The end of each year is a time for gift shopping, holiday celebrations, and New Year’s Resolutions. We book lovers have our special kinds of New Year’s Resolutions called Reading Challenges.
Reading Challenges come in different shapes and sizes.
Generally Speaking
The Basic Challenge can be summed up in one sentence:
I will read (number) of books next year.
You’ve got the biggest amount of control here. You can read whatever you want, and it’s easy to change your mind on which books you’ll read to meet your total.
After a series of failed reading challenges, I looked at the books on my shelf and figured out which ones were at the top of my list and estimated how long it would take to read each book. Since some of the books I wanted to read were hefty, I decided my milestones would focus more on the number of pages I was reading instead of the number of books.
Another advantage to the Basic Challenge is how easily you can track your progress. All you need is a piece of paper and a pen, and you can write down what you’re reading and check them off as you finish. If you’re the artsy type, you can use different pens, stencils, printables, etc. to add style to your list. Based on my prior journaling experiences, I stick to using multicolor pens.
If you want to track it on your computer, you can make a spreadsheet. Making a spreadsheet is my go-to answer for 98% of situations. Again, creative souls can play with fonts, colors, clip art, etc. to make your spreadsheet fancy.
You can also use online sites to track your progress. I’ve used Goodreads for years.
Book Club
Are you in a book club? If so, you can set a goal to read all of the books on time for your book club meetings. As a former book club member, this can be easier said than done. Maybe your book club is the type that reads a particular genre or author that you know you like.
I was in a different book club, but I don’t need that in a bad way. We’d meet at the end of a year to set up the schedule for the next one. Each one of us would throw out a couple of ideas for books, and the group would decide which ones would be discussed when.
Some of the books I would have never picked for myself, so there were hits and misses. One month, almost three of us showed up for the meeting. We confessed that we hated the book and didn’t finish. We each gave a big sigh of relief and then poured more wine. Some of the books were wonderful, so it all balanced out in the end.
Book clubs have been meeting online in 2020. Some are by Zoom calls, while others use an email trail for Q&A. Facebook groups, churches, even PTA organizations are putting together reading groups.
Categorize Me
Other reading challenges don’t require specific titles, focusing instead on categories. You don’t have to read the same books, you just pick books that meet each category’s criteria. These are come categories from challenges past:
- One you can read in a day
- One that was originally published n a foreign language
- A collection of short stories
- One published before you were born
There are plenty of categories you can choose. One site to check out is Bookish, where you’ll try to make Bingo based on the categories shown on your card.
What’s Your Pick?
There are plenty of reading challenges you could choose, and some have stricter criteria than others. The best one is the one that keeps you reading throughout the year.
