Maw Books

Maw Books – book reviews, book recommendations, book lists, author interviews and more!

2008 was a great year!  I came a long way in my reading goals.  Of course, I’ve got some ideas in my head of what I’d like to see happen in 2009.  Thus this post.  As far as reading challenges go, I’ve only chose those challenges that work with my reading tastes and what I hope to be doing anyways.

• Continue to read with my children. Especially, get them going on their ABC’s.  My oldest is three and has a difficult time with language.  Has zero interest in his ABC’s.  I would like to work harder with them this year on their reading skills and letter recognition.

• 52 Books in 52 Weeks – In my attempt to read a wide variety of books, I’m setting the goal to read and review 52 books in each of the following categories:  Fiction, Young Adult, Middle Readers, Picture Books, and Non-Fiction.  I’m not going to stress if I don’t do well, but the fun is in the journey.

• Book Clubs – Continue to participate in my neighborhood book club, the children’s literature book club, and moderate the Rich Women Sisterhood book club.

• Read more parenting, gardening, and photography books this year.  I’d like to revive some of my other interests that seemed to take the back burner this past year.

• I have loved the interaction I’ve had with authors this past year through interviews, guest posts, forums, blogs, etc.  One of my goals this year is to continue this interaction and participate in more interviews, guest posts, and blog tours.

• Life-long Reading Goals – Continue to read all the Newberys, Pulitzer, and 500 of the 1,001 books you must read before you die.  I think I would like to add the Printz and Caldacott books, as well as reading at least one book from each Nobel prize winner in literature.  Best thing is that I have my whole life to work my way through these ones. You can see my current progress on my life long reading goals on my challenge blog.

• 2009 Reading Challenges
  • A-Z Reading Challenge is hosted by Becky of Becky’s Book Reviews, visit the A-Z Challenge Blog.  I’ll be participating by reading 52 books, 26 titles for A-Z and 26 authors for A-Z.  I swore when I did this challenge last year that I would not preplan my list.  What I ended up with was 100% different that what I started with.  BUT I decided to make this interesting.  So the majority of the books on my list are middle readers and Newbery books.  With the exception of two or three they are all books that I already OWN!  In other words, I want to actually get these read!   So how’s that for making this even more difficult than it already was?!  My list is maintained on my challenge blog.
  • Fifteen years ago, Michelle’s father died at the age of 44 while waiting for a heart transplant. In his honor and for other people who have died or suffered from a heart-related illness, Michelle is hosting a special event for the week of Valentine’s Day.This purpose of the reading event Books for the Heart is to raise money for the American Heart Association and/or to honor a loved one.  There are many ways to participate. You can sponsor yourself and donate a certain amount of money for every book you read or every page you read during February 1-14. You can ask for sponsors. You can donate a set amount. You can donate in a loved one’s name. To learn more and to sign up, visit the post about the event.  I’ll list the books I read and dollar amount when finished.
  • J. Kaye from J. Kaye’s Book Blog is hosting the 2009 Support Your Local Library Challenge where participants are encouraged to read from their libraries. I’ve chosen to read 50 books from my local library in 2009.  I’d like to review more picture books this year.  My list will be maintained on my challenge blog.
  • Chris at Stuff Dreams Are Made Of and Robin at A Fondness for Reading are hosting a very special challenge in honor of Dewey from The Hidden Side of A Leaf.  Dewey’s Books Reading Challenge asks participants to visit Dewey’s blog and peruse her archives. Read 5 books that Dewey reviewed. These can be from any year.  To read more and sign up, visit the dedicated blog.  I have listed at least 12 books to choose from.  This list can be found on my challenge blog.
  • December 21, 2008 – April 27, 2009.  Callista is hosting the second Jewish Literature Challenge beginning in December.  Here are the guidelines:  Read at least 4 books by Jewish Authors or about Judaism (Fiction, Non-fiction, memoirs, Adult books, Teen books, Children’s books, books about the Holocaust, books about anti-semitism, books about Jewish Life, Jewish Culture, Jewish Customs. Books by Jewish Authors no matter what the subject.)  I did this challenge last  year and loved it!  My list is mostly a cross-post with the WWII challenge. See the full list on my challenge blog.
  • Jenn is hosting the 2009 Read Your Own Books Challenge. The concept is simple – read books that YOU OWN.   Most will carry over from the A-Z challenge, which I’m doing as books I own as well.  I’ll list books as I read them on my challenge blog.
    
  • Wendy is hosting the Themed Reading Challenge is a six month challenge designed to help readers clear books from their to-be-read stacks which center around a common theme or themes.  I have chosen to read books by Utah authors, which are local to me.  I have a full list of books to choose from on my challenge blog.
  • Anna from Diary of an Eccentric and Serena from Savvy Verse and Wit have started a dedicated blog for challenges related to war and its impact. Their first challenge beginning January 1, 2009 is World War II. Readers must commit to reading at least five books throughout the year. I read more than twenty books about WWII in 2008, obviously a interest of mine. So I was really excited about this challenge.  My full list on my challenge blog.
    
  • New Author Challenge hosted by Jackie at Literary Escapism.  The challenge will run from January 1, 2009 through December 31, 2009.  Since this is an author challenge, there is no restriction on choosing your novels.  They can definitely be from other challenges.  However, the authors must be new to you and, preferably from novels, but anthologies are also a great way to try someone new.  In 2008, I read over 100 new to me authors.  I think I’ll go with 75 for this challenge just to see how I do.  I’ll update my challenge blog as I read new authors.

• Last year, one of my goals was to discover a new genre.  While I’m not making that reading goal again, I would just like to continue on in some of the genre’s I discovered last year.

• Don’t stress out over reading! I felt like this past year there were just to many books and to little time in which to read them.  This year I’m going to take my time and not rush myself so I can get on to the next book.

So what about you?  Have you thought about your reading goals for the next year?  I’ve basically decided that I’m just going to have fun.  If I don’t finish a challenge, so what?!  At least I had fun.

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