Reading Challenges Revisited

Steph recently commented that although I tend to avoid formal reading challenges, preferring to focus on positive metrics of my reading instead (i.e. 50% fiction, more Canadian or women author's), I do setup reading challenges that are annoying in their own fashion when not completed. She had two examples handy.

The first, and one that prompted her comment in the first place, was my bedside table. The small ikea fake pine table is buried under a pile of books that I plan to read shortly. Currently, if success, I will read the following if I actually clear the table this year.

1. Starship Titanic by Terry Jones
   
2. Thieves and Kings volume one by Mark Oakely (reread)
   
3. Ratios by Michael Ruhlman
   
4. The Golden Mean by annybel Lynn
   
5. The Anatomy of Keys by Steven Price
   
6. Once by Rebecca Rosenblum (reread)
   
7. Road Trips by Rebecca Rosenblum (reread)
   
8. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel by Susanna Clarke
   
9. The Odyssey by Homer
   
10. The Promise by Jonathan Alter
    
11. Leviathan by Scott Westerfield
    
12. Fifteen Days by Christie Blatchford
    
13. The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan
    
14. Typhoon by Charles Cumming
    
15. Mage the Ascension
    

Daunting, but would give me much in the way of domestic karma points to read these and return the borrowed one's to their original owner.

My second unintentional reading challenge is my random library acquisitions. I seem to collect library books at an alarming pace as I find myself suddenly under the gun to get a bunch read in a short period of time. As of right now I have the following:

1. Light Lifting by Alexander MacLeod
   
2. Rings of Saturn by W G Sebald
   
3. It's a Don's Life by Mary Beard
   
4. Norweigan Wood by Haruki Murakami
   
5. Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
   
6. The Story of Art by E H Gromich
   

I main problem is that I really want to read this books, which is why they are close by, yet I seem to be distracted by other book piles in my home. Although Steph can't do much about the first list, she has threatened to take my library card away (for my own good).

On the upside, there is a lot of good read in these lists. I will update as I get through them. I guess I do conduct reading challenges in my own fashion.

S