My first reading challenge and a new reading experience

Since I started blogging and visiting other reading blogs, I have come across many challenges enthusiastically participated in by fellow book addicts.

Setting goals for my reading appeals to me, but I decided not to enter any challenges last year because I was afraid I would go overboard and try to complete too many of them. (I am obsessive that way.)

But for 2008, I have stumbled across a reading challenge I couldn't resist: The Chunkster Challenge, hosted by Dana at So Many Books, So Little Time.

The challenge is to read four "chunksters" (books that are 450 pages long or more) in 2008. I love to get lost for weeks in a big, thick book, and I have several that qualify on Mount TBR. For the challenge, I have chosen a historical novel, a biography and two classics I've been wanting to read for years:

1. The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman (936 pages)
2. The Life of Elizabeth I by Alison Weir (532 pages)
3. Jane Austen: The Complete Novels: Penguin Deluxe Edition (1,278 pages)
4. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (1,344 pages)

Several other readers have also chosen Tolstoy's weighty tome for the challenge!

I have promised myself I will take on no more than two challenges at once in order to increase the likelihood I will complete them.

Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings has invited others to join him in reading and reviewing books for The Sci-Fi Experience 2008. This year, I promised myself I would read two science-fiction series: the Vorkosigan series by Lois McMaster Bujold and The Company series by Kage Baker. I read the first five Bujold novels years ago and greatly enjoyed them, but got distracted and never finished the series. (These books are among my husband's favorites.) The historical underpinnings of The Company books intrigue me. (The first book involves time travel to the 16th-century England of Mary Tudor.)

I will keep the blog up-to-date with my progress on both of these reading goals. A big thank you goes out to Marg at Reading Adventures for pointing me in the direction of both these challenges.