I’m participating in the Good Books Inc. Scavenger Hunt hosted by the lovely and talented girls over at Padfoot and Prongs. The challenge is to complete 10 different book and reading related challenges within a few months. Since the deadline for entries is May 20th, I’m finishing up my last entry. (I ended up doing all but two!) I know I’ve posted three times today but I have to get these done!!! : )

Pick your own thing to do. It must involve books (obviously) and it can’t be anything too obvious. The idea here is to incorporate literature into your life in a new and interesting way.

You know, I am so sad that this scavenger hunt is ending! It was a lot of fun, and I think I ended up with some pretty good blog posts out of it! (Plus who knows if I would have ventured into the Twilight saga and fallen so deeply and irrevocably in love with Edward Cullen had I not done this challenge).

So this last challenge was pretty open-ended, and as I was casting about for things to do to go out with a bang, it occurred to me that I should keep the fun going and create my own challenge! So that is exactly what I did. So for my last entry of this contest, I give you my own challenge. I will be undertaking all 10 tasks, and I will be inviting you to do the same! Details on challenge specifics will be forthcoming (deadline, prize, button, etc.), but here is what you can expect.

1. Random Book Selection. Go to the library. Position yourself in a section such as Fiction, Non-Fiction, Mystery, Children — whatever section you want. Then write down random directions for yourself (for example, third row, second shelf, fifth book from right). Follow your directions and see what book you find. Check that book out of the library, read it and then write about it. (If you prefer, you can do the same but at a bookstore and buy the book!)
2. Random Word. Go to this random word generator and generate a random word. Find a book with this word in the title. Read that book and write about it.
3. Movie/Book Comparison. Find a book that you haven’t read that has a movie based on it that you haven’t seen. Read the book and watch the movie within a few days of each other. Write about your reactions to both the book and the movie and compare the two.
4. Birth Year Book. Find a book that was published or copyrighted in the year of your birth. Read the book and write about it.
5. Lit Riff. Inspired by the book Lit Riffs by Matthew Miele (which I totally want to read!), choose a song and then write a brief story that is inspired by or related to the song.
6. Poetic Review. Write about a book in three different forms of verse: haiku, limerick and free verse.
7. Judge A Book By Its Cover. Pick out a book based SOLELY on the cover. First, write about what you expect the book to be about based on the cover art. Then read the book and write about how the book was different from and/or similar to what the cover art led you to expect.
8. Phoning An Author. Pick a random last name out of the phone book. Find an author with the same last name and read a book by them. Write about it. (I’m flexible … if your first name is Xprxyrsss, you can pick again!)
9. Public Spying. Find someone who is reading a book in public. Find out what book they are reading and then read the same book. Write about it.
10. Random Bestseller. Go to Random.org and, using the True Random Number Generator, enter the number 1950 for the min. and 2008 for the max. and then hit generate. Then go to this site and find the year that Random.org generated for you and click on it. Then find the bestseller list for the week that would contain your birthday for that year. Choose one of the bestsellers from the list that comes up, read it and write about it.

Oh my gosh — I am just so excited about this! I cannot wait to see what I will be reading as a result of this challenge! If you are brave and don’t mind taking a chance on your reading, I hope you will join me. Details on challenge specifics and a sign-up will be coming soon!

And thank you, Padfoot and Prongs, for a wonderful challenge! This has been a lot of fun, and even if I don’t win the prize, I won anyway because I had so much fun doing this!