Reading Challenges?

[sarahsays]

Is anyone planning to do one this year? I've never done one, but I think I'm going to try the Popsugar Reading Challenge.

[dochas]

I've never done anything like that. I like that it isn't specific books. The number seems daunting but it seems like you could mark more than one category for some books. Or is the point to pick one book based on each?

[Nonny]

I feel like the Pop Sugar challenge of 40 books is too many for me when I only aim to read about 50-60 books in a year anyway, and when I have 23 books to read for my book clubs.  

But my library this last year did a 10 book challenge which was fun, manageable, and got me an entry for tickets to the Literary Lions Gala. It's how I ended up reading the graphic novel Saga, which is amazing, and the Communist Manifest (because that was the closest I could get to a genre I hadn't read before).  Rumor has it that they'll be doing it again for 2018, but I haven't seen a list of categories yet.

A few years ago I was doing a 101 things in 1001 days list, and I set my own challenge to read books by authors with A-Z names, and that was fun but hard (there are not many authors whose last names start with X where there is an English translation).  If I hadn't had nearly 3 years to complete the challenge in I probably wouldn't have finished.

[sarahsays]

Dec 30, 2017 17:40:23 GMT -5 dochas said:

I've never done anything like that. I like that it isn't specific books. The number seems daunting but it seems like you could mark more than one category for some books. Or is the point to pick one book based on each?

I joined the goodreads group and it seems like people kind of make their own rules regarding using one book for multiple prompts. It's one of the things that drew me to that particular challenge.
I also like that it isn't specific books because I can use a lot of books that are on my TBR shelf already.

[dochas]

I just added a few to me to read list from the Book Bub list of new books recommended by other authors. I don't think I can possibly read them all but it's good to have choices. LOL

[travella]

I tried a couple of these challenges in the past. I love them at the beginning of the year, but towards the end of the year I end up hating it. I end up reading a bunch of books that I have zero interest in reading just to finish the challenge before the end of the year. It makes reading feel like a chore. They are just not for me I guess. I have much better luck finding my next book from other's reviews here.

[tacokick]

The county library system where my mom lives has one, each month has a theme like “made into a movie”, “scary stories”, “AA literature” which I am tempted to try. I don’t like people telling me what to read though so I’m not sure.

I did the adult summer reading challenge and that really got me back into going to the library. There wasn’t a theme though, you just logged your books. I won a prize!

I do read a lot though, like 30 books a month and from a wide range of authors/topics so it wouldn’t be hard to do something like the Popsugar challenge.

[AJL]

I generally do a quantity challenge (i.e. Read X number of books for the year.) My challenge this year is to read 52 books, with the following conditions:
10 must be non-fiction.
5 must be considered classic literature.
5 must be written by a woman of color.

[jmliongrrrl]

Dec 31, 2017 15:10:22 GMT -5 AJL said:

I generally do a quantity challenge (i.e. Read X number of books for the year.) My challenge this year is to read 52 books, with the following conditions:
10 must be non-fiction.
5 must be considered classic literature.
5 must be written by a woman of color.

I like this idea! I always do a quantity challenge and have tried, but never enjoyed, the other types of challenges. It gets too specific. I end up not liking the book and it takes me forever to get through it. My goodreads goal for the year is 75.

[Nonny]

I found the list for my library system's 10 to Try, the categories are pretty good:

Read a Biography or Memoir
Read a Book about Food
Read a Book Recommended by KCLS Staff
Read a Banned Book
Read a Book Set in a Place You’ve Never Been
Read a Book with a Title Longer Than 4 Words
Read a Young Adult Book
Read a Book by a Native American Author
Read a Book in Translation
Read a Book That’s Been Made Into a Movie or TV Show

The only duplicate category from last year is the recommendation from KCLS staff, and to be honest I'm not looking forward to that one again because I was recommended The Yiddish Policemen's Union for 2017 and it was long, boring as fuck, and I hated it.  

[sarahsays]

Jan 1, 2018 17:07:21 GMT -5 Nonny said:

I found the list for my library system's 10 to Try, the categories are pretty good:

Read a Biography or Memoir
Read a Book about Food
Read a Book Recommended by KCLS Staff
Read a Banned Book
Read a Book Set in a Place You’ve Never Been
Read a Book with a Title Longer Than 4 Words
Read a Young Adult Book
Read a Book by a Native American Author
Read a Book in Translation
Read a Book That’s Been Made Into a Movie or TV Show

The only duplicate category from last year is the recommendation from KCLS staff, and to be honest I'm not looking forward to that one again because I was recommended The Yiddish Policemen's Union for 2017 and it was long, boring as fuck, and I hated it.  

If you're looking for recommendations on a book by a NA author, You Don't Have to Say You Love Me by Sherman Alexie was fantastic. The Round House by Louise Erdrich was also great if you prefer fiction.

[Nonny]

Jan 1, 2018 17:14:24 GMT -5 sarahsays said:

Jan 1, 2018 17:07:21 GMT -5 Nonny said:

I found the list for my library system's 10 to Try, the categories are pretty good:

Read a Biography or Memoir
Read a Book about Food
Read a Book Recommended by KCLS Staff
Read a Banned Book
Read a Book Set in a Place You’ve Never Been
Read a Book with a Title Longer Than 4 Words
Read a Young Adult Book
Read a Book by a Native American Author
Read a Book in Translation
Read a Book That’s Been Made Into a Movie or TV Show

The only duplicate category from last year is the recommendation from KCLS staff, and to be honest I'm not looking forward to that one again because I was recommended The Yiddish Policemen's Union for 2017 and it was long, boring as fuck, and I hated it.  

If you're looking for recommendations on a book by a NA author, You Don't Have to Say You Love Me by Sherman Alexie was fantastic. The Round House by Louise Erdrich was also great if you prefer fiction.

Thanks, I've been browsing this list looking for ideas for that category and they are both on there - oedb.org/ilibrarian/20-native-american-authors-you-need-to-read.  I don't really have a preference for fiction over non-fiction; I think they both have their merits and I try to read at least 1 non-fiction a month, although I'm not always successful.

I have read one book by Sherman Alexie and I really enjoyed his writing style.  Although since he's kind of local I suspect a lot of people will be choosing his books so they might be hard to get from the library.

[oliviapope]

My goal this year is to read more books by POC. I read 20 this year, but I'd like to get that number higher.

[bex]

I just set a number goal. Last year I did 25 and ended up reading 36, so this year I set it for 50 lol. Aim high!

I try to stick to books on my goodreads list (even if I just added them a few days before ha) which I think helped diversify my list last year because I added so many recommended books from here.

[aurora]

I like matching my reading to a challenge list, but I'd say of the 38/50 books I marked off for last year's challenge only 5 of them were really inspired by the challenge. Most of the others were ones I wanted to read (or for book club here) that matched one of the challenge categories. I'll probably do that again for fun.