Monday 6 December 2010

My 2011 challenge

Well, my record for finishing challenges this year has not been all that great but, nothing daunted, I'm still going to try another year long challenge for 2011. This year what's taken my fancy is one one I saw on Yvonne's blog at Fiction Books and that is the What's in a Name 4 challenge. It's being hosted by Beth Fish Reads and here are a few details:



Between January 1 and December 31, 2011, read one book in each of the following categories:

1. A book with a number in the title: eg. First to Die, Seven Up, Thirteen Reasons Why
2. A book with jewelry or a gem in the title: eg. Diamond Ruby, Girl with a Pearl Earring, The Opal Deception
3. A book with a size in the title: eg. Wide Sargasso Sea, Small Wars, Little Bee
4. A book with travel or movement in the title: eg. Dead Witch Walking, Crawling with Zombies, Time Traveler's Wife
5. A book with evil in the title: eg. Bad Marie, Fallen, Wicked Lovely
6. A book with a life stage in the title: eg. No Country for Old Men, Brideshead Revisited, Bog Child

Other things to know:

Books may be any form (audio, print, e-book).

Books may overlap other challenges.

Books may not overlap categories; you need a different book for each category.

Creativity for matching the categories is not only allowed but encouraged.

You do not have to make a list of books before hand.

You do not have to read through the categories in any particular order.

~~~oOo~~~


So that's it! I'm not planning to make a list that I must stick by but I did have a look at my tbr pile and found a few possibilities:

1. Number: Twenties Girl - Sophie Kinsella

2. Jewelry or a gem: City of Pearl - Karen Traviss

3. Size: The Small Hand - Susan Hill.

4. Travel or Movement:

5. Evil: Wicked Appetite - Janet Evanovich

6. Life Stage: The Good Husband of Zebra Drive - Alexander McCall Smith.

Funny how the categories I thought would be easy, were not, and the hard ones - a life stage etc - it turned out I had loads of options. And the truth of the matter is that it's likely I'll not end up reading many of these but will find alternatives that I want to read instead! But then... that's half the fun. Looking forward to this one immensely.

6 comments:

DesLily said...

well i can safely say that the little stranger was a good book,and the Wood Wife was good if you might have an interest in the American Indian.

I wish I didn't feel so pressured to fulfill the challenge when I know it's not all that important a thing, but even when I sign for Carls challenge I read "what I have signed for" with nothing in between before I will read maybe something I "want" to read but don't because it doesn't fit the challenge.. (that's why I only sign to read 1 book for his challenges now, but of course read more..but it's because I want to not because I feel I have to)

Anonymous said...

This was the first challenge I signed up for back in the day and I'm going to be signing up for another year as soon as I finish my last book for this year's challenge.

Jewelery had me unexpectedly stumped for a while, but I think I've cracked it now!

Yvonne @ Fiction Books Reviews said...

Hi Cath,

Thanks for the mention in your post.

I too have been looking through my TBR mountain and I shall certainly have no problem finding something to fill each category.

This will be my only challenge this year, as I have to actively seek work after Xmas, so time may be in short supply, although I definitely do not want to give the blog up entirely.

Hope that you are feeling better now. I seem to have had one bug after another for the last couple of months, feeling good would be a bonus right now.

Take Care

Yvonne www.fiction-books.biz

Cath said...

Hey Pat! I really want to read both those books, especially as I do have quite an interest in American Indians.

It took me a while to realise that if I didn't finish a challenge I wouldn't be hunted down and devoured by the hounds of hell. ;-) The fun for me is in the choosing of books and the trying. And the trying nearly always results in several books off the tbr pile which is always a Good Thing.

Fleurfisher: Look forward to seeing your choices.

Jewellry is a difficult one. All I could find was the one sci fi book, City of Pearl but am thinking the library could well come up with other possibilities.

Yvonne: I hope you have success in finding a job after Christmas. Not the easiest thing in the current economic climate. I also hope you'll still find time to blog occasionally, as I for one would definitely miss you.

Same here with bugs, I've had two in the last month to six weeks and am not looking forward to Jan and Feb and what those months could bring. Hope you're feeling better as well.

Nan said...

What fun!!

Cath said...

Nan: I hope so, but my record with challenges is not always that good. I sometimes lose interest halfway through.