Hi, I'm Erin, and I'm a book-a-holic

Previously, I posted about a book challenge hosted by Megan at Semi-Charmed Kind of Life.  I joined this challenge because I like books.  I like reading.  I like challenges (sometimes).  I'm not much of a participant in the blog-o-sphere world (as you know).  But, I do participate a lot on facebook.

So, I got to thinking..... 

I'm a Texan who lives in Sydney, Australia.  I am fortunate enough to have met and made friends with people that live not only in the USA and Australia, but other parts of the world as well.  So, I developed my own book challenge that I'm hosting on facebook.  This is the message that I sent to people to generate an interest:

Hello! I'm creating a group here on facebook. Before I invite or add you, and you start getting notifications that you may not want, I want to know if you're interested. If you're not, no worries. It won't hurt my feelings. If you are interested, let me know so you can be added into the fun. I'm creating my very first book challenge. For this one, I'm only inviting people I know. If I stumble or mess up, hopefully you can help me fine tune it, and it becomes a fun way to read and share with other reading enthusiasts. There will be some simple rules. I'll give you categories, and you select your books. You'll be asked to post your reading list and allowed to change it through the challenge. You'll get 4 months to take the challenge. No one is getting graded or penalized It's designed to be fun! As participants, you will be encouraged to interact with each other in the FB group which will only be open to those involved. The first one to read all your books, gets a small prize from me! Plus, the top 3 can help submit categories for my next challenge. (Yea, I'm hoping to do this twice a year). My goal is to create a reading community with readers from different age groups and varied interests that live all over the world. So, let me know if you're interested. I'll create the group and add you. Rules and book categories should be announced in July. Book challenge will be held August 1st through November 30th. When you reply, tell me how many books you read per month. I'll use every one's answer to create the list (I haven't decided how many books I will challenge you to read). 

The response was A-MAY-ZING!  Seriously, I am so thrilled with the response.   The group is a private group/invite only.  I started the invites then friends started asking if they could invite others too.  The group has over 100 members from 7 different countries with over 40 people actively participating.  Members range in age from 20s to 60s.  We have conservatives and not-so-conservatives; homos and heteros; Christians, Atheists, and Agnostics; mostly women and a couple of brave men; blondes, brunettes, and redheads. 

I describe the group page like this:

Book Challenge to be held July 1, 2014 - October 31, 2014
First and foremost, have fun. Don't stress. No one is being judged, graded, or penalized. Even if you finish one book the entire challenge, if you enjoy it and it is an accomplishment for you, then that's awesome!

Discussion is highly encouraged. Participate as little or as much as you want. Please be supportive and respectful of others. If you get disrespectful, inappropriate, or nasty, I will ban you...don't make me use my authoritative power!

Hopefully, we will create an environment with books and people that interest, inspire, and entertain you.

I altered the start/finish dates.  We had so much interest and seemingly, there was some excitement too, that getting started straight away made sense.  Heck, it's day 3 into the challenge, and a few members have already finished their first book!

I can't tell you how much I enjoy seeing the interaction between friends I've known since high school talk to friends I met in Australia to friends I lived with in college talking to family members.  It's such an amazing mix of people, and I am lucky enough to watch it all!  Plus, it has made me realize how fortunate I am to have some intelligent, funny, insightful, well-read people in my life.  All of you participants have made this girl feel super grateful.

For anyone who likes a good book, there are some incredible book selections coming in from all genres and types of books.  For example, one category is "Read a biography, autobiography, or memoir".  We have members reading everything from books about aging rock stars to biographies about military heroes to autobiographies from former first ladies (from both Republican and Democratic parties) to Anne Frank's diary to a book from a former alcoholic to books about the lives of certain actresses, and more (yes, more!).

So......................................if you haven't joined and are interested, it's not too late, it's never too late (sorry, I just broke into song in my head by Three Days Grace).  I'll let you get distracted too, and I'll post the song here:

Anyway.................................if you're up for interesting folks reading books, then ask to join my group!