On a side note, I finally gave into reading Outlander. So many people whose blogs I follow and those I'm following on Goodreads have read this. So far I've read just the first book. It's a long series of chunksters so I plan to take my time. Not yet in a hurry to read book number two just yet, but will eventually. My mom has the books so need to buy or get them from the library.
Having read this book, I managed to complete all 12 categories in the Eclectic Reader Challenge in only the first six months of the year. This brought my completed challenges up to eight as of yesterday. I'd decided a week earlier to call the Southern Literature Challenge completed since I maxed out the levels on that one.
One unfortunate thing I've been encountering with my challenges is seeing the blogs hosting the challenges get deleted. The blog that hosted the Reading Bites vampire reading challenge was deleted while ago, but the challenge was picked up by a new blog in May. And just last week I was informed in an email from Tracy from the blog Cornerfolds that she was picking up the Dystopian Reading Challenge since the original blog has been deleted. (I had not noticed that before getting the email).
But at least these two challenges have been picked up so I can continue with them. I've gotten into reading both vampire and dystopian novels over the last year or two and would have been sad to see these two go. I would have gladly have called them complete, however, if they had not been picked up. This is what I had to do with two other challenges I signed up for this year. One was the Curvy Heroine Reading Challenge, which I looked forward to when I saw it on a Novel Challenge last December. I knew it was just for me. Unfortunately, I noticed some time ago that though the blog still exists, the link to the challenge has disappeared. After deciding for some time, I decided today to just call this one off. The same was true for the Mental Illness Awareness Reading Challenge. Having my own mental issues, I looked forward to participating in this one. But the blog was deleted several months ago, and today (after I finished listening to the audiobook Devil in the Details, which I got for $3 at Goodwill last month), I decided to call this one complete. As far as I know, no one is picking up either of these challenges, both of which I would have continued if that had been the case.
All the above being said, I'm still deciding if I will join any short-term challenges. I have some ending soon. The Bookish Bingo Spring Edition is over at the end of this month, and I believe the blog will be hosting a summer one. I'd passed on the Winter one.
And while I'm on the subject of reading challenges, there is something I've been wanting to do--host a challenge of my own. That I plan to do next year. I came up with an idea for one a while ago, but am keeping my theme under wraps until I am ready to make my post official. Since most blogs begin announcing their challenges for the upcoming year in November or December, I hope to get mine up then. I'm taking the next few months to find reading suggestion links, an image for my post and to decided what link service to use. Those who have hosted challenges before--can you give me some ideas on what link to use and where to find pictures, and how to put your info on the photos. I must admit I'm still using an older computer and have never used Photoshop :-) What else can you do for this? Thanks in advance for any ideas. And as I said, I'm keeping my idea under wraps for now :-)