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Challenge Update – July 2009

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July turned out to be a better month for me than the last two. I read 4 books this month.

The Book Breakdown (how the book counted):

  • Phenomenal Girl 5 (A. J. Meden) – 1st in a Series, Themed, New Author
  • Hidden (Eve Kenin) – Themed
  • The Contestant (Stephanie Doyle) – Countdown, Summer Vacation, 2nds
  • Once Bitten, Twice Shy (Jennifer Rardin) – 1st in a Series, Countdown, New Author, What’s in a Name

All books count toward the Year of the Reader Challenge

Since writing takes away from reading, I’m not going to worry or fret too much on being behind on posting. Here’s the status of my backlog:

The backlogged reviews posted:

What’s still pending:

  • The Magnate’s Indecent Proposal
  • Lie to Me
  • Hidden
  • The Contestant
  • Once Bitten, Twice Shy

I’ve decided that my first priority for the remainder of  this year, as far as reading, is to read as many books as I can for The Year of the Reader charity challenge.  I want to read a least 60 books.  That would make my donation to First Book $120.00.  Of course I would like to read much more, but I think I will be disappointed if I don’t reach my stated goal.   The setbacks of May and June has put me behind after such a promising start this year.

Because of this, I’ve fought off temptation to join more challenges (except the Harry Potter one), and I’ve taken a hard look at the challenges I am currently signed up for.  I broke them down into three categories:  Challenges I plan to complete,  Challenges that I’m pretty sure I won’t complete by their end dates, and Challenges I’m abandoning. The Georgette Heyer challenge is not sorted into any of the categories because it is perpetual and I can take all the time I need.

Will I join any Fall and/or Winter challenges? At this point, the answer is . . . it depends. Wishy-washy, I know. It all depends on what the goals are and how many books I’ve read in the next month or two. I’m not in a reading slump and I have plenty of books to chose from, so I’m sure I can make up for lost time. I enjoy the seasonal reading challenges, so I may give into temptation anyway.

So, how did it shake out?  The challenges that had flexible book counts, low requirements, and/or I’m close to completing are keepers.  I changed my reading goals for Summer Vacation — from 6 books to 3 — because I felt I had a better chance of completing the challenge if I went with less books.  As to the challenges I abandoned, two I hadn’t started, two required me to have a certain type of book read and reviewed by the end of each month, and one wasn’t set up for linking reviews (have to join a Yahoo! Group).  Everything else got lumped into the middle category.  With these challenges, I’m curious to see how close I can get to meeting the goals by their end dates.  I’ll decide from month-to-month whether I’ll continue them or not.

Challenges Completed this month:
Themed Reading: 4/4

Challenges I plan to complete:
Anne Stuart Read-a-Fest: 1/??
A Year of Readers: $52.00 (26 books)
Chunkster: 2/??
Harlequin/Silhouette Romance: 3/5
Harry Potter: 0/7 — NEW!!
New Author Challenge: 11/12
Pub 2009: 5/9
Romance Reading: 4/5
Summer Vacation: 1/6 3 (Switching to Beach Bum)
What’s in a Name 2: 4/6

Challenges I don’t think I will complete, but I’m not officially abandoning. Yet:
1st in Series: 5/12
2nds Challenge: 6/12
A-Z Challenge (Authors): 14/26
Countdown: 25/45

Officially Abandoned:
Contemporary Romance: 2/12
Read and Review
Series Challenge Season 3: 0/??
Third Times A Charm: 0/3
Year of the Category: 4/12

~~ & ~~

Perpetual Challenges
Georgette Heyer: 1

Total (Month): 4
Grand Total (Year): 26

Addendum:
This is a re-post. Below are the comments that I was able to salvage from the SQL file. See this post for an explanation. I apology for the inconvenience.

Beth F., 2009-08-02: It’s interesting to me why you abandoned the Read and Review challenge. Did you find it burdensome to write that many reviews or did you just not want to review some of your books? When this challenge is over, the main change I’m going to make is to either not review mysteries, keep them to my Tues & Thurs memes, or post only mini-reviews. Mysteries are very hard to review without giving something away.

Me, 2009-08-02: I’m behind with the writing, but I have every intention doing one for every book I finish reading. It that simple: I really didn’t want to join another Yahoo! group. I hear you about mysteries. I haven’t finished one in while, but I remember trying to write about the second White House Chef mystery earlier this year.

Beth F., 2009-08-03: I understand about the Yahoo! Group. I actually don’t post there. I’m just in the challenge for personal motivation!

Me, 2009-08-03: For me, the challenge that provides the personal motivation is The Year of the Reader because of the charity aspect. Of course, it inspires me to read, not stop and write. 😉

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