Am I Becoming an Addict?

I was reading through Melissa's new book blog today and discovered all the challenges she is signing up for. Wow, she's going to have a busy reading year! :-) Anyway, I stumbled upon the Twenty-Ten Challenge, which I'd read up on before, and somehow it has struck my fancy, so I'm going to sign up for that one as well. That will make 4 reading challenges this year, and I'm thinking that's a good number, or at least until someone else comes up with something I'll love. Fortunately, all the challenges allow you to cross-count your books across other challenges, so I'm sure I'll have some duplicates.

The rules from the Twenty-Ten blog:

The aim is to read a total 20 books, over ten categories, in 2010. (Was this challenge based solely around the name? I’ll let you decide!)

Rules:

*Read 2 books from each category, making a requirement of 20 books total.
*The categories are intended to be loose guidelines only, if you decide it fits, then it fits. (Apart from those marked **)
*Categories marked with ** have tighter rules, and these must be followed.
*Each book can only qualify for one category.
*Crossovers with other challenges are allowed.
*Books read from 01/01/2010 to 31/12/2010 are eligible.

The categories (and my choices, where I know what they are) are as follows:

1. Young Adult (Any book classified as young adult or featuring a teenage protagonist counts for this category)

* 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson
* Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin

2.T.B.R. ** (Intended to help reduce the old T.B.R. pile. Books for this category must be already residents of your bookshelves as of 1/11/09)

* Family Tree by Barbara Delinsky (Since Melissa inspired me to join this one, and I saw this as one of her selections, I'm selecting it!)
* Learning to Breathe by Karen White (I have a couple of Karen White books on my TBR shelf and I suspect she's an author I'm going to love, but I've never sat down and read them! Now's my chance!)

3.Shiny & New (Bought a book NEW during 2010 from a bookstore, online, or a supermarket? Then it counts for this category. Second-hand books do not count for this one, but, for those on book-buying bans, books bought for you as gifts or won in a giveaway also count!)

* Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
* Someday My Prince Will Come by Jerramy Fine

4.Bad Blogger’s *** (Books in this category, should be ones you’ve picked up purely on the recommendation of another blogger count for this category [any reviews you post should also link to the post that convinced you give the book ago].)

Both my books in this category have come from reviews I've read on Lesley's blog. Now, odds are good I'm going to wind up hating one of these, and I suspect I know which it will be, due to the fact that until recently Lesley and I could never agree on the books we liked and hated.
* The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
* Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear

5. Charity (Support your local charity shops with this category, by picking up books from one of their shops)

Library book sales, here I come!

6. New in 2010 (This category is for those books newly published in 2010 [whether it be the first time it is has been released, or you had to wait for it to be published in your country, it counts for this one!])

We'll see what comes out in the New Year that I MUST read!

7.Older Than You (Read two books that were published before you were born, whether that be the day before or 100 years prior!)

* Joy in the Morning by Betty Smith (this was one of my mom's favorite books, and she gave it to me a couple of years ago when I decided to tackle A Tree Grows in Brooklyn; it's about time I cracked it open!)
* The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers

8.Win! Win! (Have a couple of books you need to read for another challenge? Then this is the category to use, as long that is, you don’t break the rules of the other challenge by doing so!)

* Shelf Life by Suzanne Strempek Shea (selected for the BBC Reading Challenge)
* Songs In Ordinary Time by Mary McGarry Morris (this is a long book, if I'm going to read it, damn sure I'm counting it twice! I've selected this for the What's In a Name Challenge)

9.Who Are You Again? (This one isn’t just for authors you’ve never read before, this is for those authors you have never even heard of before!)

* How to Buy a Love of Reading by Tanya Egan Gibson
* Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler

10.Up to You! (The requirements for this category are up to you! Want to challenge yourself to read some graphic novels? A genre outside your comfort zone? Something completely wild and wacky? Then this is the category to you. The only requirement is that you state it in your sign-up post.)

For some reason, I have a lot of books on addiction--perhaps because I've been watching a lot of Intervention lately or something. So I've decided my Up to You! category will be addiction. I have all of the following books and will select two of them to count for this challenge.

* Parched by Heather King
* Beautiful Boy by David Sheff
* Addicted Like Me by Karen Franklin and Lauren King
* Crackhouse: Notes from the End of the Line by Terry Wiliams

So there you have it, my latest round of books for this wonderful challenge. I am looking forward to it and now have an awesome selection of books stacked by the bedside table, all ready for the clock to roll over on 1/1/10!

Do I need to start a book blog?