The Eclectic Reader Challenge 2012

Some of you may already know I set myself a challenge this year to read 500 books through Goodreads. I thought I could do it and read possibly more. I completed the challenge with a month to spare and have kept reading (naturally).

For 2012, I'm going to continue on with the challenge but amp it up to 600 books. I think it's a feasible effort, even though my hearts yearns for me to challenge myself to read 1000. But I'm telling myself - patience grasshopper, patience. The day will come when I have enough time to acheive this.

Next year, I've also decided to compete in a new challenge. One, I haven't made up myself, but think is a brilliant idea. It's called the Eclectic Reader Challenge 2012. The concept is to push you out of your comfort zone by reading up to 12 books in the new year in 12 different genres.

Interested? Want to join in? Here are the guidelines?* The Challenge runs from January 1st to December 31st 2012. Particupants can join anytime during the year up until December 1st 2012.

* Those who join, create a blog post committing themself to the challenge.

* You don't need a blog to sign up. You can create a bookshelf at Goodreads or any similar site. Just include your name and link to your shelf.

* Post your name, blog name and the direct link to your challenge post in Linky (for the link, head onto book'd out and join the challenge)

* Select, read and review a book from each of the genres during the year - the count is 12 but if you finish all 12, then by all means keeping reading and reviewing if you want to.

* You can either choose the books as you go or create a list in advance. Like me, you can combine this challenge with others.

* While there are many books counted as more than one genre, for this challenge you can only count them under one of the particular genres. For example Twilight is considered supernatural and romance, but you could only list it as one or the other - not both.
The Genres

1. Literary Fiction
2. Crime/Mystery Fiction
3. Romantic Fiction
4. Historical Fiction
5. Young Adult
6. Fantasy
7. Science Fiction
8. Non Fiction
9. Horror
10. Thriller /Suspense
11. Classic
12. Your favourite genre

• Each time you read and review a book as part of this challenge, make sure you identify it by adding either a direct statement and /or the challenge image badge to the post.

For me, the challenge is writing the book reviews, since I don't generally write these. The reading side of things is not so tough since I tend to read every genre anyway.

You can join me in the challenge by visiting Shelley''s bookdout blog