Why I Love Wednesdays... Book Challenges

I am returning with my new feature... Why I love which takes place on Wednesdays. Today's proclamation of love concerns our Book Challenges
Why I Love...2012 Multi-Cultural Book Challenge
This topic seriously needs to be schedule for a couple more weeks.  I had a tough time narrowing them down.
First and foremost, I have to say that I love challenges.  Some people don't like challenges because they can put pressure on readers.  I think that can definitely happen.  I felt the pressure last year.  But what I really like about challenges is that it forces me to do more than accept and read review requests.  I have a tough time saying no and I have a tough time leaving time for myself in reading and in life.  Sometimes I need someone or something else to help me do what I want to do.  Now some of you are strong, and you know what you want.  I know what I want but I always give in, believing 28 hour days do exist.  For me, challenges are my excuse to read for me.
I picked up multiple challenges this year and I love each and everyone of them for different reasons.  But I truly love the Multi-Cultural Book Challenge because it forces me out of my comfort zone.  When I say forces, it drop-kicks me in the butt and says "get out there."  This challenge requires each participant to read 12 YA books written by muti-cultural/ethnic minorities OR featuring multi-cultural/ethnic minorities as main characters.  Though I am hosting and participating in the Black History Month Blog Hop, I don't find myself reading many books that are either YA or books written by or featuring multi-cultural/ethnic minorities.  So for me, this is the ultimate challenge.
If you look on the sidebar and view my progress, you might see a big fat 0% completion.  I can't wait to see that number go up.  January was a big lacking because my life was crazy and I had to save my reviews for the blog hop.  I'm glad I'm telling everyone about this particular book challenge because I'm hoping you'll hold me accountable...or not.  In my search for books, I've stumbled across amazing blogs and discovered new authors.  This challenge has already made me so excited about this year's reading.  Now I just have to read :)
Which Book Challenges do you love? I'm excited to hear about everyone's favorite challenges but I'm a tad afraid that it will convince me to join a few more. Feel free to create your own post and link up.  Don't want to create an entire post?  Tell me your favorites in the comments.  Thanks for stopping by for another week of Why I Love Wednesdays!!

If you want to play along, feel free to grab the image (there is a button on the right sidebar now) and link your post in the linky. Here goes.

LINKY INSTRUCTIONS: When naming your link, please choose the name of your post. Mine would say "Why I Love...Rhett Butler." Please link directly to your post and not your blog. Please participate :)

Previous Why I Love Wednesday Posts