Salem's Lot Read-Along - The #StephenKing Challenge

In my TuesBookTalk book group on Goodreads, we always read a scary book in October. I decided that this year we would read a Stephen King novel and Salem's Lot was unanimously voted for. So I decided to host this read-along for The Stephen King Challenge (hosted here on this blog) in conjunction with TuesBookTalk.

You can join the discussion here at Gather Together and Read, in the TuesBookTalk Goodreads group, and/or on Twitter every Tuesday in October at 8:30pm CDT/9:30pm EDT (Hashtag #TuesBookTalk).

Here is the reading/discussion schedule:

Oct. 4: pp 1 - 111 (stop before section 10)
Oct. 11: pp 111 - 218
Oct. 18: pp 219 (Chapter Ten) - 328
Oct. 25: pp 329 - 439 (end)

The edition I'm reading from is the Doubleday edition, 1975 (original publishing date). Hardcover, 439 pages.

I hope you will join me! Just leave me a comment if you plan to join in.

Salem's Lot is reported to be one of King's most scary books. Delicious!

13 Ways of Looking at The Lifetime Reading Plan #13WLRP

(Challenge is no longer public. You can still participate if you like, 

or if you are already, if you want to make it a personal challenge, as I did.)

This list is not a “Hundred Greatest,” Jane Smiley is quick to stipulate, “only a list of individual novels that would illuminate the whole concept of the novel.” 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel

The New Lifetime Reading Plan: The Classic Guide to World Literature 

Clifton Fadiman and John S. Major

"An Invitation to the Greatest Writers of World Literature"

I have always been interested in expanding my horizons as a reader. I'm not the only one. With challenges like Read the Nobels and The Classics Club, many of us who are passionate about reading seek to read the greats, and sometimes to read above and beyond our comfort level.

I had recently been reading from two books: 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel by Jane Smiley and The New Lifetime Reading Plan by Clifton Fadiman and John S. Major. As I was looking at the lists in both books, I thought that these lists would make for an awesome reading challenge to do just what I described above...broaden our reading horizons. And so, 13 Ways of Looking at The Lifetime Reading Plan was born!

This is a perpetual challenge, meaning there is no set ending or goal. You read at your own pace. It's really about challenging ourselves to read perhaps beyond our comfort zone, and to read books that are considered "great" or, as Jane Smiley said, books "that would illuminate the whole concept of the novel." Also, many of the titles on the lists will easily crossover with other reading challenges!

To make things a bit more challenging (just so the challenge doesn't languish, as many perpetual challenges do), I'm going to follow the lead of Read the Nobels and host a yearly challenge inside this challenge where you commit to reading a set amount of books from the lists in a year. That will kick off on January 1, 2017.

In addition, I will host read-alongs of books from the list periodically. I want to make this site about community and I think read-alongs are an excellent way to foster community.

The full lists are located in the sidebar menu - 13 Ways Challenge - List 1 and List 2. I've included links to Google docs where you can download the lists or print out, whichever is easiest. There will also be a page with a review linky where you can share your reviews, if you choose to.

Our social media hashtag is #13WLRP

I hope I've covered everything. Leave me a comment or click the contact me button in the sidebar if you have any questions. Stay tuned for the official announcement of the tie-in yearly challenge.

I'm excited! I hope you will join me. Sign up below (please link to an actual post about the challenge, not just your main blog url...if you don't mind helping me spread the word. Thanks!).

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Kicking off a new site and a new reading challenge! #Gather2Read

Anyone who knows me knows that I am very active in the book blogging community. I have been book blogging for seven years (now 14!) at True Book Addict. Since then I've added a sister blog, Castle Macabre, a year round Christmas blog, Yuletide Spirit. I host four seasonal read-a-thons and two special read-a-thons yearly at Seasons of Reading (and a companion Facebook group), I have a read-along group on Goodreads TuesBookTalk, AND I host several perpetual/long-term reading challenges (and a yearly Christmas reading challenge). Whew!

I've been thinking for a while now about starting a new site that would gather together all of my perpetual/long-term challenges in one place, to make things easier on me, and on participants. At the same time, I had been reading some from two books: 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel by Jane Smiley and The New Lifetime Reading Plan by Clifton Fadiman and John S. Major. As I was looking at the lists in both books, I thought that these lists would make for an awesome reading challenge. And so, 13 Ways of Looking at the Lifetime Reading Plan was born! You can get full details on the challenge at this post.

(Challenge is no longer public. You can still participate if you like, or if you are already, if you want to make it a personal challenge, as I did.)

I'm also going to be kicking off a new yearly challenge. I was inspired to create it by a readathon someone told me about. Stay tuned for the official post. It will kick off on January 1, 2017.

So, this community will (hopefully) bring together everyone who is participating in my various challenges, and newcomers with the new 13 Ways and the to-be-announced yearly reading challenge. To keep things going as a community, I will host read-alongs periodically to coincide with one of the challenges. For instance, I'll be hosting a read-along right here in October of Stephen King's Salem's Lot, which will go along with my Stephen King challenge.

I'd like to officially welcome you to our new community! Take a look around and see what's what. All challenge details are in the sidebar menu. If you haven't already, I hope you will consider joining me for one (or more) of my challenges, and, of course, for the one I'm most excited about at the moment...the 13 Ways challenge!

Our site hashtag #Gather2Read

If you ever have any questions, leave me a comment or click the contact me button in the sidebar.

I'm so excited about this! How about you?