2016 Book Challenge Time: 2016 Full House Reading Challenge

The first day of January is upon us and that means it is time to choose my reading challenges for the year . . . I did this Full House Reading Challenge last year and had a great deal of fun with it so I’m jumping on board again.  I really like the new categories she has this year!  Here we go . . .

And remember,

Books Are Life,

Heather

 

Challenge Guidelines:

• Challenge will run from Jan 1st to December 31st 2016
• Write and publish a post stating your intention to participate. In the post please include the Challenge graphic and a link back to this post. Then link your intention post at the bottom of this post.  Make sure it is the actual post and not just a generic link to your blog.
• Add your reviews back here on the link in this post. At the end of every three months there will be a U.S. $12 prize with a book of your choice from the Book Depository or U.S. Amazon voucher, for the entries. There will be a new linky then for the next quarter and so on to the end of December.
• Reviews are not mandatory and if you prefer to keep a list of the books read and the category they cross off the card, then you can still enter for the completion of a Full House by linking to that list on the final linky or in a comment.

• Jan – March Link Up     now live.
• April – June Link Up
• July – September Link Up
• October – December Link Up

• Each review can only be linked up once in the year. However it doesn’t matter when you read the book in 2016 – which month, just link as you remember or have time. So if you read it in January you may not get around to linking it until say… May. That is fine.
• Books may cross over from other challenges that you are doing.
• There will be a final post to link in a summary post for the challenge for those who have completed a full house. This will close on the 2nd January 2017  and a winner will be chosen using random.org for a U.S. $30 prize which again can be used to buy books at the Book Depository or be received as an Amazon voucher.

                            Link Full House post here

• Complete the card below.  You can do it in any order you wish.  You are allowed “one free exchange”, if there is something on the square you really dislike you may change it to something of your choice. Once you have played this free choice that is it. Mention the exchange in the final summary post.

* Self Challenge means setting a challenge for yourself for this square. For example I might set read a book my a male author, because I hardly ever do that. Or …

* Setting beginning with B. This can be a country, a state, a place, a street. Or it could be a beach or the bush or a bookshop. Long as a good part of the book is set there, the whole book might be, but it doesn’t have to be.

This is a challenge designed for fun rather than stress! Just keep reading and see how many just naturally check off a square. That’s how I play this kind of card. I don’t set out to do it – it just happens in my reading year. Mostly!

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2016 Book Challenge Time: Mount TBR Reading Challenge

Let me hear the applause readers . . . it is that time of the year to choose our reading challenges for 2016!!  And being an avid reader we all know I have an embarrassing number of books on my shelf waiting to be read . . . so I absolutely have to participate in the Mount TBR Reading Challenge!!  I believe I will enter at the level of:

Mount Blanc: Read 24 books from your TBR pile/s

Unfortunately, even I read 24 books from my TBR pile it won’t even make a dent . . . but tis is the life of a reader!!

Won’t you join us!

And remember,

Books Are Life,

Heather

This will be the fourth year for the Mount TBR Reading Challenge and I don’t seem to be getting those mountains moved at all. Despite the fact that I will have knocked over 100 books off of my 2015 Mount TBR by the end of December, there are still whole mountain ranges waiting to be conquered. As fast as I read ’em and get them off the stacks, my bookaholic ways help me replace them.

So, once again, I plan to concentrate on reading primarily from my own books in the coming year. And you’re invited to join me in knocking out some of those books that have been waiting in the wings for weeks….months…even years.

Challenge Levels:

Pike’s Peak: Read 12 books from your TBR pile/s
Mount Blanc: Read 24 books from your TBR pile/s
Mt. Vancouver: Read 36 books from your TBR pile/s
Mt. Ararat: Read 48 books from your TBR piles/s
Mt. Kilimanjaro: Read 60 books from your TBR pile/s
El Toro: Read 75 books from your TBR pile/s
Mt. Everest: Read 100 books from your TBR pile/s
Mount Olympus (Mars): Read 150+ books from your TBR pile/s

And the rules:
*Once you choose your challenge level, you are locked in for at least that many books. If you find that you’re on a mountain-climbing roll and want to tackle a taller mountain, then you are certainly welcome to upgrade.  All books counted for lower mountains carry over towards the new peak.

