Reading in Reykjavík

I have been keeping a reading journal since 2004. Before that year, my reading bookkeeping was sketchy to non-existent, and while I do have a list of around 370 books I know I read before that time (mostly keepers and old favourites), it's just a list of remembered titles with very little other information. I had the sense to compile certain statistical information right from the beginning of my journalling in 2004 and one of the things I have kept track of since the start was the original year in which the books I read were published. The last time I was between books and in the limbo of deciding what to read next I was inspired by a discussion thread on my favourite book discussion board in which some of the members were organising a year-by-year group reading challenge for the 20th century. I sat down and compiled a list of books I have read, by year, with a view to possibly doing a "fill in the gaps" year-by-year reading challenge. This was easy, because at the beg...

The next genre I chose to feature is romance, starting with none other that Miss Jane Austen herself:  The Pride and Prejudice Bicentenary Challenge is hosted (where else) on Austenprose. As the title suggests, it is a celebration of the 200th publication anniversary of Jane Austen's most famous book. This is a year-long challenge and sign-up ends on July 1. The aim is to read, listen to or watch between 1 and 12 books, audio books, movies, TV series or web series (there are 3 incremental levels) hat are adaptations, sequels or spin-offs of Pride and Prejudice . There are prizes to be won and more rules can be found in the sign-up post. The Book Vixen is hosting two romance challenges I chose to feature (and a few more): The Romantic Suspense challenge runs all year long and you can sign up whenever you want. The goal is simply to read 13 romances belonging to the suspense sub-genre. Any format is allowed, as are re-reads and crossovers from other challenges, and...

The craze for paranormal literature is still going strong and this is reflected in the growing number of reading challenges being offered. By the way, if you see a bloody mess of images and text on the screen, blame Blogger. I have given up trying to fix it. We begin with the Paranormal Fiction 2013 Reading Challenge, hosted by Reading with Martinis. This is a year-long challenge with no sign-up deadline and 4 levels. Reviewing does not seem to be required, but some kind of online tracking is. There are only 4 participants so far, but I see an opportunity for someone who is doing the Reading Challenge Addict challenge to combine it with the next challenge - or even all of the following challenges - for extra points: The Paranormal Reading Challenge is hosted by Auntie Spinelli Reads and Megan Likes Books . This is a challenge to read books featuring several different paranormal creatures. It is a year-long challenge with sign-ups open until December 1. Posting reviews is ...

From individual country challenges we move on to areas, continents and world reading challenges. Actually, I only found one each of the first two, Sadly, neither the Africa challenge or the South Asia challenge are running this year, but instead we have a Middle East challenge and a repeat of the Europe challenge. The 2013 Middle East reading challenge is hosted on a dedicated blog of the same title. It is a challenge to read books, to quote the host: "...which are written by Middle Eastern writers, or take place in the Greater Middle East, or are concerned with the Greater Middle East and with historical and contemporary Middle Eastern issues." The area covered is more or less what is sometimes referred to as the "Greater Middle East" and is comprised of Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Territories and all the nations within, bordering or relatively close proximity to the Arabian Peninsula ...

Next up are the geographical challenges. These include country challenges, continent/area challenges and international country-hopping challenges. I'll start with individual countries.The next post will be about area/continent challenges and international challenges. Please, if you know of more country challenges, let me know (just leave a comment). First up is the Books on France challenge , hosted on the Words and Peace blog. The challenge is to read books related to France in some way: set in France, written by a French author, written in French or featuring a French theme. Any genre is valid, there are 4 levels, reviewing is expected, and there is a giveaway drawing for the participants at the end of the year. There are 22 participants so far, and you can find out more by following the link. Then we hop over the Channel to Britain. The British Books Challenge is hosted on the Feeling Fictional blog. It is, quite simply, a challenge to read at least 12 books by Br...

Here you will find two related types of challenges: those that have something to do with titles and ones were you read books from a specific list. I have also updated the list from the original posting to include challenges to finish a certain number of books. Starting with the title challenges we first have: The fabulous What's in a Name Challenge , 6th edition. It's being hosted on the Beth Fish Reads blog. To participate, you pledge to read one book in each of six categories. The categories consist of titles having a specific type of word in them: up or down (or equivalent) something you'd find in your kitchen a party or celebration in the title fire (or equivalent) an emotion in the title lost or found (or equivalent) The challenge runs throughout 2013 and you can join up at any time. The challenge can overlap other challenges, reviewing is necessary (in a blog post or comment) and you are encouraged to be creative when choosing books. Further rules and...

The end-of-year holidays are over, the novelty is beginning to wear off the gadgets we got for Christmas, and we are in the process of reading (or have already finished) the lovely books we got (at least the ones we actually wanted). Some of us will also, by now, be having doubts about our new year‘s resolutions.  To keep things exciting, why not join a reading challenge? Like last year, I have been looking for reading challenges. While I didn‘t find many I wanted to join, I found plenty that are (or might be) suitable for other readers, and to save someone (hopefully many someones) the search, I present here the second annual reading challenge round-up, part I . I deliberately didn‘t look to see if the challenges I featured last year are being repeated, because I wanted to feature some new challenges, but neither did I exclude them when they popped up in my searches. If you are running a challenge or know of a good one, do post a link in a comment to let me know and I will ...