Sunday Salon: The End of the World Challenge

Becky is hosting The End of the World Reading Challenge II over at her site, the challenge started on March 10th and runs till October 9th.
The Rules - copied from her page:

Read at least four books about "the end of the world." This includes both apocalyptic fiction and post-apocalyptic fiction. There is quite a bit of overlap with dystopic fiction as well. The point being something--be it coming from within or without, natural or unnatural--has changed civilization, society, humanity to such a degree that it radically differs from "life as we now know it." (Aliens, evil governments, war, plague, natural disasters like earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, hurricanes, depletion of resources, genetic manipulation, etc.) Here is a wikipedia article on the subject. Also see here. These changes can be small-but-still-significant or huge-and-life-threatening.

Books can be classified as children's, young adult, and adult. (Not many children's books go there. But many teen books do. And they're great.)

Graphic novels can count for this challenge.

Audio books allowed.

Crossovers with other challenges are allowed.

You may have one reread that counts toward the challenge. But most should be new-to-you. (Exception: If you read it several years ago, and you can honestly swear that you don't remember anything about it...then I won't stop you from counting it towards the challenge. I know I've forgotten books I read a decade ago.)

I tried resisting this one, but realsied that a lot of books I'm already needing to read could be incorporated - I tend to find if books overlap I get there much faster.
I come up with 6 books, not sure if I'll read them all:
Z for Zachariah (I've been meaning to read this for ages).
On the Road, McCarthy
Do Androids Dream of Sheep? A 1001 book
Uglies, Scott Westerfield - will be reading for Becky's mini-challenge
Cat's Cradle, Vonnegut - A 1001 book
We, Zamyatin - 1001 book

1% Well-Read Challenge

3M is hosting the 1% Well-Read challenege for another year.

The Rules (taken from her post):

The editors of the book 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die threw a kink into our challenge when they updated the books with new titles last year. So, I’ve got three options for you on this next challenge:

Read 10 titles from the original list from March 1, 2009 through December 31, 2009.
Read 10 titles from the new list from March 1, 2009 through December 31, 2009.
Read 13 titles from the combined list (of almost 1300 titles) from March 1, 2009 through March 31, 2010. In other words, “What were they thinking dropping titles from Dostoevsky and Jane Austen?”

I was already challenging myself to read more books from this list and have managaged a few already this year so I'm going to plunge in for option 3. I'm not 100% sure what I will read but here is my pool:

1. Watchmen, Alan Moore
2. Blonde, Joyce Carol Oates
3. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
4. Great Apes, Will Self
5. Jack Maggs, Peter Carey
6. The Ghost Road, Pat Barker
7. Alias Grace, Margaret Atwood
8. The Reader, Schlink
9. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
10.Jazz, Toni Morrison
11. Wild Swan, Chang
12. Senor Vivo and the Coco Lord,de Bernieres
13. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Kundera
14. Arrow of God, Achebe
15. V, Pynchon
16. Out of Africa, Dinsen
17. All Quiet on the Western Front
18. The Count of Monte Cristo,Dumas
19. Animals People, Sinha (New List)
20. Small Island, Levy (New List)
21. The Reluctant Fundamentalist,Hamid (New List)
22. Suite Francaise,Nemirovsky

The Caribbean Challenge

Another Challenge to help my long term goal of reading around the world for the Olympic Challenge. The Caribbean Challenge requires you to read 6 books from Caribbean authors or about Caribbean people, I've chosen to read books from the different countries.

This is my list, as usual it is subject to change:
George Lamming, In the Castle of My Skin (Barbados)
Michelle Cliff, Abeng (Jamacia)
Naipaul, Migel Street (Trinidad and Tobago)
Junot Diaz, The Brief and Wonderous Life of Oscar Diaz (Dominica)
Christina Garcia, The Agüero sisters (Cuba)
Grace Nichols, Whole of a Moring Sky(Guyanu)

Decades Challenge 2009

3M is hosting this challenge again

Did you participate in the By the Decade Challenge last year? Would you like to
again? Or, if you didn’t take part in 2008, are you interested in doing so in
2009? We’d love to have you join us!
Decades ‘09 Rules:
1. Read a minimum
of 9 books in 9 consecutive decades in ‘08.
2. Books published in the 2000’s
do not count.
3. Titles may be cross-posted with any other challenge.
4.
You may change your list at any time.
5. Peruse the eligible book lists and
reviews from 2008 or 2007. Any book from that decade is eligible; it doesn’t
have to be on the list to qualify. A good source to find out when books were
published is wikipedia. For example if you follow this link, you will
see how easy it is to search books by a particular decade. Another resource is fantasticfiction.co.uk.
7. Sign up through Mr. Linky below.
Please use the url of your specific post for this challenge rather than just
your blog url.
8. 6. After about January 12, come back and post the links to
your reviews into Mr. Linky for the appropriate decade. Please don’t post
‘09 reviews in the Mr. Linky before January 12. I’ll need some time to
switch over the ‘08 reviews and set up the new ‘09 Linkys. You don’t have to,
but you are encouraged to post all the books you’ve read for that decade if
you’re participating in Decades ‘09.
9. Have fun reading your Decades ‘09
books, and have a great year!

