Chill Baby, Chill

December 21, 2013 – March 20, 2014

The Pre-Printing Press Challenge 2013-2014 Edition

December 1, 2013 – December 31, 2014

2013 Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge

November 22, 2013 – January 6, 2014

Clean Out Your E-Reader Challenge

November 1, 2013 – November 30, 2013

Have you been a little over eager with your mouse when browsing Kindle Freebies? Or maybe those books on Netgalley were just too hard to resist? Are your free reads sitting in your E-reader, neglected, just waiting for when you have time to get to them? Well now is the time with the “Clean out your E-reader Challenge”!

Join us November 1st – 30th with the Clean out your E-reader Challenge hosted by Fantasy is More Fun & Because Reading is better than real life and start cleaning out your free E-reads! Not only will you get to those reads that have been sitting unread for too long, but two bloggers will have a chance to win a $10 Gift Card from Amazon or B&N in our Review Posts Giveaway AND everyone will drive more traffic to your blog!

 

The Rules:

• Go through your E-readers and select the FREE OR NEARLY FREE (up to $5 will be accepted) books you’d like to read during the challenge. The book must have been free, (Kindle Deals, Netgalley, Etc.) Anyone caught not using a free book or a book that is pirated will be removed from challenge.

• Sign up with the linky below letting us know that you plan to participate. Then,on November 1st create a post announcing your participating with a list of books you plan to read during the challenge. A starter post will be posted at 8am on November 1st with the review link. Link your participation blog post there. Links not live by the end of the day (11:59 PM PST) November 1st will be removed. Your book list doesn’t have to be set it stone it can change along the way, just be sure you’re still reading FREE books.

• Start reading your free books (starting November 1st) and reviewing them, either on your blog or Goodreads (blog will give you more traffic). Put the link to your review (to the review URL, not your Web Address) on the review linky available November 1st, listing your blog name and the name of the book you reviewed. When you write your review, be sure to include the challenge logo and linky at the end so that we can all check out the reviews.

• To enter the giveaway: every day you post a review of a free E-book, enter the link (to the review URL, not your Web Address) on the Rafflecopter available November 1st (1 link per blog, per day) to get an extra entry in the giveaway.

We’ll also be having a Twitter Party (Date TBD) – while your reading your free E-books or posting your reviews be sure to update us on Twitter with #COYER!

And don’t forget to check out as many of the reviews on the linky as you’d like! Stop by and say hi in their comments. And if someone follows you, be sure to follow back.

Winners will be announced December 3rd. Each person that participated will even get award ribbons at the end to put up on your blog announcing your accomplishment.

 

What will your goal be?

     Lightly Clean – 1 to 5 E-books

     Spring Clean – 5 to 10 E-books

     Deep Clean – More than 10 E-books

     We hope you’ll join us and have a great time!!

 

Berls & Michelle

This reading challenge is hosted by Fantasy is More Fun & Because Reading is Better Than Real Life. For more information and to sign-up, please see this post.

State by State in 2014

Now – December 31, 2014

Ever thought you would like to read your way across America?
The USA Fiction Challenge asks you to do just that.
Read just one novel from each state - you choose whether the link is the setting or the author.
You choose whether you confine yourself to a particular genre or not.

This reading challenge is hosted by USA Fiction Challenge. For more information and to sign-up, please see this post.

Reader Beware: The R.L. Stine Perpetual Reading Challenge

Perpetual

A complete list of R.L. Stine’s work can be found on Wikipedia. For the purposes of this challenge, I will only be reading his fiction and full-length works (for both children, YA, and adults). This means no non-fiction, movie novelizations, or short stories, even though he’s responsible for quite a few of those, too. If you want to go ahead and make them a part of YOUR challenge that’s quite alright, but you’re not required to to participate.

This reading challenge is hosted by The Literary Wombat. For more information and to sign-up, please see this post.

3rd Annual Spooktacular Paranormal Reading Challenge

October 1, 2013 – October 31, 2013

Welcome to the sign-ups for the third annual Spooktacular Paranormal Reading Challenge! I can't believe this is the third year, you guys. The first year was a huge success, and last year was decent, but I'm hoping to get a turn-out like we did in 2011 because I was blown away by the number of people who participated. This year I'm going to make the rules a bit simpler, so hopefully more people will want to participate.
Here’s the deal: since Halloween is my favourite holiday, I decided the entire month of October should be dedicated to all things paranormal, and I also decided I wanted to include the blogosphere. For the last two years, the challenge has been to read a minimum of three books between October 1st and 31st, and I think maybe that's where things went wrong last year. Most bloggers have so many review books and such a tight reading schedule that fitting three books in, especially if it's not a genre you normally read, can be hard. So this year, I'm mixing things up a bit...

