Julie's Journal : Book Challenges

Last year, for the first time, I kept a log of all the books I read.  I created a spreadsheet in excel and since I'm an accountant at heart, I kept up with all sorts of statistics about the books I was reading.  I read a total of 140 books or 46,969 pages.  Slightly less than half the books I read were e-books.  Only 13 were non-fiction and only 8 were classics.  Of the 140 books, I liked 110 enough to recommend them.  33 were books I had read before.

As I was reading over bookish blogs towards the end of the year, I noticed them putting up book challenges.  A book challenge is exactly what it sounds like.  There are many different types, but they all challenge you to read more books or different types of books.  This year, I decided to participate in three challenges. 

1st is the A-Z challenge.  I have to read at least one book that starts with each letter of the alphabet.  Exceptions are given for "Q", "X", and "Z".  They just have to be in the title of the book.

The 2nd is one I made up for myself.  I need to clear out some space, so I challenged myself to read at least 12 books off my "To be read" (TBR) shelf.

3rd is a "Back to the Classics" challenge.  I didn't do as well reading classics as I wanted last year, so maybe this challenge will help me.  Chance has been helping me find books to fulfill this challenge.  I have to read at least one book in each of the following categories:

• A 19th century classic
• A 20th century classic
• A classic by a woman author
• A classic in translation
• A very long classic novel (500+ pages)
• A classic novella (-250 pages)
• A classic with a name in the title
• A humorous or satirical classic
• A forgotten classic
• A nonfiction classic
• A classic children's book
• A classic play

So what do you think of my challenges?  Have you ever heard of book challenges?  Would you be interested in participating in a reading challenge at the library?  My hope is that by participating in these challenges, I will broaden my reading horizons.