

1. Dead Iron, Devon Monk
2. Wicked As They Come, Delilah S Dawson
3. The Map Of Time, Felix J Palma
4. Phoenix Rising, Pip Ballantine
5. Steampunk! Anthology
6. Viridis, Calista Taylor

Immortal Reading Challenge

Vampires, angels, demons, werewolves and fae. If you can’t pick a favourite, then that’s okay!

(From Under the Covers)

Twelve books involving immortal races – let’s see. These may change, but these are what I’m thinking of (some are in my TBR pile already):

Vampires

• Vampire Academy (book 1), Richelle Mead
• Living Dead in Dallas (Sookie Stackhouse 2), Charlaine Harris
• The Forever Girl, Rebecca Hamilton

Angels and Demons

• Hush Hush, Becca Fitzpatrick
• Fallen, Lauren Kate
• Demon Girl, Penelope Fletcher
• or Halo, Alexandra Adornetto

Fae

• Iron King, Julie Kagawa
• Wicked Lovely, Melissa Marr
• Storm Born, Richelle Mead
• or Song of the Fairy Queen, Valerie Douglas

Shifters/Werewolves

• The Silver Cage, Mik Wilkens
• Moon Called, Patricia Briggs
• Shiver, Maggie Stiefvater

Year of the Dragon

My own challenge is to simply read five books involving dragons. There will most likely be more!

• The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larson
• Brisingr, Christopher Paolini
• Temeraire: In the Service of the King, Naomi Novik
• A Storm of Swords, George R R Martin

In total, that’s 45 books. I’d better get cracking.