ThrillerFans 1st Challenge

Setting up my first Challenge. It will be a 5x5 for 25 books.

Start Date: September 17, 2010
Target Completion: December 31, 2011

Completion: 0 of 25

Categories:

1. "Event"ful - Books from the "Event Group" series by David Lynn Golemon

- Event - Currently Reading
- Legend
- Ancients
- Leviathan
- Primeval

2. You're a "Thor" in my side - Books by Brad Thor

- The Lions of Lucerne
- Path of the Assassin
- State of the Union
- Blowback
- Takedown

3. "Rollin" on a river - Books by James Rollins

- The Judas Strain
- The Last Oracle
- The Doomsday Key
- The Devil Colony
- Altar of Eden

4. Flynn going Bald? - Political Thrillers by Flynn and Baldacci (Have less than 5 of each left to go, so lumped these together)

- Extreme Measures (Flynn)
- Pursuit of Honor (Flynn)
- The Collectors (Baldacci)
- Stone Cold (Baldacci)
- Divine Justice (Baldacci)

5. Checkmate! - Chess Books.

- My Best Games, Vol 2: Games with Black by Victor Korchnoi - Currently Reading
- Grandmaster Repertoire 3 - The English Opening vol. 1 by Mihail Marin - Currently Reading
- Play the Scandinavian by Christian Bauer - Currently Reading
- Fundamental Chess Endings by Karsten Muller - Currently Reading
- Play the Nimzo-Indian by Edward Dearing - Currently Reading

Hi Thriller Fan, thanks for the invitation to join. I am just going to post my thread now, looking forward to seeing what everyone is reading!

Hey, DeltaQueen50, thanks for joining, and if you know others, recommend this to them. I simply took all the names in the recently joined list of the 1111 challenge and invited them. If you know others, please share the news.

I feel like I have a goal now that will actually be achievable, though still a challenge.

I read 19 books in a year span from 08-09 (Nov - Oct), and from November 1st to now, I'm reading my 15th book, so knew I'd fail my 30 to October 31 this year, so instead, started this up. 25 books in 15 1/2 months is at least practical if I'm doing 16 to 19 in a year. It forces me to stretch myself a little bit, but not so much that it will never happen.

Being a full time worker, father for the first time, chess player, and bridge player sure limits my reading time. I probably read as much during lunch hour at work as I read elsewhere.

But hey, that was the whole point of this

- for those that wanted to fill in small time gaps
- for those that wanted to have more time to read if they are busy (like myself)
- for those that wanted more categories and less books
- for those that wanted categories (as opposed to the simple 25 book club or 50 book club) but not as many as 11, with deeper stacks in each category
- for those where the 1111 wasn't challenging enough

The first 2 would do the 5x5, the 3rd would do the 10x5, the fourth the 5x10, and the last the 10x10.

Three books that I am also working on now, all recently started, and putting in my category of books by other authors, are the following:

My Best Games, Vol 2: Games with Black by Victor Korchnoi

Grandmaster Repertoire 3 - The English Opening vol 1 by Mihail Marin

How to play against 1.e4 by Neil McDonald

The first is a book that Korchnoi himself wrote featuring 50 wins he had as Black. I also have Volume 1, which shows 50 of his best games as White, but I'm going thru his Black games first.

The GM Repertoire 3 book is the first of 3 (GM Rep 4 and GM Rep 5 make up the full repertoire) book that cover an entire repertoire for White based on the English Opening (1.c4). It's 480 pages long, and covers 1...e5 by Black (that's pushing the pawn in front of the King 2 squares by Black). The 3rd book will cover 1...c5 (pushing the pawn opposite that of the pawn White pushed on move 1) and the 2nd will cover everything but 1...e5 and 1...c5. Those will be later projects.

The "How to play against 1.e4" book is a repertoire for Black when White plays 1.e4 (pushes the pawn in front of the King 2 squares on the first move). It advocates the French Defense (1...e6 - Black pushes the pawn in front of the King 1 square).

Completing these 3 books by end of year 2011 will be a hard task for sure, so the last 2 may likely be fiction books by other writers than the 5 mentioned in the first 4 categories, but if I finish any of these early, I may start another.

Typically, I try to read one Middlegame book (or game collection), one Opening book for White, and one Opening book for Black, at a time, in full. I may reference other books during this time, but they will be read in full at a later date.

Changed the final category from a "catch all" category to a category pertaining to chess.

The other 4 are still intact. Haven't had much time to read outside of chess books as of late, so still on that same book by Golemon (about half-way done).

With how long it's taking just to read the first book, I may convert these titles into the 11/11 challenge.

Probably either do an "old man's staircase" 1-1-2-2-3-3-4-4-5-5-6 or 2-2-2-2-3-3-3-3-4-4-4, or else possibly 3-per.