451 Challenge

I'm just amazed at the endless number of challenges that are available to join in the book blogging community. Which to join? What level to choose? What are the rules? Oh, I'm such a rookie. I've decided to just jump in with both feet and join challenges that will allow e-book reading, overlapping, and have the end of 2010 as the deadline. I thought 26 books was a big challenge for the year but the bloggers I've been following often have in the hundreds and join 20+ challenges in a year! Here is another challenge that I have joined.

451 Challenge hosted by As Usual, We Need More Bookshelves
Inspired from Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, in which the idea of keeping books alive for future generations leads the Book People to becoming the book , a group of book bloggers post on "451 Fridays" about the books they feel most passionate about. From these posts, a master list of books was compiled for which the bloggers deemed so important they would be willing to take on the challenge of becoming. From this master list, the 451 Challenge was born.

Between Jan 1 and Nov 30, 2010 participants are to read books from the 451 List and may choose to participate at one of the following levels:

Spark 1-2 books from master list
Ember 3-4 books from master list
Flame 5-6 books from master list
Blaze 7 or more books from master list

Re-reading is acceptable, books can cross-over with other challenges and audio, print, and ebooks are permitted. Participants are asked to post their reviews on the challenge blog and are then entered into a drawing for a prize.

I looked over the master list and decided to enter at Blaze level. There were so many remarkable books listed that I had 7 quickly selected. I'm not sure that I'll stick to these first 7 but here is my tentative list:

1. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
(I have never read this book and felt that if I'm going to do a challenge inspired by it, I should read the book)
2. Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
3. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
4. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
5. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan *re-read One of my favourite authors
6. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
7. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen