Big news...a change of venue!

Hi there, challenge participants! I just wanted to dash off a quick post to let you know that we are changing venues. I have created a new community reading site which will be the home of all my long term and perpetual reading challenges (and any other reading challenges I might dream up).

The new site is called Gather Together and Read. You will find all challenge info pertaining to Non-Fiction Adventure in the page dedicated to the challenge...found in the sidebar menu.

While you're there, check out the new perpetual reading challenge I just kicked off, 13 Ways of Looking at The Lifetime Reading Plan. I hope you will consider joining me for that as well.

If you have any questions about the new site, click the contact me button in the sidebar over at teh new site and send me a message.

Thank you for being a participant of A Non-Fiction Adventure!

I'm starting over...and you can too!

Yeah, yeah...this challenge had a final completion date five years from when we started. I know. But you know what? I'm an adult, and I can start over if I want to. A lot has went on in the past four years preventing me from focusing on reading as I wanted to. Thus, I'm starting over.

Guess what else? I'm opening up the number of years from five years to anywhere from five years to ten. That's right. If you want to change your goal and make it 7 years, go for it. If you want to make it 10 years, be my guest. I, for one, am making mine ten years because I read far less non-fiction than I do novels which is bad, but it is what it is.

So, new start date for me...January 3, 2016. New end date...January 3, 2026. Wow!

I'm also updating my list. Taking a few away and adding some new ones. I'm also going to add five alternate options (listed at the end as "alternate titles") in case I want to add something else, or change the list further.

You can see my revised list by clicking in the menu in the sidebar (Michelle's List).

You do not have to sign up again, but if you do revise your list, or readjust your timeline, add your link to the linky on the sign up page, adding revised list and/or timeline to your link text. For example, Michelle @ True Book Addict (revised list/timeline).

For those of you who participate in The Classics Club, I'm going to start over on that one as well. Probably won't change my list much though.

My List (Michelle's List)

Okay, so my original plan was to make a list of 50 to read over the 5 years, but...well, you know...once I started listing, I was like a kid in a candy store.  ;O)  My intent:

Revised list below. New additions marked with an *

Read the 97 Non-Fiction books listed 
Time frame:  April 2, 2012 - April 2, 2017  January 3, 2016 - January 3, 2026

The List 
Categorized, but in no particular order. As in the Classics Club, I own every book on this list.

Biography/Memoir
1.   Art and Madness: A Memoir of Lust without Reason by Anne Roiphe
2.   David Bowie: Starman by Paul Trynka
3.   Benjamin Franklin by Edmund S. Morgan
4.   Catherine the Great by Robert K. Massie
5.   John Adams by David McCullough
6.   King Arthur by Norma Lorre Goodrich
7.   Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women by Harriet Riesen Read 2015 - not reviewed
8.   Lucrezia Borgia by Sarah Bradford
Alison Weir
9.   Mary Boleyn: The Mistress of Kings (Weir)
10. Queen Isabella (Weir)
11. The Princes in the Tower (Weir)
12. Marie Antoinette by Evelyne Lever
13. Poe: A Life Cut Short by Peter Ackroyd
15. Vincent Price by Victoria Price
16. Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Biography by Marion Meade
17. Will in the World by Stephen Greenblatt
18. The Brothers Grimm: Two Lives, One Legacy by Donald R. Hettinga  Read 2015 - not reviewed
19. Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman
20. The Girl Who Walked Home Alone: Bette Davis-A Personal Biography by Charlotte Chandler
21. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
22. A Rip in Heaven: A Memoir of Murder and Its Aftermath by Jeanine Cummins
23. Madame de Pompadour by Nancy Mitford*
24. Tolstoy and the Purple Chair by Nina Sankovitch*
25. Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup*
26. All Roads Lead to Austen: A Yearlong Journey with Jane by Amy Elizabeth Smith*
27. Jane's Fame: How Jane Austen Conquered the World by Claire Harman*
28. The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life by Amy Tan*
29. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand*

Customs/Folklore/Mythology
30. Sagas of Icelanders
31. In Search of Dracula: History of Dracula and Vampires by Raymond T. McNally and Radu Florescu
32. Mythology by Edith Hamilton*

History
33. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown
34. The Burning of Bridget Cleary by Angela Bourke
35. Thunderstruck by Erik Larson
36. In the Footsteps of Alexander by Michael Wood
37. The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston
38. The Murder of Helen Jewitt by Patricia Cline Cohen
39. The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester
40. The Queen's Necklace by Frances Mossiker
41. Starvation Heights by Gregg Olsen  Read 2015 -  not reviewed
42. She-Wolves by Helen Castor
43. The Vikings by Robert Ferguson
44. The Life and Death of a Druid Prince by Anne Ross and Don Robins
45. Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick
46. The Gangs of New York by Herbert Asbury
47. Royal Panoply: Brief Lives of the English Monarchs by Carolly Erickson
48. The Ancient Celts by Barry Cunliffe
49. Chronicle of the Roman Republic by Philip Matyszak
50. Chronicle of the Pharaohs by Peter A. Clayton
51. Imagining Atlantis by Richard Ellis
52. Finding Atlantis: A True Story of Genius, Madness, and an Extraordinary Quest for a Lost World by David King
53. The Vanished Library: A Wonder of the Ancient World by Luciano Canfora
54. The Year 1000: What Life Was Like at the Turn of the First Millennium by Robert Lacey and Danny Danziger
55. How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill
56. Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock
57. The Enemy Within: 2000 Years of Witch Hunting in the Western World by John Demos
58. The Salem Witch Trials: A Day by Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege by Marilynne K. Roach
59. The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time by John Kelly*
60. The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann*
61. The Histories by Herodotus*
62. Frozen in Time: An Epic Story of Survival and a Modern Quest for Lost Heroes of World War II by Mitchell Zuckoff*
63. Lost in Shangri-la: A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II by Mitchell Zuckoff*
64. In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick*

