Friday, September 21, 2007

Trying to Keep It Straight in My Mind

My sister Carrie is the queen of spreadsheets! If there is anything that needs to be mentally sorted out and organized, she will create a spreadsheet for it. One that I benefit from is her ongoing record of our book club reads (date, host, book title), going back to the group's inception in June 2002. I've decided that I need a spreadsheet to help me keep track of all the current and upcoming book challenges in which I'm involved or interested - but because school is back in session, Carrie is extremely busy, so I guess I'm on my own to sort it all out. This is my attempt!

Most but not all of the challenges in which I'm currently participating are listed in my sidebar. Those challenges are as follows, in order of completion date:

  • 2007 R.I.P. Autumn Reading Challenge, hosted by Carl.
    Links to reviews are posted here.
    Completion date: October 31.
    Current status: Reading first of three required.

  • Book to Movie Challenge, hosted by Callista.
    Links to reviews are posted here.
    Completion date: December 1.
    Current status: Contemplating four for three required.

  • Newbery Challenge, in memory of Nattie.
    Completion date: December 31.
    Current status: Finished two of six required.

  • "Something About Me" Challenge, hosted by Lisa.
    Reviews are posted on the challenge blog.
    Completion date: December 31.
    Current status: Finished five of planned eleven, with many, many more possibles.

  • Reading the Author Challenge, hosted by verbivore.
    Completion date: December 31.
    Current status: Contemplating three of the required minimum of three.

  • 2nds Challenge, hosted by Joy.
    Links to reviews will be tracked on Joy's blog.
    Start date: October 1.
    Completion date: December 31.
    Current status: Contemplating the required three.

  • The Unread Authors Challenge, hosted by Pour of Tor.
    Reviews are posted to the challenge blog.
    Completion date: February 29.
    Current status: Finished one, but still constructing the list of at least six required.

  • Book Awards Reading Challenge, hosted by 3M (Michelle).
    Reviews are posted to the challenge blog.
    Completion date: June 30.
    Current status: Finished two of twelve required.

  • "In Their Shoes" Reading Challenge, hosted by Vasilly.
    Reviews are posted to the challenge blog.
    Runs: January to December 2008.
    Current status: Brainstorming.

  • Cardathon Challenge, hosted by Becky.
    Reviews are posted to the challenge blog.
    Official starting date: January 1.
    Continuing for: "A year to whenever."
    Current status: Thinking about which of Card's books I've already read.

  • The Newbery Project, hosted by Alicia.
    Reviews are posted to the challenge blog.
    Ongoing.
    Current status: Trying to figure out which ones of the eighty-six (to date) I've read recently enough to count as "already read".

While I'm personally still not used to the idea that it's 2007, there are a lot of book bloggers out there who are already planning their various and sundry challenge lists for 2008. Because I definitely want in on the fun, these are several challenges I'm considering joining, in alphabetical order:

  • 1st in a Series, hosted by Joy.
    January to December 2008.
    Twelve books required.

  • Back to History Challenge, hosted by Shannon.
    January to December 2008.
    Twelve books required.

  • Celebrate the Author Challenge, hosted by Becky.
    January to December 2008.
    At least twelve books required.

  • Every Month is a Holiday, hosted by Kim.
    January to December 2008.
    One book per month, for a total of twelve.

  • Series Challenge, hosted by Kathrin.
    December 2007 to May 2008, with possible six-month extension.
    No set number of books.

  • Themed Reading Challenge, hosted by Wendy.
    January to June 2008.
    At least four books required.

  • Triple 8 Challenge (or 888), hosted by 3M (Michelle).
    January to December 2008.
    Eight books in eight different categories (with eight overlaps allowed), for a total of at least fifty-six books required.

So many books, so little time! I'm not kidding, am I?

6 comments:

  1. Ha ha, I clicked all the links for all the challenges I'm not already signed up for! We're junkies!

    I do something sort of like this, and I'm finding it really helpful. I keep all my challenges in my sidebar, though it takes me forever to add new ones. But then! Every month when I write up my reading summary, I also check my challenge progress, look at the dates the challenges end, which gives me an idea which ones I need to get caught up on, and post all that in with my summary. I think the most helpful part of all that is that it forces me to check my progress every month.

    Do you know what you do if you sign up to read a certain book for a challenge, start to read it, and realize you already did read it a couple years ago? And that you didn't like it so you don't want to reread? I'm thinking of just quietly slipping that book out of my list. Is that ok, do you think? I don't want to break challenge ethics and I'm still so new at all this.

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  2. Wow! That's quite the list of challenges you're doing and planning to! They certainly are all tempting- good luck with them. :)

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  3. I've been thinking about the 888 Challenge since you told us about it. I think I may (unofficially) go for it. ) I'll just have to figure out what catagories to do.

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  4. dewey: i'd say you could definitely slip a book off your list! these challenges are supposed to be fun! if it were me, i might make a brief post about the book and why you're not reading it (again), but whatever you're comfortable with should be good. at least that's my opinion on the matter!

    emily: i think you ought to officially join 888. you've already got a blogger account, so you'd be good to go! :o) i'm trying to come up with some creative categories for my list ...

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  5. Spreadsheets are cool. If I were better at upkeeping them, I'd have spreadsheets for everything!

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  6. OMG! You've been and will be very busy. I'm feeling pressurised just by looking at the lists... LOLOL.

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