2013 Challenges

I'll just put them all here in no particular order with rules and my intentions.

What's in a Name Challenge 2013

Between January 1 and December 31, 2013, read one book in each of the following categories:

• A book with up or down (or equivalent) in the title: Deep down True, The Girl Below, The Diva Digs up the Dirt
• A book with something you'd find in your kitchen in the title: Loose Lips Sink Ships, The Knife of Never Letting Go, Breadcrumbs
• A book with a party or celebration in the title: A Feast for Crows, A Wedding in Haiti, Cocktail Hour under the Tree of Forgetfulness
• A book with fire (or equivalent) in the title: Burning for Revenge, Fireworks over Toccoa, Catching Fire
• A book with an emotion in the title: Baltimore Blues, Say You're Sorry, Dreams of Joy
• A book with lost or found (or equivalent) in the title: The Book of Lost Fragrances, The World We Found, A Discovery of Witches

Books may be any form (audio, print, e-book), books may overlap other challenges, books may not overlap categories. Creativity for matching the categories is not only allowed but encouraged. You do not have to make a list of books before hand and you do not have to read through the categories in any particular order.

To learn more about the challenge or sign up please go here.

The Colorful Reading Challenge 2013

The Colorful Reading Challenge is simple:

1. Just choose 9 books with colors in the titles.
2. The books can overlap with other reading challenges (because let's face it, we need them to.)
3. Post your links to your reviews each month to share with other participants.
4. The challenge runs from January 1, 2013 to December 1, 2013.
5. Read to your heart's content!

To learn more about the challenge or sign up please go here.

  Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge 2013: Scattergories

This challenge runs from January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2013. All novels must have been originally written before 1960 and be from the mystery category. To complete the challenge you need to read books from minimum 8 of the following categories:

1. Colorful Crime: a book with a color or reference to color in the title
2. Murder by the Numbers: a book with a number, quantity in the title
3. Amateur Night: a book with a "detective" who is not a P.I.; Police Officer; Official Investigator (Nurse Keate, Father Brown, Miss Marple, etc.)
4. Leave It to the Professionals: a book featuring cops, private eyes, secret service, professional spies, etc.
5. Jolly Old England: one mystery set in Britain
6. Yankee Doodle Dandy: one mystery set in the United States
7. World Traveler: one mystery set in any country except the US or Britain
8. Dangerous Beasts: a book with an animal in the title (The Case of the Grinning Gorilla; The Canary Murder Case; etc.)
9. A Calendar of Crime: a mystery with a date/holiday/year/month/etc. in the title (Hercule Poirot's Christmas, Holiday Homicide, etc.)
10. Wicked Women: a book with a woman in the title--either by name (Mrs. McGinty's Dead) or by reference (The Case of the Vagabound Virgin)
11. Malicious Men: a book with a man in the title--either by name (Maigret & the Yellow Dog) or by reference (The Case of the Haunted Husband)
12. Murderous Methods: a book with a means of death in the title (The Noose, 5 Bullets, Deadly Nightshade, etc).
13. Staging the Crime: a mystery set in the entertainment world (the theater, musical event, a pageant, Hollywood, featuring a magician, etc)
14. Scene of the Crime: a book with the location of the crime in the title (The Body in the Library, Murder at the Vicarage, etc.)
15. Cops & Robbers: a book that features a theft rather than murder
16. Locked Rooms: a locked-room mystery
17. Country House Criminals: a standard (or not-so-standard) Golden Age country house murder
18. Murder on the High Seas: a mystery involving water
19. Planes, Trains & Automobiles: a mystery that involves a mode of transportation in a vital way--explicitly in the title (Murder on the Orient Express) or by implication (Death in the Air; Death Under Sail) or perhaps the victim was shoved under a bus....
20. Murder Is Academic: a mystery involving a scholar, teacher, librarian, etc. OR set at a school, university, library, etc.
21. Things That Go Bump in the Night: a mystery with something spooky, creepy, gothic in the title (The Skeleton in the Clock, Haunted Lady, The Bat, etc.)
22. Repeat Offenders: a mystery featuring your favorite series detective or by your favorite author (the books/authors you'd read over and over again) OR reread an old favorite
23. The Butler Did It...Or Not: a mystery where the butler is the victim, the sleuth....(gasp) the criminal....or is just downright memorable for whatever reason.
24. A Mystery By Any Other Name: any book that has been published under more than one title (Murder Is Easy--aka Easy to Kill [Christie];Fog of Doubt--aka London Particular [Christianna Brand], etc.)
25. Dynamic Duos: a mystery featuring a detective team--Holmes & Watson, Pam & Jerry North, Wolfe & Goodwin, or....a little-known team that you introduce to us.
26. Size Matters: a book with a size or measurement in the title (Death Has a Small Voice, The Big Four, The Weight of the Evidence, etc.)
27. Psychic Phenomena: a mystery featuring a seance, medium, hypnotism, or other psychic or "supernatural" characters/events
28. Book to Movie: one vintage mystery that has appeared on screen (feature film or TV movie).
29. The Old Bailey: a courtroom drama mystery (Perry Mason, anyone?Witness for the Prosecution...etc.) 
30. Get Out of Jail Free: This is a freebie category. One per customer. You tell me what special category the book fits ("It's got an awesome cover!"..."First book I grabbed off my shelf") and it counts. Only thing I won't take is "It's a Vintage Mystery!"--that's a given. :-)

