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Friday, July 16, 2010

2010 Challenges: How's it going so far?

Way back in January, we signed up for four challenges.  Rather, I signed up for four challenges and said "Hey Dave, we're doing four challenges."  I'm pretty sure he grunted agreement.  Now, here we are in the latter half of July and I've barely given them a thought, much less kept a checklist.  There have been a couple books we chose specifically for challenges, but for the most part I'm just reviewing what we've read in 2010 to see if any of it will qualify.  Here's how we stand:

Take Another Chance Challenge - Sponsored by Jenners at Find Your Next Book Here

We signed up at the "moderate" level, or six of the twelve challenges, and agreed that we would do this together - my books, Dave's books, and read together books.  So far we have completed three:

#1 Read Your Doppleganger - For this challenge we read Deeper Than the Dead by Tami Hoag.  You gotta just love an author who spells her first name so creatively. We read this one together

#5 Title Word Count - Our random number was 2, so our selection was House Rules by Jodi Picoult.  This wasn't really up Dave's alley, so I read this one alone.

#7 Break a Prejudice - I tried out a graphic novel, which was a BIG prejudice for me and actually enjoyed Ethel and Ernest by Raymond Briggs.  Again, I read this one alone, but I did read funny parts aloud to Dave, whether he was listening or not.

Opposites Attract Challenge - Sponsored by Jen at Jen's Book Talk.  So far we have read three pairs of opposites.  I'll admit that these have been chance pairings, and the Sizzling/Cold thing may be stretching it, but I promise to make more deliberate match-ups in the future.

Dead - Deeper Than the Dead by Tami Hoag
Living - Night of the Living Deed by E.J. Copperman


Death - Death by Darjeeling by Laura Childs
Survival - Survival of Rural America by Richard E. Wood


SizzlingSizzling Sixteen by Janet Evanovich
Cold - In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

The other two challenges on our list are the Marple-Poirot-Holmes Challenge sponsored by Kals @ At Pemberley, and the Reagan Arthur Book Challenge sponsored by Kathy at Bermuda Onion  and Julie at Booking Mama.  Ok, we gotta come straight out and say that so far this is an epic fail (that's the cool new phrase I learned from my kids.  Hip, aren't I?)  Honestly, I pretty much forgot I signed up, so we've made no progress at all.  Our apologies to the lovely ladies who sponsored these.  We will really try to do better in the second half.

We also started our own Read Together Challenge to encourage everyone to read with a partner - child, spouse, friend.  We set our goal at twelve, one book per month, and we're doing fairly well.  So far we have read six, but July has slipped by without much together time, so we need to get back on pace.  If you would like to join us, just leave us a comment about what you're reading and with whom.  How are you keeping up with your 2010 assignments?

3 comments:

  1. It seems like you are doing pretty good. This post is a good reminder that I should take stock of my challenges too.

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  2. When I was in my teens, I read all the Sherlock Holmes stories. A great read.
    Suzanne

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  3. I really liked the sound of Jenner's challenge but begged off since challenges aren't really my thing. But maybe I'll give it a go next year if she runs it again - it just sounded like such fun - per her usual style!'

    And Andy & I had fun with your Read Together idea. He's not been reading much of anything lately and I've been taking a break due to some heavy topics but maybe we'll find another common book to read this year. If so, we'll be sure to come back and let you know!

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