Oh, I just can't stop myself

So, as I’m sure you know, bloggers, specifically book bloggers, love reading challenges. The more challenges you are a part of, the more books you get to read. Theoretically, anyway. Truthfully, the more challenges you are a part of, you end up with more books that you want to read, but less time. At least that has always been my experience with them.

It’s a sad, vicious cycle and one I like participating in. I’ve already joined two challenges this year and while I’m going to be good and not “join” any more, I’ve found a couple that look really interesting.

The first is the First in a Series Challenge. I don’t think I really have to describe to you what this challenge is about, since it’s spelled out in the title. Joy is the same blogger running the Sweet and Simple YA challenge that I joined . I like this challenge, because it will force me to seek out new authors and new series.

So far, I think I have three “first books” lined up. Michelle Sagara West and her Cast in series (I read Cast in Secret, the first book, a few weeks ago and loved it). There is Jerri Smith-Ready and her Aspect of Crow series (first book there is Eye of Crow). There is also Philip Pullman’s mystery series about Sally Lockhart (first book in this series is The Ruby in the Smoke).

And while I’m not sure this will count (except, I’m not actually doing the challenge, so I can make it count), I am also planning on rereading Steven Brust’s Vladimir Taltos series. My younger brother introduced me to this series (and this author), for which I’ll be eternally grateful. Not that I’ll ever tell him that.

The other challenge is Annie’s What’s in a Name Challenge. The rules are to choose one book from each of the following categories:

1. A book with a color in its title.
2. A book with an animal in its title.
3. A book with a first name in its title.
4. A book with a place in its title.
5. A book with a weather event in its title.
6. A book with a plant in its title.

Looking at my above list, I see that The Ruby in the Smoke and Eye of Crow will work for this challenge too. And it’s not cheating; Annie said we could share books across challenges. Hmm, while I’m thinking about it, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell will work for this challenge too.

I think it will be interesting to just keep track of how many books I read fall into one of the above six categories, I know I have some other books on hold at the library that will also work here.