When I first met Joanna, the conversation turned into the topics we liked (or would like) to read about. She mentioned Atlantis and I told her I even had a small list of “Things to know more about” in my agenda that included, among other things, bees and life in a harem. So the next time we met, we agreed it would be fun to co-organizing a Reading Challenge that would get us to read by themes. This was the start of One, Two, Theme! which will run from January to December 2011. Since it’s ran by the two of us, we’ve created a dedicated blog for it: www.onetwotheme.blogspot.com.

The rules are simple: you chose how many topics you want to explore, and then rank them by levels of interest, with a minimum of 3 themes/levels. For theme/level 1 you only need to read 1 book, for theme/level 2, you read 2 books, etc. The only thing we ask is that after level 1 you include at least one fiction and one non-fiction. The themes can be anything under the sky, anything that has ever sparked your curiosity.

For my list I chose 6 themes, 6 levels (21 books). I still don’t know exactly what to read for each, but it was already half the fun to make this selection. I think I started out with 12 levels and decided to drop things like the Silk Road and black holes (maybe next year?). Here are the final 6:

4.    Byzantium/Constantinople/Istanbul
3.    Art business & restoration
2.    Bees/honey
1.    Olive oil

Any recommendations?

To allow people to explore what interests others, we’ve created a page where we list all themes. You’ll be able to see what other people go for and maybe find common interests.

So if you’re into Reading Challenges and this one already got you thinking about what themes to explore, come on over and join us!