So, it’s New Years Day, the first day of the new reading year. Awesome! Conveniently I finished Elaine Corvidae‘s FABULOUS The Sorceress’s Orc last night, leaving me ready to start fresh. I love when a plan comes together…ok, there was no plan. But it’s still gratifying that I get to start a new book and 2 new challenges first thing on the first day of the year. Otherwise, I would either feel like I lost reading time or the first book didn’t count since it was started in 2012. 

I’ve taken on two challenges so far. There’s no guarantee that I won’t find more later, but these will be my main ones. The first is Goodreads‘ basic reading challenge. I’ve signed up for 200 books this year. I thought long and hard about this number. There is a real chance that I’ll obliterate it, but a year is a long time and who knows what might get in the way of my precious reading time. Certainly, my children will give it their all. 

The second is the Indie-Fever challenge, hosted by b00k r3vi3ws by DDS. I enjoy reading Indies and self pubs (I’m counting them in with Indies for this challenge), so this one is perfect for me. I’m signing up to the fanatic level (28 or more Indie books) and I’m starting with an Indie this year. It will be Ryan Attard’s First Born.

I chose this book for two reasons. The first simply being that he sent me a copy. Yep, that’s a pretty good reason, right? The second is a little more obscure. I checked out the book’s Amazon page and someone wrote a scathing, one star review based on nothing more than the sample (and it’s the only one he/she ever wrote). I just don’t think that’s fair. Granted, the reviewer gave reasons for his/her opinion. They weren’t baseless ones and I might find all of them to be true in reading the whole book. But it’s the only review the book has gotten so far, meaning it now has an average rating of one and no one has even read it yet! I think it deserves a review based on the work as a whole. I have no obligation to be the person to do this, but it feels like the right thing to do. So I am. 

There you have it, my 2013 challenges. I’ll post the occasional update along the way. I’m aiming for monthly, but we’ll see. So, how about you? What are you taking on this year?