Read Your OWN Library! Challenge

And so, we begin!  Welcome to the introductory installment of a perpetual monthly reading challenge, in which we attempt to make a dent in the library we already own, for once.  If you've checked out the page on this site dedicated just to this challenge, you know that the guidelines are simple.

-Read a book you've owned for 6 months or more but have never read before.
-Report on it in a post on your blog, and link TO THAT PARTICULAR POST here at The Beauty of Eclecticism.
-Link back to this blog in your post.
-Decide how committed you want to be about this; are you (1) just going to read one book you already own?  (2) Promising yourself you won't buy any new books or e-books until you finish this long overdue read first?  or (3) Swearing off even library books until you've read AT LEAST one in your towering "to be read" pile?  Let us know in your post.
-If you'd like, fill us in on how you came by this book, and why you never got around to reading it until just now.  I love to hear how books and book lovers met.
-Check out the other blogs represented here, and please leave comments--silent hovering makes me sad.

My first choice is Stuart Little, by E.B. White, in the beautiful, full-color, 60th anniversary edition.   I decided I'd go easy on myself this first time out with a fun, short book (at least, I hope it'll be fun; I can tell by looking that it's fairly brief).  The reasons I own this book are two-fold.  First of all, I adored Charlotte's Web (also by E.B. White) as a child; it was my favorite book, and I read it about once every six months for several years.  I eventually decided I should find out what else White had to say about the world.  Secondly, I was thrilled when HarperCollins started releasing the Narnia books in their full-color editions, and was overjoyed when it became obvious that they meant to do this with a number of series.  Over the years, I've slowly been collecting them all.  I bought this copy of Stuart Little at least five years ago, in either a Borders (may they rest in peace) or a Barnes and Noble.  At the time, however, there were more important Princess Diary installments to be read, so Stuart faded into the background until I forgot about him.  It's time to correct that oversight.

There now!  There's my challenge for this month.  Since this is the first month we're doing this, simply write us a post telling us what you're planning to read and any other fun tidbits.  Next month, you can report back and let us know how it went, along with what you've chosen to read next.  Happy reading!

Update:

Gina at Hott Books quite rightly pointed out that we should probably have an exception for Freebies, those review copies that we all love to receive for free in exchange for nothing more than our honest opinion.  (Isn't that always an awesome deal?)  So I'm adding that very important exemption.