Challenges 2014: Vintage Mystery Bingo (Silver and Golden)

Oh dear. Obviously I am insane to be joining so many challenges this year, and I am bound to fail at least one of them if I plan to do anything other than reading and maintaining homeostasis, but I just couldn't pass this one up. Never mind the fact that this is technically a double challenge, so I'm twice likely to fail this one. Too good!

(hosted by My Reader's Block)

From the challenge's page:

All books must be from the mystery category (crime fiction, detective fiction, espionage, etc.). The mystery/crime must be the primary feature of the book--ghost stories, paranormal, romance, humor, etc are all welcome as ingredients, but must not be the primary category under which these books would be labeled at the library or bookstore.

Challengers may play either the Silver Age or Golden Age Card—or both. For the purposes of this challenge, the Golden Age Vintage Mysteries must have been first published before 1960. [..] Silver Age Vintage Mysteries may be first published any time from 1960 to 1989 (inclusive). [..] 

I decided to try to complete at least one line from each card. I have a lot of mysteries around the house, so even at a cursory glance finding suitable books shouldn't be a problem, but you never know.

Challenges 2014: TBR Pile

(hosted by the Bookish)
From the challenge's page:

We all have those books. We buy them, win them, they're gifted to us.. Then we put them up on a bookshelf and there they stay, collecting dust, waiting for the time when we'll finally decide to pick them up..
Join us on a quest to dust off your TBR Pile and read all the books you've been telling yourself you'll read next time you'll get a chance.. This is your chance! And we've got PRIZES!!! :D

I'm aiming for the second level, a Friendly Hug, which means I should read 11-20 books from my TBR.
For this challenge I'm going to use only the books that I've personally bought myself or the ones that were gifted for me. That is, no books from family library, although technically I own them all and at least 30% of those are in my TBR mountain pile, and no Gutenberg downloads (although if bought a translation of the book, and then found the original on Gutenberg, then I can read the original in electronic form, and it'll count).
This still leaves me with a wide selection of hundreds of books, though.

Challenges 2014: What's in a Name

(hosted by the Worm Hole)

From the challenge's page:

The challenge runs from January to December. During this time you choose a book to read from each of the following categories (examples of books you could choose are in brackets):

• A reference to time (Eleven Minutes, Before Ever After)
• A position of royalty (The People’s Queen, The Last Empress, The Curse Of The Pharaoh)
• A number written in letters (The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, A Tale Of Two Cities)
• A forename or names (Rebecca, Eleanor & Park, The Unfinished Work Of Elizabeth D.)
• A type or element of weather (Gone With The Wind, Red Earth Pouring Rain)

Possibilities:

• Time: the Year of Living Biblically; One Hundred Years of Solitude; the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time;
• Royalty: the King's Speech; King Solomon's Mines; King Lear;
• Number in Letters: the Fifth Sacred Thing;
• Forename(s): the Picture of Dorian Gray; Veronika Decides to Die; Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
• Weather: Gone with the Wind; Cold Rain;

Challenges 2014: Kelley's Bingo

(head on to bingo page for rules and things)

The Goals for this Challenge

(listed in brackets are my possible reads)

B1: Book I bought but haven’t read yet

B2: Book recommended by a friend (the Secret (oh dear lord) or a Song of Ice and Fire volume)

B3: Book outside my comfort zone (the Host or something horror)

B4: Book that teaches me something 

B5: Finish/reread a series

I1: Nonfiction book I already own

I2: Book I got for free

I3: Ebook I already own (TTSS)

I4: Book I’m excited for (Whispers Under Ground)

I5: Book about food

N1: Classic on my TBR list

N2: 2013 debut I missed last year (I'm bad with new releases, so something from here, or here -- or feel free to recommend me something!)

N3: FREE SQUARE!

N4: Verse novel (Paradise Lost, Eugene Onegin, the Satanic Verses)

N5: Book I got signed but haven’t read

G1: Finish a series ending in 2014 (Under the Never Sky)

G2: Adult book on my TBR list

G3: Book by an author I haven’t read before

G4: Book that uses experimental prose

G5: Finish a series that ended before 2014 (Smiley)

O1: Standalone book on my TBR list

O2: Indie book

O3: Book I started years ago and forgot about

O4: Visual novel

O5: Chunkster

Challenges 2014: Anne and Kristilyn Book Bingo

(head on to challenge page for rules and things)

So~ Some maths tells me that if I were to read all the books in the card, then I'd have to read 55 books, which is 10 more than the number of books I've challenged myself to read this year. We'll see about that. But I'll definitely try. The new releases column will be the most difficult one. I'm always late to the party. Pretty sure for this one I'll be entirely dependent on Kindle's free books section.

TBR Pile
(For the purpose of this challenge, I'm defining TBR as all the books I've been meaning to read but haven't for some reason, whether they will be borrowed from the library, downloaded for free, freshly bought, or will indeed come from my overflowing shelves. Any book that inspires the thought of "oh yeah, yeah, I remember you, been meaning to read you..." counts.)