Challenge Details:

• Read and review at least one (1) paranormal** book. Reviews must be posted for the first time between October 1st and 31st, 2013. Something else that's different this year: since the sign-ups go up September 1st, you can start reading any time you want, as long as the reviews you submit are posted after October 1st. So go ahead and get a head start! This means the challenge technically runs for 2 months, but only reviews posted between October 1st and 31st will count toward the challenge giveaway.

• You don’t have to have a blog to participate, as long as you can post your reviews somewhere (GoodReads, Amazon, etc) and link to them.

• For every paranormal book you read, review, and link up in the month of October, you’ll be entered in a giveaway to win the paranormal book of your choice up to $15 USD (or if you can find two books that come to $15 or less, that's fine too!). To be eligible for the giveaway, you must review at least one book during October. Each review is an entry in the giveaway, so the more you read, the more chances you have to win.

• The link-up in this post is just for sign ups. I’ll be posting a separate link-up for reviews on the 1st of October.

• Ebooks and audiobooks count. Adult and young adult books count. If this challenge crosses over into other challenges you're doing, that’s fine with me.

**PARANORMAL: Same as the last two years, I’m using a very loose interpretation of ‘paranormal’. It can be paranormal, fantasy, urban fantasy - basically any ‘creature’ or ‘otherworldly’ book counts - vampires, werewolves, faeries, shape shifters, zombies, angels, demons, mermaids, dragons, witches/wizards/sorcerers, trolls, sirens, banshees, etc.

This reading challenge is hosted by Ramblings of a Daydreamer. For more information and to sign-up, please see this post.

The Bloggers Recommend Perpetual Challenge

Perpetual

Since I got such positive feedback from my earlier post, I’ve decided to make this challenge a bit more official. It will be a perpetual challenge and pretty relaxed, but I will post at least once a month so we can check in, share reviews, and see how everyone is doing.

The Rules:*

(1) Sign Up Below

(2) Subscribe to the Bloggers Recommend Newsletter.

(3) Once you receive a Newsletter, pick which book(s) you want to read as part of the challenge.

(4) Read the book(s).

(5) Link up any reviews you write about the book(s) (e.g., your blog, goodreads).**

(6) Repeat steps (2)-(4) the following month!

That’s it. I am starting this challenge to make the Bloggers Recommend Newsletter less overwhelming and even more awesome. You can decide how many books you want to read each month – there are no specific challenge levels. If you want to read one book one month and five the next, great. If you want to take a month off, no problem. This is a no-pressure challenge. Really.

The Giveaway:

And, if you need an extra incentive to sign up, three lucky participants who sign up by August 30, 2013 will win a copy of The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt.

Each participant will be given one entry and I will choose three winners using random.org. Many thanks to Bloggers Recommend for this giveaway.

There will likely be more giveaways in the future, so sign up and keep checking back!

The challenge will officially start with the September newsletter, so look for the linky to be up after the next newsletter goes out. Happy Reading!

____

*I am reserving the right to change the rules as we go if I see a need. I’m not usually a challenge hostess, so I’m just making it up as I go.

**We’re all pressed for time. and I understand that you may end up reading a September book in October (particularly if it comes out in late September). You can link up any reviews you write that month, even if the book is from a prior month’s newsletter.

This reading challenge is hosted by My Books. My Life. For more information and to sign-up, please see this post.

The Fantasy Project: 101 books in 10 years

10 years - participants choose their start and end dates

I've been wanting to make some changes to this challenge for a while now. It seems if I neglect any genre, it always ends up being fantasy which is kind of funny seeing how it's one of my favorite genres. And the problem has been that there is no deadline and I'm a deadline kind of gal. I thought about making it a five year challenge, but I'm already participating in three other five year challenges (The Classics Club, A Non-Fiction Adventure (my challenge) and the Fill in the Gaps: 100 project) so I thought ten years would be good. The 101 Books part is an homage to the original challenge, The 101 Fantasy Reading Challenge, which was created originally by Bella, formerly of A Bibliophile's Bookshelf. I took the challenge over in early 2010. The original premise was based on the list itself. Here are the details of how it was created:

The list was compiled by Bella (formerly of A Bibliophile's Bookshelf), who currently blogs at A Prairie Girl Reads, and Jo (Ink & Paper) when they held a mammoth poll in 2009 inviting readers to nominate their favorite fantasy books. The list is compiled of all the books nominated and voted for (813 total) in order by number of votes. The challenge started out with a year long format and then I changed it to a perpetual challenge. In both instances, books could be read from the top 101 or the entire list of 813.

