You guessed it right (partly). Yes, I am signing up for another reading challenge. This one is the Orbis Terrarum challenge hosted by Bethany.

The Orbis Terrarum Reading Challenge

According to the rules of this challenge, I need to read 8 books written by authors from 8 different countries. This sounds absolutely cool because my reading is generally restricted to American, British, or Indian authors. I rarely venture out of this comfort zone, so I am hoping to diversify my reading by taking on this challenge.

Bethany also has options where bloggers can run mini-challenges (related to Orbis Terrarum), and I am seriously thinking about taking this on. This will be the first time I host anything on my blog, and I am really kicked about the idea I have for the mini-challenge. If I eventually decide not to host the mini-challenge, it will only be because of the lack of time or because all mini-challenge slots are full, or because…well, so many reasons really . Anyway…this is a heads-up from me regarding this.

I have yet to plan my reading for this challenge. I will probably take it as it comes and just enjoy the different books I will end up reading.

Apart from reading, I am thinking of challenging myself in some other ways as well, and one of them is fitness. This January, I gave up my Gold’s Gym membership because I was finding it too boring and expensive to boot. Basically, I had enough of lifting weights and just wanted to do something different and more outdoorsy.

Last year, I had taken on and successfully completed the Couch to 5-K plan. In the process, I realized I love jogging outdoors. This summer I decided to expand on the Couch to 5-K plan by going for the One-hour running plan. I am much more confident about my fitness this time around and am super-excited to get going.

For the upper body, I decided to try out the 100 pushups challenge.
The challenge is to train yourself to be able to do 100 consecutive pushups. That is, 100 pushups without a break. Old back and knee injuries prevent me from doing complete pushups but I am planning to do partial ones; even that will be challenging for me as I have stopped weight-training for months now.

Slowly, I am planning to add yoga and swimming to add some diversity to my fitness plan. Yoga and swimming are activities I enjoy doing, so it is absolutely no challenge at all.

The only challenge is finding the time to do it all, and balance work, life, and family throughout.

Well, let’s see how it goes. Looking forward to a summer of travelling through books (Orbis Terrarum), and pushing myself a little harder than I normally do while exercising.