I’ve never done a proper reading challenge. One that lists all the different types of books I should read. The reading challenge I did is the Goodreads one when I just set a goal of how many books I’ll read this year. But in 2018 I want to seriously do one proper reading challenge. The problem is which one to choose? Here is a very comprehensive list of all 2018 reading challenges.
In this post, I’m collecting all of the reading challenges I found interesting in a hope that this will help me choose one of them.
- 2018 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge – 40 book prompts. Prompts I like: A book by a local author, A book about feminism, A book mentioned in another book. Prompts I don’t like: A book about or set on Halloween, A book set at sea, A book with song lyrics in the title
- Pick one of the 50 great ideas for DIY Reading Challenges by Book Riot
- BOOK RIOT’S 2018 READ HARDER CHALLENGE – 24 prompts. Prompts I like: A romance novel by or about a person of colour, A sci-fi novel with a female protagonist by a female author, A book with a female protagonist over the age of 60. Prompts I don’t like: A western. So it’s only one prompt I’m not a fan of, this seems promising.
- Around the Year in 52 Books – ok, there are so many great prompts for this challenge I cannot even make a simple list here.
- Bookish’s 2018 Reading Challenge – A lot of the prompts aren’t very unique or challenging, and it the USA focused as some of the prompts mention states you live in.
- Modern Mrs Darcy The 2018 Reading Challenge – what I like about this challenge it’s that it’s small, only 12 prompts. I like that this challenge won’t take over my whole reading plans, because thought the year I can easily choose 12 books that will suit one of the prompts, it’s harder when there are 52 prompts…
- Riveted 25 Reading Goals – prompts about dysfunctional family dynamics and book with a POC on the cover are standing out for me in this challenge.
I cannot commit to any of those challenges… But I’ll be revisiting them in few weeks for sure.
What reading challenges are you participating in this year? Any challenge that you’d recommend?
I’ve decided to make my own bespoke challenge for myself, with various categories, nothing too demanding and one I should be able to stick to without feeling pressured to read certain books.
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I definitely don’t want to feel pressured to read certain books just to check a box a prompt on challenge. But I’ll try to find a books I’ll like to read that fit some of the challenges categories.
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I’ll stick with the Beat the Backlist challenge I think!
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It fits within the scope of my personal challenge this year, so I’m going to sign up, too!
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I honestly never thought about doing a reading challenge. Well it crossed my mind once, but then I thought “You’ll forget about it in a month anyway so why bother?” and I never participated in one. The challenges you picked sound all really interesting, but I feel like I couldn’t commit to one of the big ones. Like you said they would take over my reading plans too much. But the Modern Mrs Darcy is once I could actually see myself committing to.
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Yes, so many of the reading challenges would eat up the majority of my reading time for the year, just can’t do them. That and, though I’m all about expanding my reading horizons, I’m not going to read a book from a genre that I’ve already given a fair shot at and simply dislike, and what’s the point in committing to a reading challenge you know from the onset you won’t finish? The Modern Mrs. Darcy Challenge is totally doable and the prompts aren’t very limiting. Don’t think I’ll do it this year, but it is definitely one I think I could succeed at. Keep us updated!
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If you do the Book Riot challenge and you need a recommendation for a Western, I have a GREAT one: News of the World by Paulette Jiles. I don’t read Westerns usually but this one would count as one and it’s just so good.
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Thank you for the recommendation, I won’t have no idea what to pick up for Western.
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I’ve tried several different book challenges over the years but I think I’ve only ever finished one or two 😔
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It’s hard to commit to sticking to some strict reading routine, selecting books based on rules. I think it probably can result in you finding some great books you wouldn’t pick up otherwise. And finding books that you hate too…
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I was going to do one but found them all a bit too restrictive (at least the ones I found, it’s more than a little possible that I was looking in the wrong places) I like to think of them as prompts rather than strict rules and some of the categories were so specific. This year, I’ve created my own – https://booksinteralia.com/2018/01/02/the-books-inter-alia-reading-challenge-2018/ . I’m hoping that it’ll provide me with inspiration during reading slumps and encourage me to read somewhat outside of my comfort zone. Some of the categories will take some research/thinking about but – fingers crossed – hopefully, they’re easy enough to not feel like a chore.
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Thanks for sharing your book challenge. I like it because it’s not super long and seems doable. Good luck!
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Thank you very much! Good luck with whichever you pick 🙂
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