Challenge: 9 Books for 2009

I'm hoping to complete this great challenge in the next 12 months. It looks like a fun way to cut down my TBR pile. To complete the challenge, read one book from each of 9 categories between Dec. 27, 2008, and Dec. 27, 2009; the books should already be owned and waiting to be read.


The categories and books I plan to read are as follows:

1. Long: Elizabeth and Mary by Jane Dunn (480 pages)
   
2. Free: The Sea by John Banville (Bought with a gift card.)
   
3. Dusty: The Christie Caper by Carolyn Hart More Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin (I've had this for 3+ years)
   
4. Used: Virgin in the Ice by Ellis Peters (A friend passed it along to me.)Lady Susan by Jane Austen (Bought in used bookstore)
   
5. Letter: Ruins of Gorlan by John Flanagan (The R in Ruins = the R in Reads)
   
6. Strange: Coal by Barbara Freese (Hey, it's a book about coal.)
   
7. Cover: My Man Jeeves by P. G. Woodhouse (Maybe not ugly, but not beautiful either)
   
8. Alive or Not: On Agate Hill by Lee Smith (Southern Book Critics Circle Award and Academy Award in Fiction from American Academy of Arts and Letters)
9. Distance: The Dead of the Night by John Marsden (distance 16,565 km [10,293 mi] using author's birthplace of Victoria, Australia)

The explanations for the categories and full rules can be found on challenge's blog (click here). Only two books can overlap other challenges, although there is no helping the overlap with the Read and Review challenge (to review each book you read in 2009).

No lists or sign up is necessary. Just fulfill the requirements, post on the blog, review the book, and you're done!