Most Challenging of All

And it's not even a challenge -- it's a DARE. Worse than that, a TBR Double-Dog Dare, hosted by Ready When You Are, C.B. This year I'm going to make it! Not like last year, when I fell in the last week or something.  I learned about this incredibly tough event from Teacher Ninja, and this year I'm pumped, I'm psyched, I'm hoping to finish the twenty books I started last August and somehow never finished.

The gist of the Dare is to not acquire new books. I shall read from my shelves. Everything on hold at the library or in the mail counts as in my possession, btw.

I'm also going to allow myself any book club books (from my evening club, my elementary school club, my family club, or Vaginal Fantasies). And of course I can get books for the Cybils challenge, although I will limit myself to two of those at a time (and any picture books I can get my hands on). It goes without saying that I can continue to work through my Goodreads TBR list, again two at a time (one in the bag, one on the waiting shelf).

Needless to say, if I  run out of unread books on my NOOK, then it's open season because obviously you win the DARE if you read all your books, right? And library books that I started on my NOOK but which expired don't count either.

One result of this challenge is that I should manage to tame my library account, which is starting to spiral up a bit. Oh, that reminds me of another exception -- I'll still check out books for my kids. I just won't sneak over and read them. OK, that's all the exceptions I can think of for now.

To cheer me on, I'll list here the books I finish that come from my shelves (no library books).

1. The Catholic Church In the Modern World, E. Haley
2. Princess Academy: Palace of Stone, Shannon Hale
3. Ecstasia, Francesca Lia Block
4. Smart But Scattered, Peg Dawson
5. Using the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics With Gifted and Advanced Learners, Susan Johnson
6. Holes, Louis Sachar
7. Killbox, Ann Aguirre (NOOK)
8. The Borrowers Afield, Mary Norton
9. Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafon
10. Twenty and Ten, Clare Bishop
11. Gone, Michael Grant  (and here I cheated)
12. Steel's Edge, Ilona Andrews
13. King of Attolia, Megan Whelan Turner (reread)
14. Soup's Hoop, Robert Peck
15. Alanna, Tamora Pierce (reread)
16. In the Hands of the Goddess, Tamora Pierce (reread)
17. The Woman Who Rides Like a Man, Tamora Pierce (reread)
18. Lioness Rampant, Tamora Pierce (reread)
19. Bloody Jack, L.A. Meyer
20. The Tunnel of Hugsy Goode, Eleanor Estes
21. The Serpent's Shadow, Rick Riordan