Zoë's 2016 Challenge

Now that the CATs are basically determined, I think it's time to start my thread! Hopefully waiting a bit longer this year means that I'll actually stick with this thread for the long haul, rather than starting a new and improved version in a few months.

I'm going to take basically the same approach I did this year and focus on a few broad categories, mostly inspired by the CATs. I've found in the past that I'm not interested in trying to find a category for every single book that I read. I'll aim for 16 books in each category, which should be more achievable this year since there shouldn't be any major life events happening: no wedding, no new job, no move to a different city.

So without further ado, here are the categories:

GeoCAT

DeweyCAT

BingoDOG

Off the Shelf
Doll Bones
Doing Good Better

Again, I'll be counting books in the GeoCAT and DeweyCAT categories as long as I read them within a month of their scheduled time.

This top post will eventually include a list of all the books I've actually read; my Bingo card will be in the second post, and below that I'll post some ideas for possible books.

GeoCAT Ideas

It's too early for this, but here's the breakdown that's currently winning the vote:

January: South America
Love in the Time of Cholera
One Hundred Years of Solitude

February: Central Asia
The Kite Runner
Stones Into Schools (or is this southern?)

March: Eastern Europe and Russia
Anna Karenina
War and Peace
Euripides V
Reading Greek: Text

April: Polar regions, Islands, Bodies of Water
Fatty Legs
North

May: North America (Including Mexico)
The Orenda
The Grapes of Wrath
East of Eden
Cane River
Black Like Me
Savage Inequalities
The Shame of the Nation

June: Australia & New Zealand

July: Central America and Caribbean

August: Southern Africa
The Translator (I feel like this is really borderline between south and north....)
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
The Girl Who Married a Lion

September: Southern Asia

October: Eastern Asia
Book of a Thousand Days (or central?)

November: Northern Africa and the Middle East
In Arabian Nights
The Keys of Egypt
Lion in the Valley

December: Western Europe
Märchenreise durch Europa
The Story of French
Candide
A Morbid Taste for Bones

DeweyCAT Ideas

January: 000: Computer science, information & general works
Libraries in the Ancient World
A History of Knowledge: Past, Present, and Future
The Voynich Manuscript

February: 100: Philosophy and psychology
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking
The Most Human Human
Thinking, Fast and Slow
Thanks for the Feedback
Arguing for Our Lives
Plato: Five Dialogues

March: 200: Religion
The Righteous Mind
Miracles
I Like Giving
Our Search for Happiness
Islam: A Short History
Voodoo Queen

April: 300 - 354: sociology, anthro, stats, poli sci, economics, law, public administration
Odd Girl Out
The Numerati
Ordinary Resurrections
Nine Parts of Desire
Black Like Me
Is Marriage for White People?
The Prince
Border Guide

May: 355 - 399: social services, criminology, education, commerce, customs, etiquette, folklore
The Children in Room E4
The Devil in the White City
The Abolition of Man
There Are No Shortcuts
Stones Into Schools
Three Cups of Deceit
Savage Inequalities
The Price of Stones
On Course: A Week-by-Week Guide to Your First Semester of College Teaching
What the Best College Teachers Do
The Price of Admission
Excellent Sheep
The Death and Life of the Great American School System

June: 400: Language
Babel No More
Empires of the Word
Linguistics for Non-Linguists
Lost Languages
The Story of French
The Riddle of the Labyrinth
Reading Greek: Text
The Keys of Egypt

July: 500: Science
What's Math Got to Do With It
Edison's Eve
The Nothing That Is
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy
Journey Through Genius
Lewis Carroll in Numberland
Incompleteness
The Man Who Loved Only Numbers
Galileo's Daughter
Lavoisier in the Year One

August: 600: Technology (including medicine)
The Human Genome
The Sports Gene
Fixing My Gaze
De-cluttering
Bringing Up Bébé

September: 700: Arts & recreation
Brainiac
The Riddle of Scheherazade
No Need for Speed
What Makes Olga Run?

October: 800: Literature

November: 900 - 939: world history, geography, travel, biography, genealogy, and ancient history
Visible Language
Rubicon

December: 940 - 999: history of specific places
Natural-Born Heroes

Zoe, I like your comfortable way of setting up your categories. I hope 2016 will be a wonderful year for you.

Good luck with this relaxed plan. I'm all for reducing pressure!

Thank you both for stopping by!

A nice straight forward set up that I will enjoy following.

Thanks! I used to try doing lots of categories, but then I found that I couldn't get deeply enough into any of them. And this way I can participate more in the central group activities.

That said, of course I keep thinking of other categories that I could add. Must resist.

>4 _Zoe_: Your ideas for the Dewey CAT look very helpful for someone like me who doesn't have much experience with it. Happy reading year!

I'm really looking forward to the GeoCAT and DeweyCAT this year - I shall be poaching some book ideas from you ;-)

Ooh, Thanks for the Feedback, Quiet, and Brainiac! I thought all of those were good. Hope you like them too.

Might have to raid your list of language books for suggestions or future reads as well ;)

Good luck with your challenge!

I'm not actively doing a cat next year so it will be fun to follow your reads through the cats, particularly the global reads.

Very nice set up. I planned on doing something similar and it ended up growing like Topsy. I'm now on my third plan...

Great set-up. I'm really excited about the CATs this year and am hoping I'll get to all the books I want to get to!

Straight and simple, very nice!

I love how you have some choices already lined up for your Dewey reading! I was thinking of walking into the library each month and scanning the shelves. If nothing leaps out and grabs me, I will then try and read a fiction book that would fit the Dewy topic.

Thanks, all!

I'm a bit ashamed to say that the potential reads are all in my physical TBR pile already :/. Maybe one day I'll get that under control.

Oh wow, you have a great selection of titles for your Dewey challenge.

Thanks! I'm good at buying books but not so good at reading them.

Aren't we all!

>22 _Zoe_: That pretty much describes me in a sentence! One thing I am very grateful to LT for is discovering that it's not just me!

>22 _Zoe_: I'm in that club, also!

Happy new year, Zoe!

Happy New Year!

I just noticed that there's an SFFKIT this year, and I'm really excited about it. I think I'm going to do that instead of BingoDOG, because I can't really do justice to an additional challenge unless I get rid of something else, and I already invested more time and thought in planning for GeoCAT and DeweyCAT (although I forgot to look for the January Dewey book I wanted while I was visiting my parents for Christmas, so I guess I'll skip that month).

Just stopping by to wish you good luck for your challenge!

I saw you added an SFFFKIT category and will enjoy seeing what you read.