Two challenges for 2011

I’ve been wanting to tackle a BAHG. Or at least a miniature one. Something. I wanted an opportunity to push myself short-term, learn something new and ship, ship, ship. Not to mention, setting a goal (and sharing it publicly) forces me to keep going and complete the task even after I get over the initial enthusiasm.

Since two of the major loves of my life are quilting and reading, those seemed like natural places to look. And that’s where we’re going.

The quilting challenge took me a while to decide on. I had thought to force myself to do one quilt for every pattern I own, but given that there are more than 1,000 in my library, that challenge would get old long before it got done. (More than 19 years at a quilt a week, if you want the math.) Since I blog about baby quilts already, that’s where I decided to go with my 2011 challenge on that front. And while I might do recaps over here, blogging for that challenge will be at my quilt blog.

So that left the reading challenge. And I’m late to the original party, but I really like the idea behind the 451 Challenge. Farenheit 451 is one of my favorite books (movie was marginal) and the idea of reading books that mean so much to people that they would want to “be” that book is kind of cool. Now, the original challenge had you signing up to read anywhere from one to eight books – for the year. (Well, the challenge creator was involved in several challenges, so I can see why this number was that low.) Given that I tend to read eight books a month … I think I can top that.

There are 170 books on the list (although there is some repetition where an entire series is listed as well as a single book from the series) and I’ve read 38 42of them already. That leaves … 132 128. Given that there are quite a few on there I would never choose for myself, reading the rest of the list might open up some interesting new choices for me. But, even if I read eight a month, I wouldn’t make it through the entire list this next year. So …

Here’s my reading challenge for 2011:

1. Books from the 451 Challenge book list that I haven’t already read.
2. At least three books every month that come from the list. (Gotta keep up with my business and other reading.)
3. To keep me from cherry-picking off the list too much, I have to start by taking one book from each letter of the alphabet represented on the list.
4. Goal for the year: 44 books. That gets me through the entire list of what I haven’t read in three years.

I’ll be setting up a page with the book list and moving things from unread to read. Love to have you join me; let me know in the comments if you plan to. Or share whatever reading challenge you’ve set for yourself for 2011. I’m always fascinated by how others challenge themselves.

Tags: 2011 challengebooksreading