Kicking Off The New Year With Some Challenges (Because I Just Can't Help Myself!)

I know what you're thinking: "why does she keep signing up for challenges when every year she fails at so many of them or is racing at the end to try to finish them?" It's kind of like saying, every year on January 1st, I suppose, that I'm going to start exercising regularly this year. Every new year brings new hope - hope that I really will find a way to balance all of the things that I want to do, hope that I really will find the willpower to make myself do the things that are good for me, hope that, this year, everything will work out just the way it should. So, yes, yes I am signing up for a few challenges again this year but once again with the full knowledge that I will not beat myself up if I find, in November, that there is no way I'll get through everything.

First up, I'm once again joining the War Through The Generations Reading Challenge. This year's focus will be on World War I. I'm only going in to this one at the "Dip" level (1-3 books), largely because I'm going to try to read mostly from my own books for the challenge and I'm not sure how many books I have that have this war as a theme.

Here's one I actually succeeded at in 2011, the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. Once again, I'm in at the Struggling Addiction level, which means that I'm shooting for ten historical fiction novels in 2012. In theory, this one should be a piece of cake for me given my love of history. We'll see!

My biggest challenge failure in 2011 was with my own Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge. Not only did I not read a single book for it, I completely failed to add a single post or review to the site the entire year. Surprisingly, there are still people interested in jumping on board and giving it another go in 2012. So, once again, I'm hosting the Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge. Must get that list out and see what movies/books I can knock out this year. Charles Dickens, you will not scare me off again!

Last, but certainly not least, is the Mount TBR Reading Challenge which I previously announced. Getting through the rest of the challenges will definitely help with this one. Maybe if I can do really well with this one, there will be enough room on my bookshelves to justify asking for books for Christmas in 2012!

That's it for me - for now at least! Unless you've found one that I really must join. What challenges are you joining this year?