Challenge-crazed Wednesday

So now I'm obsessed with reading challenges thanks to that evil Magic Lasso Mrs. Treme! But I'm not that crazy because many of the reading challenges that I signed up for can overlap...thereby maximizing my reading time (freeing up some time to still knit!)
So here are my current (and I'm sure not finalized challenge list for 2008):
1. My Year of Reading Dangerously: 12 books in 12 months that make you read outside your boundaries
2. Chunkster Challenge: read 4 books, one per quarter that is over 450 pages...I think that I read at least 6 that I know of last year that would have worked!
3. Mini-challenges: 12 mini challenges in 12 months that range form reading a banned book to an inspirational book with a lot in between. Incidentally, I have completed 2 already, which I will relate in a day or two.
4. A to Z Titles: self-explanatory
5. A to Z Authors: ditto
6. Themed Challenge: 4 books with a "you choose your own" theme completed by 6-30-08, and my choice was Merry Ole England...past and present.
7. Book Around the World: 4 books from anywhere in the world that allow you to truly learn about the country.
8. Notable Books: I'm challenging myself to read at least 6 from the list that is featured on this site.
9. Pub 2008 challenge: read a minimum of 8 books published in 2008 with at least 4 being fiction.
10. Short Story Challenge: I will probably combine option 1 and option 2 and read 10 short stories but not necessarily by 10 different authors but a good smattering by at least one....this is a genre that I know that I need to explore more.
11. Pulitzer Project: the ultimate goal is to read all 81 winners but for me in 2008, I want to read 6 more (having already read Empire Falls in 2003 and To Kill a Mockingbird in 2007.)



12. Back to History: 12 books in 12 months with a combo of historical fiction and non-fiction) and here are my 12:

Fiction
1. Burning Bright- Tracy Chevalier (18th century England)
2. Great Expectations- Charles Dickens (19th century England)
3. Paradise Alley- Kevin Baker (Civil War)
4. Electric Michelangelo- Sara Hall (1930s Coney Island)
5. Suite Francaise- Irene Nemirovsky (WWII France)
6. Fire in the Blood- Irene Nemirovsky (WWII France)
7. Dancing in Almedra-Mayra Montero (1950s Cuba)

Nonfiction
8. Journeys to the Mythical Past- Zecharia Sitchin (Egypt and its pyramids)
9. Unveiled- Deborah Kanafani (Middle East memoir)
10. Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier- Ishmaell Beah (Sierra Leone War)
11. Night- Elie Wiesel (Holocaust)
12. Until We Meet Again- Michael Korenbeit/Kathleen Janger (Holocaust)

Wish me luck!