Beginning 2015

Sorry it took me so long to post this, guys! I decided which challenges I was doing in 2015 right after my last post, but I haven't made myself sit down during my free time and write about it instead of reading. Can you blame me? I hope not. But anyway, this is a basic list of my plans for this year, including challenges, new post ideas, and general fun.

Challenges with a goal:
We Read Diverse Books Challenge
I'm really excited about this new challenge. I really like to learn about different people and lifestyles around the world (and right next door). And I hear about some great and diverse books, but I often end up reading the same old types of books anyway. My goal is to read one book for each monthly challenge--12 books.

Banned Books Challenge
I don't agree with banning books. I've always read anything to which I felt drawn, so a banned book challenge seems appropriate. That being said, I don't often consult any banned book lists before deciding what to read, so I'm keeping my goal for this one low for the first time--"Trouble-Maker" Level, 3-5 books.

2015 TBR Pile Reading Challenge
Yay for TBR pile challenges! I've needed to do one of these for a while. The 2014 Book Bingo Challenge had a section for TBR books, but I didn't make a lot of progress with it, and I have so many books around my house just waiting for me. I'll be doing the "A Friendly Hug" Level, 11-20 books.

2015 Audiobook Challenge
Last year the CD player in my car was broken for a while and seriously cramped my audiobook listening time, since I primarily listen while driving. I'm hoping that 2015 will be the year I make a dent in those books that are better (or at least different) with a narrator! Aiming for roughly one book a month, I'll be doing the "Stenographer" Level, 10-15 books.

Just for fun/Challenges without a goal:
Where Are You Reading Challenge 2015
I did this challenge last year and found that picking books based on location doesn't really work for me. I'm much more interested in picking books based on the story, the characters, my book group's choices, etc. That being said, I did have a lot of fun tracking "where I was reading," so I'll be doing that again this year.

Literary Pickers Reading Challenge 2015
This challenge seems a little weird to me. When I first read the post, I thought, "Why would anyone decide what they're reading based on some random object in the story?" But now, the challenge seems kind of fun, like a scavenger hunt in a story. That being said, the blog host is only allowing romances for the challenge, and I'm not reading 50+ extra romances just to check a bunch of objects off a list. So, I'll be listing books in which I find the listed items/people/etc, but not exactly participating in the challenge.

I'll make an individual post for each of the mentioned challenges as I make progress with them, and there will be a lot of overlap between them. I will write and link to a review for each book read for my challenges with goals. For the Where Are You Reading Challenge, I'll list everything I read (except picture books) with its location, even if I don't write a review for each one. For the Literary Pickers Reading Challenge, I'll list the book titles beside the pickers list as I find each item and such in my reading and link to my reviews after I finish the books. As with the location challenge, I'll list a title as applicable, even if I don't end up writing a review of it or even finishing it this year.

New and old ideas:
I found this quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson the other day: "There is a great deal of poetry in a chest of tea." And now I'm inspired to start the poetry posts of which I've been dreaming lately! I'm calling it "Poetry in a Chest of Tea," and I'll talk about one or two poems I've read recently and what tea I've been drinking, as well as other related tidbits. I'm not an authority on poetry or tea by any means, so these will be very casual (and hopefully fun) posts.

I'm really going to try and jazz up my blog this year, both visually and practically. I'm also going to try and have more "Bitsy View" and non-review posts. Hopefully, this will encourage me to post more often and help you guys to have more fun reading my blog! You're always welcome to throw ideas out to me, as well as requests (examples: "I want quotes from what you're reading!" or "Have you seen any great book bags lately?").

Thanks for reading about my plans for 2015. Don't forget to subscribe to my blog so you can see me fulfill all of my challenges! And tell me, what challenges are you participating in this year?