Ok - Join the Something About Me challenge!

I've created a new blog just for the "Something About Me" challenge. For those of you who are interested, go on over here, and comment on the first post with your email address. I'll invite you to be a contributing member of the blog and then you can start to post your book choices. You can change, add or modify your lists until the challenge starts on August 1st. Then you'll choose the list of books you'll read and our discussions will begin!

The "Something About Me" Reading Challenge

Ok, I'll make this challenge idea I have a August or September challenge, since that is after the Non-fiction Five and some of the others are finished....

I'm working on a button....


Start thinking about some books to nominate that will "represent" who you are as a person outside the blogging world. The characters could do your career, your hobbies, live your life....or the setting could be where you live, etc.

Everyone can nominate up to 5 books that represent them (fiction or non-fiction)....then each reader will choose a list they want to read out of all the books nominated. We won't read them collectively as a group, everyone will make their own list...

Any other suggestions?? Pass the word along, as it might take people awhile to figure out what books they want to nominate for the list...

Also, we can start compiling the lists in the summer -- June or July -- so that people can choose their reading lists and be ready to start by August or Sept...

This will be fun...my mind is spinning with the possibilities for my choices!

The seeds of a challenge idea...can someone finish my thought?

I have the seeds of what could be a new book challenge, but can't seem to complete the thought into a coherent idea....maybe our community of book lovers can comment to tell me if this is a lame idea, or if it could be fun.. What I was thinking about originally was a way for us to all get to know each other a little more than just our book reading lives. So the challenge would go something like this:

First, each participant would nominate a book (or books) that relates somehow to herself (or himself?). In other words, I could nominate a book in which one of the characters was a therapist...Lesley or bookseller chick could nominate a book where one of the main characters works in a bookstore...OR, you could nominate something that doesn't have anything to do with your job -- I could nominate a book set in San Francisco, or a book about yoga, or anything that, if you read it, you might feel like you knew me just a bit better...

Then, when we have a large list of books to choose from (along with who recommended them), we could choose a number of them that we commit to read. We might choose based on the book itself, or maybe curiosity about the one who chose it...

The "Get To Know You" book challenge?? Someone? Anyone?

NYT 2006 Most Notable Books Challenge

Finishing "Half of a Yellow Sun" marks the end of my Chunkster Challenge books. I wasn't very ambitious there because this is my first year doing challenges and I didn't want to overwhelm myself. Anyway, I think I'm ready for a new challenge (along with the still-going TBR challenge). So I'm joining the NYT 2006 Most Notable Books challenge. Looking at the list, I see that I've already read three of the books on the list (links are my reviews):

Black Swan Green
Half of a Yellow Sun
The Inheritance of Loss

I'm adding the following books, all of which are already on my reading list. In other words, I'm joining a challenge that just gets me in gear reading books I already want to read anyway!! Here's what I'll read from this list in the remaining months of this year:

Beasts of No Nation
The Echo Maker
Forgetfulness
The Road
Special Topics in Calamity Physics
Suite Francaise

There's a blog dedicated to this challenge - you can find it here. As soon as I'm a contributor there, I'll cross post this list to the other participants!

Shantaram: First Chunkster/TBR Challenge Book

Shantaram is the first book this year, counting as both a TBR Challenge book and a Chunkster Challenge book. At 933 pages, it's a whopper for sure. I've already given quite a bit of review of the book and by now you know I loved it. See my other reviews HERE and HERE and HERE.

This book is about a criminal and crime. It's about the gritty underside of Bombay, about people losing their souls to money and sin, about how people justify living like that and still believe they will have mercy, about one man's quest for freedom and what it means to him. It's violent. I don't call it gratuitous violence, because it's really necessary to tell the story. It's not a pretty world, and sometimes the circumstances and stories of the main characters life are almost overwhelming. Really, it reminded me a bit of Queen of the South -- although I didn't really like Queen, the storyline and violent content were similar, and the way the book rests on your soul for long after seems to be similar. It'll be a long time before I shake off this book. Brilliantly written, if you are the type to turn down a page when you find a beautiful passage, you'll have a trainload of dogeared pages when you are done.

Oh, and if you love Indian food, as I do, have the closest take out number handy. You'll drool like a fool all the way through the book!

All right, All right....the Chunkster Challenge

I know. My dear hubbie would say I'm taking on waaaaaay too much. But the Chunkster Challenge rules are so lenient...and these books are on my list anywaaaay. For the 2007 TBR challenge, I picked the oldest books on my to be read list. Sometimes I just want a more recent title. Also, two of the books I picked will be in book discussions on websites I read early in the year, so if I read them, I can follow along.

My picks for the Chunkster Challenge are:


Half of a Yellow Sun
The Book Thief
Shantaram (which I'm already reading for the TBR challenge - at 900+ pages, I figure I can be allowed to share!)

2007 TBR Challenge

I've decided to join this 2007 TBR Challenge. You pick 12 books that have been on your "to be read" list for at least 6 months or so, and you just haven't gotten to them. You read one of these books per month in 2007, knocking 12 books off your list!!

So here's my 12:

Shantaram by Gregory Roberts
A Hole In the Universe by Mary McGarry Morris
An Unfinished Season by Ward Just
Deception by Denise Mina
The Plot Against America by Phillip Roth
The State Boys Rebellion by D'Antonio
Waxwings by Jonathan Raban
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
A Certain Chemistry
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
Lost in the Forest by Sue Miller
Shalimar the Clown by Salmon Rushdie

This will be a great challenge for me, because I make a long list, but tend to want to read the book I most recently put on the list. These are books I really wanted to read, but somehow have gotten overlooked for the more recent titles.

Join me, anyone?