Here is our Reading Challenge for 2012. There are 15 categories and 1 bonus.

Seeing it is a summer Olympic year lets use that theme

• Read one in a category bronze medal for that category
• Read two in a category silver medal for that category
• Read three in a category gold medal for that category

Complete 12 of  15 of the categories to become a champion. Some categories are carry overs from last year

I have added in one bonus  for an extra challenge

1.  Can't Wait for those New Releases - Read 1-3  new 2012 releases of any paranormal book (UF, YA, mystery, paranormal romance, erotica)
2. ZOMBIES - Read 1-3 paranormal books with ZOMBIES (UF, YA, mystery, Paranormal romance, erotica)
3. My sexy paranormal  Lover - Read 1-3 paranormal books that has a main character you consider sexy and would love to meet up with (UF, mystery, romance, YA, erotica)
4. Color Bright - Read a paranormal book with a color in the title (UF, YA, romance, mystery, erotica)
5. Dangerous Dragons - Read 1-3 paranormal books that have Dragons as characters (UF, romance, YA, mystery, erotica)
6. Urban fantasy - Read 1-3 books that are urban fantasy (often denoted in subgenre in PBS) Some authors are Kelly Armstrong, Patricia Briggs, Kim Harrison)
7. The Boys are Back in town - Read 1-3 Books that males are the lead characters (UF, romance, YA, mystery, erotica)
8. Young Adult - Read 1-3 Books that are tacked as Young adult, teen, children paranormal Some popular authors are Richelle Mead, Melissa De La Cruz, Stephanie Meyer and many more
9. Gnarly Weapons - Read 1-3 books that a big ole weapon on the cover they can be YA, urban fantasy, mystery, romance, erotica
10. Life outside these United States - Read 1-3 books that some or all of the book is set outside of the US 50 states (UF, YA, urban fantasy, mystery or erotica)
11. Interesting Initials - Read 1-3 books wtih that author one or more of your initials for his/her first, last  middle name. ie. My initials are ASJ so i need to find an author whose first, last or milddle name starts with A, S or J (UF, romance, mystery, YA, erotica)
12. Nice to meet you - Read 1-3 New to you author in any subgenre (UF, YA, Mystery, paranormal romance etc)
13. Dystopia - Read 1-3 books that have Dystopian theme
14. Next up - Read the next book one of the series you are following (UF, YA, Mystery, paranormal romance etc) 1- 3 books
15. Make up your own category - Read 1-3 paranormals in a category of your choose

Bonus categories

1. Read 5 books from you TBR Pile

As promised here is our 2012 paranormal reading challenge. Let's use this  topic to ask questions make suggestion, give me feedback.

Can anyone make us a 2012 banner and post here. I don't know how to do it.

I will create a list topic and discussion topic.

Zombies will be tough for me I  hate zombies.

I was bored today so I decided to learn how to make banners here is a link if anyone wants to use one!

2012 Paranormal Banners

Thank you Lisa I have mine up and ready to go.

Alice

I'm going to try this challenge.  i've very new to paranormal so this might be interesting. lol

ok.. im not sure how this works but i will try. lol 

ok question.. can it be the same author for all 3? like the dragon one. ive got a dragon series i want to read.. but its by 1 person.. or are we supposed to do different authors?

also what is dystopian?

Hi Kaila,

You can use the same author for all three books in a category (unless itis the new author category)

A Dystopian novel is often one set in the future that things have gone wrong. Maybe the world had a nuclear explosion or zombies have taken over. There are a lot of YA books in that genre too.

Here is a little help of wikipedia for dystopian novels

Suzanne Collins Hunger Games series is a good example

oh awesome thank you.. ok so new author needs to be 3 new ones orcan it be 1 new author but 3 books? im buying the shiver trio but gonna wait to read them for this but never read her stuff yet so shes new for me lol.. i got plenty more new so no biggies :)

Kaila is really up to you. My intent was 3 new authors but if you want a new to you author for 3 books that okay to. It is your challenge.

Alice

hmm.. ill do 3 seperate ones :)

Hmmm this sounds interesting. I think I will try this out.

Sounds fun!  Does the book need to be started and finished in 2012 or is it ok to include one that we start this week but not finish until after the first?

Typically do you cross fill for your challenges? For example I am not a big Zombie fan (so far) so if I do I can pick a new author. Do I choose which category that will fill or will it fill both?

I realize it's my challenge so I could do either but what have you guys typically seen done. I don't want to cheat by making up my own rules. I want to take this head on!

Shannon

I think that we would have to choose either or as 1 book fills 1 slot.  I'm guessing we can move them around though so nothing is set in stone if you have a book that fills many of the criteria.

Like, since you're not a zombie fan, if you read a book that is a first time author and has zombies, I would probably put it in your zombie section as there will most likely be other 1st authors for you to use later.  Of course, if you end up reading 3 other zombie books, I think you'd be able to move the 1st one into the 1st author pile.  Hope that makes sense and hope I'm thinking of it correctly as I'm sure I'll be moving things around on my list through out the year.

I think that sounds good Melissa. Makes for more of a challenge :)

You can start them this week but need to finishe them from Jan 1 on.

Remember you only need to finish 12 of the 15 categories. So you don't to cross fill if you don't want to I do that because there is always a categoy you don't like. You can really challenge youself and do all 15 categories.

Has anyone read Rebecca Zanetti? Book 1 is Fated, Book 2 Claimed. Vampire romance. REally good. Absolutely loved both books, Book 3 comes out in May I think.

Anyone else read something really good lately that maybe we can add to our list of books fhis year.

I have never done this but I'm going to try.  May help me figure out what to read next.  I have all these books sitting there on my TBR but can't always figure out which one I want to read.

OK; I've never done a reading challenge.  I started games this year, so I guess I should do a reading challenge next year!

I've taken the list above and will post in the lists topic; that's where I'll list all the books I have/am going to read.  Correct?  Is there anything else I need to do right now?

Thanks!

I'll play!

Rebecca B

Thanks for hosting again this year, Alice!  I've been doing these for a while, so thought I'd just chime in.

IMO, you really can't "cheat" at a challenge. What's challenging for me (and believe me, there are a lot of things). isn't challenging for someone else at all.  LOL  I kind of think of this challenge in terms of following the pirate code of Parley. Not really rules, so much as guidelines. :)

For me this is a way to keep me reading and pare down my TBR list. Oh, and to discover really great authors and books that I never would have picked up! Which, by the way, totally negates my goal of paring down my TBR list. 

Good luck, everyone!!

Alice I haven't read those books or that author so I will have to get them. I am trying to finish the Carpathian series by Christine Feehan. I really enjoy the Leopard series if you need shifter books, but I am finding that these books tend to be the same and are getting old. I am on book 10 of 23.

Anyone read these? Do they get better? or start to tie in together a little more?

Shannon

For those that aren't big fans of zombies, if you do like YA, there are several YA zombie books that are pretty light reads and not terribly gruesome.  Examples that I've read that were pretty good:  I Kissed a Zombie & I Liked It by Adam Selzer, My So Called Death by Stacey Jay, Never Slow Dance with a Zombie by E Van Lowe, You Are So Undead To Me by Stacey Jay, Bad Taste in Boys by Carrie Harris, and Zombie Queen of Newbury High by Amanda Ashby.  I'm pretty sure most were quick reads too with less than 300 pages.