A challenge of relative ease and merriment discussion

Who are you? Tell us EVERYTHING! Your darkest secrets and desires... or you know, whatever you want. Maybe something about what you like to read and what you think will be easy and/or hard with this challenge?

Hello! I'm Katharine, everything is books, darkest secret is ...well the only things I can think of aren't secrets anyway because a few already know them, hrm...

I love to read epic fantasy like Scott Lynch, or beautiful books like Station Eleven. I often judge books through the Children's Book Council of Aust, or the Aurealis Awards of Australia, and I always get involved with things like the Ditmars and Hugo Awards.

Easy things will be reading books I've already been meaning to read anyway, and can tick off something on the list with that.
Hardest thing will be stretching my boundaries. Liiiike... no, actually, hrm, I seem to fit most of the challenges anyway. Maybe getting a good fit for microhistory or romance will be the hardest?

Sofie here! <-- Historical archaeologist and general nerd.
Most favourite book ever (probably): Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke.
Dark secret: I have not read one single book by Charles Dickens. Maybe I should make that a side goal..

2016 is the year I will read a lot! I have set my goal to 31 books for 2016, but thanks to audio books I am already at 10 :O Right now I am trying to read more high fantasy because it's a genre I haven't explored very much, even though I called myself a general nerd just a few lines up.
The genre I will find most difficult to read/find appealing books in is probably contemporary fiction, so any great suggestions are welcome this way!

Hi everyone! I'm Rebecka (or Pocki) and I started this whole thing. I decided I wanted to make a challenge for myself that was broad enough that I could make it without hating parts of it, but still pushing myself to diversify my reading a bit. And I thought hey, why not bring my friends into this trap too?

I don't think I have dark secrets. I'm the one who literally has skeletons in her closet (although maybe not right now cause I moved them, and also most are on display) but happily speaks about them.

I'm not actually sure what my my favourite genre is right now. I like some fantastical aspect to things though. Be it fantasy, sci fi, some ghosts or witches, a classic post apocalyptic YA thing, etc. As such, I think contemporary fiction will be the one that will be the trickiest one for me. Easiest will probably be short stories cause I already checked that box and non-fiction cause I always end up reading a bunch of that and already have at least one behind me and two ongoing. Microhistory is on the list cause I personally want to make this my year of microhistories. I'm currently trying to get through one about seeds, but I want to read a bunch more.

Hello! My name is Tom and i'm a silly swede.

I mostly read "classics" and military history. So this challange is really going to push me to my greatest extent. The most challanging for me would be "realeased in 2016", but i have often tought about reading more contemporary.

Its really hard to come up with one book that is my favorite. But i would say either "The Master and Margarita" or "The white guard". So one could say that i am a great fan of Bulgakov (indeed i am, i have his portrait on my wall).

I have decided that this year i am going to read a few, but a little longer book than usual. Usually i refrain from reading long books just because i want to complete my reading challange. But this year i have challanged myself to read only 11 books. So hopefully i can read books of greater lenght.

Welcome Tom! Maybe if you're lucky there'll be a new military history book released this year ;)

Oh, i think i will be alright on the military history front. Non-fictious books about war are as numerous as Harlequin books sold at the supermarket ;)

I will probably try to read something really contemporary and "trendy" so i will know what people in the contemporary litterature scene are talking about.

@Tom I think she means that if you want to tick off the 2016 book in an easy way from the challenge you can always read a military book that was released this year and put that under 2016-releases :)

Yes. I was just trying to make a joking remark on the quality of much of the military history literature. ;)

I will try my best to read something other than what i am used to, but a military books is indeed a distinct possibility if i dont find anything else. :)

Tom wrote: "Yes. I was just trying to make a joking remark on the quality of much of the military history literature. ;)

I will try my best to read something other than what i am used to, but a military books..."

Haha, yeah okay, I get it now. I'm a bit slow sometimes. Are you also insinuating that Harlequin novels aren't great? I have a blog for you sir, provided to me by Pocki:
http://wtfbadromancecovers.tumblr.com/
Seriously, I can't stop reading it. Or looking at it. It's definitely like a gruesome traffic accident.

That blog is magnificent! You should challenge yourself to make the romance book come from there! :P
I'm totally reading this right now just cause you linked me to the cover Sofie and it's... not great

Hello, challenge cohorts; my name is Laura, and I think this challenge is a spectacular idea!! I've been trying to challenge myself in the past couple years, and I've had somewhat of a hard time doing it on my own. . . having accountability and a new idea for a flexible, diverse challenge is perfect.

