Starting December 21, and ending on March 20, I'm hosting my seasonal reading challenge for Winter! Winner of the Level 2 Challenge gets personally smooched (unless it's me, of course)! I'll briefly sum up the rules below for those of you who haven't tried the challenge yet, but it's a pretty easy challenge, actually. I hope you have lots of fun, I know that I will! :-)

To sum the rules up quickly and briefly, a Level 1 challenge is four books, a Level 2 challenge is six books (please list the books here), they must fit into the categories provided, and the first to complete each level wins! Also, no books under 150 pages are allowed. When you finish the challenge, just post here to let everybody know, and please feel free to discuss with us your opinions of the books you read for this challenge throughout the season. And if you ever need any help choosing books or understanding the rules, or if you have any ideas you'd like to share for future categories, feel free to contact me.
Happy reading, everybody! =D

The categories:

1. Read a book with one of the four directions (North, South, East, or West) in the title.
2. Read a book with the first letter of the tite being "D".
3. Read a book with a kind of food in the title. (This may be trickier than it seems at first. I searched everywhere for one!)
4. Read a horror story. (I thought that a book that sends shivers down your spine is quite fitting for a Winter category.)
5. Read a book with a six syllable title.
6. Read a book of poetry. (Or a book of mixed short stories and poetry, if you prefer.)

My choices:

1. South Seas Tales, by Jack London
2. Dragon, by Clive Cussler
3. Spice, by Jack Turner
4. The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, by Edgar Allan Poe
5. A Cancer Battle Plan, by Anne E. Frahm with David J. Frahm
6. American Review 18, by Theodore Solotaroff and Richard Howard, editors (A collection of stories and poetry from "American Review" magazine.)

Did anybody else pick their books yet? How about you, Honibabi?

I probably won't get back to this until after the new year. Have family coming to town for a week starting this evening.

I will be back on the forum and the book challenge when they leave.

Glad you like your first book so far!

I will come back later to populate the TBD choice. I am starting off with The Grapes of Wrath since this is where I ended in the last challenge. Excited to get back to this. Thanks Daisy for not giving up on me!!

See you after the New Year, Honibabi! Have fun with the family. :-)

Happy New Year! Hope you both have a great one. (As well as the other four people who subscribe to my challenges, but who have not participated. I guess they just enjoy watching us read, haha! Happy New Year to you, too!)

I am about half way through my final book from the last challenge. I still have not finished, but I can't stop now. I will be starting late but definitely looking for books closer to the 150 page mark since I am already behind the curve. LOL.

I don't have my books picked out yet, but will get back to you.

I just finished reading A Cancer Battle Plan. It was good, and very informative. I like the way the authors use historical battles as parables about the correct and incorrect ways to battle cancer. I also really liked the Christian standpoint. I’m starting on South Seas Tales next, but it may be a couple days before I get to it, because I’m reading another book right now (not in the challenge).

Glad to hear you're almost done your last book in the Fall Challenge, Honibabi. I'd love to see what books you pick when you decide on them. :-)

Daisy, I just noticed that, sorry. Let's try this one instead: Murder with no passion

I am still finishing the Fall Challenge but here are my books for the winter challenge (4 Books):

2. Read a book with the first letter of the title being "D" - "Dances with Wolves" by Michael Blake. Saw the movie years ago but I am sure the book is better despite the movie's popularity.

3. Read a book with a kind of food in the title. - "The Vagina Monologues"??? Just testing the water here and thought it was funny. I got nothing. This was strictly for a laugh. I read it a few years ago.

4. Read a horror story. - America's Haunted Houses by Hans Holzer

5. Read a book with a six syllable title. - Beyond the Chocolate Wars by Robert Cormier

#4 TBD

@Honibabi, I have read Dances with Wolves, and it is very, very good. I liked the movie, also, but it’s hard for me to choose which was better. Probably the book. Hope you enjoy it! :-)

Um, I don’t really think that fits the category… LOL

On my shelf sits a copy of The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier, but I never got around to reading it. I’d love to know what you think of the sequel.

