I mentioned yesterday that I checked out a few challenges and here are two that I’ve decided I couldn’t pass up. These are actually challenges I joined in last year as well so I was excited to see they were brought back for 2015.

First off is the Chunkster Challenge hosted by Vasilly. Isn’t that a great button by the way? This one is easy, you decide how many books you want to read all that is required is that the book (fiction, non-fiction, adult or YA) be 450+ pages.

Last year my goal was to read three chunksters and I did read two so I may not have completed my goal but I was excited to finally reach for those heftier books on my shelves.

So once again, I’m going to shoot for three books for this challenge. I can think of a couple that could be great for this one like, The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt or maybe A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. Anyway, I’ll keep you posted.

The other challenge I am joining is the Back to the Classics Challenge hosted by Karen. For this challenge you have to complete a minimum of six books that fit it any of the 12 listed categories; such as, a 19th Century classic, a classic by a woman, or a classic in translation.

Last year I tried to read Mansfield Park by Jane Austen but it ended up languishing on my nightstand. So I didn’t read a single classic but I’m joining this challenge because I do want to read classics and I hope that this will prompt me to remember to pick up a classic now and then. Will I re-start Mansfield Park? Maybe. I have a lot of classics that I’ve managed to pick up at B&N when they have their classics on sale so it’s not like I don’t have books to choose from.

How about you? Have you joined any challenges yet? I’ll be back soon with another post on the other challenges I’m joining.

Do I really have to go back to work tomorrow? I guess so. It’s been so nice to have more than a week off from work. I can’t say that I did all that much but I was able to spend more time with my mom, work a bit more on my studio organization and you know, sleep!

These last few days have been about making the most of the time off. We did another date night at the bookstore and I read tons of magazines but the one I was most interested in was the Photo Pocket Scrapbooking magazine.  I know the pocket page scrapbooking craze has been around for a while but I’m just now getting into it. I still love art journaling and my regular journal but I do take a lot of pictures and want to have a physical copy of them rather than just on my hard drive. So we’ll see, I did buy some pages Snap Studio pocket pages and will start working on those soon.

I’ve also been doing a bit of weeding of the bookshelves. It is so hard to let go of books but there are some books which have been on my shelves for ages and either my reading interest have changed or now I don’t know why the book was so interesting in the first place and so I’m letting go of a few books.  Nothing major but just enough to add space for new books of course. Hee.

Finally, I have been checking out reading challenges. You guys, there are so many fun challenges! I’ve thought about it and I’ve decided to join four. You are probably wondering why given that I didn’t complete any of my challenges last year but I have to say apart from being fun, they serve to remind me to add more variety to my reads. If I don’t complete them it’s ok. No big deal and if I do, well that’s a bonus. So I’ll tell you more about those in the next coming days as I work on potential reading lists, etc.

I also have to tell you about a library visit and some other new books but right now, I’m off to get in just a bit more reading before the start of the week.