Carmenere's 11 in 11 Challenge

Greetings! I'm joining this challenge because it looks like a great way to better organize my reading experience. I've chosen books which have been on my TBR shelves for many, many years and it is now time to read them and set them free. I can not even remember why I bought some of these but I can't bear to ditch a book before I give it its due read. I'll begin the challenge effective 1-1-11 and cross out titles as they are read. Those are my only rules. Happy reading to all. :)

11 in 11
1.A Slim Jim
1) Melville: Bartleby & Benito Coreno

2.I told you so… (Books advised not to read) 1) Philippa Gregory: The Queen’s Fool
2) “ " : The Other Boleyn Girl

3. Young at heart (YA)
1) Andrew Clements: Things Not Seen
2) Carl Hiassen: Hoot
3) Markus Zusak: The Book Thief

4.Have a little faith
1) Idliby, Oliver & Warner : The Faith Club
2) Bruce Feiler : Walking the Bible
3) Lawrence Boadt : Reading the Old Testament
4) Raja Shehadeh : Palestinian Walks

5. It’s a mystery to me
1) Elizabeth George: Careless in Red
2) “ “ : Deception on His Mind
3) John Grisham: The Last Juror
4) “ “ : The Random Jury
5) Tony Hillerman: The Sinister Pig

6.Too Big to Fail (Chunksters)
1) Alexander Dumas: The Three Muskateers
2) Wilkie Collins : The Moonstone
3) “ “ : The Woman in White
4) Henry James : The Portrait of a Lady
5) Michel Faber : The Crimson Petal and the White
6) Margaret George: The Memoirs of Cleopatra

7.We’re not old, we’re classics
1) Charles Dickens: The Mystery of Edwin Drood
2) Virginia Woolf: To the Lighthouse
3) H. G. Wells: The Time Machine
4) Hemingway : The Snows of Kilamonjaro
5) Steinbeck: Of Mice and Men
6) F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby
7) James : Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

8.King me:
1) King Henry the Sixth (parts I, II & III)
2) King Richard the Third
3) King Richard the Second
4) King Henry the Fourth (parts I & II)
5) King Henry the Fifth
6) King Henry the Eighth
7) King John
8) King Lear

9.Ography’s (either auto, bi, or fictionalized accounts of real people):
1) Colm Toibin – The Master
2) Angela Hunt – Magdalene
3) Doris Kearns Goodwin – Team of Rivals
4) Richard Nixon – Seize the Moment
5) Mikhail Gorbachev - Perestroika
6) Nancy Reagan – I Love You, Ronnie
7) Jean Plaidy - The Sixth Wife
8) Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Living to Tell the Tale
9) C. David Heymann - The Georgetown Ladies' Social Club

10.Now, Where Did I Leave Off? (Books left unfinished)
1) Arthur Golden: Memoirs of a Geisha
2) Gabriel Garcia Marquez: 100 years of solitude
3) Francine Prose: The Lives of the Muses
4) Susan Vreeland: The Forest Lover
5) William Pollack, PH.D: Real Boys
6) T.Z. Lavine: From Socrates to Sartre: The Philosophic Quest
7) Thomas L. Friedman: The World is Flat
8) Elizabeth George: A Traitor to Memory
9) Bill Bryson: A short history of nearly everything
10) Michael Gurian: The Wonder of Boys

11. Another Time and/or Another Place
1) Linda Schele: A Forest of Kings: The Untold Story of The Ancient Maya
2) Charles Gallenkamp: Maya: The Riddle and Rediscovery of a Lost Civilization
3) Marguerite DeNavarre: The Heptameron
4) Translated by Lady Charlotte E. Guest: The Mabinogion
5) Thomas R. Martin: Ancient Greece: From Prehistoric to Hellenistic Times
6) Norman F. Cantor: The Civilization of the Middle Ages
7) Garry Wills - Venice: Lion City
8) Carl Sagan: Cosmos
9) Annie Proulx: The Shipping News
10) Jan Morris: Wales
11) Bill Bryson: In a Sunburned Country

Love your categories Lynda! I still do a double-take when I see The Book Thief on a YA list, it just didn't seem like a YA read to me. Great book though! I'll be watching you (does that sound creepy?)

Welcome to the challenge, I will be watching you as well, you have lots of interesting reading planned.

Great categories! I've starred your thread.

Hi Lynda! I've starred your thread, too.

Just bouncing through to say you have a great list of books picked out for next year! The Three Musketeers is one of my all time favorites and I really enjoyed The Crimson Petal and the White. Looking forward to following your reading next year.

Hi Terri, Judy, Terri, Darryl and Lori! I wasn't expecting any visitors just yet, so it was a pleasant surprise to see you have all dropped in.

I'm really looking forward to starting this challenge and checking out your threads as well.

You've got some nice categories there, Lynda.

Oh, thanks Caty. I just can't wait to get started.

Nice categories Lynda, looking forward to following your reading.

Thanks, Heather.

In order to decide which of my 11 in 11 books to read I put all the titles in an envelope and pulled out my first of the year.

1. The Lives of the Muses I began reading this years ago but the only chapter I read was about Yoko Ono. So now, I'll read about the remaining muses.

Completed The Lives of the Muses and if you are interested my review is right here http://www.librarything.com/work/12498/edit/37096516

I'll be selecting my next 11 in 11 read this afternoon.

The next title pulled from my envelope this afternoon was The Queens Fool which is from category #2 I told you so............(Books advised not to read. Wish me luck!

I completed The Queens' Fool and should have a review of it in the next few days.

Next from my categories is A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce from the We're not old, we're classics category.

Completed James Joyce and am now half way through Wm. Shakespeare's King John for my King me challenge.

Finished King John and moving on to Elizabeth George's A Traitor to Memory

Been awhile since I've crossed a book off my 11 in 11 challenge but today I have finally done it.
In category #7 We're not old, we're just classics I was able to cross off Of Mice and Men.

Now I'm moving on to The Forest Lover for my Now, Where did I leave off challenge.

Finished The Forest Lover which was so-so. Also finished The Time Machine, definately 5 star material. Almost done with Hoot.

Now that Hoot is finished I'm moving on to a book I've had for quite a long time A Forest of Kings The Untold Story of the Ancient Maya.

Well, I finished the final two books I'll be reading for my 11 in 11 challenge, The Heptameron and King Lear. All in all, it was a pitiful attempt to move some long overdue books off of my shelf but I did come across a couple of gems in the long run. Plus, reading a chunkster, such as The Crimson Petal and the White stimulated my long forgotten love of getting lost in a huge book and gave me the idea for my 12 in '12 challenge, reading 12 super large tomes.
Thanks to all who dropped in to visit this year and please join me in 2012 over here http://www.librarything.com/topic/125564

Hi Lynda - I will definitely be following your 12 in 12 reading. I also loved Crimson Petal and the White and agree, it does make the chunksters less daunting to pick up!