Below are the guidelines for this revamped challenge. I hope you will join me!

The guidelines for The Fantasy Project

• Read 101 fantasy books from the list of 101, or the entire list of 813, in 10 years (access the lists at the top of the blog).
• choose 101 fantasy books from the list (due to the large amount of urban/paranormal fantasy titles on the list, I have made this exception--26 titles can be titles that are not on the list, i.e. newer releases that came out after the list was compiled, more books of a high fantasy nature, etc.) To break it down...75 titles from the list and 26 that are not on the list = 101 books total.
• you can read other books in a series in which the first book, or other books in the series, appears on the list, to complete the challenge (for example, Graceling by Kristin Cashore, first book in the Graceling Realm series, made the list in 2009. Further books have been released in the series since the list was compiled and those books can be read for this challenge...these DO NOT have to be part of the 26 titles option--see above).
• post your list on your blog (or on Goodreads or another social media site, if you do not have a blog)
• choose your completion goal date ten years in the future and make note of it with your list of titles (like this:  reading goal--101 books  goal dates--August 20, 2013 - August 20, 2023)
• come back here and post the link to your list in the linky below
• write a review (or a short summary) on the book when finished and link it to the title in your list (or link to your review on Goodreads, again, if you don't have a blog)
• there are pages at the top of the blog that link to spreadsheets where you can list/link up your reviews (they will be listed by author's last name, i.e. A - F, etc.)
• there is a members list page, where I will list your name, blog, goal date, and link to your list
• there is a "introduce yourself" page for members
• when you have completed the challenge, come add your link to the Completed Challenges page
• If you happen to host a read-a-long, or an event or challenge surrounding one of the titles on your list, post about it at this PAGE
• I will try to have periodic group check-ins too
• grab the button from sidebar

A few more important details

• this challenge can be crossed over with any other challenges
• your link in the linky below must lead to your list, not just your main blog address. Any links that are blog links only will be deleted
• the list must be made in advance. The idea is to work toward reading fantasy you may have been otherwise neglecting and/or the fantasy titles/authors you love. However, the list does not have to be set in stone. You can change out titles as the mood suits you.
• every 2 - 3 months we will have what we'll call the Wheel of Fortune (borrowing from The Classics Club classics spin idea) where you make a list of 15 books from your list (i.e. 5 you're dreading, 5 you can't wait for, 5 favorites or rereads--yes, rereads are okay OR 5 urban fantasy, 5 high fantasy, 5 by the same author...the list is pretty much up to you). On a predetermined date, I will randomly draw (random.org) a number from 1 - 15 and the number that's chosen will be the book you read from your list of fifteen.
• our Twitter hashtag is#101FantasyProject

This reading challenge is hosted by The True Book Addict at the dedicated blog. For more information and to sign-up, please see this post.

Back to School Reading Challenge

August 1, 2013 – September 30, 2013

August and September are a favorite time of year for me — back to school season! I love the early apples, store displays of school supplies, and my first sighting of a big yellow school bus. I would love to send each of you a bouquet of sharpened pencils. My reading orientation turns from the purely pleasurable beach book to another kind of pleasure: learning something new. To give myself and others a little structure during this transition, I’m starting the Back to School Reading Challenge and Wednesday Book Club to run during the months of August and September.

No one fails at the Back to School Reading Challenge, so choose a level that works to challenge you but not so much it causes stress. Here are the levels:

Freshman: 1-2 books
Sophomore: 3-4 books
Junior: 5-6 books
Senior: 7-8 books

Read books on one topic or eight different ones or anything in between. Fiction is fine. I’ve learned a lot of history from novels set in other times and a lot about other cultures from novels set in other places. As long as you’re reading the book to learn something new, it counts for the Back to School Reading Challenge.

A sign-up post is not required, but it does help spread the word. If you write one, link it below so we can all see who is playing. Feel free to grab the logo and to ask for suggestions for books in your categories of study.

There will be a new post each Wednesday in August and September with a link list for any discussions or reviews related to the Back to School Reading Challenge. On four Wednesdays, there will also be a Twitter Chat. More about that later. We may also do a read-along if there’s interest.

This reading challenge is hosted by Joy’s Book Blog. For more information and to sign-up, please see this post.

