New Challenges for the New Year

As most of you who read this blog regularly already know, I am addicted to challenges. And now I’ve also stumbled across two other interesting challenges:

The A to Z challenge- I can’t remember where I first saw this, but it’s definitely more of a personal thing. The idea is to read a book with a title that starts with all 26 letters of the alphabet. Now, this is a little more complicated than it sounds, since it’s very hard to find a book that stats with “X.” So I might be using a “modified” alphabet on this one, but it WILL still be 26 books. There’s no time limit, and I’m going to start recording on January 1, 2008.

The 888 Challenge- otherwise known as the 8 books in 8 categories in 2008 Challenge. You can read the challenge blog here. The idea is to choose your own 8 categories and read 8 books in each category. You are allowed 8 inter-category overlaps for a total of 56 books. The challenge runs from January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2008. I have no idea if I can commit that long, but I’m certainly going to try!

As of right now, my categories are: 8 Cybils nominees (past or present), 8 Graphic Novels, 8 Fantasy, 8 New to me authors, 8 First in a series, 8 rereads, 8 Just for fun, and 8 For school or school related. I’m going to try my hardest not to overlap (I think it’s more fun that way) but we’ll just have to see what the year brings.

Now, unlike past challenges, I don’t think I’m going to post a list beforehand. If there’s one thing I’ve learned since participating in my first challenge this past spring, it’s that my reading habits are never predicable. As a result, I am simply posting a blank form for each challenge. These will be separate forms that I can fill out as I go along, and then proudly display when complete. I’m adding a link in the sidebar, so you can track my progress. You only have to look if you want to (since this is for my own personal benefit) but you may never know whether or not I read a book you’d love. Then again, since I will likely blog a lot of my entries, maybe you will…

Anyway, you can go here for the A to Z challenge (note that this form is not the revised alphabet…yet) and here for the 888 Challenge. If anyone decides to join me, let me know. I’d love to see what you have to say on the subject!