Let The Games Begin

To spice up the new year, I decided to take on a few challenges instead of setting personal, bookish, or blogging goals…

If you were around last year, you might have read me complain about the fact I am a layman when it comes to sci-fi, which always leads to me making a puzzled face and asking my old friend Google whenever someone mentions classics or theories I have never heard of. To avoid this problem, I decided to take part in both sci-fi challenges over at @ Sci-Fi and and Scary. They are fun, they seem pretty easy and if you’re a US resident you can win nice little gifts! If you’re like me, stuck in another country, you can just play for fun!

#1 Decades of Sci-Fi

From 1900 to our days, one book a month to live or relive some of what sci-fi had to offer through the decades. I love the idea of witnessing the development of the genre. You can choose to work through the challenge chronologically or out of order, you’re the captain. Also, Lilyn gives you the right to DNF two books at the 33% mark if something is just not for you.

Here are the books that made it on the list:

1. In the Days of the Comet by H.G. Wells
2. A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
3. The Clockwork Man by William Jablonsky
4. Pirates of Venus by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
5. What Mad Universe by Fredric Brown
6. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
7. Ubik by Philip K. Dick
8. Lucifer’s Hammer by Larry Niven
9. Neuromancer by William Gibson
10. Snowcrash by Neal Stephenson
11. Ready Player One by Earnest Cline
12. Blindsight by Peter Watts

I’ve had Ready Player One for a year so I can’t wait for… November 😂

#2 Wired into Sci-Fi

Find what suits you best between Dabbler, Dreamer, and Connoisseur and read as many stories as possible.

1. Old Man’s War by John Scalzi
2. Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
3. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy #1 by Douglas Adams
4. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
5. The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
6. Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne
7. Solaris by Stanislaw Lem
8. Ringworld by Larry Niven
9. Tau Zero by Poul Anderson
10. 1984 by George Orwell
11. Earth Abides by George R. Stewart
12. Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement
13. Ring Around the Sun by Cliffard D. Simak
14. The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester
15. The Long Tomorrow by Leigh Brackett
16. When Worlds Collide by Philip Wylie
17. The Death of Grass by John Christopher
18. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
19. Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein
20. The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut
21. The Drowned World by J.G. Ballard
22. Make Room! Make Room! by Henry Harrison
23. Logan’s Run by William F. Nolan
24. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
25. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick
26. The Female Man by Joanna Russ
27. Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks
28. A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.
29. Foundation by Isaac Asimov
30. Life by Gwyneth Jones

As a Dabbler, I’m aiming to read 10 books out of the 30 available.

Find the complete rules and let Lilyn know if you want to take part in the challenge by visiting her challenges page

#3 Beat The Backlist

I have already written a post about my participation in the Beat The Backlist Challenge here

I haven’t been able to make a list of all the books I really intend on reading because there are too many but I’m really excited about finally attacking my TBR to reduce it! I set the goal to 30 because my wish list keeps on growing no matter what I do, but if things go as planned, I might be able to double this number! (They say hope is the cure to everything…)

#4 Goodreads Challenge

My first year back on the reading wagon saw me reach 76 books read so I thought there was no harm in setting my goal to 50 instead of the 30 I had hoped for in 2016.

What challenges are you taking part in? Do you like the idea or do challenge rise up your temperature and make your head hurt at the thought of putting pressure on your favorite hobby? Tell me everything!