ThrillerFan's 2012 Challenge

2010 and 2011 have been utter failure. Therefore, I'm going to shave this year down to 2 books per category, 24 total. Not sure yet when my start date will be. A lot depends on when I get done with the book I'm currently reading.

Categories will be:

1) Chess - Opening theory for White
2) Chess - Opening theory for Black
3) Chess - Biography and/or Game Collection Books
4) Chess - Non-Opening Books
5) Paperbacks - Trying to empty my shelf now that I have a Nook
6) Murder
7) Organized Crime
8) Political Thrillers
9) Scientific Horror (i.e. Cross between the Sci-Fi and Horror Genre)
10) Fiction (Can be any fiction, including those that also fit categories 8 and 9)
11) Overflow (Must meet one of the 10 categories above)
12) Wild Card (Can be anything, including additional overflow)

1) Chess - Opening theory for White

- The Ruy Lopez: Move by Move by Neil McDonald (Currently Reading)
- Starting Out: Closed Sicilian by Richard Palliser (Currently Reading)

2) Chess - Opening theory for Black

- Grandmaster Repertoire 7: The Caro-Kann by Lars Schandoff (Currently Reading)
- Grandmaster Repertoire 10: The Tarrasch Defence by Jacob Aagaard and Nikolaos Ntirlis (Currently Reading)

3) Chess - Biography and/or Game Collection Books

- Garry Kasparov on My Great Predecessors, Part 1 by Garry Kasparov (Currently Reading)
- My Best Games: Games with White by Viktor Korchnoi (Currently Reading)

4) Chess - Non-Opening Books

- Fundamental Chess Endings by Karsten Muller (Done)
- Chess Lessons by Viktor Popov (Currently Reading)

5) Paperbacks - Emptying my shelf of paperbacks now that I have a Nook

- The God Project by John Saul (Currently Reading)
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6) Murder (Can be fiction or not, but somebody must be killed)

- A Time to Kill by John Grisham (Done)
- The Firm by John Grisham (Done)

7) Organized Crime

- Mississippi Mud by Edward Humes (Done)
- Dream Room by Chet Nicholson (Done)

8) Political Thrillers

- American Assassin by Vince Flynn (Done)
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9) Scientific Horror (i.e. Cross of Sci-Fi and Horror - Not Vampire Horror)

- Infected by Scott Sigler (Done)
- Contagious by Scott Sigler (Done)

10) Fiction

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11) Overflow

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12) Wild Card

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Welcome back ThrillerFan. Hopefully, three times lucky!

Officially starting today - October 25th, 2011.

Call it cheating the system if you want, but my goal is to hit 24 by October 31, 2012.

Starting 3 of them (will be starting a 4th when I'm done with Sleep in Heavenly Peace)

Those I'm starting are:

The Ruy Lopez: Move by Move - Category 1
The Slav: Move by Move - Category 2
Fundamental Chess Endings - Category 4

Starting on:

Mississippi Mud: Southern Justice and the Dixie Mafia by Edward Humes - Category 7

I see that you do have lots of true crime books here. Let me know if you find one on pyramid schemes!

Donna828, if I do, it would definitely fit under the "White Collar Crime" category! :-)

However, I'm going to wager that will probably either be Madoff related or some type of con man.

Hi Thrillerfan, I have checked my library and they do have a copy of Perfect Poison so I have added it to my list of non-fiction reads for next year. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

Also started on "The Petroff: An Expert Repertoire for Black" by Konstantin Sakaev.

This is my other book for category 2. These 2 ought to take a while, probably the whole year.

For some reason, can't get the brackets to work for the title.

French Defence Advance Variation Volume 1 will be the other book for Category 1. Was originally a 2011 book, but never got around to it. Read about 5 pages last year. Will put it up there for this year.

Great to see you have already started!

Well, 2011 was a complete failure. Might as well start now. The hardest part is going to be able to get thru all those chess books.

Changed one category, balancing out the true crime and the fiction a little. Got rid of the True Crime - Miscellaneous category, and going instead with Scientific Horror. Horror that has to do with either diseases, or infestations, or stuff of that nature. Not your basic Vampire Horror, like Salem's Lot.

