5x4 Reading Challenge 2012

I'm hoping that this personal challenge will help me be a more well rounded reader. I've changed some of my categories from last year, but will keep the Classics, Short Story Collection and Pulitzer Prize categories. The two others will be Harold Bell Wright and Presidents. Past categories included Oprah Book Club Picks & Non-Fiction.

Classics
1. A Tale of Two cities
2.
Prize Winners
1. Middlesex

Presidents
1. River of Doubt
2. John Adams by David McCullough
3. Killing Linclon by Bill O'Reilly & Martin Dugard

Harold Bell Wright


Short Story Collections
1.Discount Noir
2.
3.
4.

2009 Challenges

I had a lot of fun with the Challenges I joined last year and decided to join more this year.
(My 2008 Wrap Up is here.)
The Challenges I've chosen to join or continue this year are:

1. The 100+ Reading Challenge + The Read & Review Challenge (below) Finished! :)

2.The 5X4 Self Challenge (below) Finished! :)

3. The Audiobook Challenge (below) Finished! :)

4. The 2009 Read-Your-Own-Books Challenge (below) Finished! :)

5. Books Around the States (Continued from 2008) (below)

6. Suspense & Thriller 2009 Challenge (below) Finished! :)

7. Support Your Local Library Challenge 2009 (below) Finished :)

8. Chunkster Challenge (below) Finished! :)

9. What's In a name Challenge (below) Finished :)

10. The Daniel DeFoe Mini-Challenge (below) Finished :)

11. John Steinbeck Mini-Challenge (below) Finished! :)

12. The Southern Reading challenge (below) Finished! :)

Reading Around the World (see the sidebar)

5 X 4 Self Challenge 2009

FINISHED!!

In all the years I've been reading I've never planned it out. I read books that catch my fancy, that appeal to me from the shelf at the library, bookstore or garage sale, or that friends talk about. I found last year when I joined the 888 challenge I felt.......cornered. It DID help me to broaden my reading to new genres and helped me to see I could enjoy reading them. However, I didn't finish the challenge by 3 books. This year in an effort to widen my reading range but still have lots of room for the books I come across that I want to read, I've created this pared down version, The 5X4 Self Challenge. Four books in each of five categories. These are books I wouldn't normally read or that I want to read and never get around to. That's a quarter of my 100 book reading goal for this year. I'm going to plan the books, but will change if something else comes along that catches my interest. Who knows, I may read more than four in each category. Of course, I already own all these books. The categories I've chosen are:



Classics
1 The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald review here
2 Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe review here
3 Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck review here
4 Robinson Crusoe by Daniel DeFoe review here



Non-Fiction
1 Me Talk Pretty Some Day by David Sedaris review here
2 The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson review here
3 The Lost City of Z by David Grann review here
4 The Christmas Day Murders by Sheriff J.B. Smith review here

Books Older Than Me That Are Sitting on My Shelf
1 Kazan The Wolf Dog by James Oliver Curwood review here
2 Brewster's Millions by G. B. McCutcheon review here
3 Tarzan and the Golden Lion by Edgar Rice Burroughs review here
4 A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith review here


Award Winners
1 The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larson (Mcavity Best First Novel)
2 The Time-Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger (Booker Prize)
3 Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick review here
4 The Killing Floor by Lee Child ( Anthony Award for Best First Novel) review here

Histories
1 1776 by David McCullough review here
2 The Zookeepers Wife by Diane Ackerman review here
3 Battle on the Bay by Edward T. Cotham, Jr. review here
4 The Lost City of Z by David Grann review here