2010 Challenges

With so many book bloggers participating in a variety of reading challenges, maybe I need to list a few of my own. They’re nothing fancy, but I feel pretty good about them. Here they are….

The World Religion Reading Challenge

Created by J.T. Oatfield, The Challenge will run from Jan 1st 2010 to Dec 31st 2010.  There are four categories to the Challenge and J. T. decided to lift a note from Taoism by calling these Paths (Tao means “way” or “path”) to Reading Challenge Enlightenment:

1. The Bare Bones Path (Also Know As: The *Technically* There’s Only Three Path): Read something about what are *technically* the only world religions, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam.  (These are considered, by some scholars, to be the only World Religions because while Judaism and Hinduism have the numbers, they don’t proselytize or really invite other people to join, making it more of an ethnicity).

2. The Penthouse Path (Also Known As: The Five Biggies Path): Read something about the five major world religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

3. The Universalist Path (Also Known As: The Above and Beyond Path): Read something by all five of the major world religions PLUS more books about any or all of the following: Shintoism, Animism, Taoism, Confucianism, Wicca, Mythology, Atheism, Occult, Tribal Religions, Voodoo, Unitarianism, Baha’i, Cults, Scientology, Mysticism, Rastafarianism, Jainism, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism, Agnosticism, Gnosticism, Satanism, Manichaeism, Deism, Comparative Religion, Religious Philosophy, Jungian,  Symbolism, Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, etc., etc. etc. (you may also read about another aspect of one of the 5 Biggies)

4. The Unshepherded Path (Also Known As: The Don’t Tell Me What to Do Path): Read as many books as you would like about whatever religions you want.

Medieval Reading Challenge

The author of Medieval Bookworm is promoting a reading challenge in hopes of getting people to read more books related to the Middle Ages. The challenge will run from January 1st to December 31st, 2010, and will be hosted at Medieval Bookworm. Challenge genres include history, medieval literature, and historical fiction. Medieval, for simplicity of definition, will be from 500-1500 AD, and literature from all over the world is welcome, not just western Europe. There are 3 levels:

• Peasant – Read 3 medieval books of any kind.
• Lord – Read 6 medieval books, at least one of each kind.
• King – Read 9 medieval books, at least two of each kind.

Poor Man’s Seminary Reading Challenge

Years ago I had a mentor who happened to be the Protestant chaplain at my local state university. After he retired he gave me well, basically his clerical library. As a result, I am the proud owner of a number of books devoted to theology, church history, comparative religion and other related subjects including Liberation Theology. Over the years, I have added to this large collection with books purchased from various used book sales and local yard sales. Instead of spending the money on some divinity school or seminary, why not just read the books I already possess ?

Muslim Asia Reading Challenge

Despite what most Americans think, most of the world’s Muslim doesn’t live in the Middle East but in South and Southeast Asian countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia. On top of it, the most populous Muslim countries in the Middle East are the non-Arab nations of Iran and Turkey. Yet we automatically define the Muslim world as being Arab. To me, this calls for some kind of reading challenge. Any books, fiction or nonfiction which deal with the non-Arab Muslim world in Asia/Middle East should apply. Books dealing with the lives of those Muslims who happen to live abroad should also apply.

The China Challenge

Jennie of the blog “Biblio File” has set up the China Challenge which encourages people to read books pertaining to China. I think this is a great idea. Never a day goes by without an article in the newspaper or a feature on NPR dealing in some way with that nation’s rise as an economic and political power.

Jennie’s challenge has several levels.

Armchair Traveler:

Read one book about China. Jennie defines this pretty loosely, but the majority of the action should take place in China. For the sake of ease, places such as Hong Kong, Macau, Tibet, and Taiwan count.

Fast Train to Shanghai:

Read five books about China and one should be a translated work of fiction by a Chinese author (or not translated if you have the language skills.) According to Jennie, she will make exceptions for Chinese authors that also write in English– their English works are fine. And one book should be nonfiction, (which suits me ’cause hey, that’s mostly what I read).

Hiking the Great Wall:

Read 10 books about China. One should be a work of translated fiction as well as one work of nonfiction. In addition, one should read one book about Chinese immigration. This would be stories of Chinese people abroad or nonfiction works about overseas Chinese communities.

In addition, Jennie has suggested a number of enlightening and educational activities, such as taking in a Chinese opera or visiting a Chinese blog if readers would like to learn more about China.