Thursday, November 08, 2007

lofty goals

Way too lofty, I'm afraid.

I've really, really, really been wanting to sign up for the Back to History reading challenge. Up to this point, I've managed to resist. But it keeps haunting me! I really do want to do it!

So, I decided the thing to do would be to sit down and work out how many books I've already committed myself to, and that would give me a better idea if I could swing it. And, well, the answer to that would have to be a resounding no! Sigh.

In the process, I did make myself up a quick little schedule though.

November:
*Animal Farm (New Authors/homeschooling)
*Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets (Book to Movie)
*Zodiac (Book to Movie)
*New and Selected Poems (Book Awards, plus the fact that it needs returned to the library)
*The View From Saturday (Newbery, 2nds)
*The Tale of Despereaux (Newbery, 4-Legged)
*The Cobra Event (just because I've already started it)

December:
*Walk Two Moons (Newbery)
*The Witch of Blackbird Pond (Newbery, Book Awards)
*American Gods (2nds, Book Awards)
*A Christmas Carol (homeschooling)

--Not bad, so far, huh? It gets worse though.

January/February:
*Whittington (4-Legged)
*Ragweed (4-Legged)
*Ginger Pye (4-Legged)
*The Goose Girl (New Authors/Y.A./homeschooling)
*The Mysterious Benedict Society (New Authors/Full Circle)
*Fablehaven (New Authors)
*The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents (New Authors)
*The Tenth House (Hometown)
*The Giver (homeschooling)
*Grimms Fairy Tales (homeschooling)
*The Lost World (Decades/homeschooling)
*Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIHM (Celebrate the Author)
*Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing (Celebrate the Author)

March/April/May:
*Fahrenheit 451 (Numbers/Decades/homeschooling)
*The Fellowship of the Rings (Tolkien-Lewis)
*The Two Towers (Tolkien-Lewis/Numbers)
*The Sixth Target (Numbers)
*The Thirteenth Tale (Numbers/Full Circle)
*Thirteen Reasons Why (Numbers/Y.A.)
*The Lorax (Celebrate the Author)
*The Mouse and the Motorcycle (Celebrate the Author)
*Peter Pan (Celebrate the Author)
*I Was a Rat (homeschooling)
*The Book of Lost Things (homeschooling)

June:
*Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures (Book Awards)
*A Confederacy of Dunces (Book Awards)
*The Echo Maker (Book Awards)
*The DaVinci Code (Book Awards)
*The Chatham School Affair (Book Awards)
*Flowers for Algernon (Book Awards/homeschooling)
*The Higher Power of Lucky (Book Awards)
*The Octopus (Celebrate the Author)

July-December:
**58 additional books for various challenges

I'm fairly certain I'll never be able to finish all of these. Fairly certain...who on earth am I kidding?!! "Damn certain" would better describe the situation. I know there are plenty of people out there who could conquer that list 3 times over. But alas, I am not one of them. I'll just do the best I can...and remember to have fun doing it! (But, I guess this does mean that the Back to History challenge is out.)

13 comments:

chrisa511 said...

Piece of cake, Debi! You can do that ;) Seriously, you can..now the 58 books from July-December on top of all that other stuff...I'm up to fifty something books for next year so far and I'm looking at more challenges :/ Yeah, I'm nuts! But as long as we're both nuts the other doesn't look so bad, right?

You have a kick ass year of reading ahead of you! You picked the coolest books!

Dewey said...

I think I'm in denial about book challenges, too. I think I've signed up for reading approximately 14,000 challenge books next year. I'm reading one of your challenge books, now, though, The Echo Maker, and it's really good!

Stacy at Exceedingly Mundane said...

My heavens, my head is spinning after reading all of that! I guess I just don't like being so committed, is one reason I've been avoiding challenges. I like to read what I want, when I want, and be totally free to change it up completely at any given point. Even at 11 PM at night when I finish one book and am trying to decide what to start next. And savoring every delicious moment, deciding :)

Have a great day and Happy Reading!!!

gail@more than a song said...

I don't think I could finish all those! And you homeschool and still have house/family to take care of, I don't know how you do all you do now!

Jean said...

I guess I can't really call you crazy when I'm doing National Novel Writing Month for the third year running. But at least my frenzy just lasts for one month out of the year, and then I can get back to my everyday craziness. Speaking of NaNo, I should go e-mail Annie some words of encouragement, though she may not need them.

kreed said...

Girl, that is quite a list! A lot of good books there, though.

I must admit I was slightly depressed to see Mysterious Benedict Society on your list because that means you must have it and it was on lmy list of presents for Annie for Christmas! It's a great book, though - you'll enjoy it!

Ana S. said...

Just keep in mind that there is absolutely nothing wrong with not being able to read all of those. What's important is trying! I hope you enjoy the ones you do get to. And the ones you don't... ah well. At least you tried!

Melody said...

Wow, you sure have a lot to read, Debi! I'm impressed; and I think you can do it! Those book challengings are sooooo addictive! ;)

alisonwonderland said...

phew! (i'm scared to make such a list of my own, although i did spend some time saturday getting some of the many challenges i'm doing next year up on my book blog sidebar.) it's just that all the challenges are so much fun! (the back to history is the one i stopped at on saturday - but i do think i'm going to join in.)

anyway, it's all for fun - and we'll get a lot of great books read in the meantime, won't we?

chrisa511 said...

Hey Debi, I'm just being the worried blogger and checking in to see if you're ok. You know how we all freak out if we don't hear from each other for a few days! Hope everything's going ok with you all!

Jean said...

Hi, Chris and others who might be worried about Debi. I'm the blogless cousin of Debi's husband Rich.

Rich's dad passed away suddenly last Saturday; Rich called me with the news on Sunday morning. At that time, he didn't know what the plans for a funeral or memorial service were, but I imagine that they might have headed down to Philadelphia to be with Rich's mom this week.

I don't think Debi would mind my telling her regular readers what's up. I've been sending all sorts of good thoughts into the ether in her and Rich's direction. Annie's, too, since she and her grandfather were pretty close.

alisonwonderland said...

thanks for the information, jean. i will also be sending good thoughts and prayers in their direction!

chrisa511 said...

Thanks, Jean. So sorry to hear about that! They're all in my thoughts and I send my condolences.