Dave & Neta Jackson Perpetual Reading Challenge

Perpetual

Do you love Christian Fiction? I sure do, but haven’t read much of it this year. Then when I was visiting  Brittanie @ A Book Lover Forever, I saw her post of  the first book in the new series,  ”Windy City Neighbors” by Neta & Dave Jackson. Her post reminded me that I’ve had The Yada Yada Prayer Group for a long time but haven’t read it yet. Of course that lead me to want to read the rest in that series as well as the other series by the authors since they all connect to each other in one way or another.

So…I’ve decided to start a perpetual reading challenge. If anyone else wants to join, that would be great.

This reading challenge is hosted by I'd Rather Be At The Beach. For more information and to sign-up, please see this post.

Semi-Charmed Summer 2013 Book Challenge

July 1, 2013 – September 30, 2013

The Semi-Charmed Book Challenge is back for summer 2013! The challenge will follow the same rules as the winter 2013 challenge, and it will run from July 1 to September 30. See below for the full list of rules and categories, and thanks to all my readers who submitted category ideas!

Rules:

• The challenge will run from July 1, 2013, to September 30, 2013. No books that are started before 12 a.m. on July 1 or finished after 11:59 p.m. on September 30 will count.
• No re-reads (unless specifically stated)! I want you to experience new books with this challenge.
• Each book must be at least 200 pages long. Audiobooks are fine, as long as the print versions meet the page requirements.
• A book can only be used for one category. If you want to switch the category later, that's fine, just be sure to account for that in your point total.
• The highest possible total is 200 points, and the first five people who finish the challenge will win a featured/guest post on Semi-Charmed Kind of Life. Good luck!

This reading challenge is hosted by semi-Charmed Kind of Life. For more information and to sign-up, please see this post.

Canadian Reading Challenge

July 1, 2013 – July 31, 2013

Here’s the challenge in a nutshell (there are more detailed guidelines below): Between July 1st and July 31st, read as many books as you can either by Canadian authors, or set in Canada. Post reviews on your blog (or, if you don’t have a blog, GoodReads, Amazon, Chapters/Indigo, Barnes & Noble, etc., will do), then post the link in the Linky that will be posted on all three hosts’ blogs on July 1st.

PURPOSE OF THIS CHALLENGE:
To bring attention to Canadian authors and show the love! I’m sure a lot of people will be surprised that some of their favorite authors are Canadian, or that authors they’ve heard of but haven’t read yet are Canadian.

CHALLENGE GUIDELINES:

• Please follow all three of your hosts in some way (GFC, BlogLovin’, Networked Blogs, email, whatever is available and whatever your preference is)
• To complete the challenge and be eligible for the prizes, you must read and review at least one book either by a Canadian author or set in Canada. Each book read and reviewed counts as an entry in the giveaway, so the more books you review, the more chances you have to win. You can find a list of Canadian authors here (if you know of any others, feel free to leave a comment and they’ll be added to the list – this list was made last year for the challenge and hasn’t been updated since).
• A Linky will be posted on July 1st for you to add your reviews to. Reviews must be posted for the first time between July 1st and July 31st to count toward the challenge.
• You can sign up anytime, as long as you follow the rest of the guidelines. Sign-ups will remain open until July 30th so that people who see this in July and want to participate won’t be left out.
• This challenge is open to everyone. You don’t have to blog to participate, as long as you can post your reviews somewhere (GoodReads, Amazon, etc.). Also, you do not have to be Canadian – our co-host Patricia is American, which I think is pretty cool!
• Audiobooks, ebooks, and novellas do count for this challenge.

This reading challenge is hosted by Workaday Reads. For more information and to sign-up, please see this post.

Rory Gilmore Bucket List Reading Challenge

Perpetual

So, the other day in this post I mentioned having come across the bucket list of books Rory read or mentioned on Gilmore Girls. I said that if there was interest, I would make it an official blog hop. Well, at least a half a dozen people on twitter mentioned an interest, so decided to make it my G post for A to Z and get this officially up and running.

For the month of April, it will just be time for everyone to get situated and scheduled and such. Starting in May, if you are signed up, you will be expected to post about at least one book on the below list every month. Then we will all hop around to each other’s blogs and read each others thoughts and have some excellent and amazing discussions. So here's the rundown:

The Rules
1. Sign up on the linky below.
2. Post a startup post similar to this one with the list.
3. Post at least once a month about a book on The List. You can post about more than one book in any given month but would like it to be at least once a month. It does not have to be a full review, but at least some thoughts you had about the book after reading the book.
4. When you post about a book, go back to your original list and link to your post.
5. Get the code for the linky and post the rules and the linky on your intro post.
6. Visit as many other blogs as you can in the hop.
7. Have a good time.

