Cataluna's 1111 Category Challenge

Well it's that time again, gotta try and come up with some exciting things to read. Not sure what I'll aim for next year since I'm doing a crappy job finishing the 1010 challenge. My biggest problem is being too busy reading stuff that isn't on my challenge list. But who knows I might suprise myself and finish a couple more categories by years end.

Either way bring on Jan 1st - I like me some challenge!




Here's my list of categories so far, there will no doubt, changes & culls by the time I start, I've already got more than 11 categories.

1. All the pretty little ponies - Horses, both fic & non fic.

2. Don't worry, I'll be right back - Horror, Supernatural, Action Genre.

3. This is Sparta! - Greek myths, legends & plays.

4. One, two, buckle my shoe, three, four, they've written some more - Sequels (designed with my Mt. TBR in mind).

5. Heaving Bosoms - Romance, any flavour.

6. Oh the Torah, the Torah! - Religion.

7. Here's your orange sherbert sir - Popular Penguins, I'm giving this the old college try again, despite not having started it yet this year.

8. Fast times @ Red Cliffs High - Re-reads from my youth.

9. There's a fraction too much fiction - Non fic.

10. Youth in Revolt - YA.

11. Trust me - you'll love it! - Recommended reads from LT.

12. Nathan, Nathan, where for art thou Nathan? - Books with Nathan Kamp on the cover, this will also cover a lot in my Mt. TBR. Here's a link for the curious: http://ravensanctuary.blogspot.com/

13. Dearly Departed - Discards from our booksale table.

14. Picture This - Graphic Novels.

You have company in the "reading other stuff" camp. Even though I do not finish my challenges, however, I love putting them together and they result in my having read a number of worthwhile books I would not have gotten through otherwise. And each year I hope to do better. Have fun with your version of 11 by 11.

I'm the same, I love a good challenge. And it makes sure I at least try to read something different and as long as I'm having fun, I'll keep planning my challenges.

I like the chicks and egg ticker :)

I found that by making my categories really broad, that I was able to use all but a few books that I read for the challenge. Try categories like books with titles or books with a main character. :)

If you want to leave room for out-of-challenge books then you could always lessen the number of books in each category or perhaps go for the stepped version of the challenge instead. I've chosen the latter option for that very reason.

#4 thanks goddesspt2 I thought so too, they had some new trackers at the factory.

#5 Good idea RidgewayGirl, I've already picked categories that I know I'll read more of for this challenge. But going even more general is a handy idea, I'm not making any decisions until I start next year. I've already thought up too many categories.

#6 I might do the same, as I know I've got more of a chance of reading higher numbers in some categories. I see a few people are doing that for the challenge.

7, If I was to attempt the full version then I know I'd have to exclude some of the more meatier tomes that I want to read to have any chance of completing the challenge. That and the fact it allows me to pick up those read-me-now books that come along which don't fit.

#8 I was considering a random section so that I can put books I find and have to read straight away there. My problem is I always find more books than I can read all at once, (the perils of working in a library). Although I've been fairly good this year at reading from Mt. TBR this year.

Really loving your titles - and having a category to read books with a certain person on the cover is a brilliant idea!

Maybe I'll steal RidgewayGirl's idea and have a category like Books with Characters!

Hi Laura, I think I have just as much fun naming my categories as I do reading. I've had a few good suggestions from other LThingers about general categories, I'm still trying to pick my final 11.

I'm also most certainly guilty of the "reading other things" issue. There are way too many interesting books out there!

Sometimes it blows working in a library - I get to see all the new books, plus I work in inter library loans, which always throws a spanner in my works, there's so many good things to read. I do have to give myself a pat on the back for this years effort, I have read quite a few from my Mt. TBR. My problem is that I rewarded myself by buying more!

Okay I've finally worked out my categories, I had to do a mashup to fit all my choices in, plus that'll help me with all the extras that I pick up during the year.

I won't be starting until Jan 1st, as I make a last ditch effort to complete as much of my 1010 as possible. I tried to pick a few more categories that I might actually finish, I do try to read classics, or something that makes me think more, but alas, my brain, it loves it some candy, therefore there's lots of YA and horror and fun stuff and not so much of the literary this time around. Either way, I had lots of fun in 2010, so lets hope it continues :)

1. All the pretty little ponies - Horses, both fic & non fic.

1. Remember Me by Laura Moore
2. Believe in Me by Laura Moore
3. Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
4. The Wrangler by Pamela Britton
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.

