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I accomplished three goals this month, two of them were for the Reading Has Its Rewards Challenge. I reach 20,000 pages on 14 September; and the next day, I reached 30,000 points — which I didn’t realize because I goofed up on the math and thought I reached the goal on 22 September.  The third was my reading goal for GoodReads.  I set a goal of 65 books for 2012.  I plan to leave it as is, but I did extend the reading goal to 75 on Shelfari.  My goal for the Reading Has Its Rewards Challenge is still 80 books.  If I continue the trend of at least 7 books a month, I will reach the book goal by early December.

A completely unexpected reading goal was started this month by my re-reading two Jane Austen novels.  I had only picked one for the Seasonal Reading Challenge.  An oversight led me to re-arranging a couple of books for tasks, leaving me with an open slot in one of the tasks.  I could have skipped the task completely or choose another Austen novel.  Since I’ve been meaning to do a re-read, I went with another Austen novel.  All have to do is read Mansfield Park by the end of the year and I will have successfully started a 2 year reading cycle (3 books in the first year, the other 3 in the second) — my earlier attempt to do a re-read was thwarted by crappy formatting of the e-book editions I have.

As for reading challenges, every book I read this month was for the Seasonal Reading Challenge at GoodReads.  I really want to reach 300 points this season.  I’ve come so close in the past — if I can make it at least once, I’ll be happy.  I know I’ll never reach the 1,000+ points needed to actually complete the challenge — over 70 books in three months!

This month I stumbled across a group on GoodReads that developed a challenge around Monopoly.  It’s on-going, so you can go around the “board” as many times as you want.  Also, one of the groups I’ve belong to for a while developed a challenge based on the game Chutes & Ladders — “Hearts & Tears” (it’s primarily a romance group).  This one kicks off 1 October.  Challenges based on board games, I love it!

Even though my focus has shifted toward GoodReads and read-a-thons, I still try to find books that fit the blog-based challenges.  There is a challenge that I originally abandoned that I will be attempting in October: the Fairy Tales Retold Challenge (I still have it “active” on my challenge page).  The same hostess is holding a fairy tale-themed read-a-thon from 17-22 October.  I have several books that will work for the read-a-thon and the Fairy Tales Retold Challenge, and still fit tasks for the Seasonal Reading Challenge.  It will fun!

Looking Forward:  I’ve been working on my personal reading challenges for 2013.  I’m doing the Reading Has Its Rewards Challenge again.  I’ve changed the points and the  milestone/goals.  I’m also doing a similar challenge to the By the Dozen.  Next year’s version is A Baker’s Dozen — 13 being a baker’s dozen.  There is a third personal challenge that I just recently contemplated doing.  I’m still deciding if it will be a perpetual one like Georgette Heyer or if I will attempt to read one book a month — a total of 19, which will give it a 2014 end-date.

And one final item. . .

When I created the 2012 Reading Has Its Rewards Challenge, I decided on a monetary reward for each goal I reached before 31 October. As a “gift”, I ordered the new NOOK HD tablet. I’m not much of an e-book reader (I have a Sony for that) and games, movies, and the like isn’t what finally made me decide on getting one. It was the ability to get magazines. I made of list of magazines I get hard-copies of and browsed the selection at B&N to see what else I might be interested in reading. I had a list of 6 – 10 magazines total. I also like books that I call “coffee table” books: larger/heavier, with lots of color pictures. I really don’t have the space for them. I also might look into more graphic novels — I stop buying the trade paperback volumes of Star Wars comics years ago because of space. I’m looking forward to seeing if the NOOK tablet is the right one for me.

Note: All books count toward my personal “Reading Has Its Rewards ” challenge. Exceptions will be noted.

• The Secret History of the Pink Carnation (Lauren Willig) {3 Sep 12}
• Three Days to Dead (Kelly Meding) {11 Sep 12} – N/A
• Emma (Jane Austen) {14 Sep 12} (RE-READ) – N/A
• Holiday in Death (J. D. Robb) {15 Sep 12} – By the Dozen; In Death; Sci-Fi
• Midnight Rising (Lara Adrian) {16 Sep 12} – By the Dozen
• Persuasion (Jane Austen) {22 Sep 12} (RE-READ) – N/A
• Assassins in Love (Kris DeLake) {23 Sep 12} – Sci-Fi
• The Mystery of the Blue Train (Agatha Christie) {26 Sep 12} – By the Dozen
• Inside Out (Maria V. Snyder) {30 Sep 12} – Harlequin/Silhouette

Challenges Completed this month:
NONE

Incomplete (Ended in September):
NONE

♥ = Will complete; ♠ = Maybe; X = Won’t

2012 Challenges:
♥ By the Dozen (personal) – 27/36
♠ Harlequin/Silhouette Reading Challenge -4/6
♠ Romance Reading Challenge – 4/5
♠ Sci-Fi Reading Challenge (6-10) – 6/?
♠ What’s in a Name 5 Reading Challenge – 5/6

2012-2013 Challenges:
♥ Year of the Dragon Reading Challenge(personal/GoodReads) – 2

Perpetual Challenges:
♠ 101 Fantasy Challenge (Month): 0
101 Fantasy Challenge (Year): 5
Grand Total since 2009: 17
~~ & ~~
♥ Georgette Heyer (Month): 0
Georgette Heyer (Year): 1
Grand Total since 2008: 5
~~ & ~~
♥ In Death (Month): 1
In Death (Year): 2
Grand Total since 2010: 3
~~ & ~~
X Reading the RITAs (Month): 0
Reading the RITAs (Year): 2
Grand Total since 2011: 4

Totals (Monthly/Yearly)

Total Read (Month): 7
Total Heard (Month): 0
Grand Total w/o Audiobooks (Year): 65
Grand Total w/Audiobooks (Year): 66
~~ & ~~
Total Audio Hours(Month): 0
Total Audio Hours (Year): 7h, 19m
~~ & ~~
Total Pages Read (Month): 3,254
Grand Total w/o Audiobooks (Year): 22,327
Grand Total w/Audiobooks (Year): 22,707

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