I’ve decided to join a couple for next year. (So far.) And, since I’ve got a minute (ha!), I thought I’d write them down.

First up, is Amanda from The Zen Leaf‘s GLBT Challenge. Basic rules:

The basic idea of this challenge is to read books about GLBT topics and/or by GLBT authors.

The challenge runs year-round, and there will be three levels of participation:

• Lambda Level: Read 4 books.
• Pink Triangle Level: Read 8 books.
• Rainbow Level: Read 12 or more books.

You don’t need to choose your books right away, and they can change at any time. Overlaps with other challenges are fine.

My four books:
1. Howards End, E.M. Forester
2. The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
3. My Most Excellent Year: A Novel of Love, Mary Poppins & Fenway Park, Steve Kluger
4. Fried Green Tomatoes, Fanny Flagg
As You Wish, Jackson Pearce
Challenge #2 that sounded interesting was the Flashback Challenge hosted by . The Basic Rules:

The Flashback Challenge will run from January 1, 2010 – December 31, 2010. If you’re super-excited and want to reread a book before that, feel free, and let me know. If many people do so, then I’ll do a December challenge linky post and you can all link to it here. Otherwise, we can hold them over to January. You can sign up for the following levels:
Bookworm – Up to three books
Scholar – Four to six books
Literati – Over six books

Within these levels, we have mini-challenges! These are:

1. Re-read a favorite book from your childhood

2. Re-read a book assigned to you in high school

3. Re-read a book you loved as a adult

If I do it the way I want to, I’ll be doing the Literati level. But we’ll see how many of these I actually get to.

1. The Wrinkle in Time series, Madeline L’Engle (childhood)
A Wrinkle in Time
Wind in the Door
A Swiftly Tilting Planet
2. The Dark is Rising series, Susan Cooper (adult)
Over Sea, Under Stone
The Dark is Rising
Greenwitch
The Grey King
Silver on the Tree
3. some of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
4. Howards End, E. M. Forester
5. A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving
6. Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain (high school)
The Girl in Hyacinth Blue, by Susan Vreeland
Under the Tuscan Sun, by Frances Mayes
Nine Parts of Desire, by Geraldine Brooks
The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman