Despite not getting much reading done this weekend, I’m still excited to share with you the reading challenges in which I will participate this year. After all, ’tis the season to make promises that this year will be different–this year will be better!

Goodreads Reading Goal: 100 Books

This year, I’ve once again set a nearly impossible goal for the 2012 Goodreads Reading Challenge: 100 books. In fact, the superbrains over at Goodreads tell me I’ve already fallen behind. The thing is, 100 books doesn’t sound like a lot to me. Surely this will be the year that I pull it off! (Despite ice skating lessons, writing classes, blogging, and freelance editing–not to mention my full-time job and, oh yeah, my dwindling personal life…)

Update: I made it to 33. Not even close!

TBR Pile/Mount TBR Reading Challenges

The goals of both TBR Pile Challenge (hosted by Roof Beam Reader) and Mount TBR Reading Challenge (hosted by My Reader’s Block) are pretty straightforward: To read 12 books from your “to be read” pile in 12 months. These challenges may sound familiar; that’s because they’re awfully close to my ongoing Bookshelf ROWDOWN challenge! In fact, I’ve recently posted about books that have been on my TBR list for ages (Top Ten Books on My TBR List and Top Ten Books I’m Excited To Read in 2012), so I’m planning to read several of the books on those lists for these TBR challenges:

1. The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
2. Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
3. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich.
4. The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin
5. Tinkers by Paul Harding
6/7/8. The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins
9. Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst
10/11/12. Lit, The Liar’s Club, and Cherry by Mary Karr

My two back-ups, in case I encounter a snag with one of those titles, are The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien and Freedom by Jonathan Franzen.

Update: I also read the following books, which qualify for the challenge:
1. Girl in a Blue Dress by Gaynor Arnold
2. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
3. Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver
4. Maui Revealed by Andrew Doughty
5. Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion
6. The Train of Small Mercies by David Rowell
7. Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie

So, although I didn’t make it back to my original list, I still completed 10 books for the TBR challenges.

Ebook Challenge

I read quite a few ebooks in 2011, so I’m pretty confident that I will reach (or exceed) my goal of 10 books for the 2012 Ebook Challenge (hosted by Workaday Reads.) I haven’t decided yet which books I’ll read; it all depends on their availability on Netgalley and my public library. But I have the entire Hunger Games trilogy on my e-reader already, so I’ll probably start there.

Update: I read 13 ebooks in 2012:
1. Swamplandia! by Karen Russell
2-4. The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins
5. The Last Hunger Season by Roger Thurow
6. Stanley Finnigan and the Race Around the Universe by Dan Cuoco
7-13. The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

Audio Book Challenge

I enjoy listening to audiobooks, but I haven’t been listening to as many lately–I don’t really know why. For the 2012 Audio Book Challenge (hosted by Teresa’s Reading Corner) I’m planning on reading only 6 books, but hopefully I’ll double that number over the course of the next year.

Update: I only read one audiobook in 2012: War by Sebastian Junger. I’m not sure why the number has dropped so low. I need to add more books to my iPod!

South Asian Challenge

Some of the best books I read last year were set in South Asia, which was rather appropriate, since I visited the region twice in 2011. For both of those reasons, and because the art Swapna Krishna created for this challenge is so beautiful, I’ll be competing in her 2012 South Asian Challenge. Since this is my first time, I’m going to go slow; I plan to read 4 books for this challenge. But I’m very excited to discover new authors and stories from South Asia.

Update: Sadly, this one didn’t go very well. Unless you count Butterfly’s Child by Angela Davis-Gardner (set in Japan) and War by Sebastian Junger (set in Afghanistan), I didn’t read any books set in Asia or by Asian authors this year. What a loss!

I think that’s it for me on challenges. I can totally do this! Are you planning on participating in any this year?

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