Celebrate the Author 2011

Becky over at  Becky's Book Reviews has hosted this challenge in the past. She has decided not to host this one in 2011, and has passed it on to me!!  (Thanks Becky!)
Here are the details
For this challenge participants “celebrate” author birthdays.  The challenge is designed to ‘celebrate’ the special bond–the connection–that occurs between the author AND the reader as well as the connection between readers. It is very easy to “bond” with other readers over certain works, certain authors, etc 
Challenge runs from January 1 st 2011 until December 31st 2011
Choose one author for each month of the year. 
Read at least one book a month. 12 authors. 12 birthdays. If you like, you can read MORE than that. Read the books in any order you wish.  As long as you've got one book representing an author birthday from each month of the year by the end, then you're good.

You can choose picture books, poetry books, early readers, chapter books, fiction for middle grades, fiction for teens, adult reads, nonfiction, whatever you want. If it is a book, it counts!
 To find out author birthdays, visit these helpful sites: 

Author birthdays by date (pdf),author birthdays by name (pdf), kidsreads.com, teenreads.com, author birthday directory, etc. or conduct google searches of your own. (Hint: typing the authors name, a “+” and the word ‘birthday’, tends to work if you assume that wikipedia gets such things right.)

No lists are necessary. You can make a list if you like. But you don't  have to  make a list and stick to it.
Sign up by leaving a comment (include your link if you wish)!

If you'd like other participants to keep track of your progress, then I'd suggest having one post on your blog where you keep an as-you-go list. (If you don't have a blog, then don't worry about it! You're still welcome to join in on the fun.)