My Challenge: 109 Books in 2009!

New Year, New Blog, New Challenges. I plan to read 109 books in 2009. A few minutes ago at the public library I announced this plan to my friend the librarian. He thought I was crazy but it's really not so bad - about 2 books a week. Besides, I love to read and want to enrich my mind as much as possible this year. I also need a new challenge!

But I'm not alone. Over at J. Kaye's Book Blog, over 240 people have signed up for the 100+ books in 2009 challenge. I'm glad to have some company on this adventure. The rules for the contest are all books count as long as they were read in 2009, but I may want to make my task even harder, which means:

1. No rereading Harry Potter. Come on now, I love Harry but I think these books shouldn't count towards the challenge because I've read them so often I think I could write them myself at this point.
2. Please no more Nicholas Sparks. I love to hate this author and really need to expand my literary horizons.

Not to say I'm going to stick to the classics. There will be plenty of chick lit and best sellers in my list of 109. Not all fiction either, since I love historical biographies. And definitely not all American authors because I love reading about other cultures.

First up is American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld, a book I was excited to find in the library after waiting patiently since its release.