*Challenge runs from January 1 to December 31, 2016.

*You may sign up anytime from now until November 1st, 2016.

*Books must be owned by you prior to January 1, 2016. No library books.

*Rereads may count only in the following circumstances: If you did not own the book when you read it long ago and far away [based on your age, you can decide what that might mean–definitely not within the last five years…my arbitrary pick for a limit] and you bought the book pre-January 1, 2016 intending to reread it now that it’s your very own.  [To clarify–the intention is to reduce the stack of books that you have bought for yourself or received as presents {birthday, Christmas, “just because,” etc.}. Audiobooks and E-books may count if they are yours and they are one of your primary sources of backlogged books.]

*You may count any “currently reading” book that you begin prior to January 1–provided that you had 50% or more of the book left to finish in 2015.  I will trust you all on that.

*You may count “Did Not Finish” books provided they meet your own standard for such things, you do not plan to ever finish it, and you move it off your mountain [give it away, sell it, etc. OR remove it from your e-resources]. For example, my personal rule (unless it’s a very short book) is to give a book at least 100 pages. If I decide I just can’t finish it and won’t ever, then off the mountain it goes and I count it as a victory–the stack is smaller!

*Books may be used to count for other challenges as well.

*Feel free to submit your list in advance (as incentive to really get those books taken care of) or to tally them as you climb.

*There will be quarterly check-ins and prize drawings!

*A blog and reviews are not necessary to participate. If you have a blog, then please post a challenge sign up and link THAT post (not your home page) into the linky below. Non-bloggers, please leave a comment declaring your challenge level–OR, if you are a member of Goodreads, I will once again put together a group for the challenge there. Feel free to sign up HERE. At the beginning of the year, I will once again have a sidebar link for called Mount TBR Review Headquarters for 2016 reviews and progress updates.

 

 

2016 Book Challenge time – World Reading Challenge

It is that glorious, magical time of year when I and readers across the globe get to choose our reading challenges for the year!  LOVE!  This year I am entering a couple old favorites and trying some new ones as well such as the World Reading Challenge sponsored by life is a journey.  Here we go . . . why don’t you join along!!!

And remember,

Books Are Life,

Heather

 

 

The idea of this reading challenge is to explore the world by books from different continents and countries. To join the challenge, select and read seven books, one book from each continent:

– Africa

– Asia

– Australia/Ozeania

– Europe

– North America

– South America 

– Antarctica (or a book with a journey from one continent to another)

Why 7 Books?  To keep it simple and playful, and leave space for extra reads that might be inspired by the challenge. Also, with 7 continents, and the world population reaching 7 billions, the 7 seems a good number for this kind of challenge.

Challenge Guidelines: 

• This challenge will run from Jan 1, 2016 – Dec 31, 2016
• Books can be any format (novel, non-fiction, poetry or story collection, anthology, as well as any phyisal format: print, ebook, audio)
• The idea of the challenge is to read books from different cultures and continents – so if ithis works better for you, you can alternatively simply pick one book from each continent
• You are welcome to count these books towards any other challenges as well
• You can start wherever you want.
• When picking a country, the idea is to also pick an author from that country. If that turns out to be difficult, try to find an expat author who lived in the country for a while.

**

How to find books by country

How to find books set in particular countries? And preferably books that are written by an author who is coming from the country, or who has lived in it for a while? Here are also some lists that focus on the country:

• Wikipedia: literature by country (overview)
• Goodreads: Cultural Books (with many subpages + lists)
• Guardian “best books from”.. series
• Goodreads/Places (based on book description)
• Nobel Prize in Literature
• Three Percent: a resource for international literature
• Around the world in 80 books (Goodreads group with lists)
• A blog post with more links and information: Finding books by country: helpful links + resources
• And a list of countries / continents: the continents of the world and a list of states by continent

Searching for a place in an e-reader

If you have an e-reader, it might be interesting to run a search there: e-book readers can look for a word in all e-books they have in their files, and create a neat sorted list with bookmarks.

