I don't want to clog up the list thread with "Hello" and "Welcome", so I'm saying this here.  Hello! Welcome!  I'm so excited to see some new folks joining us for the challenges!  2010 was my first year, and as a former Newbie, let me tell you these people are crazy-fun.  You will find you must do the challenges again next year in a hopeless attempt to read down your TBR piles, but still....

I love checking out everyone's list.  (But I'm not writing down one thing..yet.)  Shelley called herself a "semi-weeny" for going for the Silver and not the Gold, but really, it doesn't matter how many books you read, does it?  It's all about finding great books, and then sharing that knowledge with us!  And increasing our TBR piles!

I've pulled out my 2011 books, found a box that (almost) holds them all, and now I'm free to concentrate on some other books until January 1st.  But I keep looking over at that box, thinking "Wheee"...LOL.

I think my mini-challenge for the rest of the year is to focus on anything that's not HF, just to move it along!  Other genres were sorely neglected this past year.  I'm not pointing any fingers, exactly..I'm just sayin'.....

Well said, Vicky ... and, indeed, "Welcome!" to all our new friends.

I'm at Linda's this week-end & we spent a very happy afternoon yesterday thinking about our lists, plotting out which book could go where, what some alternatives were, which ... gasp ... books we just. must. order. Mom has her list fairly well complete (on paper), & I've started building my list on the Lists Only thread.

Fun times!

Kelly

ETA: Mom just told me she is ready for her choices to be added to the Lists Only thread!

Nice touch Vicki.   I was a newbie as well in 2010 I have enjoyed the challenges and the scattered mini challenges as well.  So indeed welcome to the new members we do have a lot of fun!  ;)

I will not do challenges. I will not do challenges. I will not do challenges.

I, too, would like to extend warm welcomes to the newbies here!

This issue made me search back in this forum b/c I was trying to figure out if 2009 was the first HF reading challenge and I think it was. Valli - correct me if I'm wrong! I know that I joined in here not much before that. We have had several newbies come and go it seems, so I'm hoping that you folks hang in there! BTW, these challenges have blossomed almost out of control in these past 2-3 years!! What are we doing to ourselves? (I kinda like these emoticons.)

Deb B. - you're going to hate me for this, but guess what I came across? There is a post from you dated 10/31/09 in which you admit to lurking on this forum for a long time and you finally decide to join in! Hah! Can you believe that? It seems like you've been on this forum forever!!! You're going to have to tell the newbies about your feelings for this forum (remember your warning?) Oh yeah and remember that beautiful, demure avatar you had? My, my, my, time sure can change a lot of things, huh? You're now the enforcer- what a hoot!

These searches show that there really are quite a number of us who joined this forum in the not so distant past. Absolutely amazing!

Well, as you can probably guess, that trip down memory lane was a lot of fun for me - may have to do that more often.

Cathy I challenge you not to do challenges!

Thanks, this seems to be a great find indeed!  

                                                  Yours truly,

                                                       One of the newbies

Welcome newbies! The more, the merrier!

It's hard for me to believe that any of us were ever newbies here. It seems like this entire group sprung out fully formed and we've been having fun ever since. (Is "sprung" a real word?) Oh, you all know what I mean....it seems like we've all been here forever and newbies are kind of just absorbed in without ever having been a newbie. There, that makes snese, doesn it?

This forum originally started because of a thread in Hidden Gems. I can't remember who all participated in that thread, then moved down here, but I'm so glad we did! I really lurve this place.

I'm a newbie to the challenges this year and am really excited to start! This past year I think the majority of my reading has been HF from lurking in the forum and taking all your wonderful suggestions. Thanks for the warm welcome everyone!

Welcome to all Newbies!  The 2010 challenge was my first challenge and there's been no looking back.  I've met some really great people through this forum.

Coincidentally, like Vicky, I  have my 2011 challenge choices sitting in a box and it's still going through some revising.     I will admit it, I am a total challenge junkie, and loving it!  

Welcome newbies!  I think I really got active on the HF forum near the end of 2009,....around the same time as Deb.

Kelly - it sounds like you and Linda had a great time making your lists.  I think it would be fun to have a face-to-face person to do that with.  A cup of cocoa in room full of books with a good friend on a cold fall afternoon...

Cathy - you know you are going to cave, so you might as well do it now. 

Jeanne - I did a similar trip down memory lane when I was researching topics for the challenges.  We've had a lot of fun here over the last year or so.  Something about a naughy school girl uniform sticks in my mind....

Something about a naughy school girl uniform sticks in my mind....

$10 bucks says this makes Bonnie mention naked men....

*crawls out from cave*

Sorry ladies but I just don't have that kind of will power to plan so far ahead. One new discovery can set me on a whole new reading path.

*crawls back into cave*

This one's for you Vicky, I mean really if there are naughty  school girls how far behind can naked men be? I'll keep you all posted...

Ah, Christa, I almost forgot about those "schoolgirl" uniforms! What a place this is for entertainment, huh? And it's all this entertainment that causes me to be SO FAR BEHIND IN MY READING!!!

BTW, I picked up a book that has sparked my interest, but it's not HF. It's about a coronoer in 1976 Laos - Dr. Siri and he is delightful! The book is titled The Coroner's Lumch and the author is Colin Cotterill. I think this book is just what the doctor ordered to get me back into the reading mode!

Welcome, newbies!  So glad you're here!  The challenges are a lot of fun!  I've done them the last two years and managed to make it through both time! I'm looking forward to 2011's challenges.  I don't really plan my books in advance.  I sometimes have a vague idea of what books I want to use for what category, but nothing is set in stone.  I like to wing it!

Hello! Welcome! I'm so excited to see some new folks...

...indeed, "Welcome!" to all our new friends.

Welcome newbies! The more, the merrier!...

So glad you're here.

Yes, it all sounds so welcoming, doesn't it? Newbies, I'm tellin' ya -- don't be fooled. They're enticing you with their cheery and friendly manner and talk of naughty school girl uniforms and naked men. Ah, yes -- you're probably hooked. I'm likely too late. But I stick by my now-year-old advice (Advice for HF Forum Newbies) which you will undoubtedly ignore -- and then when you have no more credits/money/sanity/space for books, you'll ask yourself, "Why didn't I listen to Deb? She was the only one who told it as it is." ....  But since you're here (with little hope of escaping), I hope you have as much fun as I do.

I'm heading out for the weekend and will be offline

This was the cue to begin welcoming people into our grasp clutches  happy family of HF readers. 

I'm so excited for January! I keep making reading lists, and then changing them over and over again.  lol

So....who wants to recommend a book to me?  :)

CR

Oh lordy, Carolyn....you know not what you have asked!  Better open up the flood gates!

Um, Carolyn, you may want to narrow the field down a bit, or else, as Christa says: open up the flood gates! BTW check out Christa's profile page for her list of Essential HF - it should be a great help!

Carolyn, I always look at others wish lists, and always get ideas.  You will hear a great deal about Sharon Penman, Bernard Cornwell and Elizabeth Chadwick those 3 authors have reached cult status in this forum.  Penman has set the gold standard for historical fiction in my opinion.

Ooh, I was asking recommendations for the "Recommended by a HF Forum Friend" bit of the challenge.  But I've never read Chadwick before, and I do see she  is popular, so maybe I'll just use her. 

Perhaps I should move this to the Challenge #3 thread....

Thanks!

CR

Carolyn, make certain you have the right Chadwick.  The one you want writes medieval historical fiction.  There is another who writes western romances.