I have been thinking about the 2015 challenge for some time and am finally getting a list posted.  Some of these categories came to mind after browsing through the Nancy Pearl books.  Others, like Authors, are personal favorites that are "must reads" for me every year.  So far I have 12 categories and would like to add some of your favorites.--Mary

Super Challenge = All categories  (Perhaps 15)

Regular Challenge = 12 categories

Lite Challenge = 6 categories

Any category may be replaced by a "Free Choice" 

1.  Someone from your state

2.  Someone from China

3.   A criminal

4.  A poet

5.  A military hero

6.  An author

7.  A Middle Eastern person

8.  An immigrant's story

9.  Diary, letters, or journal format

10. Autobiography

11. Someone involved in a scandal

12. Entertainer

13.  Sports figure

14.  Inventor or founder or captain of industry

a sports figure?

Hello Charles!

Thanks for your input.  I'd be happy to add a sports figure to the list!

Mary

Great list for a challenge.  Good work, Mary.

Thanks, Pamela!  

I hope you will have fun selecting your biography titles for 2015!  Filling in my several challenge lists for the upcoming year is one of my favorite things to do, sometimes causing me to put off things I really ought to be doing!

Mary

P.S.  I may be adding categories if there are any suggestions during the next week.

Thanks, Tess!

I have added your category suggestion (Inventor or founder or captain of industry) to the list for 2015.  I appreciate your input!  

Mary 

how would a travel narrative be classified. is it a type of memoir or something else?

Hello Charles,

I consider travel narratives to be memoirs and include them on my biography lists.  Last year I read a Bill Bryson book for one of my biography categories.  

Mary

I think there may need to be a political figure or something close to that. For example, I have a short biography of Martha Washington that I want to read, but I don't know what category it would fit in besides the wild card. I hate to use up the wild card the first thing before I get started.

Maybe presidents or president's wives.

Charles, the list is what it is at this point.  However, you may substitute Free Choice for any category you choose.  It's your reading list!  I sometimes also "stretch" the boundary of a category to include a book I really want to read.

Mary

This may not be a popular view, but I think you should read the books you want to read, Charles, and fit them into the categories anyway you can.  I always see these lists as guides, but not the only path.  Sometimes just reading new material is the point, not how precisely it fits in the list.