The List

• A Month Of Sundays by Julie Mars
• The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
• Small Island by Andrea Levy
• My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
• A Quiet Storm by Rachel Howzell Hall
• My Life in Orange by Tim Guest
• Truth & Beauty by Ann Patchett
• The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
• The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby
• How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer
• The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters by Elisabeth Robinson
• Nervous System by Jan Lars Jensen
• The Meaning of Consuelo by Judith Ortiz Cofer
• The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
• How the Light Gets In by M. J. Hyland
• Oracle Night by Paul Auster
• Quattrocento by James McKean
• The Opposite of Fate by Amy Tan
• Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris
• Sacred Time by Ursula Hegi
• Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
• The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
• The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem
• Old School by Tobias Wolff
• The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
• The Bielski Brothers by Peter Duff
• Brick Lane by Monica Ali
• Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi
• The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
• Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
• The Song of Names by Norman Lebrecht
• Property by Valerie Martin
• Rescuing Patty Hearst by Virginia Holman
• The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
• Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
• The Kitchen Boy by Robert Alexander
• Just a Couple of Days by Tony Vigorito
• Bee Season by Myla Goldberg
• Fat Land : How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World by Greg Critser
• Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
• Unless by Carol Shields
• Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy
• When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka
• Songbook by Nick Hornby
• Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
• Extravagance by Gary Krist
• Empire Falls by Richard Russo
• The Song Reader by Lisa Tucker
• Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
• A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
• The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
• Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
• Life of Pi by Yann Martel
• The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
• The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
• The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
• The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
• Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn
• Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand
• The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus
• A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
• Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
• Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
• Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov
• The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
• David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
• The Lottery: And Other Stories by Shirley Jackson
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
• Song of the Simple Truth: The Complete Poems of Julia De Burgos by Julia De Burgos
• The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
• The Picture Of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
• Night by Elie Wiesel
• The Code of the Woosters by P. G. Wodehouse
• Hamlet by William Shakespeare
• Complete Tales & Poems by Edgar Allan Poe
• Beloved by Toni Morrison
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
• A Separate Peace by John Knowles
• Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
• Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
• The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
• The Awakening by Kate Chopin
• Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
• Time and Again by Jack Finney
• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
• The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
• Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
• Sybil by Flora Schreiber
• Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
• Cousin Bette by Honore De Balzac
• Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
• Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut
• The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
• The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
• Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
• Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
• 1984 by George Orwell
• The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker
• The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
• An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
• Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
• Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
• Lord of the Flies by William Golding
• The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
• The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
• The Sound and The Fury by William Faulkner
• The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
• Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
• Emma by Jane Austen
• On The Road by Jack Kerouac
• The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

The Rules
1. Sign up on the linky below.
2. Post a startup post similar to this one with the list.
3. Post at least once a month about a book on The List. You can post about more than one book in any given month but would like it to be at least once a month. It does not have to be a full review, but at least some thoughts you had about the book after reading the book.
4. When you post about a book, go back to your original list and link to your post.
5. Get the code for the linky and post the rules and the linky on your intro post.
6. Visit as many other blogs as you can in the hop.
7. Have a good time.

This reading challenge is hosted by Just Another Rabid Reader. For more information and to sign-up, please see this post.

Ready! Set! Read! Summer Challenge 2013

June 24, 2013 – August 31, 2013

Ready! Set! Read! heads to the big screen this summer! We've saved a seat for you.

This summer, we read the movies! The goal? Finish 8 titles that you've never read (10 for extra credit). The catch? Your choices should be books that were turned into movies, TV shows, or plays. You may also include books slated for film and/or theatrical adaptation.

Start date: June 24
End date:  August 31

Choose one title in each BOOKBUSTER categories:

Book(taking a)stand: A book about a political, social issue, or sociopolitical issue that interests you.

Off to see the wizard: An otherworldly book. This book is set in an alternate universe or features an otherworldly species.

Oscar-Worthy: An award-winning book or its award-winning film adaptation. *Extra credit for an award-winning book that inspired an award-winning movie. This category may include award-nominated titles too.

Keeping it real: A book that is based on a true story.

Born to be wild: A book that takes you on a wild adventure.

Under the influence of ________: A book about the power/effects of not-so-true love. You know that genuine love is not the character's motivation. What is? You fill in the blank and let us  know.