I'm going to change a couple of others. Still trying to figure out the best balance between True Crime and fiction novels. Going to merge the Computer and White Collar crime to a Non-Violent Crime category, and add in Political Thrillers as a category. I have a couple of those sitting on my shelf that I need to read.

May also end up altering the 2nd book in categories 1 and 2. Not sure yet. While they both say "currently reading", I'm mainly reading the first one in each of those right now, along with the first one in category 4.

Finished Mississippi Mud by Edward Humes.

Starting Dream Room by Chet Nicholson.

This is also for Category 7 and will close out Category 7.

Already finished with a category? Good for you. All those chess books - do you participate in competitions? My fifth grade teacher (many eons ago) didn't want to teach us math so we played chess every day. I didn't keep up with it, however.

mamzel,

I haven't finished a category. I'm reading the 2nd book right now. About 45 pages into a 400+ page book. Already I'm starting to think it's even better than Mississippi Mud.

As for the chess, I actually own about 250 to 300 books, even though they aren't all listed on here. I learned how to play in 1983 (when I was 8), picked up my first chess book in Fall of 1995. Played in my first tournament in June, 1996, and have thus far, a grand total of over 1900 tournament games played. I've played in everything from local club tournaments around the Charlotte area all the way up to the World Open in Philadelphia on Independence Day weekend 8 different times (1999 thru 2005 and 2009).

My next multi-day tournament will be at the end of January, 2012.

That's coming up pretty soon. Best of luck!

Finished Dream Room by Chet Nicholson and Category 7.

Started Infected by Scott Sigler

>6 ThrillerFan: I am presently reading Moonwalking with Einstein and the author says the difference between an average chess player and a great one is the average player just plays chess whereas the great ones go back and study all the games of the masters, concentrating on each move so they understand why it was played. It sounds like you are on the right path with your chess books.

Have you seen the chess set ice cube tray? I saw it on Think Geek and wished I knew someone who was really into chess.

DS
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

@21 Chicken Scissors!

Started Garry Kasparov on My Great Predecessors, Part 1 by Garry Kasparov (Category 3)

>21 ThrillerFan:
So is Dream room worth reading to the end?

While finishing the processing to get it on the shelves at the library I stopped to read some. About 30 pages in now. Does it stay interesting? (Note, I live in south Mississippi so the familiarity with the locations caught my interest when I bought it for the collection; we have Mississippi mud as well, though I haven't had time to read it yet.)

#26,

It was definitely interesting all the way to the end. Actually, it kept my attention about 100 times better than Mississippi Mud did, which took me a long time to read as a result of it. More details than needed.

Dream Room tells it from the aspect of the criminals (not that the criminals wrote it, but the storyline is life on the dark side of the deep south). The beginning of the book is mostly petty crime stuff, like underground gambling with the house able to stack the deck, etc., but it gets a lot more heated later, with of course the murder trial involved, life in prison, what happened after, etc. That's the other thing, this book carries you thru the 90s (granted, not near as much detail as what happened in the mid-80s) with prison life, etc. Mississippi Mud just did a mere epilogue, jumping from the early 90s to the late 2000s.

Thanks! I'll keep it in my to-read list. :)

Just got and am starting on Grandmaster Repertoire 7: The Caro-Kann by Lars Schandorff.

This is my 2nd book the category of Chess - Opening Theory for Black

Finished Infected by Scott Sigler

Started Contagious by Scott Sigler, the Sequel to Infected. This will complete category 9 when finished.

Changed Category 5 to "Paperbacks". I have about 10 to 15 on my shelf that still need to be read. I got a Nook now, so trying to eliminate the paperbacks at some point.

Finished Contagious by Scott Sigler, and completed Category 9

Next up, American Assassin by Vince Flynn - Category 8.

Finished Fundamental Chess Endings.

Whew! Talk about a grueling book, especially the chapter on Rook endings.

Finished American Assassin - Category 8

Next up, A Time to Kill by John Grisham - Category 6

Finished A Time To Kill by John Grisham - Category 6

Next up, The Firm by John Grisham - Category 6

Finally finished The Firm - Category 6

Still deciding on whether to read The Burning or The God Project next. In either case, it will go under Category 5, and will be what I read on the plane to and from Vegas (doubt I'll read any while there - Casinos trump Books in my opinion!)