2012 Challenges Out, 2013 Challenges In

This was my second year attempting The TBR Pile Challenge hosted by Adam @ Roof Beam Reader.  The challenge was to read 12 books that had been on my shelf for more than a year.  I managed to read 8/12 but only got around to writing reviews for 2 of them.  I still plan on writing either mini reviews or Friday Reading Journal entries on the other six but they are not going to get posted before the end of the year.  Although I didn't make it again this year, I believe I did do better than I did in 2011.

2012 was the first year I attempted the Chunkster Challenge and I was going for the mor-book-ly obese level which is 5 books over 450 pgs and 3 books over 750 pgs.  I actually almost made it on this one!  I read 7 out of the 8 required and was only missing my final 750 page book which I had planned on being Les Miserables but I didn't get around to reading it like I had hoped.  Still with going back to school in August which was totally not planned I think I did pretty well with this one.

I also participated in 2 challenges at Paperbackswap on the Historical Fiction forum.  I finished the 2013 Historical Fiction Challenge there with 24/24 books completed and fell one short on the Historical Mystery Challenge with 7/8.

Overall, not terrible but hopefully I will do better in 2013 because I am participating in a few MORE challenges than I did in 2013.  What can I say?  I love challenges, and Read-A-Thons, and blog hops.....

So here are the ones for 2013:

This is the year I conquer the TBR Pile Challenge-I just know it!  My list of 12 plus two alternates is HERE.  If you're thinking about trying this one mosey on over to Roof Beam Reader and check it out.  There's still time!

In case you haven't noticed, I like Historical Fiction...A Lot...

That is why the Historical Fiction Challenge hosted by Historical Tapestry is perfect for me! This will by far be the easiest challenge I do all year because 95% of what I read is Historical Fiction.  I think part of the reason I haven't done this one before is because I was focusing on the challenge aspect but this one is purely to share the good books I'll be reading this year-and because I'm nosy and want to know what good historical fiction everyone else is reading.  Seriously, if I fail at this one I am turning in my book nerd card to be hung up on the horrible readers wall of shame.

And this one will probably be the most challenging of the year as I am trying to accomplish the feat of scaling Mt. Kilimanjaro (or at least do the literary equivalent by reading 60 books off of my TBR.  This challenge is hosted by Bev @ My Reader's Block.  This is the first time I am trying this one and I think  may have bit off more than I can chew with this one but I'm still going to try!

So, this year I really wanted to participate in a challenge that focused on the classics because I love them but when it comes to a choice between the latest historical fiction novel or the dusty old tome written by some dead guy, the historical usually wins out.  I looked in vain for a regular old "read this many classics in 2013" type challenge but I didn't find one.  The ones I ran across either had specific categories you had to complete or the classics being read were predefined.  Not what I wanted exactly, so I'm doing my own personal classics challenge.  The goal is 1 a month so 12 classics by the end of the year.  This can even help me with the Mount TBR Challenge since I'll be picking from classics I already own!

I'll also be doing a couple reading challenges with the groups I participate in on Goodreads and Paperbackswap so it should be a pretty full year for challenges.

I am really looking forward to all of these.  What challenges have you signed up for this year?