To learn more about the challenge or sign up please go here.

Books On France 2013 Reading Challenge

For this challenge all books related to France count: 

• it can be set in France,
• written by a French author,
• written in French (not Canadian French),
• about a French theme: French cuisine (how the French influenced American cuisine is accepted for instance), French fashion, etc.

I'm going to go for level 2, “beaucoup”= 6 books, which is enough for the beginning, I think.

To learn more about the challenge or sign up please go here.

New Authors Challenge 2013

Guidelines:

• The challenge will run from January 1, 2013 through December 31, 2013.
• Since this is an author challenge, there is no restriction on choosing your novels. They can definitely be from other challenges. However, the authors must be new to you and, preferably from novels.
• Anthologies are a great way to try someone new, but only a third of your new authors can be from anthologies.

I'm going to try 25 new authors in 2013.

To learn more about the challenge or sign up please go here.

Narrative Poem Reading Challenge 2013

Rules:

• The challenge will start on January 2013 and end on December 2013.
• Only narrative poems will be counted. If it's just a good poem, but not a narrative poem, it doesn't count.
• The length of the poems may vary, from long epics such as Illiad and Odyssey to Poe's The Raven. Don't worry about it. If you read a collection of narrative poems, you may write a review for each poem or as a group of it. But please put all reviews in the master post that will come later on..

I am aiming at Orpheus level (5 – 8 narrative poems) and here is the list of boos I plan to read for the challenge (may change!):

• Chaucer, Geoffrey: The Canterbury Tales
• Ovid: Metamorphoses
• Milton, John: Paradise Lost
• Scott, Sir Walter: The Lady of the Lake
• Virgil: Aeneid
• Coleridge, Samuel Taylor: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
• Re-read some Scandinavian mythology or Tolkien (?)

To learn more about the challenge or sign up please go here.

2013 Outdo Yourself Reading Challenge

Reading Challenge Details:

• Runs January 1, 2013 – December 31, 2013 (books read prior to 1/1/2013 do not count towards the challenge).
• The goal is to outdo yourself by reading more books in 2013 than you did in 2012. You can move up a level as often as you’d like but no moving down.
• Books can be any format (bound, ebook, audio).
• Novellas that are at least 100 pages in length, as well as full-length novels, will count for this reading challenge.
• Re-reads and crossovers from other reading challenges are allowed.

I'm going for "Out of breath" level, which is to read 6-10 more books in 2013 than in 2012. I'll fill in the concrete number by the end of 2012.

To learn more about the challenge or sign up please go here.

 

2013 Ebook Challenge

It's not actually a challenge for me, as I read mostly on my Sony reader, but... it can be fun! I've chosen level 4 - Memory stick – 50 ebooks, but I hope I'll be able to go up to the next level with 75 ebooks. I will not plan my books in advance, but I'll submit reviews.

To learn more about the challenge or sign up please go here.

Monthly Key Word Reading Challenge

The task is to read one book each month whose title includes one or more of the key words for that month.
A title can be a variation on one of the key words. For example, a title could include the word 'snowing' or 'snowflake' even though the key word is 'snow.' Key words can be tweaked. For example, "Cinder" or "Ashes" can count for the key word 'Fire' and that would be just fine. If the key word is 'family' then a title could include the word 'sister' or 'mother.' If the key word is 'food' then a title could include the word 'cake.'

Monthly Key Words:


To learn more about the challenge or sign up please go here.