Giveaway Winner and MORE Challenges!

Thank you to everyone who participated in my Huntress/Hunted by the Others/Waterfall giveaway! Random.org has revealed the winner as:

Rebecca Mallary!
Congratulations Rebecca! I have emailed you at the address provided, and your books will be ordered for you by the end of the week. Enjoy!

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I didn't get any new books to report this week for In My Mailbox, so in my boredom I decided to just sign up for more challenges! Okay, boredom isn't totally correct since I'm crazy busy with school at the moment, but I did spot some good ones for books I wanted to read anyway, so here goes!


First up is Bookaholic Does Blogging's Black Dagger Brotherhood challenge. Starting April 1st, we'll be reading all 9 of the BDB series books and discussing them. Ashley has set up a nice format where we can comment either at her blog or on a Goodreads group she set up, and I'm really looking forward to this interactive format. You can participate in the challenge, the book club, or both! I'm going to try to participate in both, although I have a tendency to not follow through well in Goodreads groups. Hopefully this one will break that curse!

Okay, this one looks quite challenging, but also like a really fun way to get some new reads. It's Life with Books' Take a Chance Challenge 3. The point is to find new books to read in different ways. There are ten categories to try and complete. Crossovers are accepted and books can be read in any format. Challenge runs January 1-December 31, 2011.

1: Staff  Member’s Choice: Go to a bookstore or library that has a “Staff Picks” section. Read one of the picks from that section.

2: Loved One’s Choice: Ask a loved one to pick a book for you to read. (If you can convince them to buy it for you, that is even better!)

3: Blogger’s Choice: Find a “Best Books Read” post from a favorite blogger. Read a book from their list.

4: Critic’s Choice: Find a “Best of the Year” list from a magazine, newspaper or professional critic. Read a book from their Top 10 list.

5: Blurb Book: Find a book that has a blurb on it from another author. Read a book by the author that wrote the blurb.

6: Book Seer Pick: Go to The Book Seer and follow the instructions there. Read a book from the list it generates for you.

7: What Should I Read Next Pick : Go to What Should I Read Next and follow the instructions there. Read a book from the list it generates for you.

8: Which Book Pick: Go to Which Book and use the software to generate a list of books. Read a book from that list.

9: LibraryThing Pick: Go to LibraryThing’s Zeitgeist page. Look at the lists for 25 Most Reviewed Books or Top Books and pick a book you’ve never read. Read the book. (Yes … you can click on MORE if you have to.)

10: Pick A Method: Pick a method for finding a book from the choices listed below (used in previous versions of the challenge).

Random Book Selection. Go to the library. Position yourself in a section such as Fiction, Non-Fiction, Mystery, Children (whatever section you want). Then write down random directions for yourself (for example, third row, second shelf, fifth book from right). Follow your directions and see what book you find. Check that book out of the library, read it and then write about it. (If you prefer, you can do the same at a bookstore and buy the book!)

Public Spying. Find someone who is reading a book in public. Find out what book they are reading and then read the same book. Write about it.

Random Bestseller. Go to Random.org and, using the True Random Number Generator, enter the number 1950 for the min. and 2010 for the max. and then hit generate. Then go to this site and find the year that Random.org generated for you and click on it. Then find the bestseller list for the week that would contain your birthday for that year. Choose one of the bestsellers from the list that comes up, read it and write about it.

Sounds hard, right? Well, if you finish them all, you enter a drawing to win a book of your choice, so all of that tough reading can pay off.

I'm trying to broaden my horizons and read more fantasy books. Darlyn and Books is running this challenge. I am going to enter the Fascinated level and try to read 6 fantasy novels this year.

I kept meaning to sign up for this one and never got around to it. I can't think of many Gothic books I've read...ever...so this will be a good opportunity for me to explore some fiction I don't usually read. I think I'm going to like it, though, since it's lots of mystery, spooky castles and paranormal stuff. Count me in! I'm going to participate at The Darkness Within level and read 5 Gothic books this year.


Also, since I am a CRAZY PERSON and signed up for all of these challenges, I felt obligated to sign up for the Reading Challenge Addict challenge as well. With entry into the Reading Challenge Addict challenge, it becomes my 16th challenge, putting me at the Out of this World level (16+ challenges). Yikes.

Visit my Challenge Index page to keep track of all this craziness and leave me suggestions if you have titles to recommend!