Lent + A Bit of a Reading Challenge

Lent, one of my favorite liturgical seasons, begins today with Ash Wednesday.

What it is: Lent is the season that leads up to Easter, it is characterized by penance, fasting and abstaining from meat on Fridays, acts of charity, solemn prayer, and many Christians give something up for the 40-day observance. Lent is a time of spiritual renewal, of a deepening of faith and prayer. Basically, it's a 40 day retreat that culminates with the glorious Resurrection of the Lord on Easter.

This year, to cut out the things that distract me from my relationship with God, I'm giving up books1. Not all books, though, just the secular2 ones, which is, basically, everything I read. My TBR for next 40 days or so will contain only works of Christian fiction and nonfiction.
Now for the challenge part: I'm opening up my personal challenge to all my readers! It's pretty simple, too.

Guidelines for the Lenten Reading Challenge:

You can either give up all secular books, or add a predetermined number of Christian books to your TBR for Lent, which begins March 9 and goes through April 20. To participate, simply write a brief acceptance post and leave a link in the comments. You can join the challenge any time from now until the 20th, and you don't need to follow my blog to join in.

To give you an idea of what books I'm talking about, here's a list authors4:

• C.S. Lewis3
• Scott Hahn
• Madeleine L'Engle
• Gertrud Von Le Fort
• Robin Caroll
• Christian M Frank
• Tosca Lee (Havah)*5
• Colleen Coble (Lightkeeper's Ball)*
• Ronie Kendig (Digitalis)*
• Camy Tang (Only Uni)*
• Cheryl Wyatt (Steadfast Soldier)*
• James Rubart (Rooms)*
• Brandilyn Collins (Deceit)*
• Rachel Hauck (Dining With Joy)*
• Kristen Billerbeck (A Billion Reasons Why)*

 I'll add to this list as I go. I'll also be adding links on this post to anyone who chooses to participate. I hope you'll join me, and that you have a blessed Lent.

Participants:
Orchid of The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia

i am
searching,
searching,
always searching
for Truth
zombie girrrl

footnotes________________________________________
1  *Gasp*
2  Secular = non-Christian.
3  I'm really excited to  finish reading CS Lewis' Signature Classics (Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce, The Problem of Pain, Miracles, and A Grief Observed), which I got for Christmas, and the Chronicles of Narnia which I won from Ky of Can't Find a Bookmark.
4  Feel free to suggest any other Christian authors or titles, fiction or nonfiction, in a comment. Much obliged.
5  Thanks to Robin Caroll for suggesting all the authors and titles marked with *'s