LOL....

I think my 4th book will be a poetry book. I just have to find one.

Happy New Year, by the way! Here is to completing all the book challenges this year :)

If you want some suggestions for good poetry books, Robert Browning is one of my favorites, and I think you might like some of his poetry.

Happy New Year to you, as well! :-)

Still working on the last challenge, but over half way done with Blue Raft in Yellow Water.

Glad to see you're coming along on your book. :-)

I just finished South Sea Tales, and I think I'll start on Dragon next.

I am starting Beyond the Chocolate Wars.

My husband just bought a poetry book, which I have to say really surprised me....LOL. Charles Bukowski. I started flipping through it. He is definitely on the crude side, but kinda grabs your attention.

When I get to the poetry book, I will decide which one to go with :)

Hope you find a poetry book you like. :-)

I just finished up Dragon, and I really liked it. The ending was a huge surprise for me, I never expected it, even though I’ve read enough of Cussler’s books that I really should have seen it coming. No spoilers, though, so I guess you’ll have to read the book to know what in the world I’m talking about, haha. ;-) This was actually the first one of his books that surprised me that much.

How about you, cocoGerman? Are you working your way through Grapes of Wrath? What are you thinking of it so far?

I am a few chapters into Beyond the Chocolate Wars. I don't remember the details of The Chocolate Wars. I forgot how deep and sometimes dark Cormier's books are. I feel like they really reflect how many of us felt as teenagers on some level. He writes for the kids who are outcasts or who are dealing with very adult situations. This book is taking me back and so far, I am loving it.

cocoGerman, looking forward to your Grapes of Wrath review.

It sounds like something S.E. Hinton might have written. Are Cormier's books anything like hers?

I'm looking forward to that, too, cocoGerman, I'd love to know what you think of it. :-D

I am 30 pages away from finishing Beyond the Chocolate Wars and I find myself having anxiety about what will happen to the characters. Cormier is so damn good. You love the characters, understand them, love them, hate them and are inspired by them.

I think I will put the many books of his that he wrote after I moved on from his genre on my reading list.

I am starting America's Haunted Houses next.

That's great, I'm glad you liked the book so much! :-D I'll have to try out the book of his I have sometime.

How are America's Haunted Houses and The Grapes of Wrath so far, guys? Are you liking them?

Just finished Part 1 of Spice (it's a four part book). It's extreemly interesting so far, but a little slow-moving. It's about the history of spices around the world. You know, if it wasn't for the quest for spices, America would still probably belong to the Indians, the world might still be considered flat, many places would have been undiscovered, and Indonesia would probably still be just another group of untamed islands. I guess I knew this already, but I never really thought much about it. It's quite interesting.

I finished America's Haunted Houses. Learned about some new places and interesting often tragic stories, but many of the stories end with, "the house is in private hands and I am doubtful you would be allowed access". I give it an, "OK".

I am starting Dances with Wolves. I have higher hopes for this one as you, Daisy, gave it high marks.

Hope you are both enjoying your books.

Hope to hear from you guys soon.

So glad you liked Dances with Wolves, Honibabi! I thought it was good, too. Quite riveting. :-)

Think y'all are going to finish before the 20th?

By the way, I'm probably going to be posting the Spring Reading Challenge on the 15th (or around there), so everyone can pick out their books ahead of time. Please tell all your Bookmooch friends! We need some new blood around here! Thanks. :-D

Since we are such a small group, would it make sense to read the same books? Would give us more common ground to discuss the books. We can even pick dates that we can chat.

I like the way the challenge currently is, but if you feel like we need an injection of new blood, maybe it is an adjustment in the challenge if new members aren't joining.

Whatever you decide, Daisy, I am in.

There are lots of other challenges out there that have people reading the same book, like those on LibraryThing, and I’d wanted to do something a little different. I also don’t really want to decide what book everybody will read, because I’m participating in the challenge too, and I might be prejudiced. But I can do something similar, where if people want to choose the same book, they can, or they can choose something else that would still offer good discussion: each season, I choose a well-known author, and participants can read any book by that author they want to. This would be a reoccurring challenge each season, like my “reading the alphabet” challenge. So, what do you think, guys? Sound good?

