Casvelyn's 5x10 Challenge

I'm altering my 11-11 Challenge slightly and bringing it over here, for four reasons:

- I really like my categories and want to get started on them now.
- I'm a grad student, so I need an easier challenge - I can manage 40-50 books per calendar year, if I'm disciplined.
- I just finished Anna Karenina and I want to get "credit" for reading over 900 pages.
- Ten is a much better number than eleven. It's nice and round and even.

So, I'm going to post my categories below, with explanation where needed. I'm starting this challenge today and I hope to be done by December 31, 2011. Rereads do count, but part of my goal with this challenge is to cut down my TBR list.

Category One: Indiana (aka my home state)

This includes authors from Indiana, books set in Indiana, non-fiction about Indiana, etc.

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Category Two: 1001 Books to Read Before You Die/Guardian 1000 (since they overlap so much)

1. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
2. Howards End by E. M. Forster
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Category Three: Agatha Christie

1. A Caribbean Mystery
2. Nemesis
3. Murder in Mesopotamia
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Category Four: Mysteries (my favorite genre)

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Category Five: Science fiction and fantasy (tied for second favorite genre)

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I expect to put some Le Guin, Fforde, and Adams in here over Christmas break.

Category Six: TBR from my library (getting through stuff I've bought but never got around to reading)

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Category Seven: Victorian novel (because the class never fit in my schedule in undergrad)

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I'm thinking Bronte sisters and Trollope on this one.

Category Eight: Food

1. Ready for Dessert by David Lebovitz
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Category Nine: Non-fiction

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Category Ten: Miscellaneous/catch-all/overflow/anything goes/whatever I want it to be

1. Emily of New Moon by L. M. Montgomery
2. Emily Climbs by L. M. Montgomery
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I finished Howards End today. It was okay - I like Forster's writing style but I really didn't care for any of the characters at all.

I agree with you about Howards End. I much prefer A Room with a View!

I'll have to try A Room with a View, since I do like Forster overall.

Today I read A Caribbean Mystery. Typical Christie - not one of her best, but thus far I haven't found that any of her mysteries are truly bad.

Finished Nemesis by Agatha Christie today. It's not at all like the BBC movie, and I think I like the movie better. Miss Marple is my favorite Christie detective, though, so I don't think I'll enjoy the next Christie as well - it features Poirot.