This seems like a fun challenge and one that is a bit different: instead of using book titles, it looks at the images on the covers of books.
To complete the Find the Cover Challenge, I must find images on my book covers starting with the letters that spell out the year: Two Thousand Twelve. No cover may be used for more than one letter.

I’ll start off:

T TREE on the cover of A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
W
O OLD WOMAN on the cover of The Market Square Dog by James Herriot
T
H HOLLY LEAF ON HAT on the cover of I Am Half-Sick of Shadows
O
U
S SCREEN DOOR on cover of Northwest Corner by John Burnham Schwarz
A
N
D
T
W
E EARS on the cover of The Antagonist
L
V VERDIGRIS FROG on the cover of The Golden Mean by Nick Bantock
E EVERGREEN TREE on the cover of Coyote Sings to the Moon by Thomas King

Since one of the first books I’m going to tackle in the new year is A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth, it seemed foolish not to join The South Asian Reading Challenge being hosted by Swapna over at S. Krishna’s Books.

I’m to choose my own goal, and to make it a ‘challenge’ I’ll add to the one book I know I’m already reading and commit to reading two.

The goal in the Read Your Name Challenge is to read my name or the name of my blog in book title first letters. Since I’m already in for the A- Z Reading Challenge, I’ve covered off every letter of the alphabet at least once. Using those books, and titles from my reading list for other challenges, I’ve super-sized this.

So, here’s my challenge:
D Death on the Oxford Road by E.C.R. Lorac
E Emma by Jane Austen
B Blizzard of Glass by Sally M. Walker Completed January 2012
B The Big Gold Dream by Chester Himes
I I Am Half-Sick of Shadows by Alan Bradley Completed January 2012
E Elegy for Eddie by Jacqueline Winspear

@

E The Echo Maker by Richard Maker
X The WaXworks Murders by John Dickson Carr
U Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe Completed January 2012
R The Root Cellar by Janet Lunn
B The Bridge at San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder
A The Antagonist by Lynn Coady Completed January 2012
N Northwest Corner by John Burnham Schwarz Completed January 2012
I I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen Completed January 2012
S Sabine’s Notebook by Nick Bantock Completed January 2012

Okay, I’ll admit: I didn’t think I’d ever even heard of Terry Pratchett before I saw this challenge posted over at Once Upon a Time. Then I picked up my library reserves this week and, what should I find, but four Terry Pratchett books. I guess someone must have recentlyrecommended Pratchett so very highly that I was moved to zip these titles right past my wish list onto my library list (before promptly forgetting both name & titles).

Anyway, these aren’t due until the new year and by the time I get them in my reading queue, it will be January. So I thought I might as well give the Sir Terry Pratchett Reading Challenge a go. There are no set levels, so I’m committing to reading at least one Pratchett in 2012.

1. The Carpet People

CHALLENGE COMPLETED

I love books that involve time-travel – always have, probably always will – so The Time Travel Reading Challenge appeals greatly to me. And because at least one book on my 2012 reading list “takes me back”, and I’d like to add another in this genre if I can fit it in, I’m taking it on.

Books from other challenges count as long as they are about time travel and they can be children’s, middle-grade, YA or adult fiction. If this intrigues you, there’s a list of suggested titles on the sign-up page.

I’m entering at the Surprise Trip level that requires me to read 1 – 3 time travel books. Thanks to Laura at Library of Clean Reads for hosting this.

1. Sabine’s Notebook by Nick Bantock

I seem to read a lot of memoirs (I think it’s the most popular form of non-fiction going right now, which is why the non-fiction, non-memoir challenge is a reach for me) so The Memorable Memoirs 2012 Reading Challenge hosted by Melissa at The Betty and Boo Chronicles seems like such a natural fit.

Melissa is defining a memoir as a record of events written by a person having intimate knowledge of them and based on personal observation. Published letters, diaries, journals, autobiographies, nonfiction books on the craft of writing memoirs … in her book, they all count as Memorable Memoirs for this challenge. And for those of you looking for challenges that permit e-books and audiobooks, this is one you might want to consider.

Since I already have at least one memoir on other challenge reading lists, I’m entering this at the Diarist level of 1 – 4 books.

Collections of short stories aren’t eligible for a lot of reading challenges so even though I have a large one on my 2012 Bucket List and another in mind for a prize-winners challenge, I can’t count them for anything else. When I saw The 2012 Short Story Reading Challenge, hosted by Laura over at Library of Clean Reads, I knew I was in.

I’m entering at the Tell Me a Story level of 1 – 3 books. That will be another notch on my Challenge Addict belt.

1. My Financial Career & Other Follies by Stephen Leacock

I’ve been anxiously waiting for The Chunkster reading Challenge to be set up for 2012. A chunkster is 450 pages or more of ADULT literature, whether non-fiction or fiction. A chunkster should be a challenge. No audio or e-books are allowed but this year for the first time, essay, poetry, and short story collections will be permitted. (Collections have to be read in their entirety to count.)