**

To join the reading challenge 
To join the challenge, just leave a comment with the link to your blog.

There also is a 7 continents / 7 books facebook group, to post review links, or just the cover or title of a book you enjoyed, or other related news and links – it’s open to everyone who is interested in global reads.

Looking forward to this different kind of journey around the world!

2016 Crafty Cozy Challenge!! Sign up!

Welcome to the 2016 Crafty Cozy Challenge!!

After book blogging and participating in reading challenges for a couple of years now, I have decided to host my very first reading challenge . . . so welcome to the 2016 Crafty Cozy Challenge!   I of course love to read and always like to start looking for unique, fun reading challenges about this time of year – something to expand my reading, a challenge to most importantly have fun with!  So here we go . . . I hope you will join me and most importantly have tons of fun along the way!!

You may be asking yourself “what is a crafty cozy?”  A crafty cozy is any cozy mystery that is centered around the theme of crafts and crafting – i.e., stitching, knitting, crocheting, papercrafting, scrapbooking, painting, glassblowing, . . . if its any type of craft, it counts for this challenge.

Here is how the challenge works:

1. The challenge runs from January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2016.
2. Sign up for the challenge using the link below. Please help spread the word about this challenge by writing a post on your blog.  Please write and publish a post on your blog stating your intent to participate.  In your post please somewhere include the challenge graphic and a link back directly to this post.
3. Come back to the blog starting in January to post your reviews via a link in the post.  At the end of every month I will randomly choose 1 entry/review for a $5 Amazon gift voucher sent by email to the recipient.  There will be a new link for reviews posted every month.
4. Crossovers from other challenges are absolutely alright!!
5. Don’t stress . . . and have fun reading!

What if I don’t have a blog to post reviews on?

No problem at all.  You do not need to have a blog to participate in this challenge.  I want it open to all.  Simply post a comment on this post stating your intent to participate and come back to post your review or mini-reviews of the books you have read.

Please, please have fun along the way.  Ask me any questions you may have . . .

Ready . . . set . . read . . .

And remember,

Books are life,

Heather

 

 

2015 Reading Challenge: Reading Road Trip Challenge 2015

Happy Holidays Books Are Life – Vita Libri readers and followers . . . it is that wonderful, exciting time of year to once again choose which book challenges I am going to participate in for 2015!  I spent a good portion of my day off today on different book blogs (fabulous!!) finding some new reading challenges.  Here we go readers! 

I’m choosing level Adventurer:  41-50 books

 

Hello everyone, for 2015 I’ve decided to do something a little different. I’ve decided to host my own challenge called the Reading Road Trip Challenge hosted here at She’s Got Books on Her Mind. I’ve heard about people challenging themselves to read books from the 50 states before and I wanted to do it too for 2015. I haven’t seen it around as a yearly challenge so I created my own little challenge for myself and for anyone else who wants to join up.

If you do want to join up, below is some general info about the challenge and you can post your link to your sign up page below.

The Challenge:

Read at least one book set in all 50 states in the U.S.A.

P.S. For those of you who want to join in but, don’t want to read all 50 books from the 50 states there’s a place for you here too.

Some Info:

• This challenge runs all year long from January 1st, 2015 – December 31st, 2015.

• Any book will do. If you wanted to mix and match books or just read picture books set in all 50 states do it. It’s a challenge but it’s meant to be fun so do what you think will help you complete and enjoy the challenge as best as you can.

• Read books set in a certain state or a book that visits a certain state. For example: Because of Winn-Dixie is set in Florida so when you read it you’ll complete the task of reading a book set in Florida. Another example would be Amy and Roger’s Epic Detour which has Amy and Roger going on a road trip. One of those states they visit counts as long as they stay for a little while.

• One book can only count for one state not multiple states like with road trip books. Road Trip Book = One State.

• You can move up or down levels.

• Link ups will be posted at the beginning of each month where you can post reviews or updates on your goal. For link ups you can put something like this:

State (Book) @ blog/twitter/goodreads.