Second chances: A book you should have read but didn't. Maybe a book from a another challenge?

Teen challenged: A book featuring a child/YA protagonist. *Extra credit for a story told from the child’s narrative perspective.

Emotional roller coaster: A book that stirs your emotions. Does the plot make you sad? Happy? Afraid? Hot and steamy? Heck! All of the above? *Extra credit for this bonus category.

Reverse Shot: A book that ‘flips the script' per se. This is a movie, TV show, or play turned book. *Extra credit for this bonus category.

WAYS TO GET INVOLVED:

· Are you a blogger? Feel free to add a comment to this post with a link to your blog. We encourage you to write reviews and identify #bookbusterEdn somewhere in the subject line. We will check your blogs to keep track of the entries you earn (More on entries in the HOW TO WIN A PRIZE! section below)

· You can still participate without a blog. Leave a comment on this post saying that you’re in! Email us at readingwritersblog@gmail.com as you complete your review(s). Your review(s) can take any format. Just be your-amazing-self and let the review(s) be reflective. We will not publish your reviews on this blog without your consent.

· If you’re on Twitter, feel free to use the hashtag, #bookbusterEdn so that we can find and support each other through retweets and discussions.

HOW TO WIN THE PRIZE!

· At the end of the challenge, we will randomly choose one person to win a $20.00 Amazon gift card.

· Each finished book + accompanying book review guarantees one (1) entry. However, there are ways to increase your odds.  Each accompanying movie review earns two (2) additional entries. We encourage you to watch the movie and compare it to the book. Each Extra credit book earns three (2) entries.

No restrictions on page count.
Fulfill categories in any order.
You're also welcome to fulfill the categories without reading books turned movies. Those books won't earn prize entries though.

Happy Reading!

This reading challenge is hosted by Reading Writers. For more information and to sign-up, please see this post.

Language Freak Summer Challenge

Now – August 31, 2013

Do you love learning foreign languages?
Have you ever suspected that something is lost in translation when reading a book?
Do you feel ashamed of not practicing some foreign language enough?
Are you an unbearable snob who tells everybody that they haven't read a book if they have read it in translation?

If your answer is yes to any of these questions, this challenge is just for you! As a seasoned linguist myself, I can answer in the positive to all of them, so I'll be the one to organize a challenge for all of you foreign language lovers!

The idea is simple: read books in a foreign language, enjoy it and be proud of yourself! I will collect whatever you want to post about your experiences from now till the end of August and hopefully we will all have some progress in languages by the beginning of September!

There are levels, of course:

Beginner: read 1 book in a foreign language
Intermediate: read 2 books in a foreign language
Advanced: read 3+ books in a foreign language

The books can be in one language or in several different languages. You choose what you want to practice! But for really crazy linguists I have a special offer, which is called accordingly:

Crazy Linguist: read at least 1 book in EACH foreign language you know

Bonus level is for films:

Subs Fan: watch any number of films in a foreign language (Why is it called so? Because subs are allowed, of course!)
The rules are easy:

• Any types and formats of books are allowed.
• Really, I mean it! If you are just a beginner then a short story, a fairy tale or an adapted book counts as a book! The point is to practice.
• If you are bilingual or nearly so, then this language doesn't count. For example, although English is not my mother-tongue, 80% of my reading is in English, so I will not count it. But you are to decide if some language is challenging for you or not :)

To sign up please link up an introduction post to the linky below. You may tell us:

• What languages do you know? Note: even if you are a beginner, it totally counts! And don't forget to mention what your mother-tongue is!
• What is your history with these languages?
• Do you use them or are you out of practice?
• Have you read some books in these languages? Did you like it?
• What are your plans for the challenge?

Or whatever you want :)

I'll add all of the participants to my RSS feed, and if in some review you mention that you have read a book for this challenge, I'll link it up with other reviews at the end of each month (first one is planned for the end of May). I plan to sort them by language, but we'll see how it'll go :) You must not write a review, of course, you can just describe what your experience with the book/film was. Pointing out some linguistic peculiarities is encouraged! You may also try to write a paragraph or two in the target language, if you want some practice!

This reading challenge is hosted by In My Book. For more information and to sign-up, please see this post.

Birth Year Reading Challenge

March 1 - June 1, 2013
Hosted by:
Hotchpot Cafe

Announcing the fourth year of the Birth Year Reading Challenge! 

