Here are my Challenge lists for the Challenges I am going to undertake in 2010, not forgetting the ongoing
Canadian Book Challenge which is still underway, of course. I'm a big one for creating book pools rather than strict lists - don't want to feel that my reading is a prescribed chore, and this way I just have more to choose from!

S
cience Book Challenge -- it's as easy as pi! (love the slogan)
(3 books)
One of my favourite challenges, for 2010 I have a number of science books around the house which I really want to get to. I had all these on my list for last year, but ended up reading three totally different titles. So I'll try again with these three:
Mauve / Simon GarfieldThe story of William Perkin, a young inventor in the mid 1800s who discovered how to make dyes from coal tar, accidentally. He was really searching for a way to create artificial quinine.
The Arcanum / Janet GleesonAbout the Western discovery of how to make porcelain
Empire of the Stars / Arthur I. MillerOne of my favourite topics: astrophysics and how discoveries are made or affected by the personalities involved, with all their human failings.
I'd also like to get my hands on a biography recently voted top science book of 09 by
physicsworld.com, the story of Paul Dirac. It's entitled
The Strangest Man, written by Graham Farmelo. (there is also
a lecture available by Farmelo on this topic) This era of physics is one of my favourite scientific subjects to read about, so will have to locate a copy of this one. All I know about Dirac presently is what I learned from one of my favourite nonfiction reads of last year, Gino Segre's
Faust in Copenhagen.
**updated**Healing Spaces / Esther Sternberg
Mauve / Simon Garfield
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Colourful Reading ChallengeThis is going to be totally random, probably all books I read for other challenges or just pick up for fun. The Challenge is to read 9 books all with a different colour in the title throughout the year. I have my Science Book Challenge pick above,
Mauve, and one I have TBR for the Canadian Book Challenge, Vera Lysenko's
Yellow Boots, to begin.
Updates:Yellow Boots / Vera Lysenko
Green Dolphin Country / Elizabeth Goudge
Mauve / Simon Garfield
The Woman in White / Wilkie Collins
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What's in a Name 3I've done this challenge for the last two years (though this year I didn't quite keep up!) I love its random selections. These are some of the ideas for titles to choose from - they may still change throughout the year! This year the categories are:
A book with a food in the titleHoney and Ashes / Janice Kulyk Keefer (memoir)
Plum Bun / Jesse Redmon Fauset
Daalder's Chocolates / Philibert Schogt
Read: The Spice Necklace / Ann VanderhoofA book with a body of water in the titleThe Waves / Virginia Woolf
By the Lake / John McGahern
The Seduction of Water / Carol Goodman
Read: Cool Water / Dianne Warren
A book with a title (queen, president) in the titleSir Charles Grandison / Richardson (also for Chunkster)
The Case of the General's Thumb / Andrey Kurkov
Mrs. Dalloway / Virginia Woolf
Read: Queen of Hearts / Martha Brooks
A book with a plant in the titleThe Blue Flower / Penelope Fitzgerald
Read: The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag / Alan Bradley
The Betrayal of the Blood Lily / Lauren Willig
A book with a place name (city, country) in the titleRead: The Road to Lichfield / Penelope Lively
The Enchantress of Florence / Salman Rushdie
Return to Paris / Colette Rossant (nonfiction- food writing)
A book with a music term in the titleThe Ballad and the Source / Rosamond Lehmann
Music of a life / Andrei Makine
Song beneath the ice / Joe Fiorito
Read: Trumpets Sound no More / Jon Redfern***************************************************************************
Flashback ChallengeAll about rereading. This one has different levels of reading to choose from, but I think I'll sign up at the
Literati level, six or more books. This is because I want to follow their suggestion of rereading childhood, high school, and adult choices.
Childhood Selections: this year I want to reread the entire Anne series by L.M. Montgomery, since I just finished the new publication of the restored
Blythes are Quoted.
High School level: There are a few books I may choose from -- I haven't reread
To Kill a Mockingbird since high school and might like to try that. But there are non-school books I'd like to revisit, including
Watership Down or maybe Elizabeth Goudge's
Green Dolphin Street, of which I remember very little - I think I was too young when I first read it.
Adult choices: There are two books I'd particularly like to reread - Virginia Woolf's
The Waves, and Gwethalyn Graham's
Earth and High Heaven.
Updated: actually readAs for me and my house / Sinclair RossGreen Dolphin Country / Elizabeth GoudgeAnne of Green Gables / LMMontgomery
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Chunkster ChallengeThis was the first challenge I ever participated in, and I think it is time to give it another go. I'm only going to sign up for the Chubby Chunkster level, which is three books over 450 pages in 2010. I may read more but am just starting with this. Some ideas for the books I'm going to read are:
Middlemarch / George Eliot (880 p)
[read]
The Terror / Dan Simmons (765 p)
Sir Charles Grandison / Richardson (1159 p)
Gold Bug Variations / Richard Power s (635 p)
Celestial Harmonies / Peter Esterhazy (841 p)
Ursula, Under / Ingrid Hill (476 p)
Updated: Actually read:
Green Dolphin Country / Elizabeth Goudge (575 p.)
Gaudy Night / Dorothy Sayers (557 p.)
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Our Mutual ReadI love the name of the Challenge, and its potential for spending lots of time with Victorian literature! I think I will sign up at
Level 2: 8 books, at least 4 written during 1837 - 1901. The other books may be Neo-Victorian or non-fictionAnd here is my list which is only a starting point:
Middlemarch / George Eliot [read]
The Woman in White / Wilkie Collins [read]
The Way we live now / Anthony Trollope
Bleak House / Charles Dickens
News from Nowhere / William Morris
Sylvia's lovers / Elizabeth Gaskell
Two on a Tower / Thomas Hardy
Also read:
Trumpets Sound no More / Jon Redfern (NeoVictorian)