For example: Florida (Because of Winn-Dixie) @BooksOnHerMind

• If you read two or more books from one state you can link up your update or review but it won’t count towards your overall goal. It’ll just be an awesome bonus.

• Have fun, readers!

Reading Levels:

Hitchhiker: 10-20

Wayfarer: 21-30

Voyager: 31-40

Adventurer: 41-50

Links to Get You Started:

YA Novels by State
The United States of YA

If you are having trouble finding some books set in certain states let me know and I’ll help you out as best as I can just let me know what types of books you read and I’ll go from there.

This reading challenge is hosted by She’s Got Books on Her Mind. For more information and to sign-up, please see this post.

 

And remember,

Books Are Life,

Heather

 

2015 Reading Challenges: Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge

Happy Holidays Books Are Life – Vita Libri readers and followers . . . it is that wonderful, exciting time of year to once again choose which book challenges I am going to participate in for 2015!  I spent a good portion of my day off today on different book blogs (fabulous!!) finding some new reading challenges.  Here we go readers! 

The Alphabet Soup Challenge means that by December 31, 2015
your bowls must be full of one book for each letter of the Alphabet.

Each Letter Counts As 1 Spoonful

Details

This challenge will run from January 1st, 2015 until December 31st, 2015.

You can join anytime. You do not have to review the book. Books can come from any genre.

You do not need to link up each spoonful.

Make a page or a post or a GoodReads shelf where you will keep track of your spoonfuls. I keep track of mine on my Challenge Page.

Crossovers to other challenges are allowed and encouraged!

It’s an alphabet challenge!!! The challenge is to read one book that has a title starting with every letter of the alphabet.

You can drop the A’s and The’s from the book titles as shown below. For those pesky Q, X AND Z titles the word with the challenge letter can be anywhere in the title.

So there are two different ways you can set up your own A-Z Reading Challenge.

A – How I plan to do it: Make a list on your blog from A-Z. Throughout the year, as you go along, add the books you are reading to the list. Towards the end of the year, you can check and see which letters you are missing and find books to fit.

OR

B – Make a list now of 26 books, picking one for each letter of the alphabet. For example: A – All the President’s Menus by Julie Hyzy  B- Bushel Full of Murder by Paige Shelton  C – Criminal Confections by Collette London D – Dark Chocolate Demise by Jenn McKinlay etc.

Books can be read in any order and all formats – print – e-book – audio – are acceptable for this challenge!

 

This reading challenge is hosted by Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book. For more information and to sign-up, please see this post.

And remember,

Books Are Life,

Heather

2015 Reading Challenges: Full House Reading Challenge 2015

Happy Holidays Books Are Life – Vita Libri readers and followers . . . it is that wonderful, exciting time of year to once again choose which book challenges I am going to participate in for 2015!  I spent a good portion of my day off today on different book blogs (fabulous!!) finding some new reading challenges.  Here we go readers! 

Challenge Guidelines:

• Challenge will run from Jan 1st to December 31st 2015
• Write and publish a post stating your intention to participate. In the post please include the Challenge graphic and a link back to this post. Then link your intention post at the bottom of this post.  Make sure it is the actual post and not just a generic link to your blog.
• Entries will be accepted up until the end of September 2015.
• Add your reviews back here on the link in this post. At the end of every three months there will be a U.S. $12 prize with a book of your choice from the Book Depository or U.S. Amazon voucher, for the entries. There will be a new linky then for the next quarter and so on to the end of December.
• Link your reviews for 1st quarter: January/February/March
• Each review can only be linked up once in the year. However it doesn’t matter when you read the book in 2015 – which month, just link as you remember or have time. So if you read it in January you may not get around to linking it until say… May. That is fine.
• Books may cross over from other challenges that you are doing. 
• On the 22nd of November a post will go up to link a summary post for the challenge for those who have completed a full house. This will close on the 1st January 2016  and a winner will be chosen using random.org for a U.S. $50 prize which again can be used to buy books at the Book Depository or be received as an Amazon voucher.