This year's challenge focuses on an important year in your life, one that introduced you to dynamic and meaningful possibilities. Maybe that was the actual year of your birth, or maybe it was the year of another kind of "birth":  when you were "born" to a new life in the spiritual, emotional, educational, social, geographical, or some other sense.
What books were published the year you were born, or the year that you experienced another kind of "birth"?

This challenge encourages you to find out, and then read some of them. You might even draw a few conclusions about social and literary trends that year. If nothing else, you'll have an incentive to explore books you might otherwise not have considered.

Wikipedia has lists of books by year published. You can check literary prize lists for high-quality choices. Using Google to locate “best books of _____” provides some interesting choices. There is also a cool feature at BibliOZ where you can check theNew York Times bestseller list for the week you are interested in. 

If you already participated in this challenge, or if you discover you were born in a year of unattractive books, the Rebirth option gives you the chance to sample another year instead. So read on!

RULES

1. Join anytime between now and November 30, 2013. The challenge ends at midnight EST on January 31, 2014.

2. a. Choose books from your birth year.

AND/OR

2. b. Choose a year that you experienced another kind of "birth," then choose books from that year. Your sign-up post should include a few details about the year you've chosen and the kind of "birth" you are commemorating.

3. Books may come from your TBR pile or list, but they don’t have to.

4. Overlaps with other challenges are allowed and encouraged.

5. Change your list at any time.

6. Reviews and reactions are encouraged, but not required. You don’t need to have a blog to participate. But you do need to let me know of your progress, so I can bestow your virtual candles. (Here's the progress and reviews page from BYRC 2012, so you can see how it works.)

7. All genres and formats are eligible. If it’s a book, you can count it.

8. One candle is awarded for each qualifying book you read. There is no limit on how few or how many candles you can earn.

ACHIEVER PRIZES

When you meet your reading goal, you can select a book from my library – most likely a gently used trade paperback – and I'll mail it to you. But keep reading because . . .

OVERACHIEVER PRIZE

The person who reads the most books for the challenge will receive a fun little surprise package with a bookish theme. And . . .

GRAND PRIZE

On February 1, 2014, the three readers who’ve earned the most candles will be entered into a drawing for a $25.00 gift card from Barnes & Noble. Nothing like a little no-cost book shopping to start a new year off right!

This meme is hosted by Hotchpot Cafe. For more information and to sign-up, please see this post.

The Spring of Sarah Dessen Reading Challenge

March 1 - June 1, 2013
Hosted by:
Ramblings of a Daydreamer

When I was in my mid-teens, I discovered Sarah Dessen’s books and fell in love. I can’t remember which one I read first, but the one that stuck with me the most (and still to this day is a favourite) was Someone Like You. It was one of those stories that was so relevant to me, and that I could have sworn Sarah had written about me and my best friend. It was that book that made me even more certain I wanted to be a writer.
 I realized it was a shame I hadn’t read all her books since I’m such a big fan. I decided I would read all of them this year, and then I realized it would be fun to ask people to join me, so The Spring of Sarah Dessen was born (I was going to wait until summer, but I just couldn’t!).

Here’s the deal: read as many Sarah Dessen books as you can before June 1st. Pretty simple right?

Oh, you want more details than that? ;-)

The Details:

• This is basically a reading challenge, and the idea is for you to read and review as many of Sarah’s books as you can between March 1st and June 1st. Each new review you write gets you one entry into the giveaway (I’ll get to that in a second). Reviews must be posted for the first time between March 1st and June 1st (you can start reading the books any time, but all reviews must be brand new and never posted before as of March 1st, 2013). So basically if you read and write a review for one book that’s one entry, if you read and write a review for 3 books that’s 3 entries, etc.
• Rereads count as long as you haven’t posted a review for it before (or if you posted a review quite a long time ago, I’ll accept a ‘fresh’ review - for instance, I read and reviewed Along for the Ride in 2011, so if I were to read it again, I’d write a new review with my second impressions and link it to my old review - you can do that too).
• Audiobooks count
• You can join this challenge at any time
• You don’t have to have a blog to participate, as long as you can post reviews somewhere (GoodReads, YouTube, Amazon, Chapters, etc)

Other Stuff:

• Between March 1st and June 1st, I’ll be posting reviews of the Sarah Dessen books I read, along with other posts like cover comparisons, favourite characters, book crushes, etc. If you’d like to write a post for the event (your favourite Sarah Dessen books, why you love her books, what her books mean to you, favourite quotes from her books etc), please let me know and I’d be happy to include it in the event.
• I will be creating a page for this event and will update it regularly with all our reviews so people can check them out easily. Hopefully it will drive a bit of traffic to participants’ blogs.
• If you’re on Twitter, feel free to use the hashtag #SOSD so we can all find each other and cheer each other on. You can share your reviews, updates, book/page count, etc. BTW, I'm @SweetMarie83 on Twitter. ;-)

