Last year was my first year to attempt a reading challenge. Wait, that’s not true. I started the TBR challenge 2 years ago but started it late and ended it early. Oops. 🙂 So last year was the first year that I had entered into reading challenges (Nath’s Re-read and KMont’s Year of the Category challenges) and actually completed them! Yay! throws confetti

KMont’s challenge was a lot of fun and got me to read books that I may not have read otherwise. Category romances aren’t the ones I pick up on a regular basis – not sure why. I have some on my shelves, but they tend to sit there.

Nath’s challenge was a little bit more difficult for me in choosing which books I wanted to re-read. I didn’t want to re-read books that I had in the past year…and I think I accomplished that (I’ll have to check). Some of the books that I started got put back down. Like Lover Revealed by JR Ward. I didn’t care for it the first time for several reasons (#1 Marissa) and thought I’d give it another chance. Nope, couldn’t do it. After the first chapter I had to put that puppy down. But for the most part I enjoyed re-reading the books I chose and it was a fun challenge.

This year I wanted to try my hand at something different. I’ve joined two challenges again this year (didn’t want to overtax my poor little brain) and I’m excited about them. The first one is the DIK Reading Challenge sponsored by the DIK blog. I get to choose any book that the ladies have taken to the island with them and then do a review for it. The second is the M/M Reading Challenge sponsored by Anasthezea at I Heart Paperbacks. I already read m/m books but the challenge for me is to review them, which I’ve done only infrequently in the past. Here’s more information on both:

We here at DIK love our DIK books. What better way to spend our evenings than to curl up by a warm beach fire and read? Oh, wait, you have a point…please let me revise. ahem What better way to spend an evening than to curl up by a warm beach fire, snuggled up to the heroes in your hut and read? Better? I thought so too.

Knowing this we’ve decided to hold the 2010 DIK Book Reading Challenge. The Challenge? Each month you will pick one of the 188 books that the DIK Ladies have brought to the island, read it, review it on your blog and then show us the link. It’s simple and we think it will be a ton of fun!

Do you have to be a DIK lady to do the challenge? Nope. If you are a DIK lady are you required to do the challenge? Nope.

Rules:
1. Pick one book from the DIK book list to read and review.

2. Book reviews can be posted any day during the last week of each month.

3. Link back to the blog when you do a DIK Book Reading Challenge (we’ll do a sticky post). If you don’t link to us we won’t know that you’ve posted a review! 🙂

4. Please clearly state in the title of your post that the review you are posting is for the DIK Book Reading Challenge.

At the end of the year the participants that have posted reviews for all 12 months will be put in one big pot and we will draw a name to win a $50 gift certificate from Amazon/Borders/Barnes and Noble/Books A Million (really it’s your choice which place you want the certificate from as long as we can purchase it from our computer!)

That’s it! Simple right? Yeah that’s what we thought so sign up and let’s get this started… speaking of starting it will begin on January 1st! Now excuse us while we go figure out which books to pick wink

I’ve only chosen my first book for this challenge as I bought it and intended to read it a long time ago and never did. It’s The Secret Pearl by Mary Balogh (on Jenre’s list)

TIMELINE: January 1st to December 31st 2010
RULES: Read five(5) or more m/m romances in 2010 There are 5 reading levels to choose from:
– Read 5 M/M Romances
– Read 10 M/M Romances
– Read 15 M/M Romances
– Read 20 M/M Romances
– Read 20+ M/M Romances DETAILS: This challenge is for those who enjoy reading gay romances (also known as m/m or male/male romances) or those who are interested in starting. If you aren’t familiar with this genre, it consists of novels and stories where the main focus is the romantic relationship between the male protagonists. • You must be 18 years old or older to join. • You don’t have to select your books ahead of time. Even if you do, you can change your books as you go. Your books can crossover with other challenges. • You don’t need a blog to participate. You can comment on this post if you’d like to share a book list or reading pool. • Please create a post on your blog where you’ll be keeping track of your challenge reads and link back to this post so others can join in on the fun. If you use a “Current Challenges” page, or something similar, you can link back from that page instead of creating an individual post. • You can use the large banner I’m using at the top of this post or you can use the smaller buttons I’ve provided below. Just copy the code provided. There’s no need to save the smaller buttons to your own server. (I have another large banner you can use here, if you’d like.) • You can join at anytime between now and the latter part of 2010. Just give yourself enough time to read your chosen amount of books. • Books chosen can be any length, sub-genre, or format. eBooks, paperbacks, young adult books, audio books, and re-reads are all okay. • Once the challenge starts, I’ll create a page for everyone to post their reviews. Reviews are encouraged, but are entirely optional. PRIZES: Everyone who signs up for the challenge between now and January 31st will be eligible to win $15 in eBook Bucks from All Romance Ebooks!I’m going for 20+ and so far I’ve already read and reviewed 2 books for this challenge – yippee!
1. His Convenient Husband by JL Langley
2. Chasing Smoke by KA Mitchell