The Challenge:

• Complete the card below.  You can do it in any order you wish.  You are allowed “one free exchange”, if there is something on the square you really dislike you may change it to something of your choice. Once you have played this free choice that is it. Mention the exchange in the final summary post.

It is 25 books – that’s a challenge, however the way I play it, I read the book and then see if there is a square I am able to mark off.  I love to do reading challenges, but I make it a priority to read what I like mostly, so my challenges serve my reading, not the other way round.

This reading challenge is hosted by Book Date. For more information and to sign-up, please see this post.

And remember,

Books Are Life,

Heather

2015 Challenges: 2015 Cruisin Thru the Cozies Challenge

 Happy Holidays Books Are Life – Vita Libri readers and followers . . . it is that wonderful, exciting time of year to once again choose which book challenges I am going to participate in for 2015!  I spent a good portion of my day off today on different book blogs (fabulous!!) finding some new reading challenges.  Here we go readers! 

My level choice for this challenge is Sleuth Extraordinaire – Read 20 books or more.  (I got this!!!!)

Welcome to the fifth annual Cruisin’ thru the Cozies Reading Challenge! Wow, this is the fifth year I’m hosting this challenge and I’m still loving the cozies.

To find out exactly what a cozy mystery is, check out Cozy-Mystery.com. This site is dedicated to cozy mysteries and does a great job of defining them as well as giving a list of cozy mysteries. This challenge is NOT restricted to what is on their list, it’s just to be used as a guideline in case you need some hints on what to read.

So, here are the rules…

1. Choose the level you wish to participate:

Level 1 – Snoop – Read at least 6 books

Level 2 – Investigator – Read 7-12 books

Level 3 – Super Sleuth – Read 13 or more books

Level 4 – Sleuth Extraordinaire – Read 20 or more

2. The challenge runs from January 1, 2015 and ends December 31, 2015.

3. You don’t have to choose your books in advance. If you do, you can change your list at any time during the year. Books can overlap with other challenges.

4. Books can be in any format – paper, audio, ebooks…it all counts!

5. You don’t have to post a review, but I’m sure others would love to know about the books you are reading and may even want to add it to their reading lists.

NOTE: If you don’t have a blog and want to participate, that’s fine. You don’t have to have a blog, just post in the comments section as you finish books. If you belong to a site like Goodreads and review the books there, that’s fine too. Just leave us the link.  I also have a group for this challenge on Goodreads and you can sign up by clicking here.

6. If you do have a blog, take the button above, put it on your blog and post about the challenge. Then add your name to Mr. Linky. Please use the link of your challenge post, not the link to your home page.

7. I’m going to have one link for signing up, one link for completed reviews and one link for your wrap up posts. I won’t be having a monthly link, just one for all reviews read for this challenge.

Have fun!

This reading challenge is hosted by Socrates’ Book Reviews. For more information and to sign-up, please see this post.

 

And remember,

Books Are Life,

Heather

2015 Book Challenges: 2015 Foodies Read Reading Challenge

Happy Holidays Books Are Life – Vita Libri readers and followers . . . it is that wonderful, exciting time of year to once again choose which book challenges I am going to participate in for 2015!  I spent a good portion of my day off today on different book blogs (fabulous!!) finding some new reading challenges.  Here we go readers! 

My level choice for this challenge is Cordon-Blue Chef: More than 19 books. 

If you are new to a food/reading challenge, you may be wondering – what is a “food book”? A food book is a book which is centered around food and/or drinks. That could be a cookbook, a food biography or memoir, a non-fiction book focused around a specific food, wine, chef or restaurant, or a fictional story in which food plays a major role.

Here’s how the challenge works:

1. Decide how many food books you want to read in 2014.
Pick one of the reading levels below:

Levels:
Short-Order Cook: 1 to 3 books
Pastry Chef: 4 to 8 books
Sous-Chef: 9 to 13 books
Chef de Cuisine: 14 to 18
Cordon-Bleu Chef: More than 19

2. Grab the challenge button and write a post on your blog so we can spread the word. If you want, you can also add the button to your sidebar to help get the word out that the challenge is on for 2015.
Want to join but don’t have a blog? That’s fine, just post a comment below in the comments section saying so, and then post your reviews in the comment section of the corresponding tab at the top of the blog under the header.

