My Planning for Reading Week

Aaah… I’ve been seeing many many sign-up calls for 2014 reading challenges and I’m soooo tempted.  I signed up to so many last year and have barely completed any…  I’ve also moderated a few challenges of my own creation (in a Goodreads group, Pick-a-Shelf) that I’ve barely participated in!  So, my reading New Year’s resolution is:

Not to sign-up to any reading challenges but my own…  that sounds a little self-centred but really, I thought I should show some love to my own work 😉

To date, there are 2 challenges:

1. Longest On Shelf To-read (or LOST –love my acronyms!):

For this challenge, I look at my GR to-read shelf and sorted it by date added (ascending) and read the first 10 books shown as have been on my to-read shelf the longest.  There are some strange additions there!  I joined GR in August 2008 and I’ve still got books I’ve added in November 2008 that I’ve still not read yet.  There are just sooo many books out there and sooo little time.  Here is how my list is looking for this challenge:

• The Gods of Amyrantha (Tide Lords #2) by Jennifer Fallon –I don’t even remember the first book!  This calls for a re-read!
• The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons -I’m still shuddering from the prequel I’ve read, Children of Liberty, so I’ll see if I have the guts to tackle this one! I read the prequel because I didn’t quite realise it was a prequel and it was a review book too
• The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster
• Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter*
• The Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander –I remember adding this to my to-read list due to a challenge!  Obviously, I didn’t complete that challenge!  Sounds interesting anyway…
• The Zookeeper’s Wife: A War Story by Diane Ackerman
• Messenger (The Giver Quartet #3) by  Lois Lowry –I haven’t even read #2?!  How did #3 make it to my list before #2? Will have to read Gathering Blue first.
• Before Green Gables by Budge Wilson
• Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner *
• The Makioka Sisters by Jun’ichirō Tanizaki*
• The Godfather by Mario Puzo
• My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk
• Smashed, Squashed, Splattered, Chewed, Chunked and Spewed by Lance Carbuncle
• Taj Mahal: Passion and Genius at the Heart of the Moghul Empire by Diana Preston
• The Boxer Rebellion: The Dramatic Story of China’s War on Foreigners that shook the world in the summer of 1900 by Diana Preston

I included some extras because I think I won’t be able to get my hands on a few of these books (*Not available at local libraries).  The last 2 shows that I was getting into historical NF at the time.

2. Moving Mountains (Mt. TBR)

This challenge is to help me read through my to-read shelf in a somewhat random fashion.  For this particular challenge, I’ll be looking at my physical bookshelf (ie. books I actually owned) only.  Whilst I can plan ahead, I’m only going to plan up to a certain point and until I’ve read 80% of the planned books, I’m not allowed to plan any further.  This will hopefully keep my list clean and motivate me to keep going.  So from my top shelf only, here are what I’ll be reading in the first few months on 2014 (I hope):

• Cecilia by Fanny Burney
• The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things by Paula Byrne
• The Asylum by John Harwood
• What the Raven Saw by Samantha-Ellen Bound
• Harland’s Half Acre by David Malouf
• Behind the Sun by Deborah Challinor
• Me & Rory McBeath by Richard Beasley
• Lexicon by Max Barry
• Half-Blood (Covenant #1) by Jennifer L. Armentrout
• One Hundred Names by Cecelia Ahern
• The African Trilogy by Chinua Achebe
• Remarkable Creatures by Tracey Chevalier
• Musk & Byrne by Fiona Capp
• Black Spring by Alison Croggon

My lists are looking to be well balanced & eclectic and I’m quite happy with these.  I’m looking forward to 2014.  This is by no means, the only challenges I’d be doing as there is still at least 1 other challenge being planned.

How are you going with your reading challenges of 2014?  Have you joined any?  If not, will you be?  How are your planning?  I definitely got as much FUN planning as I will be in reading 😀