I’m going in at the Chubby Chunkster level, requiring me to read four books. I’d like to commit to more, but I have to remember about that 150 book overall goal I have!

Lindsey over at Babies, Books & Signs is hosting this fun challenge. The object of the A-Z Reading Challenge? (that’s ‘eh’ to ‘zed’ for us Canucks!) is to read a book starting with each letter of the alphabet.

Since most letters were already covered in my existing 2012 reading list, this seemed like a good fit. I had to find books for ‘G’ (of all letters!), ‘Q’, ‘Y’, and ‘Z’. Although I have my list made up now, I think I’ll just update this post as I complete each book.

A Antagonist, The by Lynn Coady
B Blizzard of Glass: The Halifax of Explosion of 1917 by Sally M. Walker
C Carpet People, The by Terry Pratchett
D Dove Creek by Paula Marie Coomer
E
F
G Griffin and Sabine by Nick Bantock
H
I I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen
J
K
L
M Midsummer’s Night Dream, A by William Shakespeare
N Northwest Corner by John Burnham Schwarz
O
P
Q
R
S Sabine’s Notebook by Nick Bantock
T These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder
U Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
V Virgin Cure, The by Ami McKay
W
X
Y
Z

I haven’t made it a practice to read picture books since my daughter was young, over 35 years ago. But now that our three-year-old grandson and his mom are living with us, I’m back at them. (In fact, I’m determined that I will never be too busy to read a book to Steven if he asks.) Besides – I have to read 150 books in 2012 and anything with an ISBN qualifies.

So when I saw that An Abundance of Books was hosting The Illustrated Year: A Picture Book Reading Challenge, I jumped at it. And why not? Sometimes it’s the story, sometimes the illustrations, and a lot of the time it’s the fun of reading them out loud to kids that makes picture books so enjoyable. Picture books are a great way to share stories and the experience of reading with children. I’m going to include Steven’s opinion of the book along with mine.

I know that not all of my readers are looking for this genre, so I’ll keep my reviews of picture books short & sweet and, to keep them few and far-between, I’m entering only at Level 1 which requires me to read just 12 books over the course of the year. But I’ll be toting them up for this challenge!

1. Griffin and Sabine written and illustrated by Nick Bantock
2. Sabine’s Notebook written and illustrated by Nick Bantock
3. The Golden Mean written and illustrated by Nick Bantock
4. Dog in Boots written by Greg Gormly, illustrated by Robert Angaramo
5. I Want My Hat Back written and illustrated by Jon Klassen
6. Coyote Sings to the Moon written by Thomas King, illustrated by Johnny Wales
7. Giraffe and Bird written and illustrated by Rebecca Bender
8. The Market Square Do written by James Herriot, illustrated by Ruth Brown
9.

On the heels of the Picture Book Challenge and my goal never to say “no” to the request from my three-year-old grandson for a story, comes The 3660 Minute Reading Challenge, hosted by Mommy Wants To Read.

What is this Challenge? “To spend 10 minutes every single day reading to our children. Since this year is a leap year there are 366 days hence 3660 minutes. The goal is to promote reading, increase imagination, foster a love of words, bolster comprehension skills, and spend quality time with the children in our lives.”

Sounds good to me!

The Awards referred to are the Newbery Medal for children’s literature and the Printz Award for Young Adult lit. I don’t usually pick up YA or children’s literature on purpose but every time I’ve read an award winner on these lists, I’ve been impressed.

So I thought I’d “challenge” myself in 2012 by entering The Awards Winning Reads Challenge hosted by Ashley at Basically Amazing Books and Jacinda at The Reading Housewives. I can choose my own commitment – so I’m pledging to read 4 of these great books.

I’m trying to read more non-fiction books and have several on my 2012 reading list. The idea of seeing how these relate to novels is a fun idea, so I was intrigued by The Truth in Fiction Challenge, hosted by Amanda over at The Fig and Thistle.

The goal of the challenge is to read a specified number of book pairs that are comprised of one fiction book and one related non-fiction book. Amanda encourages us to think outside of the box; the non-fiction book could also be journals, letters, memoirs, etc…. The pairs needn’t be exact matches, although there should be an easily detectable common thread.

The catch: Instead of individual reviews, after each book pair I must write a joint review. For example, if I read The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and then The Journals of Sylvia Plath then my review post will be focused on both books.

I’m unsure of exactly how many pairs I’ll be able to put together, but I’m committing to the Junior level of 3 pairs. Watch me have fun!

1. The Secret River and Searching for the Secret River, both by Kate Grenville

Since I’ve entered several Classics challenges for 2012, I thought it wold be fun to try the Classic Double Challenge, hosted by Melissa at One Librarian’s Book Reviews.

Essentially, the challenge will encourage me to read one older book (classic) and a newer book that relates to the older one in some way. (The newer book can be any reading level from Middle Grade to Adult.)

I’m opting in at the Medium level, which requires me to read two sets of related books.