3. After you read each book for the challenge, come back here and tell us about it. Click on the correct category for your book on the menu bar, and post the link to your review. We’ll use the same categories as last year: Cookbooks, Memoirs/Biographies, Fiction, and Nonfiction. There’s also a tab for you to link up your Challenge Wrap-Up post.

Guidelines:

The challenge runs from January 1 through December 31, 2015.

You don’t need a pre-selected list of books.

It’s okay to cross over with other challenges.

Any book format is allowed (print, audio, ebook)

This reading challenge is hosted by Foodies Read 2015. For more information and to sign-up, please see this post.

And remember,

Books Are Life,

Heather

2015 Book Challenge – Monthly Motif Challenge

Happy Holidays Books Are Life – Vita Libri readers and followers . . . it is that wonderful, exciting time of year to once again choose which book challenges I am going to participate in for 2015!  I spent a good portion of my day off today on different book blogs (fabulous!!) finding some new reading challenges.  Here we go readers! 

For this challenge, each month is assigned a certain motif or theme. Your task is to read one book per month that fits in with the motif for that particular month. If you participated in this challenge last year you’ll see that some of the motifs are the same while others have been changed up or switched around.

This challenge is just for fun so please don’t worry if you have to skip a month or if you have to read your books out of order! If you don’t have anywhere to link your reviews- don’t worry about it. Just come back and comment telling us what you read and if you liked it! Just have fun with it! (Please read the linky instructions carefully.)

LINKY:
* If you plan on participating, please sign up on the linky with your blog name and the words Sign Up (example: Bookmark to Blog Sign Up)
*  Different this Year! I’ll be posting only one linky for all the reviews rather than posting a new one each month. When you post your review post the name of the book and the month.
* You’ll find the review linky in the sidebar starting January 2015.

MONTHLY MOTIFS:

JAN– Book to Movie or Audio
Read a book that has a movie based off of it. For an extra challenge, see the movie or listen to the audio book as well.

FEB– Award Winner
Read a book that has won recognition or a literary award.  Here’s a list of literary awards to help you get started on your search: Literary Awards.

MAR–  Genre Jumble Read a book in a genre that you’ve never tried or that you’re least familiar with. For example, if you typically reach for romance novels, try a mystery this time. Ask your local librarian for great suggestions on the genre your least familiar with.

APR– Mystery, Murder, and Mayhem

Read a murder/mystery book, a book in which someone dies of mysterious causes, or a book in which the truth must come out.

MAY– Library Love

Show your library some love and visit your local branch. Choose a book to read that they have on display.

JUN–  Take A Trip

Choose a book to read that takes place in a country different than the one you live in or choose a book written by an author that is from a country different than your own.

JUL– Standing Up

Read a book in which the main character stands up for themselves, stands against an enemy, or stands up for something they believe in.

AUG– Alternate Reality

Read a book that’s set in the future, on another planet, in another dimension, or in an unknown world. A Dystopian book will count this month as well.

SEP– Furry Friends

Read a book that includes an animal either as a main character or supporting character. Horses, cats, dogs, insects, bird, etc. The book doesn’t have to be about the animal but the animal needs to play some sort of role in the story or be mentioned several times throughout the book.

OCT– Goblins, and Ghost, and Ghouls, Oh My!

Cozy mystery ghost stories, paranormal creeptastic, funky fantasy creatures- it’s up to you!

NOV– An Oldie but a Goodie

Pick a book published before 2000 that you’ve always wanted to read, but just never got to. Or pick a book set in the past (before 2000).

DEC– That’s a Wrap

Finish a series you’ve been meaning to finish or read the next book in a series you started but never finished.

Have fun!!! (For an extra challenge, try pairing this with the Monthly Key Word Reading Challenge.)

This reading challenge is hosted by Bookmark To Blog. For more information and to sign-up, please see this post.

Happy New Year’s reading,

And remember,

Books Are Life,

Heather