Book challenges

I've been visiting a few book review blogs - some very good and reviewing books I would actually read; others are very much YA or paranormal / Vampire focused and really not me (well especially the paranormal / Vampire aspect).

On many of the blogs the bloggers are participating in reading challenges. A couple have appealed to me - Haruki Murakami Reading Challenge and City Reading Challenge but I'm kind of late to the party :-(

I shall have to keep my eye out for challenges next year but I do wonder about whether they would be something I'd enjoy or could participate in. Would I like having to read a book of a certain genre within a specified timeframe? I guess I would if the timeframe was long enough and I chose a genre I genuinely like. Whether I could participate is another matter. At the moment I'm reading stuff because it's free to Kindle. I am probably missing out on some amazing stuff, especially recent bestsellers etc, but budget constraints as they are mean this is the way it's got to be.