If you look at the “challenges page” on this blog, you will see that I used to participate in many reading challenges. For a person who considers herself “not a joiner,” I shattered that self-perception. I loved that these challenges introduced me to new friends, new authors and genres, and helped to expand my reading exponentially.

After a long hiatus from both blogging and reading challenges, I am looking forward in 2014 to participating again in some of these challenges. My approach this time around, however, will be for minimal stress and maximum enjoyment with each challenge attempted.

My first challenge of 2014 is A Long-Awaited Reads Month, hosted by Ana and Iris, two special blogging friends. I am reading a book that’s been sitting on my bookshelf for 38 years! — One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel García Márquez. My friend, Nancy, recommended it to me and I immediately bought a paperback version intending to read it. However, the book seemed like a chunkster to me (it was that fine print!), and life was terribly busy with my preschool-age son, and I just never read it. See how long you can set a book aside!? So 38 years later, it is my long-awaited read for this challenge. And, oh yes…in order to deal with that chunkster intimidation factor, I figured out that if I read a minimum of 15 pages a day, I can finish the book within the month. Okay, Nancy…I’m on my way, 38 years later!