Bring On the Books!

If you know me well, you know that I love to read. I love everything about books, from the smell of the ink to the sound of flipping pages. I have always wanted to have a library in my house, because I so love the idea of a room filled with books. For me, they are the ultimate comfort.

Unfortunately, lately at my house, they also seem to be breeding like rabbits. My shelf is overflowing, with books piled in upside down, sideways, and every way in between. Some of them have been sitting there for years, others are a little newer. All are begging to be read.

One of my 101 challenges (#3) is to read 50 of these books before purchasing any others. I've been plodding along (I'm currently on books #7 and 8 - yes, I'm reading two at once). But I wanted to spice up this task in another way - so I'm throwing in a few book challenges to make it a little more interesting.

What is a book challenge, you ask? It's a short set of rules and/or topics for reading. It sets a required number of books, and parameters under which the books must fall (e.g. "Read a book with a character's name in the title," etc). There's also a time limit, and in some cases a few extra rules (i.e. you have to post a review of the book once you finish it, read the books in a certain order, etc). Some even award prizes. So with the help of a fun blog called A Novel Idea, I've found three different challenges to help me plow through the stacks of books on my shelf. For links to these challenges (including the rules and where to go to participate) click here. Here are the books I'm going to try to get through by the dates specified.

The 9 for 09 Challenge (December 27, 2008 - December 27, 2009)
Basic Premise: Read one book from each of the following categories. No more than 3 can overlap with another challenge.
1. A LONG book - One longer than you normally read. The Secret History by Donna Tart is over 400 pages, and the print is teeny tiny. Might need a magnifying glass for this one!
2. A Free book - One that was swapped, won, gifted, etc. Fly Me to the Moon by Allyson Noel is a book I won from a site called Free Book Friday.
3. A Dusty book - One that has been on your shelf for three or more years. My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok is one I read in high school, but I don't think I appreciated it then. So I bought it to reread it...4 years ago.
4. A Used Book - One that was actually purchased from a used bookstore. I usually swap my books at the used bookstore for trade credit, but I ran out (oops!) But I had to purchase Bubbles Unbound by Sarah Strohmeyer, because everyone tells me this series is hilarious.
5. A Letter book - Choose a letter in your first name. Find it somewhere in the book title. I'll go with the obvious "J" and read Devil in the Junior League by Linda Francis Lee. I love the title of this book!
6. A Strange book - From a genre you don't usually read. In A Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson is nonfiction, and I don't read nearly enough of that genre.
7. A Cover book - A book with either a pretty cover, or an ugly cover. The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry by Kathleen Flinn has a great cover of a girl walking down a tree-lined dirt road in France. It's idyllic - I want to be that girl someday!
8. Alive or Not book - By an author (alive or not) that has won a writing award. The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak has an award on the cover (though at the moment I'm not sure which one it is)
9. A Distance book - The author's birthplace and/or the book's setting is more than 1000 miles from your location. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini takes place in Afghanistan...a looong way from NC.

The Numbers Challenge (Jan. 1, 2009 - Aug. 1, 2009)
Basic Premise: Read 5 books with numbers in the titles. That's it.
1. Size 14 is Not Fat Either by Meg Cabot
2. Cocktails for Three by Madeleine Wickham
3. Three Bedrooms in Chelsea by Liz Ireland
4. Thirty Nothing by Lisa Jewell
5. One for the Money by Janet Evanovich

The Orbis Terarrum Challenge (Jan. 1, 2009 - Dec. 31, 2009)
Basic Premise: Read 9 books by authors from 9 different countries.
1. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro (Japan)
2. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See (China)
3. Girl Most Likely To by Poonam Sharma (India)
4. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (Afghanistan)
5. The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough (Australia)
6. Reading Lolita in Tehran by Nasir Afisi (Iran)
7. Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky (France)
8. Scarlet Feather by Maeve Binchy (Ireland)
9. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (Russia)

Okay, so yes, that's 22 books. And, yes, some of them are quite lengthy. But even if I don't finish them all, I'll have made considerable headway in getting through my bookshelf!

Any suggestions on what I should read first?