Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge And I May Just Have Signed Up For Another Challenge - Oops!

Why yes, yes I did completely fail at this challenge last year - my own challenge. So why am I posting about it? Because many of those who have participated in the past encouraged me to give it another try. So here we go again. I've made some changes (and by changes, I mean I've made it easier!) which I hope will make it more fun (fewer books needed to succeed, more movie adaptations can be substituted).

If you're not completely inundated with challenges already, we'd love to have you join us! To sign up, just leave a comment here.

This evening I made the terrible mistake of clicking on a post from Michelle of The True Book Addict where she highlighted all of the challenges she's participating in this year. Well of course I found another one I had to do - one that's right up my alley. It's Bex's (of An Armchair By The Sea) The Telling Tales Reading Challenge. And just why couldn't I pass it up? Because it's all about reading/watching fairytales, folktales and myths! Perfect, no?! Just remind me not to click on any more posts in Google Reader that have anything to do with challenges you've signed up for, please.

2011 Reading Challenges

I think...I hope...that I've settled on the reading challenges I'm going to attempt for 2011.  As I said in my Sunday Salon, I'm going to be continuing with the Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge.  I will also continue with the Our Mutual Read challenge (although I'm not sure I'm going to master it this year) and will attempt the Michener Challenge again next year.  I'll also do the Everything Austen Challenge in 2011.

This year I'm adding a new-to-me challenge in 2011--War Through The Generations Reading Challenge.  I've always thought this sounded like a great challenge but never was sure I wanted to commit to it.  In 2011, though, the U.S. Civil War is the focus and I can't resist joining.  I think, I know, I've mentioned before that my dad was an American History teacher for almost 40 years with a particular passion for the Civil War.  And by passion, I mean that our three-week-long summer vacations nearly always revolved around finding our way to as many Civil War battlefields as possible.  At the time I wasn't very appreciative. Okay, I wasn't appreciative at all.  I mean, it was not within my capabilities to stand in a green park-like area and imagine the solders coming over a hill top only to be met with bayonets and gunfire.  That passion my dad, and my mom to a lesser extent, have has gradually worn on me and I'm eager to have the excuse to read more about this period in our history.  Plus, I have this amazing library of Civil War books to draw from!

CSN Stores Giveaway

Be sure to head over to my Gilmore Girls Challenge page and enter to win a gift certificate to CSN stores.  I'll be drawing the winner of an $80 gift certificate on Sunday--how's that for a treat for Halloween?

Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge - What's To Read?

Okay, when I was watching The Gilmore Girls on the WB network, I knew Rory Gilmore was an avid reader surrounding by a smart mom and spent a lot of time in school. Stands to reason that there would be a lot of books around. But I had no idea how many that was until a friend guided me to a list of almost 300 books.

Now I know I'm slow getting this challenge up, but the good news about this challenge is that with this many books to choose from, it makes a great crossover challenge.

If you're reading the Women Unbound Challenge, you'll find on this list "The Second Sex" by Simone de Beauvoir, "A Room of One's Own" by Virginia Woolf, "Out of Africa" by Isak Dinesen and and "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath. For "Woolf In Winter" you could also add Woolf's "Mrs. Dalloway. Crossing over with All About The Brontes, you could read "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Bronte and "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Bronte. The Shelf Discovery Challenge has crossovers with "Deenie" by Judy Blume and the Nancy Drew books by Carolyn Keene. If you're participating in the Really Old Classics Challenge, you can crossover "The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, "Bhagavad Gita," and "The Iliad" by Homer. Wow, I just figured out that I could sign up for about three more challenges!

For the Gilmore Girls challenge, there are three levels. The first level is "Emily." Emily Gilmore is the matriarch of the family and a pretty demanding old gal. But to reach her level, you'll only have to read five books from two categories between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2010.

The second level is "Lorelei." Lorelei is a smart cookie who has devoted her life to making her daughter's life better. To reach her level, you'll need to read ten books from three of the five categories.

The highest level is "Rory." Rory is kind of a big deal in her small town of Stars Hollow, Connecticut and the person most responsible for all of the books on the list. To join Rory, you'll need to read twenty books from four of the categories.

There will be a couple of mini-challenges along the way and at the end of the year, there will be a drawing for a book of your choice from the list or a DVD collection of a season of the television show.

Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge

"Gilmore Girls" ran on the WB Network from October 2000 to May 2007. The "girls" were mother and daughter Lorelei and Rory Gilmore. Lorelei had made her share of mistakes but when the show started, she was doing her best to make sure her prep school daughter stayed on the right track. Which was complicated by Lorelei's wealthy, meddling parents and a small Connecticut town full of real characters who all seemed to think they had a say in Rory's life. Between Lorelei, Rory, friends, family and school over 280 books were seen, discussed or read during the shows six year run.

When a friend recently found a site that listed all of the books referenced on the show, by episode, I started to get the idea that it would be fun to see how many of them I could read. Until I really started to think about how many books that was. That's when I decided it would be more fun to have a lot of people read some of the books.

If you click on the button on sidebar, it will take you directly to the challenge blog (or click here) for all of the details and the very long list of books you can choose from. The challenge runs from January 1, 2010 through December 31, 2010 and there are five categories of books you can choose from and three levels of participation. Movies of any of the books count and crossovers from other challenges count. You could end up reading anything from "Eloise" to Sylvia Plath, from "Babe, the Gallant Pig" to Arianna Huffington's "Pigs At The Trough."

There will be a grand prize at the end (still working out the details on that) and some mini-challenges along the way. Hope you'll be able to work this into what I already know is your very busy year of challenges!