• one book
• two books
• three books
• four books
• five books

Mix it up

• non-fiction
• classic
• re-read
• free square
• contemporary

Series

• one book (Save Me)
• two books (a Song of Ice and Fire OR 50 Shades)
• three books (Robert Langdon)
• four books (Hitchhiker's Guide)
• five books (George Smiley)

Genres

• fantasy
• free square
• historical fiction
• mystery
• romance

New Releases

• one book
• two books
• three books
• four books
• five books

Challenges 2014: Books in Translation

(photo credit for button)

(hosted by the Introverted Reader)

From the challenge page: 

The goal is obviously to read translations of books, from any language into the language(s) you're comfortable reading in; they don't have to be in English.
You can read any genre and any age range.

I'm aiming for the fourth level, Linguist, that is: 10-12 books. Although I'm a translator by trade and certainly respect the profession, I usually shun translated books for whatever reason, especially if the originals happen to be in languages I've the fortune of understanding. So this challenge will be a true challenge for me.

Challenges 2014: Eclectic Reader

(hosted by Book'd Out)

From the challenge page:

The aim of The Eclectic Reader 2014 Challenge is to push you outside your comfort zone by reading up to 12 books during the year from 12 different categories.

And one more challenge to make me explore more genres this year. No fixed months for categories. List of genres to explore below. The last one's going to be the hardest one for me. Guess I'm gonna have to pay more attention to goodreads newsletter, or ARC reviews.

• Award Winning (Atonement)
• True Crime (Non Fiction)
• Romantic Comedy (Shopaholic series? is this romantic comedy?)
• Alternate History Fiction
• Graphic Novel
• Cosy Mystery Fiction
• Gothic Fiction
• War/Military Fiction (Hemingway? All Quiet on the Western Front?)
• Anthology
• Medical Thriller Fiction
• Travel (Non Fiction) (Wild by Cheryl Strayed, or something by Bill Bryson, or a Moveable Feast)
• Published in 2014 

Challenges 2014: Banned Books

(hosted by Buckling Bookshelves)

From the challenge page:

RULES: Any book that has been banned or challenged counts for this challenge. Books can be read in any format and overlap with other challenges is allowed (encouraged!)

I always want to read more banned books, but never end up doing it for whatever odd reason. I hope this challenge will serve as a reminder throughout the year. Aiming for third level, Rebel, which means I'll read 6-9 challenged books.

Goodreads banned books 'genre' page. Whatever I'll end up reading, it'll either be public domain, or on my shelves already.

Challenges 2014: Jumble Your Genres

(hosted by Readers Live a Thousand Lives, Lovin Los Libros, Corrie the Book Crazed Girl)

From the challenge page:

For this challenge, the goal is to mix up the genres/categories we read. We have all had those times when we have gotten stuck in the genre/category we are currently reading and read nothing else for a while. The goal here is to mix that up! Each month we will feature a different genre/category and the goal is to read and review one book or more in that genre/category during that month.

Lately I tend to stick to my comfort zone whilst reading, so I hope this challenge will kick me out of my urban fantasy/ mystery/ classic/ memoir/ ad infinitum rut. This should be fun. I have no idea what High Fantasy or New Adult even mean. To the search engine!

List of genres (and possible reads):

January: Young Adult (the Book Thief)

February: Contemporary 

March: Urban Fantasy (Mercy Thompson or Peter Grant)

April: Middle Grade (Anne Frank, Matilda, Anne of Green Gables, to Kill a Mockingbird)

May: Dystopian (1984)

June: High Fantasy (George R.R. Martin or J. R.R. Tolkien)

July: Adult (probably a classic)

August: Paranormal (Mortal Instruments or Sookie Stackhouse)

September: Romance 

October: Sci-fi

November: Historical

December: New Adult

Challenges 2014: Witches and Witchcraft

(hosted by Melissa's Eclectic Bookshelf)

From the challenge page:

Any full length book that includes a witch as a main character or includes major witchcraft elements counts. They may be fiction or non-fiction. However, they should not be reference books which are not read cover to cover-I will leave this to your discretion.

I'm signing up for the second level, Maiden, which means I should read 06-10 witchy books.

Possible reads:

• the Mayhem Sisters, by Lauren Quick

Challenges 2014: Nonfiction

(hosted by the Introverted Reader)

From the official challenge page:

The Challenge: Read any non-fiction book(s), adult or young adult. That's it. You can choose anything. Memoirs? Yes. History? Yes. Travel? Yes. You get the idea? Absolutely anything that is classified as non-fiction counts for this challenge.

There are four levels, and I'm gonna go for the second one, Explorer, which means I should read 06-10 non-fiction books.

Possible reads:

• Competability, by Amy Shojai
• the Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath
• Maria Mitchell: Life, Letters, and Journals