Thank you so much for your help, Honibabi. All ideas and tips are helpful to me, and I really appreciate it. :-D Maybe this season we’ll have some new participants joining us! I’ll try to “spread the news” a bit on the forums and elsewhere.

And I want to thank both of you for joining my challenge each season. It means a lot to me, and I’m so happy that you enjoyed it enough in the past to come back. :-)

I like the idea of the author because we can discuss style as well as the books themselves. Maybe a topic per challenge would also provoke more discussion.

I would not be opposed to deciding when we will all read the same author or topic or whatever so we are all at least reading at the same time the similar books with a completion date set. Not being too rigid of course. We can have this for part of the challenge. For the faster reader among us we can fill in with the books that are solely our choice in the challenge like you have it now.

Another thought, if we can, set a time that we can all be on line to allow more immediate discourse about what we are reading. This can of course be flexible when plans change.

Maybe we just have 1 book per challenge that we all read. Again, at the same time.

I guess it all depends how much discussion you are hoping for and what is attractive to a wider audience.

Good luck.

I kind of like my challenge the way I've set it up. Not that I'm against making any changes to it, and I definitely will consider all ideas of this kind, but I don't really want to make any drastic changes to the style of the challenge itself, if you know what I mean. :-) I'd also like to make the rules few and simple, and the categories a little lenient, because you'd think this would appeal to people.

Thanks again for the ideas, though. I thought a lot about them, and I might yet utilize some of them if (properly publicized) my challenge still has only a few participants. :-)

I'm currently working my way through the epilogue of Spice, so I should have it finished by tonight (hopefully!). I'll then start on the Poe book.

How are you two coming along? What are you thinking of your poetry book, Honibabi?

I am over half way through the poetry book. I like it, but it isn't exactly what I thought from the description. I will definitely finish it in time. There are about 4 poems so far that I marked that have resonated with me. Poetry is not on my reading list usually, so this was a good change for me.

Poe should be relatively easy. I love his stories. Short, to the point and definitely haunting!

I am off to check out the Spring Challenge now....

I'm really glad you're enjoying the book. Do you have a favorite couple of lines from it you'd care to share? It sounds interesting. :-)

Spice is finished, and we got snowed in, so I decided to spend a small portion of the day cuddled in a ball under several warm blankets with a mug of steaming hot Lemon Ginger tea in one hand and the Poe book in the other. It was very nice, and I'm halfway through the book already. XD

I like Poe, too. He's the only author of horror that I really enjoy (I'm not a big horror fan, usually). This is actually considered to be the only full-length novel that he's ever published, so it's not as short as his other stories, although it's still comparatively short, totaling just over 150 pages. I really like his style, and the story is quite captivating: a tale of mutiny, pirates, shipwreck, starvation, and eventually even cannibalism. However, Poe probably should have stuck to short stories. He doesn't seem to have a good memory, and there are several discrepancies within the book. For instance, he calls a certain tortoise a female, and then a couple chapters later proceeds to refer to it as "he". Overall, though, it is still extremely good so far.

"Careful"
Energy will pass
from your mind to your mouth
and energy will pass
from your mouth to some soul.
But energy will also pass
from your mind to some soul.
Be aware of the energy you pass
in word, thought, and intention.
It will be felt
by many souls
and yours as well.

We did not get the snow they were calling for, but reading snuggled under a warm blanky is the way to go...LOL. I don't mind reading horror so long as it isn't gruesome just for sake of being gruesome.

Good luck finishing Poe. I know you will!

Congratz of finishing! Woohoo to you, too! LOL Glad you didn't get any snow where you're at. :-)

I actually finished the Poe book probably at about the same time you finished yours, LOL. It was interesting, and the ending was unexpected. Then again, with Edgar Allan Poe, the endings are always unexpected, aren't they? XD