what's the point in trying to resist?!!

Today marks the end of The Twisted Fairy Tale Challenge. I got 2 of my 4 books read. To celebrate my success at completing half my reads (hey, I'm trying to be one of those glass-half-full people here!), I've decided to join two new challenges!

Okay, okay, I am so full of crap...I didn't join to celebrate...I just couldn't stop myself. It's a compulsion. The good news is that I know I'm not alone.

First up, I joined the 1% Well Read Challenge. From the moment I first heard about this one, thoughts of it stalked me. I couldn't get it out of my head. The only way I could get some peace was to just join it. It was shocking to see how few of the books I'd actually read, only about 25 of them. Yes, my head is hanging in shame. There were many, many books on the list I wanted to read (and many, many I have no intention of ever reading). But I told myself the only way I could join is if we had enough of them already in our house that I wouldn't have to buy them. Well, that didn't turn out to be a stumbling block...we had somewhere around 30 of them that I hadn't read yet. So here's the list I made to choose from (wanted to leave a little wiggle room):

*Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
*The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
*The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
*The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
*Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
*Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
*The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
*The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
*Dracula by Bram Stoker
*The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells
*The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
*The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
*Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
*Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
*Walden by Henry David Thoreau
*Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

And yes, it is a tad embarrassing admitting I've never read those books. Oh well. I never did claim to be sophisticated now, did I?

And new challenge #2: The Southern Reading Challenge. I kept telling myself, "NO. NO. NO." Seems I don't listen to myself very well, huh?

But look at my reasoning...1) Maggie is such a sweet hostess, 2) I really, really enjoyed this challenge last summer, and 3) you all were tempting me too much with your lists! I didn't stand a chance, did I?

Here's what I'll be attempting (nice qualifier, huh?) to read:
*A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
*Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt (Yes, I realize that Mr. Berendt isn't from the South, but Maggie gave me the o.k. for this one.)
*A Painted House by John Grisham (I didn't really want to read another John Grisham book for this year's challenge, but since I already owned it and since it sounds a bit different from others of his I've read, I decided it would have to do.)