Wheel of Time Challenge 2010

Wheel of Time Reading Challenge 2010
I've hinted a few times that Book Love Affair was planning on a 2010 book club-like challenge. And I've hinted at wanting to work my way through Robert Jordan series Wheel of Time all the way until Brandon Sanderson's continuation book. And, well, there's 12 books in the series (as of Oct. 27, 2009), so it all seemed to add up to me. A challenge is quite a commitment--and particularly so when one's committing to a single series over the course of the year. What I hope is that we can forge a new community of WoT fans through reading together and discussing together. Please make this one of your reading challenges for 2010, invite your friends, and be ready to read and discuss one of the most epic fantasies of them all!

Why The Wheel of Time?
WoT is one of the most influential and massive epic fantasy series. As someone who thinks of themselves as a fantasy fan, I've felt guilty about not having read WoT for years.

How does the challenge run?
This challenge is a little out of the ordinary, because I want to implement a book club element to it. It's good and well to read a book and cross if off the list--and we have that element here--but it's even better when you can talk about the book, too. Thus, we'll all read a book of WoT a month and meet back here to discuss it on the last day of the month!

Where's the reading Schedule?
The schedule begins in January 2010. All discussion posts will be linked through this post, so that this post can become an all-purpose navigation post for the WoT challenge.
(Each book cover will link to the book's discussion!)

January Book #1 The Eye of the World ------------------- Tor.com Re-read Review/Discussion	February Book #2 The Great Hunt ------------------- Tor.com Re-read Review/Discussion	March Book #3 The Dragon Reborn ------------------- Tor.com Re-read Review/Discussion
April Book #4 The Shadow Rising ------------------- Tor.com Re-read Review/Discussion	May Book #5 The Fires of Heaven ------------------- Tor.com Re-read Review/Discussion	June Book #6 Lord of Chaos ------------------- Tor.com Re-read Review/Discussion
July Book #7 A Crown of Swords ------------------- Tor.com Re-read Review/Discussion	August Book #8 The Path of Daggers ------------------- Tor.com Re-read Review/Discussion	September Book #9 Winter's Heart ------------------- Tor.com Re-read Review/Discussion
October Book #10 Crossroads of Twilight ------------------- Tor.com Re-read Review/Discussion	November Book #11 Knife of Dreams ------------------- Tor.com Re-read Review/Discussion	December Book #12 The Gathering Storm ------------------- Tor.com Re-read Review/Discussion

Do I need to sign-up?
To add a little motivation, I'll be choosing two participants to win a grab bag of goodies that I'll collect over the course of the challenge. There will be one grab bag given out in June and one in December. These grab bags will contain no less than 3 books each. I'll post about their contents as the time moves on. Only those participants who officially sign up and actually participate will be eligible. Winners will be chosen not randomly, but upon how helpful they are in discussions and active. Points will be given for referrals (who at least participate in 2 discussions), advertising the challenge on your blog, comments on the discussion posts, and anything else I view as being helpful to the challenge. The first 10 to sign up (not including myself) will receive +1 point to begin. Additionally, there will be a handful of random giveaways for random commentators/participants, so if you miss out on some of the discussions, you still have a chance to win something. (Grab bags and giveaways are open internationally, but you must let me know if you live outside of the US.)

Sign-up for the challenge!
Leave a comment below with your name (or nickname), email, and blog url (if you have one) to be added to the list of participants. You don't have to be on the list of participants to participate in discussions, but I appreciate it (and you must be on the list to be eligible for the giveaways). Also it helps me know who's interested in receiving email reminders 2 times a month (1 email on in the second week of the month to remind about what book we're reading and 1 email when the discussion entry is posted). If you'd like to be on the participant list but not receive emails, just don't include your email in the comment. This will also be where you can see your accumulated points.

1. TJ of Book Love Affair 2. Lera "Lerastar" (+1) 3. Ms (+1) 4. Misha at LJ (+1) 5. Landon at LJ (+1) 6. Laura (+1) 7. Sauke "Entwinedangels" at LJ (+1) 8. Meily "Emily" (+1) 9. Sachi "Sachiiiii" at Blogspot (+1) 10. Debbie of Debbie's World of Books (+1) 11. Selwyn (+1) 12. Ahe 13. Ife 14. Pedra "Cassy" 15. Owen 16. Trench 17. Rebecca at Dirty Sexy Books 18. Fedor "Fedya" 19. Pål Ellingsen 20. Rozilla "rokinil" 21. Auffer 22. Stephen 23. David 24. Alex 25. Ryan "Ryan Punt" 26. Michael "Bonzi" of Life of Bonzi 27. Roheryn of Musings of Froh 28. Patton of Wheel of Firebird 29. Caitrin at LJ 30. Xzavier at Xanga 31. Jared 32. Kay of Kay's Bookshelf

33. Jenbooks 34. Cwestervelt 35. Najolica 36. Amber 37. Taryn 38. lois 39. Meep! 40. Nulinya at LJ 41. Rachel at LJ 42. Dorthy 43. Melissa C "Book Lady" of Must Read Faster 44. Reason of Reason's Last Stand 45. Justin at LJ 46. Mike D. "theratproject" of The Rat Project 47. Paul Robson 48. Rahvin 49. Caitlin "Caitlin S." 50. Betsy 51. Mark Vs. the Volcano 52. Michael 53. Sus_b "Susan" 54. Emily "Emily Rose" 55. Musashi 56. Devin "dvelazquez" 57. Teresa 58. Jiovanni 59. Chris Hall 60. Andy 61. Becky 61. Lisa of The Little Reader 62. Tracy of Tracy's Space

Extras:
Of course, if you'd like to advertise that you're planning on participating or participating in this book club challenge on your own site or blog, feel free to either use the large banner at the top of the entry or one of these buttons:



FAQs:
Will there be any kind of discussion for New Spring, set before book one?
Currently I have no plans to include New Spring. But who knows, perhaps we'll all be so excited that we'll just tack it onto the end.

Will I be receiving a ton of emails if I sign up for the email notifications?
Only if you consider 2 emails per month "a ton".

Can we break the books up into smaller chunks?
I totally understand the concern. The books are big. Huge. However, I don't want this challenge to be stressful for anyone--and I want people with limited time to be able to participate, so I can't really "break things up". What I will do is try to provide helpful recaps and information to jog everyone's memory about book events and start discussion. Once we do the first month discussion, I'd love to hear feedback on if the format works for you or not.

Are you aware of the Tor.com re-read?
Indeed I am! We may or may not be referencing it over the course of our year with WoT.