Saturday Surfin’ – Week 10 – Cozy Christmas Countdown Giveaway – More 2013 Challenges

One of the things I have been trying to improve on is visiting more blogs each week.

Doing this has led me to some very interesting blog posts so I am going to use
Saturday Surfin” to bring some of these posts to your attention.

HAVE A COZY CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN!

Join Killer Characters at the Have a Cozy Christmas Countdown!

In celebration of the holidays, KillerCharacters.com is giving away a book a day. From November 26 to December 25, visit their site and leave a comment, and you’ll be entered for that day’s giveaway. Return the next day to see if you won. You have thirty chances to win! Be sure to come back each day and leave a new comment to enter the drawing for that day. Good luck. From all the Killer Characters and their authors, Have a very Cozy Christmas!

Head over there every day to enter the giveaways!!

2013 WHERE Are You Reading Challenge Sign Up!!!

Sheila at Book Journey is hosting this challenge for the 3rd year.

What is the point of this challenge?
It is to try to read in each of the 50 States
between January 1 2013 – December 31, 2013.

Today I am just 1 book away from completing the challenge for 2012.
It was much easier than I thought it would be.
I only had to search out books for a few states.
My regular reading took care of most of them
plus I visited 18 places outside the U.S. too!
CLICK HERE for all the details!

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This is also the third year for this challenge.
To find out exactly what a cozy mystery is, check out Cozy-Mystery.com. This site is dedicated to cozy mysteries and does a great job of defining them as well as giving a list of cozy mysteries. This challenge is NOT restricted to what is on their list, it’s just to be used as a guideline in case you need some hints on what to read.

So, here are the rules…

1. Choose the level you wish to participate:
   Level 1 – Snoop – Read at least 6 books
   Level 2 – Investigator – Read 7-12 books
   Level 3 – Super Sleuth – Read 13 or more books
2. The challenge runs from January 1, 2013 and ends December 31, 2013.
3. You don’t have to choose your books in advance. If you do, you can change your list at any time during the year. Books can overlap with other challenges.

4. Books can be in any format – paper, audio, ebooks…it all counts!

5. You don’t have to post a review, but I’m sure others would love to know about the books you are reading and may even want to add it to their reading lists.

NOTE: If you don’t have a blog and want to participate, that’s fine. You don’t have to have a blog, just post in the comments section as you finish books. If you belong to a site like Goodreads and review the books there, that’s fine too. Just leave us the link.

1. Take the button above, put it on your blog and post about the challenge. Then add your name to Mr. Linky at Yvonne’s blog. Please use the link of your challenge post, not the link to your home page.

She’s going to have one link for signing up, one link for completed reviews and one link for your wrap up posts.

I am signing up at the Super Sleuth level of 13 or more books!!!

CLICK HERE to join this challenge!

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Yvonne at Socrates Book Review Blog is hosting this one too!

Here are the rules guidelines.

1) All books that are part of a continuing series qualify (i.e. Debbie Macomber’s Cedar Cove, Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum, James Patterson’s Alex Cross, etc. etc.)

2) It doesn’t matter if you have 1 or 10 books in a series to complete it, it qualifies (i.e. if you only need to read one more Sookie Stackhouse book to complete the goal, that’s fine) The goal is to complete a series from wherever you are up to until the last published book.

3) The qualification period is January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2013. Books must be read during this time frame to count.

4) Take the button above and post about it. Use the Mr. Linky to sign up and make sure you link it directly to your post about this challenge. (Note: She’s not going to be using the Finishing the Series Blog she created last year. She’s going to keep everything  right on her blog.)

5) If you don’t have a blog, that’s fine. Just leave a comment to sign up and tell us what you are reading.

IF YOU WANT TO LINK UP YOUR REVIEWS OR, FOR THOSE WITHOUT A BLOG, LEAVE A COMMENT ON YVONNE’S BLOG

6) Any format of book counts – audio, ebook, etc.

7) You should choose the series you want to finish before the challenge begins, but it isn’t necessary. It’s fine to change series during the year – as long as you complete whichever series it is.

8) Choose a level….

Level 1 – Complete 1 series.
Level 2 – Complete 2 series.
Level 3 – Complete 3 or more series.

I have several series I want to catch up on so I am signing up for Level 3.

Right now the ones I hope to catch up are Janet Evanovich Plum Series, J.B. Stanley’s Supper Club Series and one other series after I tidy up my To-Be-Read stacks.