2. Don't worry, I'll be right back - Horror, Supernatural, Zombies & things that go bump in the night.

1. Reckless by Cornelia Funke
2. Infinite Days by Rebecca Maizel
3. Endless Lust by Lexxie Couper
4. Shadow Game by Christine Feehan
5. Ghost of a Chance by Jayne Ann Krentz
6. Mine to Possess by Nalini Singh
7. The Man Within by Lora Leigh
8. Graceling by Kristen Cashore
9. Wicked Appetite by Janet Evanovich
10.
11.

3. One, two, buckle my shoe, three, four, they've written some more - Sequels (designed with my Mt. TBR in mind).

1. The White Queen by Philippa Gregory
2. Chasing the Night by Iris Johansen
3. Scandalous by Karen Robards
4. Sweet Possession by Maya Banks
5. Lead Me On by Victoria Dahl
6. Hidden Away by Maya Banks
7. Entranced by Nora Roberts
8. Vision in White by Nora Roberts
9. Texas! Chase by Sandra Brown
10. Hostage to Pleasure by Nalini Singh
11. Elizabeth’s Wolf by Lora Leigh

4. Heaving Bosoms - Romance, any flavour.

1. Best Laid Plans by Nora Roberts
2. Summer Desserts by Nora Roberts
3. Mad, Bad and Blonde by Cathie Linz
4. Start Me Up by Victoria Dahl
5. Hot Stuff by Janet Evanovich
6. Coyote Home by Rhian Cahill
7. Manhunt by Jane Evanovich
8. His Christmas Angel by Michelle Douglas
9. Captive of Sin by Anna Campbell
10. Come Monday by Mari Carr
11. Simply Irresistible by Jill Shalvis

5. There's a fraction too much fiction - Non fic.

1. Dewey by Vicki Maron
2. Big book of small, cool, spaces by Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan
3. Moab is my Washpot by Stephen Fry
4. Thrifty Chic by Liz Bauwens & Alexandra Campbell
5. Riveren: My Home, Our Country by Terry Underwood
6. Nigella Christmas by Nigella Lawson
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.

6. Youth in Revolt - YA.

1. Virals by Kathy Reichs
2. Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
3. Matched by Ally Condie
4. The Hollow by Jessica Verday
5. Halo by Alexandra Adornetto
6. Dragon’s Oath by P.C. & Kristen Cast
7. The Uninvited by Tim Wynne-Jones
8. Victoria and the Rogue by Meg Cabot
9. Going Too Far by Jennifer Echols
10. Dragon’s Oath by P.C. & Kristen Cast
11. Old Bag by Melvin Burgess

7. Trust me - you'll love it! - Recommended reads from LT, Good Reads & other fine establishments.

1. The DUFF by Kody Keplinger
2. The knife of never letting go by Patrick Ness
3. The Sweetness at the bottom of the Pie by Alan C. Bradley
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.

Here are some possibilities so far:

The little girl who was too fond of matches by Gaetan Soucy, rec by judylou

Room by Emma Donoghue, rec by judylou

The Duff by Kody Keplinger, rec by strandedon8jo

Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler, rec by wookiebender

The knife of never letting go by Patrick Ness, rec by wookiebender

Jumper by Steven Gould, rec by VictoriaPL

8. Nathan, Nathan, where for art thou Nathan? - Books with Nathan Kamp on the cover, this will also cover a lot in my Mt. TBR. Here's a link for the curious: http://ravensanctuary.blogspot.com/ He's just so darn pretty.

1. Eternal Hunter by Cynthia Eden
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.

9. Picture This - Graphic Novels

1. 100 Girls by Adam Gallardo
2. Large Print: An Unshelved Collection by Gene Ambaum & Bill Barnes
3. Fairy Tales for Angry Little Girls by Lela Lee
4. Unshelved By Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum
5. Re-Gifters by Mike Carey, Sonny Liew and Marc Hempel
6. The Walking Dead, Vol 1
7. Dark Hunger by Christine Feehan
8.
9.
10.
11.

10. "Do you have that book, about the Spartans, it's got a tree on it, and maybe a penguin?" My anything and everything pile, helpfully named by my lovely patrons - they ask the best questions!

1. Play Dead by Harlan Coben
2. Innocent Wife, Baby of Shame by Melanie Milburne
3. Be Near Me by Andrew O’Hagan
4. Hidden Away by Maya Banks
5. Cooee by Vivienne Kelly
6. Love’s Encore by Sandra Brown
7. Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte
8. Buzz Off! by Hannah Reed
9. Take the Cake by Susan Wright
10. Vision in White by Nora Roberts
11. The Sweetest Thing by Jill Shalvis

11. Another One Bites The Dust - Books Made into Movies/TV Shows.

1. The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler
2. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
3. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne
4. Skellig by David Almond
5. Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote
6. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
7. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
8. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
9. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald
10.
11.

Excellent categories, my dear! I am really looking forward to what you're going to read in 2011. And your "Do you have that book..." category is hilarious!