Here is my potential list, I've picked 2 for each year so I have more freedom to chose according to my mood.

1990: A Suitable Boy, Seth or Alias Grace, Atwood

1980: Love in a Time of Cholera,Marquez or The House of Spirits, Allende

1970: The Sea, The Sea, Murdoch or In A Free State, Naipaul

1960: Big Sur, Kerouac or The Arrow of God, Achebe

1950: Naked Lunch, Burroughs or The Go Between, Hartley

1940: Canary Row, Steinbeck or A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Smith

1930: Tender is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald or The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck

1920: The Sound and The Fury, Faulkner or The Trial, Kafka

1910: Of Human Bondage, William Somerset Maugham or The Secret Garden, Burnett

The Genre Challenge: Nov 08- Nov 09 & Go Gothic

Bookworms and Tea Lovers is hosting The Genre Challenge:

The goal:To read one book in the following genres:

crime fiction, (drop)
detective fiction,

mystery fiction, Mystery Stories of the Nineteenth Century, ed Robert Etty

horror fiction,

thriller fiction,

romance fiction,

science fiction,

action/adventure fiction,

fantasy fiction,

realistic fiction, (drop)

historical fiction, Sea of Poppies, Amitav Ghosh

western fiction.

Specific definitions of these genres can be found in this post.There are three options if you want to join:

A: Read 10 books, drop the genre you read the most and one of your own choosing

B: Read 11 books, drop the genre you read the most

C: Read 12 books

The rules

You may not read more than 1 book per genre

All books must be read within the challenge period

No crossovers within the challenge, each genre should have a separate book

Crossovers with other challenges are allowed

Audio books are allowed, graphic novels are not

You may make a list of books, but that’s not mandatory and you can change your picks at any time before or during the challenge.

I'm also participating in Go Gothics readalong of Northanger Abbey, I have a copy somewhere, will hunt around and start reading tomorrow. The reading schedule is:

Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen
THUR Oct 02 Chapters 1-3

TUES Oct 07 Chapters 4-7

THUR Oct 09 Chapters 8-10

TUES Oct 14 Chapters 11-14

THUR Oct 16 Chapters 15-17

TUES Oct 21 Chapters 18-21

THURS Oct 23 Chapters 22-24

TUES Oct 28 Chapters 25-28

THURS Oct 30 Chapters 29-31

2009 Challenges

January 1 - December 31, 2009
The A to Z challenge has changed hands. Becky will now be hosting this annual challenge beginning in 2009 (Patti has started the ABC Readers Yahoo Group which is a sister site to the challenge!). The 2009 A to Z Challenge has several options for participants to choose from:
Option A: Read authors A to Z. Commit to reading 26 books theoretically speaking.
Option B: Read titles A to Z. Commit to reading 26 books theoretically speaking.
Option C: Read both authors A to Z and titles A to Z (52 books; this is the challenge Joy created)
Option D: Read internationally A to Z (books representing 26 different countries) (The books could be from international authors (writers from that country); however, it's fine if a book is only set in that country. If need be, instead of countries one could use cities, states, regions, etc. The idea is to use proper place names. If you'd like you could even use a few fictional countries.)
Option E: Read 26 Alphabet books. Embrace your inner child and go visit the children's section!To sign up for 2009, visit the sign up post on the brand new dedicated blog for this challenge! To join the Yahoo group, visit the ABC Readers at Yahoo.

I' going to do option A and B,

Challenges I'm joining for 2009

This is very early to be joining challenges for 2009, but here goes. I'm joining Becky in 3 of her mini challenges for next year.
The rules are simply to read 2 books by the chosen author within 2009. Becky has chosen 4 authors for the mini challenges and I am partcipating in 3 of these.
My Choices:
Steinbeck = The Pearl & Grapes of Wrath
Defoe = Moll Flanders and ?
Scott Westerfeld = The Uglies and The Pretties.

Looking forward to seeing what ever other challenges are announced and announcing my own!