One of my darkest secrets and desires is that I wish I could just download dry books to my brain without having to actually read them. ^_~

Probably the easiest for me, other than categories that books I've already read this year could fit into, will be the graphic novel. I find those to be pretty quick and fun, and I usually read at least one over the course of a year.
The hardest will probably be the mystery. I love thrillers, but strictly mysteries are not really my thing. If I dig deep enough into the "mystery" shelf here, I'll come upon a few things that look decent, but I hesitate to put too much stock into shelving because anyone can do it. I am probably over-thinking this! ^_^

Hi Laura!
I might need some help with the mystery book too, now when I'm thinking about it. But I am really tempted to reread some old Nancy Drew books. I loved them as a child, and suspect I'd find them totally hilarious as an adult xD Other than that I could attempt some old classic Arthur Conan Doyle I guess, if the mood strikes.

Oh, I love the idea of Nancy Drew! I'm pretty sure I've never read one before, and I feel like I should try one, even if only for the LOLs. ^_^

Hi Laura! Welcome :D
When I wrote mystery I thought of it as a kind of catch all for crime related stuff. But calling it "crime" makes people thing only of hard boiled police or forensic scientists you know? Maybe I should just change it to mystery/crime to make that more clear? Or maybe just keep it mystery and have you all interpret it however you want ;)

I think I will probably read a cozy mystery. Cause a series I read has a new book coming out in summer so that will be an easy one for me.

Hi Cathrin, and welcome!
I think the group shelves will be very useful when looking for books in genres you're find tricky. Click "view activity" on the rightmost side for a book in the list and you can see if the person who entered it left a comment. Maybe they hated it and then it might not be a good book for that genre for you.

Sofie wrote: "I might need some help with the mystery book too,"

Can I recommend 'A Trifle Dead' by Livia Day? It's Australian, set in Tasmania, and she's so dang witty with her dialogue that it's such a joy to read. The MC runs a cafe and is obsessed with baking, and as the place she lives in so tiny she finds herself trying to solve a mystery in a fairly realistic way, hilariously all the way through. It's easily my favourite mystery (micro-genre Cozy Mystery) ever~

Oh that sounds delightful Katharine! I am starting to appreciate cozy mysteries, especially when the cozy factor is related to baking.

Hello, everyone, I'm Pernilla. *waves*
I don't usually join challenges but this low-pressure one seemed nice and had several categories that I think I could fill without much trouble. I've been reading since I was four and mostly it's fantastical stuff, SF and Fantasy, but also things like Jane Austen and books about craft and fashion history and stuff like that. Reading is my Safe Place, so I tend to stay away from things that remind me too much about real life... So the category that daunts me most is actually Contemporary Fiction -- and Microhistory, because I'm not sure I understand exactly what that is and whether I can find a book like that which I actually want to read, haha.
Anyway, already filled one category and working on the next!

Welcome Pernilla! :D
Contemporary fiction is indeed a bit scary for me too. But I think I can throw in a gay romance or something maybe. Cause I mean, categories can overlap. It can be a contemporary romance or contemporary YA etc.
As for microhistories... yeah it is a tricky subject as I think you saw in the Questions topic, but you like craft and fashion history. There must be a microhistory about some aspect of that!

Hi! I'm Lea & I found this group mentioned on LJ and I liked that it looks pretty low key and friendly. Let's see if I can do it. :)

I like a little bit of everything; depending on my mood though I think the one thing that comes to mind (at least right now) that I'm not fond of is true crime type fiction. I like to escape into a good read and I guess I feel like turning on the evening news is enough of that sort of thing for me.

Hi, I'm Elin!
I'm sort of in a middle of another reading challenge right now but will be joining soon. I think this group is a great idea!
My favorite book is probably Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier and if I feel like reading something I know I will love I'd pick up a book by Jane Austen or Neil Gaiman.

I think the toughest ones for me will be non-fiction and microhistory since I rarely read non-fiction.

Elin wrote: "Hi, I'm Elin!
I'm sort of in a middle of another reading challenge right now but will be joining soon. I think this group is a great idea!"

Hi Elin! What reading challenge are you doing right now? A tough one?

Sofie wrote: "Elin wrote: "Hi, I'm Elin!
I'm sort of in a middle of another reading challenge right now but will be joining soon. I think this group is a great idea!"

Hi Elin! What reading challenge are you doi..."

Na, YA bingo :D it feels like I'm regressing for every book!