Second the do you know category!! How fun! "I have a paper... And I need books. Does the library have any on the middle ages?" :)

"Do you have books" is one of the most popular questions I get asked at work. Ah yes, yes we do. My other fave is when they tell you the book is blue, with a tree, as if that will automatically make it easy to pinpoint the exact book they're after.

But you gotta admit it is awesome when you can tell what they want by vague descriptions :)

It is very awesome. The other day I was in B&N looking at the animated DVDs and I asked my husband, who was browsing on the other side of the rack, what the name was for "the movie with the fish". The young guy behind the counter very quickly said "Ponyo". My husband went for "Nemo". Ponyo was correct and I was blown away that he guessed correctly with so little information.

Love your categories!

First off the bat for my 11 in 11 challenge. This fits into category 4. Heaving Bosoms - Romance, any flavour.

1. Best Laid Plans by Nora Roberts

Abra is a structural engineer, Cody is an architect. From the beginning of their relationship there are fireworks. Both hate the others profession, but despite this they’re attracted to each other. This has some witty dialog and very funny scenes. This is one of her earlier books (1989), so Cody’s attitude to wooing and general maleness is quite old fashioned. (He goes caveman more then once – throwing her over his shoulder – ‘so they can talk’), but I think that’s why I liked the character so much, I had the giggles a few time while reading this. Perfect fluff to start off my new year!

This falls into my 9. Picture This - Graphic Novels category.

2. 100 Girls by Adam Gallardo

I'm in two minds about this, I did enjoy it, but I didn't love it. It also made me want to bust out the Buffy - it's kinda like a Slayer redux :)

I enjoyed the general storyline - Sylvia is 13, adopted, very intelligent (she gets bumped up to a higher grade), all of a sudden she's super strong and a gymnastics pro. Then she discovers there are copies of her, she doesn't know why or how, just that she needs to get to the girls before the bad guys do. Also - special powers - le awesome!

One thing I didn't like so much was the inconsitency in the art work. Sometimes the Sylvia's looked much older than what they were supposed to be which was annoying. But that's just my little niggle. As for the art work in general it was good.

I didn't realise when I started reading this that it was a series of comics, I'll be tracking them down as I do want to find out what happens to Sylvia.

The only other thing I could possible say is that this would be recommended for older teens, there is quite a bit of violence depicted, mostly in self defense, but bloody and graphic none the less. There's also some adult 'special time' which might freak the kidlings out O.o

Another one for my Heaving Bosoms Category.

3. Start Me Up by Victoria Dahl

This is the second book in her Tumble Creek series. Once again I had a lot of fun with it. Laugh out loud fun. Lori Love is Molly Jennings’ best friend (her story was covered in Talk Me Down), Lori had dreams and aspirations, which were all taken away from her when her father was injured. She had to give up Uni in Boston and come back to Tumble Creek to run her dad’s garage. FF 10 years, Lori’s dad has passed away, but she’s still in TC, stuck in a rut. Enter Quinn Jennings’, Molly’s brother. He offers to be her ‘special friend’, which is all good until Quinn decides he wants to be more than that.

Once again I enjoyed Dahl’s writing, she’s is very funny, her heroine’s are feisty and it’s a given you’re going to get some great banter and imaginative smexy times. I love the relationship between Molly and Lori, who’ve been best friends since high school. I think they remind me of a relationship with one of my friends, with their in jokes. I’m about halfway through the third book at the moment, so a review for that will be along shortly.

4. Mad, Bad and Blonde by Cathie Linz

Fitting into my Heaving Bosoms (Romance) category.

This is book 1 in the West Investigations series.

Faith West is a Children's Librarian and on her wedding day, her fiance sends her a text message to say he can't go through with the wedding, she's too boring - he's going to Bali instead. Cue the alcmahol and a solo honeymoon to Italy. There she meets the perfect rebound guy. But things aren't always what they seem.

I did enjoy this, although I was often thinking to myself Caine (Mr. Rebound) is kinda a jerk, which did detract from the story sometimes. In the same instance, I did like their rapport with each other. The side characters are fun, with Faith's Grandma getting friendly with another P.I and their story is explored more in Luck Be A Lady the second in the series. I would file this under contempory romance, rather than romantic suspense as the suspense part of the story isn't huge, it's more about Faith and Caine. While I did enjoy this, it's not my favourite of hers and I don't love it enough to buy my own copy.

These both fit into my One, two, buckle my shoe, three, four, they've written some more - Sequels category.

5. The White Queen by Philippa Gregory

This is the first in the Cousin's War trilogy.

A tale inspired by the War of the Roses follows the conflict from the perspective of Elizabeth Woodville, who ascends to royalty and fights for the well-being of her family, including two sons whose imprisonment in the Tower of London precedes a devastating unsolved mystery.