Parapsychology/Occultism
65. A History of Ghosts by Peter Ackroyd
66. Piercing the Darkness by Katherine Ramsland
67. Don't Kiss Them Goodbye by Alison DuBois

Philosophy
George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Lectures on the History of Philosophy
68. Greek Philosophy to Plato (Hegel)
69. Plato and the Platonists (Hegel)
70. Medieval and Modern Philosophy (Hegel)
71. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
72. Writings by Thomas Jefferson

Religion
73. Walking the Bible by Bruce Feiler
74. The Bible is History by Ian Wilson
75. Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
76. Holy Blood, Holy Grail by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Harry Lincoln
77. Cracking the Bible Code by Jeffrey Satinover
78. The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English by Geza Vermes
79. Hostage to the Devil: The Possession and Exorcism of Five Contemporary Americans by Malachi Martin
80. Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism: A Bishop Rethinks the Meaning of Scripture by John Shelby Spong*
81. Jesus for the Non-Religious by John Shelby Spong*

Science
82. Blood Work: A Tale of Medicine and Murder by Holly Tucker
83. Gods, Graves, and Scholars: The Story of Archaeology by C.W. Ceram
84. The Future of Life by Edward O. Wilson
85. The Illustrated Origin of Species by Charles Darwin--Abridged and Introduced by Richard E. Leakey (will read in conjunction with the original Origin of Species)
86. Only a Theory: Evolution and the Battle for America's Soul by Kenneth R. Miller
87. The Lost Tomb by Kent R. Weeks, Ph.D.
88. The Ancestor's Tale by Richard Dawkins
89. Neanderthal: Neanderthal Man and the Story of Human Origins by Paul Jordan
90. Dinosaur Hunters: Eccentric Amateurs and Obsessed Professionals by David A.E. Spalding

Travel/Geography
91. Venice: Pure City by Peter Ackroyd

Women's Studies 
92. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft
93. A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf
94. Women Who Run with the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype by Clarissa Pinkola Estes

Miscellaneous
95. The Joy of Books by Eric Burns
96. Wild Mind by Natalie Goldberg
97. History of American Literature by Reuben Post Halleck, MA (my edition was printed in 1911! It's a wonderful old book.)

Alternates (to be determined)
98.
99.
100.
101.
102.

A Non-Fiction Adventure--Introduction

*Updates to the challenge info below, marked with an asterisk

Taking the lead from the awesome creators of the Fill in the Gaps: 100 Project and The Classics Club, I have decided to create a similar challenge focusing on non-fiction books.  The fruition of this idea came to me yesterday as I was looking at my shelves of non-fiction books.  In my library of 3000+ books, non-fiction makes up about 1000+ of that total.  I focus so heavily on fiction I never take the time to squeeze in some non-fiction reads which I do love to read.  So I thought, why not follow the lead of those I mentioned above and create this challenge for the non-fiction genre.

Here are the guidelines:

• choose 50+ non-fiction books; the number is up to you.  Choose 50, 75, 100, 200.  It's entirely your choice
• Books must be non-fiction--biography, autobiography, history, memoir, cooking, travel, science, etc.
• list them at your blog (or on Goodreads or another social media site, if you do not have a blog)
• choose your completion goal date five years in the future and make note of it with your list of titles (like this:  reading goal--50 books  goal dates--March 20, 2012 - March 20, 2017)
• come back here and post the link to your list in the linky below
• write a review (or a short summary) on the book when finished and link it to the title in your list (or link to your review on Goodreads, again, if you don't have a blog)
• there will be pages posted at the top of the blog for you to link your reviews
• when you have completed the challenge, come add your link to the Completed Challenges page
• there will be a blog roll in the sidebar where I will list you/your blog linked to your lists
• grab the button in the right sidebar and link it back to this blog
• check out this PAGE which contains links to various online sources with lists of reading ideas
• I might host a read-a-long from time to time.  If you are hosting one, or an event or challenge surrounding a non-fiction title, post about it at this PAGE

A couple more important details:

• this challenge can be crossed over with any other challenges
• your link in the linky below must lead to your list, not just your main blog address.  Any links that are blog links only will be deleted

Updates:
*I was asked if the list has to be made in advance.  The idea is to work toward reading non-fiction that you've been wanting to read so the list is mandatory. However, the list does not have to be set in stone. You can change out titles as the mood suits you.

*Starting over and I'm opening up the number of years from five years to anywhere from five years to ten. That's right. If you want to change your goal and make it 7 years, go for it. If you want to make it 10 years, be my guest. I, for one, am making mine ten years. (See This Post)

***************

I hope I haven't forgotten anything.  If you think I missed something, please let me know.  I'm aiming to make this challenge as low maintenance as possible.  There will be no mini-challenges or prizes.  This challenge is all about challenging ourselves to read more and to expand our horizons.  I truly hope you will join me on this adventure.

If you're interested in reading the classics or filling in the gaps in your regular reading, why not check out the two challenges I mentioned above.  I'm participating in both and they are both great concepts in challenges.

Happy reading!