Looking for a good challenge...

Before this blog, I felt sort of out of place in the blogosphere, even though I had had a few other blogs and was even keeping one up. I didn't really feel like I could fit in or get to know people.

Well, one of the big reasons for starting this blog in the first place is so I can connect with more people who share my interests. Since I've started the blog, I've really made an effort to reach out and find other people who like the same books I do. I've been sorting through other blogs and finding ones I want to follow. It's been really fun!

But I'll be the first to admit that I'm quite the rookie when it comes to being part of all this. What I really want to get into is...CHALLENGES.

Now, obviously, I've sort of already joined a challenge (The Classics Club). But the Classics Club is a lot more open-ended than regular challenges, and I really want to try something else in addition.

So as the end of the year approaches, I've been looking for challenges for 2013. Finding the perfect challenge, though, is harder than it seems. I want to find something that challenges me to get out of my comfort zone, but will still be fun enough that I can keep it up for the whole year. And I want something that isn't too demanding, since I am, after all, in school. Here are the options I've been considering:



--The Christmas Spirit reading challenge. This one is starting November 19th (well, it's for this year, technically) and I really want to do it! Especially because I really only have to read one book (at the very least) to participate in the challenge so it doesn't have to be demanding at all. I've been wanting to read some of Dickens's Christmas books. The only thing is that I don't really have a lot of time between now and Christmas, what with preparing for a wedding, a lot of school reading, and good ol' finals. So we'll see. Maybe next year...

--The Just for Fun reading challenge. This seems like a great one since I've had a few books I've wanted to read outside of the "have-tos." Like Julie and Julia and The Hobbit. I'm just not sure how "right" this challenge is for me since I don't really have a lot of those books and I might not have too much trouble motivating myself to read them on my own. Plus I would have to list which one I was going to read each month, which just seems to take the fun out of it.

--The New Authors challenge. I'm intrigued by trying to get some new authors under my belt. Plus, I have the choice of 15, 25,or 50 new authors, so I could make the challenge pretty easy for myself if I wanted to. My only issue is that a big reason I want to do a challenge is to connect with other people reading similar things to what I'm reading, and my choice of "new" authors would probably be radically different than other people's choices (probably more classic authors than anything else). Even though it would be fun for little ol' me, I'm not sure I would meet many new people in the process.

--The Back to the Classics challenge. I really want to do this one, actually! There's just some question of whether it's actually going to happen or not. I like the idea of having categories. We'll see.

--Making my own challenge! Now, obviously, as a brand-new book blogger I wouldn't try to market it to the world, I would just make up a challenge just for me. I have an idea of what kind of challenge I'd like to do. But I also really want to do someone else's challenge so I can have the fun of joining in with a group and meeting new people. Well, I might do both, if I decide I can handle it.

I really want to join a challenge for the classics--one that's a little more specific than The Classics Club, but not Russian literature. (It seems to me that every challenge is Russian literature. Probably because it's so hard to get through...) Or Greek literature, or something. I want to be challenged, but frankly I need it to be fun, or I'll end up dropping it.

Have you come across/are you participating in any great challenges?