Bookinistas! 3 Months, 30 Books: The Spring/Summer Chick Lit Reading Challenge

I have been a member on Goodreads since late early 2010. It is a wonderful community to join and share with others your passion for books; reading, writing, collecting them; creating lists, adding TBR books to your pile, finding out which author is the latest and greatest, up-and-coming or hidden treasure. I co-moderate the Chick Lit Book Club with its founder, and I also started the Chick Lit Writers group, dedicated to women of all ages, aspiring to see their words in print, mainly of the Chick Lit genre but all are welcome. I typically read one book a month and discuss it with the others in Chick Lit Book Club and then I take part in challenges started by other groups.

So it's been a while since I've blogged (too many school and work responsibilities!) and since this site is my haven to share with my interests, passions, dreams and goals, I thought I'd set up a new section to include the Reading Challenges that I am taking part in. I will update them as I finish each book and try to include a review (or link to a review) and information on where to buy the book.

I hope this can become a resource to you for finding books and authors or trying out a new book or series. Please share or link your reading challenges with me. I always like to add new books to my ever growing pile! And, please join any of our groups on Goodreads. We are always welcoming new members.

This first challenge was created by the Goodreads' group, Red Dress Ink Fans. It is their To Be Read Spring/Summer Reading Challenge! (April 1st - June 30, 2010)

The goal of this challenge is to help us clean off our shelves and our TBR lists without acquiring any new books! The premise is simple: 30 Books, 3 months, as many as you can read!

I am in the middle of this challenge but please, read along with me or pick your own books based on the rules of the challenge!

The Rules:
1. For this challenge, you make three separate lists of 10 books each (plus up to 5 alternates if you so choose):
List A: Your Oldest 10 Goodreads TBR Books
List B: 10 Random TBR Books
List C: Any 10 TBR books – your choice
2. After the challenge starts (April 1), you can’t change the books on your lists. Up until then, shift whatever you’d like.
3. Each book can only count on one list for this challenge. So if one of your 10 Oldest TBR Books also ends up as one of your 10 Random choices, you need to pick a new book for one or the other.
4. You don’t have to go in order, and you can read off any list – but you can only count the book once.
5. You can select up to five alternate books for each list, and choose to substitute them for up to five books on each list. Alternate books have to be selected in the same method as the books on the list. (i.e. Your alternate books for list A will be books 11-15 on your GR TBR list)
6. Exception: If the book is in a series and you haven’t read up to that point yet, you may substitute an earlier book from the series (even if it’s not one of your oldest TBR or wasn’t randomly generated). Example: When I tried generating random numbers, I ended up with Janet Evanovich’s “To the Nines” as one of my choices, but I have only read the first book in that series. So I could use “Two for the Dough” in its place.
7. First one to cross off all their books wins!

Selecting your books:

List A: Your Oldest 10 Goodreads TBR Books
1. Go to your bookshelves and click on your “To Read” shelf
2. Sort this shelf in Edit view. This should number your books in the order in which you added them to your shelf.
3. Select books 1 – 10 on this shelf – these are the 10 oldest books on your GR TBR list. Books 11-15 may serve as your alternate choices.
4. If the books skip a number (i.e. if you have books 1-4, 7-10), then that means you’ve read or removed a few. So just select the first 10 (in the case above, I’d take 1-4, 7-12), and the next 5 as alternates.

List B: 10 Random TBR Books
1. Go to http://www.random.org
2. Using the Random Number Generator feature, type in 1 as the minimum number, and the total number of books on your To Read shelf as the maximum number. Click “generate” to generate 10 different random numbers.
3. Go to your To Read shelf in Edit view, and select the 10 books whose numbers correspond with the random numbers you generated.
4. You may generate 5 additional random numbers and use those books as alternates.
5. If you don’t have a book that matches a number that was generated, that means you have already read the book or removed it from your list. So, continue generating numbers until you find one that matches a book on your list.

List C: Any 10 TBR Books – Your Choice
1. Pick any 10 books out of your TBR stack. Any 10 books work – but you can’t change them once the challenge has started. The main goal is to not acquire any new books for this list!

To Post Points:

Each book read is worth 10 points (300 total points). To claim points, post the book you read and the list it is from. First person to read all the books on their lists is the winner!

Cathy's TBR Challenge Lists
List A: Oldest TBR Books:
1. Secrets of a Shoe Addict – Beth Harbison
2. Hope in a Jar - Beth Harbison 5/16/10
3. How to Sleep with a Movie Star - Kristin Harmel 04/06/10
4. The Art of French Kissing- Kristin Harmel 4/18/10
5. The Blonde Theory - Kristin Harmel
6. Baby Proof – Emily Giffin 4/18/10*
7. Citizen Girl – Nicola Kraus and Emma McLaughlin
8. Nanny Returns - Kraus and Emma McLaughlin 5/2/10
9. Tales of A Drama Queen – Lee Nichols
10. True Lies of a Drama Queen - Lee Nichols

Alternates:

11. Hand Me Down - Lee Nichols

12. Wednesday Night Witches - Lee Nichols

13. Fashionistas – Lynn Messina

14. Trials of Tiffany Trott – Isabel Wolff

15. Rescuing Rose - Isabel Wolff

List B: 10 Random TBR Books

1. 144 – Slightly Single - Wendy Markham

2. 131 – Italian for Beginners – Kristin Harmel

3. 205 – Are you there Vodka, It’s Me Chelsea? – Chelsea Handler 4/2/10

4. 189 - The Chocolate Lovers’ Club – Carole Matthews

5. 167 – Such A Pretty Fat – Jen Lancaster 4/27/10

6. 133 - Secret Diary of a Demented Housewife – Niamh Greene

7. 121 - Second Thyme Around/Thyme Out – Katie Fforde 4/23/10*

8. 72 - The First Assistant – Mimi Hare & Clare Naylor 4/14/10*

9. 122 – Wild Designs – Katie Fforde

10. 183 – Tallulahland – Lynn Messina

Alternates:

11. 115 – The Importance of Being Married - Gemma Townley

12. 95 – Carrie Pilby - Carrie Lissner

13. 81 – The Accidental Virgin - Valerie Frankel

14. 218 – Sex as a Second Language – Alisa Kwitney

15. 154 – The Pact – Jennifer Sturman

List C: Any TBR Choice

1. Girl’s Guide to Witchcraft – Mindy Klasky 4/10/10

2. The Night I got Lucky – Laura Caldwell 4/13/10

3. The Year of Living Famously – Laura Caldwell 5/4/10

4. The Carrie Diaries – Candace Bushnell

5. Holly’s Inbox – Holly Denham

6. Pretty in Plaid – Jen Lancaster 5/6/10

7. Enchanted Inc – Shanna Swendson 4/22/10

8. A Total Waste of Makeup – Kim Gruenfelder

9. Sammy’s Hill – Kristin Gore 5/12/10
10. Diary of a Mad Bride – Laura Wolf

Alternates:
11. The Big Love – Sarah Dunn

12. The Wedding Girl – Madeleine Wickham 4/8/10

13. Monkey Business – Sarah Mlynowski

14. Rachel’s Holiday – Marian Keyes

15. One for the Money – Janet Evanovich 4/26/10

16/30 Books

160/300 Points

*Visit www.chicklitclub.com/audio-books.html for my very own Audio Book reviews of these books!

If you want a review of any of the books I've crossed off so far, please email me at cgraceh at gmail dot com and I will post them asap. (No spammers please:) Thanks!