Operation Actually Read the Bible

Becky from Becky’s Book Reviews is hosting the Operation Actually Read Bible Challenge – a perpetual challenge to read from the bible. Becky writes:

Choose to read the whole Bible, the New Testament, or The New Testament and Psalms & Proverbs, or the gospels. (Or any variation of books you’d like–you might want to focus on Paul’s epistles, for example.)

There aren’t any “rules” for this challenge necessarily. I don’t care which translation of the Bible you use. Or if you choose to read a Bible with the apocrypha. (Or not.) (Though I will stress that if/when we interact with other participants we don’t condescend about other people’s translation choices. I don’t want to get into any of the KJV is the only “real” translation nonsense.) That’s really the only rule I have. Respect.

I got a copy of a guide where you can read the Bible in chronological order, which is the way I will be reading it. As opposed to writing out the entire guide again here, I will keep track of what I read. The guide is arranged by months, so I will update as I finish each month section. Starting July 1, I will begin the monthly posting first of the month.

What an Animal II Challenge

Kristy at Passion for the Page is hosting part II of the What An Animal Challenge.

1. Read at least 6 books that have any of the following requirements:

a. there is an animal in the title of the book
b. there is an animal on the cover of the book
c. an animal plays a major role
d. a main character is (or turns into) an animal (define that however you’d like

2. The animal can be any type of animal (real or fictitious)–dog, cat, monkey, wolf, snake, insect, hedgehog, aardvark…dragon, mermaid, centaur, vampire, werewolf…you get the idea…
3. Challenge runs from July 1, 2009 to February 28, 2010.

I didn’t participate in this challenge the first time around but I thought it might be fun to join this year. This one may be more of a challenge than I think, so we shall see how I do.

MY LIST:

1. Marley and Me by John Grogan
2. Four Blind Mice by James Patterson
3. Big Bad Wolf by James Patterson
4. Free Stallion by Amber Tamblyn
5. The Angel Experiment by James Patterson
   
6. What My Cat Has Taught Me About Life by Niki Anderson

Choosing from the following books:

• Marley and Me by John Grogan
• The Big Bad Wolf by James Patterson
  
• Four Blind Mice by James Patterson
  
• James Herriot’s Favorite Dog Stories by James Herriot
• The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd
• What My Cat Has Taught Me About Life by Niki Anderson
• Appaloosa by Robert B. Parker
• Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss
• From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris
• Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris

I may come up with more and the list by change dramatically over the course of time, but these are the ones that are off my shelves that would qualify.

Christmas in July Challenge

Book Dragon’s Lair is hosting the Christmas in July challenge.

The guidelines:

1. Read as many books as you can. A list would be nice but not necessary and is not written in stone (or even pen).
2. Overlaps with other challenges are acceptable.

I’m not going to create a list prior but just keep track, even though I’m pretty such I could guess what I will be reading for the rest of the summer. I’m going to aim for the goal of 10 books per month so that would be 20 total.

My LIST:

1. Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis
2. Swimsuit by James Patterson
3. Take Your Shirt Off and Cry by Nancy Balbirer
4. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis
5. The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis
6. The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis
7. A River Runs Through It and Other Stories by Norman Maclean
8. Sin City: Booze, Broads and Bullets (Vol. 6) by Frank Miller
9. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
10. Marley and Me by John Grogan
11. Batman: Year One by Frank Miller
12. Four Blind Mice by James Patterson
13. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller
14. Run For Your Life by James Patterson
15. Decked by Carol Higgins Clark
16. Strengths Finder 2.0 by Tom Rath
17. The Noticer by Andy Andrews
18. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
19. Sin City: Hell and Back (Vol. 7) by Frank Miller