Woman Reading, by Henri Matisse, 1894. Wikipedia
If you’ve been meaning to get to a few books that you’ve had waiting on your shelf for a while, a reading challenge might be just the thing to get you motivated. In 2008, I participated in the Great Canadian Book Challenge and enjoyed it, but didn’t get myself organized to participate in 2009. My interest in joining another reading challenge was piqued by a post over at Truth in Fiction a new blog started by my niece, Historygirl, earlier this year.
Along with an entertaining cornucopia of history-related topics, Historygirl also reviews books, and back on February 4th, she put together an awesome list of Reading Challenges you can participate in. Additional possibilities are listed in her February 26th post.
I studied art history in years gone by, and thought I would try the Art History Reading Challenge. The requirements for the Curious level are modest: just three books, fact or fiction. I started off with Earth Colors, which was reviewed here last week.
There are lots of other book challenges to be found out in the blogosphere. Take a look around and find something that appeals to you, drop everything for a while and read!
Willow House Chronicles 
They’re tempting…maybe the Irish one…or the book-and-movie one…
I thought that painting was neat when I saw it. I actually thought at first that it was supposed to be treetops against a flaming sunset sky, and had just been propped on its side. But I guess that’s just my nature-oriented mindset kicking in. đŸ˜‰
Don’t know that I’ll participate in a reading challenge, though there are a few that interest me. I do like the idea; sometimes it’s the only way to motivate yourself enough to get around to one of those things you’ve been putting off a while.
Thanks for the link and the nice words!
I’ve been enjoying the challenges so far, especially the Irish one as I’ve already read two great works of fiction and I have two non-fiction reads that have been sitting on my shelf for months that I hope this will get me to read.