What's In A Name Reading Challenge 2012

The next challenge I am participating in, as an effort to clear my TBR shelf,  is What's In A Name 5.  It is being hosted by Beth Fish Reads.  The categories and my choices are listed below.  Visit Beth Fish Reads for more details and to sign up!

A book with a topographical feature (land formation) in the title:
Cold Mountain - Charles Frazier
A book with something you'd see in the sky in the title:
Angela's Ashes -Frank McCourt
A book with a creepy crawly in the title:
Little Bee - Chris Cleave
A book with a type of house in the title:
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey
A book with something you'd carry in your pocket, purse, or backpack in the title:
The Children's Book - A.S. Byatt
A book with a something you'd find on a calendar in the title:
March - Geraldine Brooks

Back to the Classics Challenge 2012

I wasn't kidding when I said I was going to attempt to put a small dent in that TBR shelf.  So, I am taking on another reading challenge.  Back to the Classics Challenge 2012 hosted by Sarah Reads Too Much.  The categories and my selections are listed below.  Visit her blog for additional details and to sign up!

19th Century Classic:
Crime and Punishment - Fydor Dostoyevsky
20th Century Classic: 
Native Son - Richard Wright
Reread a Classic:
The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
Classic Play:
The Crucible - Arthur Miller
Classic Mystery/Horror:
Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier
Classic Romance:
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
Classic That Has Been Translated From Its Original Language to Your Language:
Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
Classic Award Winner:
The Killer Angels - Michael Shaara
Classic Set In a Country That You Will Not Visit in Your Lifetime: 
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Mount TBR Reading Challenge

So, let's get this blog going with a post about the reading challenge that prompted me to get a move on and start this blog!  It is being hosted by My Reader's Block and I hope it is going to help me clean off my ever growing TBR shelf.  The levels are below and you can click on over to My Reader's Block for more information and to sign up. 

Pike's Peak: Read 12 books from your TBR pile/s
Mt. Vancouver: Read 25 books from your TBR pile/s
Mt. Ararat: Read 40 books from your TBR piles/s
Mt. Kilimanjaro: Read 50 books from your TBR pile/s
El Toro: Read 75 books from your TBR pile/s
Mt. Everest: Read 100+ books from your TBR pile/s

I have selected Mt. Vancouver. I could set my goals a little higher, but I am participating in two other challenges. I know I can use books for more then one challenge, but well, that just doesn't help clearing off that shelf. You don't have to select your books ahead of time, but I know myself.  That being said, here is the list of books from my TBR pile that I will be tackling in 2012.

Bloodroot - Amy Greene
Prodigal Summer - Barbara Kingsolver
The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood
Amsterdam - Ian McEwan
The Reader - Bernhard Schlink
The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen
Suite Francaise - Irene Nemirovsky
Blonde - Joyce Carol Oates
The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett
Franny and Zooey - J.D Salinger
The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Falling Man - Don DeLillo
The Shipping News - E. Annie Proulx
The Enchantress of Florence - Salman Rushdie
Rabbit, Run - John Updike
The March - E.L. Doctrow
Run - Ann Patchett
The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
Disgrace - J.M. Coetzee
Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius - Dave Eggers
The Namesake - Jhumpa Lahiri
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
Houskeeping - Marilynne Robinson
Revolutionary Road - Richard Yates

My Initiation Post ....to Myself!!!

Well here is my first post, but as I am my only follower at the moment, I guess it is more of a test post.  I have a lot to learn about blogging and making my blog "look pretty."  Maybe I should ask my twelve year old son for some help. I have money that says he has a video gaming blog that he has failed to mention.

I have been debating a blog for a few months.  Since I have decided to participate in some reading challenges on other blogs, I thought I would be more fun if I could blog my progress.  I am determined to get books off that TBR shelf!  Although, I will probably replace them with new books ....