Weekly Geeks: Plans for 2011

Do you plan on participating in any reading challenges in 2011? Are you planning on hosting any reading challenges? Perhaps you'd like to share an idea for a reading challenge - to see if there is any interest! Share with us which challenges look tempting to you! (You don't have to "officially" join any of the challenges for this weekly geek. Just let us know which ones you'd be most interested in.) You might want to spend some time browsing A Novel Challenge. Are there any challenges you are looking forward to that haven't been announced yet? Regardless of your challenge plans, are you starting to plan ahead for next year? Do you make lists or goals? Are you a person who enjoys reading more if it is structured? Or are you all about being free to read what you want, when you want?

Reading challenges? Bring ’em on!

So far for 2011 I’ve signed up for the Gothic Reading Challenge and the What’s in a Name? 4 Reading Challenge. (When it comes to challenges, I’m not one to let a year of failed reading goals deter me from launching into the next lot.) I’m also tempted by the Shakespeare Reading Challenge, and the Georgette Heyer Reading Challenge, and I’ll check out the New Authors Reading Challenge when the site is back up.

Yes, I enjoy challenges. I like the sense of community and the fun of hunting books to fit the criteria. But I also like my reading freedom, which is why I’ve increasingly begun to leave challenge lists blank at sign-up and fill them as I go - “I must look out for a book with a gem in the title” is so much less restrictive that “I have to re-read The Moonstone next year”. Of course the downside to this - as opposed to the “only join a challenge if I can fill it from my TBR box” method - is that the universe (in the person of the library and the Bookfest) doesn’t always provide.

Challenges aside, my reading plans for next years can be summed up in three words: Read. More. Books. Unless I’ve overlooked a bunch I haven’t even hit three figures this year, which by my standards is ... appalling. I know I had free time - where the hell did it all go? On a tangential note, I also want to do something I have never done before: Clear some books off my shelves to trade in at a second-hand bookstore. The last time I got rid of any books was as part of a garage sale when I was in high school!

All this talk of challenges has given me an idea. I’ll be reading a lot about the 18th century next year, thanks to NaNoWriMo - in order both to polish this year’s heap of rubbish work in progress and plan out next year’s. So why not try to drag a few other people along with me? If you’d be interested in joining an Enlightenment Reading Challenge - for books written in, set in, or written about the 1700s - please leave a comment.