2012 Amazon Best Books of 2011 Reading Challenge

1 January 2012 - 31 December 2012

I saw this challenge hosted last year. I cannot remember who hosted it though. I don't see anyone hosting it this year, so I thought I'd try it. If someone is aware of it being hosted already, then let me know.

Objective:

* Read books from Amazon's Best Books of 2011 list chosen by their editors. This challenges you to read a variety of genres. I've listed the books below, but you can also access it through Amazon HERE.

Levels:

Novice - 5 books
Competent - 10 books
Proficient - 15 books
Expert - 20+ books

Rules:

1) Challenge will run from 1 January 2012 to 31 December 2012.
2) I would recommend listing the books ahead of time, but this is not required. If you list your books ahead of time, then you are free to change them later.
3) Choose a level. You can move up levels anytime, but you cannot move down.
4) All book formats are accepted.
5) Challenge can crossover to other challenges.
6) Books must be read between the challenge dates.
7) You do not need a blog to join. You can use Goodreads, Amazon, or something similar to share your reviews and books read.
8) You can join anytime between now and 30 November 2012.
9) Add the link to your challenge post in Mr. Linky below.
10) Also, add your review links to the following post: Challenge Reviews Link Up

The Books:

1) The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach
2) IQ84 by Haruki Murakami
3) What It Is Like To Go To War by Karl Marlantes
4) In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson
5) The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
6) Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
7) Before I Go to Sleep by S J Watson
8) Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
9) Lost in Shangri-La by Mitchell Zuckoff
10) The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht
11) The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
12) Bossypants by Tina Fey
13) Blood, Bones, and Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton
14) We the Animals by Justin Torres
15) Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer
16) The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan
17) The Greater Journey by David McCullough
18) Lost Memory of Skin by Russel Banks
19) Maphead by Ken Jennings
20) The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt
21) Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
22) A History of the World in 100 Objects by Neil MacGregor
23) Habibi by Craig Thompson
24) Malcolm X by Manning Marable
25) The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje
26) Please Look After Mom by Kyung-Sook Shin
27) Townie by Andre Dubus III
28) The Oxford Companion to Beer by Horst Dornbusch
29) Catherine the Great by Robert K Massie
30) West of Here by Jonathan Evison
31) The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
32) The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright
33) The Submission by Amy Waldman
34) Willpower by Roy F Baumeister
35) Just My Type by Simon Garfield
36) The Empty Family by Colm Toibin
37) Mr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi
38) Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
39) The Magician King by Lev Grossman
40) The Information by James Gleick
41) Alexander McQueen by Andrew Bolton
42) The Tragedy of Arthur by Arthur Phillips
43) The Great Sea by David Abulafia
44) Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
45) Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
46) Radioactivity by Marjorie Caroline Malley
47) Orientation by Daniel Orozco
48) Those Guys Have All the Fun by James A Miller
49) My Korean Deli by Ben Ryder Howe
50) Jacqueline Kennedy by Caroline Kennedy
51) Reamde by Neal Stephenson
52) Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard
53) The Swerve by Stephen Greenblatt
54) Nightwoods by Charles Frazier
55) Cain by Jose Saramago
56) Inheritance by Christopher Paolini
57) Ten Thousand Saints by Eleanor Henderson
58) Swamplandia! by Karen Russell
59) The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater
60) Carry Yourself Back to Me by Deborah Reed
61) The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson
62) 22 Britannia Road by Amanda Hodgkinson
63) Go the F**k to Sleep by Adam Mansbach
64) Mister Wonderful by Daniel Clowes
65) In the Plex by Steven Levy
66) Galore by Michael Crummey
67) The Longest War by Peter L Bergen
68) Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks
69) The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson
70) River of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh
71) Incognito by David Eagleman
72) Onward by Howard Schultz
73) The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta
74) The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman
75) The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker
76) Blue Nights by Joan Didion
77) The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown
78) A Dance With Dragons by George R R Martin
79) Endgame by Frank Brady
80) Physics of the Future by Michio Kaku
81) Fire Season by Philip Connors
82) Inside Scientology by Janet Reitman
83) The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka
84) Then Again by Diane Keaton
85) Feast Day of Fools by James Lee Burke
86) State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
87) Embassytown by China Mieville
88) I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive by Steve Earle
89) The Devil All the Time by Donald Ray Pollock
90) Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness by Alexandra Fuller
91) This Burns My Heart by Samuel Park
92) The Hidden Reality by Brian Greene
93) 11/22/63 by Stephen King
94) Confidence Men by Ron Suskind
95) Sister by Rosamund Lupton
96) Hark! A Vagrant by Kate Beaton
97) The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
98) Pulphead by John Jeremiah Sullivan
99) The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth-Century American Poetry by Rita Dove
100) Delirium by Lauren Oliver




*****************
My goal is the Competent Level.
My Tentative List:
1) Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
2) The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
3) Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
4) Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
5) The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan
6) In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson
7) The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown
8) 22 Britannia Road by Amanda Hodgkinson
9) The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater
10) Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Other Possibles:
Reamde by Neal Stephenson
The Magician King by Lev Grossman
A History of the World in 100 Objects by Neil MacGregor