The Semi-Charmed Winter 2014 Book Challenge is about to commence! I'm very excited, since I didn't manage to participate in the summer one and I really missed it. This challenge seems to be the main motivator for me to keep reading (although I have recently joined a lovely book group so that's been helping too). Since the challenge was announced, I've been scouring the internet to find contenders for the categories that I didn't already have on my bookshelf. Here are my ideas, although I can't promise that these decisions are final!
5 points: Freebie! — I’m leaving this one open at the
moment, since I’m hoping to read one of my book group books for it, and we
haven’t chosen the next selection of books yet!
10 points: Read a book written by an author who has published at least 10 books. — The Steep Approach to Garbadale, Iain Banks (390 pages)
10 points: Read a book of short stories. — Echoes From The Macabre, Daphne Du Maurier (319 pages)
10 points: Read a book with a food in the title. — The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, Alan Bradley (363 pages)
15 points: Read the first book in a series that is new to you. — The Maze Runner, James Dashner (384 pages) or, and I’m slightly ashamed to admit
this, Anne of Green Gables, L. M. Montgomery (280 pages). My eldest daughter has just finished reading this and is adamant that I should read it too.
15 points: Read a book that was originally written in a language that is not your native language. — Grotesque, Natsuo Kirino (467 pages). If anyone else is looking for ideas for this category I highly recommend Blindness by Jose Saramago (320 pages)
15 points: Read a book written by a local
author. — The Yellow Eyes of Crocodiles, Katherine Pancol (447pages) (She's French. And this was a hard topic to find a book for. Yet another reason to move back to Scotland, methinks).
20 points: Read a "bookish book." — The Book of Lost Things, John Connolly (321 pages)
20 points: Read a book with a direction in the title. — South of the Border, West of the Sun, Haruki Murakami (224pages)
25 points: Read a book from a genre you don't usually read. — Stalin Ate My Homework, Alexei Sayle (321 pages) – autobiography
25 points: Read a book with a song lyric in the title.
— Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro (304 pages) after Never Let Me Go by Florence and the Machine
30 points: Read two books with a different meal in each
title. — Campari for Breakfast, Sara Crowe (304 pages) and Dinner at Mine, Chris Smyth (295 pages)