The Giveaway:

Instead of a Linky List, I’m going to set up a Rafflecopter. You get one entry for participating, and then one entry for each review you post. On June 2nd, Rafflecopter will pick a winner from among the entries, and the winner will get a pre-order of Sarah’s new release The Moon and More (which comes out June 4th). If you’re lucky enough to have gotten an ARC of The Moon and More…first of all, can I have it? *grins and bats lashes* (I’m only half-joking…I want that book so bad!!) Seriously though, if you already have the book, you can pick a Sarah Dessen book of your choice. OR if you already own all of Sarah’s books, you can choose a contemporary YA novel (I’m sticking with Sarah’s genre) of your choice up to $10 CAN. If there’s enough interest in this challenge, I will add a second winner. 

Sarah Dessen’s Books

*in order of publication…I’m going to be reading them in order, just for fun*

That Summer {GoodReads}

Someone Like You {GoodReads}

Keeping the Moon {GoodReads}

Dreamland {GoodReads}

This Lullaby {GoodReads}

The Truth About Forever {GoodReads}

Just Listen {GoodReads}

Lock and Key {GoodReads}

Along for the Ride {GoodReads}

What Happened to Goodbye {GoodReads}

The Moon and More {GoodReads}

Does this reading challenge sound like something you'd be interested in? Want to join? Simply sign up via the InLinkz below (the URL can be your blog or wherever you'll be posting reviews). If you want to write an introductory post with your goals (feel free to use one of my graphics, and please link back to this post so other people can find out about the challenge) you can use that link to sign up.

This meme is hosted by Ramblings of a Daydreamer. For more information and to sign-up, please see this post.

Bram Stoker Awards Reading Challenge

February 18, 2013 – December 31, 2013

Are you a fan of Horror Fiction? Then this is the reading challenge for you!  Join me as I read my way through the list of nominees for the 2012 Bram Stoker Awards. For the final list of nominees, please CLICK HERE.  Anything from the list is acceptable, including short fiction, screen plays, and poetry.  I'm hoping to organize a few special events to occur during the days of the awards as well which will take place June 13th - 16th. 

Challenge details:

1. This challenge will begin on February 18th, 2013 and end December 31, 2013.

2. Books for this challenge may include print books as well as e-books and audio books.
Choose a Level: 3-6 nominees: Afraid of the Dark7-12 nominees: Sleeping With One Eye Open13+ nominees: Among the Walking Dead
3. This challenge can cross-over to your other reading challenges.
4. You do not need a blog to participate! If you are not a blogger, you can post your reviews at Goodreads, Shelfari, or LibraryThing and link them up on the monthly review posts or leave a comment with a link to your review.
5. I will create a new post each month with a link-up for your reviews.
6. To sign-up use the link below. If you are a blogger, create a sign-up post and link back to this post. If you don't have a blog you can just leave a comment for this post saying that you are joining. 

Are you a fan of Horror Fiction? Then this is the reading challenge for you!  Join me as I read my way through the list of nominees for the 2012 Bram Stoker Awards.

This reading challenge is hosted by I Eat Words. For more information and to sign-up, please see this post.

2013 Sarah Dessen Read/Reread Challenge

January 1, 2013 – December 31, 2013

It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of Sarah Dessen. In fact, I think all of us girls here on I Eat Words are enormous fans. I know I'm super excited that we get a new book from Sarah Dessen this June! Anyway, I was looking at my book case the other day and was examining my Sarah Dessen books when I thought, I really want to reread these! Then I thought, how cool would it be to make it a challenge?

I know some people shy away from reading challenges, and I don't want you to be put off by that term. There's really no rules or nothing that you'll win at the end. If you participate, you'll get to experience (or experience again) the awesome that is Sarah Dessen's work. And I figure, hey, maybe we can read one book a month and chat about it?

So here's the schedule I've come up with :)

February - Just Listen

March - This Lullaby

April - Dreamland

May - The Truth About Forever

June - The Moon and More

July - That Summer

August - Along for the Ride

September -Someone like You

October - Keeping the Moon

November - What Happened to Goodbye

December - Lock and Key

I know it's not in order of release, but hey! Whatever. Haha :)

This reading challenge is hosted by I Eat Words. For more information and to sign-up, please see this post.