The Sunday Salon: The Challenge About Challenges

At the beginning of the year I joined about five or six challenges, which I know for some of you, is like a drop in the bucket. But for me, it must have been too much because this past weekend during Bloggiesta, I deleted/quit/bagged/trashed/stopped about three. And I'm not even really feeling very bad or anything!

So here's the thing. Challenges in the beginning sound so fun and, well, challenging! But then we lose our excitement and then we get sick of keeping track (at least I do) and then suddenly we find ourselves feeling bogged down by them. Raise your hand if you know what I mean. It's sad. But true.  So I took of the ones I wasn't feeling worried about, and left on the ones I'm enjoying. However, one of them, the TBR challenge which is one of my favorites, I've only read one book out of 12 so far this year! And that challenge is simply to read your own books! I mean, that's what I really should be doing anyway right?

But then there's the still fairly new occurrence of review books coming in. And the ever tempting library that's in my face every day. And that darn Borders that sends me coupons every week. Or like yesterday at FYE where they are selling all their books right now at 50% off! So all those "old" forever waiting books just keep waiting.

Yes, those challenges are challenging!

BUT, guess what? I finished one this weekend! Yes, even in the midst of crazy Bloggiesta stuff! I read my final book for the Once Upon a Time Challenge. For that challenge I wanted to read something in each category. So here's what I ended up with:

For a fairy tale book I read A Kiss in Time by Alex Flinn which is a modern retelling (sort of) of Sleeping Beauty. Very fun.

For a folklore book I read Lady of the Forest by Jennifer Roberson which is a wonderful take on the Robin Hood story. Another "how Robin began" story because it ends as he is banned to the forest.

For a fantasy I read several books, but I think I counted The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner as the one for this challenge. Great book. And this morning I started the sequel and wow, that didn't take long to grab me!

And finally, this weekend for mythology I read A Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan, the second book in the Percy Jackson series. I love how these books are "accidentally" teaching kids the mythology tales. So cool.

What I learned from the challenge is that fantasy is definitely my strong spot and mythology my weak one! And I love mythology, so that's just weird. But true nonetheless. I need to find more good mythology books I guess. Not dirty crude ones, and not simple kids ones, but something in the middle please!

Anyway, I'm happy to be able to say DONE with the challenge and I will look forward and plan on doing the RIP one coming up in the fall.

Have you finished a challenge lately? Did any Bloggiesters do like me and quit clean up their challenges this weekend? Any suggestions for how to have the fun of challenges without the commitment stress?