Can I read all 20 books on the Baileys Women's Fiction prize long list?

Confession time: I'm not very good at reading challenges.
Reading a specific list of obligatory books feels a bit like being back in school.  I revel in the freedom to pick whatever I want to read. Although picking what book I'm going to read next is a similar process to how I pick what to wear each day: What am I in the mood for today? Some days it's fun selecting an outfit and exciting if it is something I've waited ages for an opportunity to wear. Other days it's stressful, I'm indecisive, my brain is still half-asleep and I just don't know. I also like mixing things up; Austen followed by Dorothy Koomson, with Murakami and Donna Tartt thrown in between.

I may end up loving it or hating a book but I like to think my reading taste has no boundaries and the nearest I get to reading books that I have to is at (many) bookclubs and even that can become a drag sometimes.

However.
I like to challenge myself sometimes and I'm never one to turn down a really good looking book. When I saw the Bailey's women's fiction long list I was very impressed - there was a great range of books; some I had read, some I had heard were amazing and others I had no knowledge of. I'd read 4 out 20 already so I thought why not? Let's read them.

I also think it's really important to support women's fiction as a whole. I had an interesting conversation with one of the authors on the long list and she was asking whether women's fiction prizes are still important and necessary. I think women's fiction has come a long way in recent years. It is starting to shed the stereotype of being just chick-lit and some fantastic female writers have come along and changed the literary world as we know it. However, I do think that in terms of literary prizes there is still a skew towards male authors and it can never be a bad thing to have a prize that celebrates fiction by women, right? If they want to do a prize for fiction by male authors then I would be equally as happy, I don't think it needs to be one or the other and although gender equality is still a big issue and runs in the routes of these prizes and the issues in publishing, I think that we can simply look upon this prize as a spotlight on some amazing female writers, in the same way that the Man Booker used to be for UK/Commonwealth publications and the Samuel Johnson prize is for non-fiction. It shouldn't be a statement of ticking the box for gender equality, it should just be about giving some amazing books the credit and coverage they deserve

So here I decree that I will make my way through and read all the titles on the long list.

I won't put a time limit on it, as I know I'm not that disciplined (I've been trying to finish Austen's books for 2 years now) but unofficially I will aim for the end of this year. I've read 4 already and I will also try my best to blog about my progress so watch this space.

Current update: 8 read, 12 to go (14.07.15)