Weekly Geeks: 2011 Reading Challenges

It’s been a while since I’ve done a Weekly Geeks post, but I decided that since this weeks post is about 2011 challenges it would be a good chance for me to put all of the challenges I plan to participate in together. This weeks question:

Do you plan on participating in any reading challenges in 2011? Are you planning on hosting any reading challenges? Perhaps you’d like to share an idea for a reading challenge–to see if there is any interest!  Share with us which challenges look tempting to you! (You don’t have to “officially” join any of the challenges for this weekly geek. Just let us know which ones you’d be most interested in.) You might want to spend some time browsing A Novel Challenge. Are there any challenges you are looking forward to that haven’t been announced yet? Regardless of your challenge plans, are you starting to plan ahead for next year? Do you make lists or goals? Are you a person who enjoys reading more if it is structured? Or are you all about being free to read what you want, when you want?

Over the last couple of weeks I signed up for more challenges than I had anticipated. I’m attributing this to my occasional bouts of impulsivity and having A Novel Challenge in my Google Reader where I see all of these interesting challenges posted. The challenges I am signed up for are:

1. E-book Reading Challenge; Seeing how many e-books I have that I need to read, I figure this is a perfect challenge for me.
2. Outdo Yourself Challenge; Reading more books in 2011 than you did during 2010. I’ve read a lot this year, so if I don’t accomplish this it won’t be the end of the world, but I think it will be an interesting way to keep track of how much I’m reading since I never did that before this year.
3. Men in Uniform Challenge; Books with main men that wear some sort of uniform. This one will give me a guaranteed few books to just take it easy with.
4. Off the Shelf Challenge; Reading books that you own pre-2011, but have not read yet.
5. Vintage Mystery Challenge; Mystery novels written before the year 1960

Challenges that started this year and end during next year:

1. Sci-Fi Challenge II; Until August 8, 2011 – Science Fiction. Pretty straight forward. I’m still looking for suggestions on this one though since sci-fi is very new to me.
2. 1% Well Read Challenge III; Until April 30, 2011 – Read 13 books from the combined 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die List, which actually totals 1294 books.

I know that this is a bit to sign up for, though I’m sure there are others who have decided to take on even more than this, but my reasons for joining challenges are all my own. It simply comes down to giving myself some structure and seeing what I can accomplish. If I don’t complete a challenge, then I don’t complete it. It’s no big deal, but I like the idea of setting a general goal for myself and shooting for it. Because I have a tendency to read based on my mood, I know I might not stick with all of these and I will certainly deviate and read something completely random, but I’m reading for me not anyone else.

That said, I do have an idea of the specific books I would like to read next year and I’m certainly taking those into account while leaving breathing room for myself. Some of the challenges have restrictions, such as the Off the Shelf challenge, but that restriction of reading only books you have before January 2011 is the reason I chose the challenge. I acquire books much faster than I read them. I’ve got the best of both worlds here as far as I’m concerned.

Do you have any 2011 reading goals or are you going with the flow? How about science fiction (or other genre) suggestions for 2011? I would love to hear what you think.