Three Reading Challenges, 93 Books

~ elenajohansenwriting

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Welcome to 2016, everyone!  Bookworms know what that means–reading challenge time!

In 2015, I tried to read more widely, and to some extent, I did, making my first forays into recent YA with mixed results, and trying some new authors as part of #readwomen in December.  This year, I want to go further.

I’ve chosen three reading challenges, because I knew one wouldn’t last me the whole year: the BookRiot Read Harder Challenge, the PopSugar Reading Challenge, and the ReadsTheBooks 2016 Reading Challenge.

Across all three challenges, there is some overlap of the tasks, but I tallied the necessary books if I don’t double-dip, and came up with 93 individual books to read, 1 audiobook to listen to, and a handful of other assorted tasks like giving book recommendations and taking photos.

I only kept track of my reading for the second half of 2015, because I joined Goodreads in June, but since then I’ve read 59 books.  From that we can extrapolate a book-reading rate of 118/year (in theory) so 93 shouldn’t be a problem, right?

I copied out the lists for all three challenges into a fresh journal, and I’m looking forward to filling in the book titles and dates read as I complete them, plus making an entry for each book.  (Did you know I like lists?  Because I’ve talked a lot about how much I like lists.)

I’ve already got one book down, actually, the less-than-100-page book, but I’m still working out how often I want to post about these challenges (individual posts for each task, even if I double-post on a day? “Here’s what I read this week”? Or should I do it monthly?) so I’ll sort that out by next week and set up my format so I’m consistent all year.

Oh, and if anyone is doing, or decides to do one of these challenges?  My novel What We Need to Survive is post-apocalyptic, and that’s on all three lists… (hint hint, /smirk)

13 thoughts on “Three Reading Challenges, 93 Books”

  1. So many books! It sounds really interesting. I’ve already committed to read 50 books via Goodreads’ challenge, but I may look at the challenges you’re doing – maybe they’ll give me some additional motivation.
    Good luck with your challenge! I look forward to seeing your posts!

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    1. A lot of the tasks are non-specific, like page counts (under 100, over 500), but then there’s “Read a book originally published in the decade you were born” and “Read a book with a protagonist who has your occupation.” I like that some of them are going to make me stretch–I’m reading a murder mystery right now, and I hardly ever touch that genre–but there’s enough flexibility that there’s room for books I already know I want to read.

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      1. That really does sound great and I really need to read more widely. I think I may do the 2016’s Ultimate Reading Challenge on PopSugar.

        (I love murder mysteries so I hope you enjoy the one you’re reading.)

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      2. I finished it, it was meh. Didn’t convert me to the genre.

        As for doing the PopSugar challenge, I’d say that’s definitely the most flexible of the three I’m doing in terms of usable books for it, and the number of books isn’t terribly long, so it sounds like a good fit for you and your eminently reasonable goal.

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  2. 0.0 *gapes* Are you serious?! 93 books?! Honestly people! I swear everyone has a minimum of 60 books on their reading challenge list for the year and here I sit with my minute 30 books. Y’all just blow me out of the water. Really! Though, I must say that I am quite excited to watch everyone’s journey, including your’s Elena! 93 books is a lot, but given your 2015 number, you should be completely fine! I look forward to following your journey in 2016! ^.^

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    1. I’ve always been a fast reader, and if I’m not writing, it’s my activity of choice, so I’ll wager I spend more time doing it than a lot of people, even other bookworms. And really, if 30 is a good goal for you, then that’s fine! I know it can be tempting to stack yourself against others–I’ve seen people pledge 150 or 200 books for their GR challenges–and I just can’t imagine!

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      1. Haha! I’ve seen people REACH their GR goal of 200+ books. It’s insane! Granted, I don’t spend nearly as much time reading as other people and I do have a slower than average reading pace. Oh well. :p

        I learned to not compete with people in this context and I’m fine with my 30 books. That’ll be more than I’ve ever read in a year. So, I’d be happy if I got that many books read. ^.^

        Thank you for your kind words and support!

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    1. I am a bit of speedreader, though sometimes that’s a disadvantage, when I race through a book too fast then a few months later I can hardly remember what happened! And there are definitely books with prose too lovely to dash through. But I have been known to devour YA novels in less than a day, if they get their claws into me.

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