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One more from Yvonne!

What An Animal Reading Challenge VI will begin on January 1st.

The rules are really simple…

1. Read at least 6 books that have any of the following requirements:

a. there is an animal in the title of the book
b. there is an animal on the cover of the book
c. an animal plays a major role in the book
d. a main character is (or turns into) an animal (define that however you’d like).

1. The animal can be any type of animal (real or fictitious)–
   dog, cat, monkey, wolf, snake, insect, hedgehog, aardvark…dragon, mermaid, centaur, vampire, werewolf…you get the idea…
2. Challenge runs from January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2013.
   That’s a full year to read at least 6 books (you can read more if you’d like).

3. Books can be fiction or nonfiction.

4. You may make a list of books at the beginning of the challenge or you can just list them as you find them.

5. Book titles may be swapped out at anytime (assuming you made a list to begin with).

6. Crossovers with other challenges are permitted and encouraged.

7. You don’t have to have a blog or write a review, but you can if you want to.
 If you don’t have a blog, just post in the comment section that you’d like to join. You can post your books in there.

8. Books can be in any format of your choice (print, audio, ebooks)

CLICK HERE to head over to Yvonne’s blog to sign up!! I sure am!

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BA’s 2013 Off the Shelf Reading Challenge

About: The Off the Shelf Reading Challenge is probably the most popular challenge there is on BA. The goal? To read books on your shelves that have gone unread for far too long. Selecting books from the year before (in this case, 2012 and before), read as many of the unread ones as you can. It’s up to you if you want to keep them or give them away afterwards, the main goal is to turn those unread books into read ones.

The Finer Deets

• The Main Rule: Do not include books acquired during 2013, it defeats the purpose, read those books from before 2013 started.
• Running dates for all 2013 challenges: 1st of January – 31st of December 2013
• Sign-Ups are accepted until the 16th of December 2013.
• Formats: All BA Challenges are eBook, audio, short story, and graphic novel friendly.
• Crossovers: You’re welcome to crossover with BA’s challenges. Include as many books across all the challenges as you can, I always say.

How To Sign-Up and Join In

1. Choose Your Level: Choose a challenge level listed below.
2. Sign Up Post: Create a post on your blog, in a group, or on a forum (where possible) to let others see what you’re aiming for (a predefined list of books is optional).
3. Grab The Badge: Download or grab the badge and place it in your sign up post. Then link back to Bookish Ardour.
4. Link Up: Grab the direct URL to your sign up post, not your blog, click the Mr Linky graphic and enter your link.
5. Blogless? Don’t worry, you can sign up with your social network profile (YouTube, Twitter, GoodReads, Shelfari included), just make sure you link to your review list, shelf, tweet, or category. If you don’t have any of those feel free to comment.
6. Your Reviews: Reviewing is optional! But if you do review it would be great for you to share them by submitting them on the review page.
   
7. Finished: When you’re done it’s completion post time and you can share these on the completion/wrap-up page.
   

Challenge Levels

1. Tempted– Choose 5 books to read
2. Trying – Choose 15 books to read
3. Making A Dint – Choose 30 books to read
4. On A Roll – Choose 50 books to read
5. Flying Off – Choose 75 books to read
6. Hoarder – Choose between 76-135 books to read
7. Buried – Choose between 136-200 books to read

Extra Challenges

If you feel like that extra kick to your reading challenges here’s a couple you can choose from.

• World: Choose a country as your theme, reading only books from that country or where it’s the setting. For how high you go you can choose more than one country;
  • Level Tempted and Trying: Choose one country
  • Level Making a Dint and On A Roll: Choose two countries
  • Level Flying Off to end of Hoarder: Choose three countries
  • Level Buried: Choose four countries.
• Gender Battle: Read books only by female or male authors. Another alternative is to read equal amounts of both.

Sign Up Here

I am signing up to read 5 books!

If you like Reading Challenges as much as I do, you have to subscribe or follow this blog!

There is a team of bloggers at work there to keep us up to date on all the latest challenges. I will post the ones here that I am participating in but there will be tons of challenges out there for 2013 and some start at different times of the year. I subscribe to the blog via email so news of new challenges land right in my Inbox.

That’s it for week 10 of Saturday Surfin’. If you see some posts you feel should be shared please leave the links in the comments section for people to visit. The weeks are too short to travel to all the wonderful blogs in the blogosphere but together we can help find and direct each other to at least a few.