Reading 2012 To 2013

I took part in four reading challenges last year... three I succeeded in, one not so much.

I took part in three that were hosted by Book Chick City.

Mystery & Suspense Reading Challenge 2012

I said I'd try and read 12 books for this challenge - which I managed. My reading of mystery and suspense has tailed off a bit recently as I tried to read more horror - but more on that in a moment.

Zombie Reading Challenge 2012

I said I would read six zombie books in 2012 and six I read.

Book Chick City are running this challenge again this year. I think I'll try for six again - click here for more details and to sign up.

Horror & Urban Fantasy Reading Challenge 2012

There were two levels for this challenge - twenty-four books and forty-eight books. I chose the lower of the two levels... but I only managed to read fourteen books for this challenge - which is surprising because it seems like all I read was horror and urban fantasy for a while. Never mind.

Book Chick City are running a similar challenge this year - the Urban Fantasy & Paranormal Romance Challenge. I thought I'd try for level one - 12 books. Click here for more details and to sign up.


The last challenge I took part in was the New Author Challenge 2012 hosted by Literary Escapism.

New Author Challenge 2012

I said I would read fifteen new authors and I managed it... just. I scraped through the last couple in December.

Literary Escapism is hosting this challenge again this year - click here to go and sign up.

I think I'll try for fifteen again, given how close I came to not reaching fifteen last year. I will be listing the books I read again like I have done the last two years. But this year I think I'm going to include everything I read - last year I didn't include books on writing, or art (apart from the very last one) or short stories. I'm going to list the whole lot this year - fiction, non-fiction, short stories, cereal packets (OK maybe not the cereal packets).

*If I decide to take part in any other reading challenges in 2013 I will update this post accordingly*

Happy Reading!

Reading Challenges 2012

This time last year I declared that I would challenge myself to read 52 books in a year.

Well I didn't quite make it (I partially blame NaNoWriMo). I managed to read 40.5 books (I had one book that I started in 2010)

However this failed attempt has encouraged me to take part in some more official reading challenges... four in fact. Although some books will fall under more than one reading challenge which is a good thing. I have since seen loads of different reading challenges around the blogosphere. And even though some of the other challenges would overlap with others I have decided to draw the line at four - to avoid getting confused!

The first three are Book Chick City reading challenges. Book Chick City is hosting five reading challenges in total.

The first one is the Mystery & Suspense Reading Challenge 2012. There are two levels to this challenge. Level 1 is twelve books and level 2 is twenty-four. I think I'll probably go for level 1. I reckon I could read more than twelve but I don't want to commit to twenty-four when I read 40.5 books in 2011 and I have four reading challenges to complete - we'll just have to see I suppose.

Next up is the Horror & Urban Fantasy Reading Challenge 2012. Again there are two levels - level 1 which is twenty-four books and level 2 which is forty-eight. Again I'm opting for level 1 (which is another reason why I'm only going for level 1 in the Mystery and Suspense Challenge).

And the last Book Chick City challenge I am going to sign up for is the Zombie Challenge 2012. This challenge has four levels - One Chomp (6 books), Two Chomps (12 books), Three Chomps (18 books), Four Chomps (24 books). I'm going to go for One Chomp, and luckily any books I read for the Zombie Challenge should count towards my total for the Horror & Urban Fantasy Challenge.

And the last challenge I'm going to take part in is hosted by Literary Escapism. This challenge is the New Author Challenge 2012. The authors you choose do not have to be debut authors they just have to be ones that you have never read before. Again there are levels - 15, 25 or 50. I've signed up to read at least 15 new authors... and hopefully some of them should also count towards the other three challenges I'm taking part in.

Now even though I'm taking part in the above challenges my first book of 2012 does not count towards any of them... my sister got me the autobiography of comedian Lee Evans - The Life of Lee - for Christmas. So I thought I'd kick start with that. Well I suppose it could count towards the New Author Challenge... but I think it would be slightly cheating as Lee Evans isn't strictly an author. And I think it's more about fiction than non-fiction.

Happy New Year!