I enjoyed this a lot, I know this is a combination of historical accuracy and fictional liberties, but I don't think that detracts from the story, (but really it could be all made up, I'm not familiar with this part of history). I loved the richness of the storytelling, Gregory paints a sumptous picture of court and I couldn't help but cringe, as I knew the fate of the characters. There's no happy ending for most of them.

I'll read the rest of the trilogy, but I might do some non fiction reading to give me some more background. I kept on getting the characters mixed up - seriously what's with all the George's, Henry's, Richard's and Edward's? A bit of individuality never hurt anyone people!

8. Chasing the Night by Iris Johansen

This was a fast paced read, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I particularly enjoyed the focus on facial reconstruction, I find it fascinating that with just a skull, someone can give it a face, a name. In this series, the main character, Eve Duncan, has been doing just this ever since her daughter Bonnie was abducted and murdered 10 years before. In this book (the eighth in the series), Eve is persuaded to help Catherine Ling, a CIA agent whose son was kidnapped by a Russian criminal eight years ago and he’s been taunting her ever since. With the help of her boyfriend, Joe, who’s also a cop, she sets out to locate Catherine’s son.

I'm only a month in and I'm already falling behind in posting and writing reviews!

This is from my Heaving Bosoms (Romance) category

6. Summer Desserts by Nora Roberts

When love resistant dessert chef Summer Lyndon develops a taste for her delectable boss, Blake Cocharan, her legendary willpower is put to the ultimate test.

I’ve been reading a lot of old school Nora Roberts lately, they’re quick, easy and yes you know they’re going to end up together, but I still like them, even if they are predictable, I quite like Roberts’ style. I read Lessons Learned last year, which is the follow up to this one

And this one is the first in my Another One Bites The Dust - Books Made into Movies/TV Shows.

7. The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler

While I did enjoy reading the book, I had the movie in the back of my mind the whole time. The characters in the book seem to be a little older, which I didn’t like as much, but I liked that the book had room to expand on particular storylines. I found the information at the end - about each of the books and what other people (members of Jane’s family and other authors), thought of her writing. This was good and I enjoyed it a lot, call me shallow, but I still liked the movie more, but that could have a lot to do with Hugh Dancy.

I haven't done too bad for filling up my categories, but hopefully I'll complete all of them for my 2012 challenge.

For my completed challenges here's my picks of the best in each category:

3. One, two, buckle my shoe, three, four, they've written some more - Sequels

The White Queen by Philippa Gregory

This is the first book of the Cousin's War series and also my first PG. I really enjoyed this, from what I've heard, Gregory does do a lot of research, and with the added fictional side of the story, this makes for interesting reading and a fun way to read about history.

Lead Me On by Victoria Dahl

This is the concluding book in Dahl's Tumble Creek series and is my fave of all three books. I love Chase, he's the perfect conbination of bad boy and gentleman. He's a heavily tattooed demolitions expert, the complete opposite of Jane, uptight office manager for Quinn (the hero of second book, Start me Up. At times Jane drives me crazy, but I love Dahl's style of writing, she always makes me laugh out loud. You could read this series standalone style, but why cheat yourself of the laughs - read them all!

4. Heaving Bosoms - Romance, any flavour.

Simply Irresistible by Jill Shalvis

This is the first in the Lucky Harbour series. Maddie has just been fired, broken up with her boyfriend and is returning to Lucky Habour and the Bed and Breakfast that has been left to Maddie and her sisters by their mother. All of whom she has never known well. She arrives to find the BnB in need of serious renovation and no money to do it with. Shalvis is a fun read, she makes me laugh and I've got the third in this series to read over Christmas.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald

I think this will be my last official book for 2011 - I have a few others that I've started, but there's no way that I'll finish them in time. I've been a bit crazy with my reading since we hit Christmas. I expected to get lots of reading done, but I really haven't read all that much - started about three new books - but actually finished - not many. Too bad I don't count magazines!

This wasn't really at all what I expected. I've seen most of the movie, so I guess I was expecting to see that storyline running through the book. But apart from the same title and the reverse ageing, there isn't too much that the two have in common.

The story was quite short, but I did enjoy it. I was going between feelings of 'that would be fun' to 'I feel sorry that he doesn't get to experience life the 'normal' way'. But in the grand scheme of things, it is fairly similar, for most of us we return to infancy in our old age. But it was sad to read the unfolding deterioration as Benjamin got older. I think that is what would annoy me the most as I got older, not being able to remember the life I've lived.

I read and then watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button back in 2010 and you are correct, I have yet to find another example where the book and the movie are so different from each other - almost as if they were different stories.