Sunday, February 24, 2008

A~Z and TBR Challenges

I heard it from a friend who

heard it from a friend who



heard it from a friend

You been mess- No wait.

I mean I heard about this challenge to read 52 books in a year, the A~Z Challenge. You choose one book title for each letter of the alphabet and one author for each letter of the alphabet. (No doubling up.) Click here for the official site, or just play along at home. My A~Z picks are toward the bottom of the page on the sidebar. If anyone knows a good book starting with the letter "X", PLEASE let me know!!! Apparently the author of the challenge didn't take the serious shortage of such titles into consideration when she launched her idea.


There is also another challenge called the TBR Challenge which you can do instead of, or combine with, the A~Z Challenge. Combining the two is the approach I have chosen. It seemed to render narrowing down the options much easier for the A~Z Challenge in my opinion. Basically, the TBR Challenge is this:


Pick 12 books - one for each month of 2008 - that you've been wanting to read (that have been on your "To Be Read" list) for 6 months or longer, but haven't gotten around to. Read one book from this list each month in 2008.


I have included my 12 in the A~Z lists. They are:


  1. Austenland by Shannon Hale (A Title)

  2. Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer (I've been planning to read that since I finished the first three in two days last fall) (B Title)

  3. Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky (C Title)

  4. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (D Title)

  5. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (H Title)

  6. Standing For Something by Gordon B. Hinckley (S Title)

  7. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi (T Title)

  8. Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin (W Title)

  9. Language Shock by Gregory Agar (A Author)

  10. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes (C Author)

  11. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (S Author)

  12. Mila 18 by Leon Uris (U Author)

Happy reading!

5 comments:

Kim said...

You've been very busy. I'm impressed by your lists. I think I will probably read "Xenocide" by Orson Scott Card for the letter X. I don't know anything about it but it starts with X so I'll try it.

Not quite the Bradys said...

Ok, so here it is: my dirty little secret-

I am a closet sci-fi reader. Not often and not ever publicly (until now!) but there it is. I like (a few) sci-fi books.

I am only admitting to this to tell you Kim that Xenocide is an ok book but you should know that it is a sequel in a series (actually the third). It is not nearly as good as the first and a little better than the second in the story. I would HIGHLY recommend "Ender's Game" which is the first one, but I could take or leave the next two.

SIGH. And now the world knows my shame.

Kim said...

Lucky me. I just bought "Ender's Game" at DI thinking I should finally read it. I actually am a sci-fi fan of good TV and movies--Star Wars, Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis, Star Trek: The Next Generation, etc. I haven't read a lot of sci-fi books though. I'll start with "Ender's Game" and I may have to read the next two just to get my X-title in. I know it's hard to admit liking sci-fi but I accepted long ago that I'm a pretty big geek. It's one of the reasons my husband and I get along so well.:)

Not quite the Bradys said...

I don't think the story would make sense without knowing what happened in the first two. I found a couple of others though. There is ""X" Stands for Unknown" by Isaac Asimov (another sci-fi), and "X 20" by Richard Beard. I have no idea what the Asimov one is about, (his publisher doesn't post synopses online) but I've liked everything I've ever read that was written by him. For a synopsis of "X 20" go to

http://library.ci.springfield.or.us/uhtbin/cgisirsi/mDwLQxPzt4/SPL/198940062/8/218005/X+20

Hope that helps!

Cassadie said...

I had forgotten all about "A Prayer for Owen Meany". One of my all-time favorites. Enjoy!