On the first day of this new year, I am pulling together the reading challenges in which I want to participate. There are so many that sound interesting that I'm not doing, particularly a bunch of them that are regional authors, which I'm trying to cover with my Global Reading Challenge. I've chosen a bunch of them, but the problem won't be reading quantity, but more like reading strategy. I read 3 or 4 books a week and most of these challenges allow crossovers, so I see no problems reading enough books, merely reading the right books and then, perhaps more challenging, writing about them, which some challenges require, and some only suggest. Either way, it's a neat way to prioritize reading for the coming year.
The Challenges in Which I Shall Participate
Southern Literature Challenge - I've never read enough Southern Lit, and while some of the newer stuff is truly awful, I'd like to explore some older books. It's any book set in the South by a Southern author. I shall aim for level 4, which is 4 books, and will probably pull at least 2 from the Best Southern Literature list at GoodReads, but I haven't picked them yet.
PoC Reading Challenge - Read books by Persons of Color. Once again, kind of an easy one because I usually end up doing this anyway, but I like the idea of a public declaration that these are good reads. Also, this forces me to blog about them. The blog hosting the challenge has a great reading list to pull from. I haven't pulled yet. I like the idea of being able to choose stuff as I go. Level 4 is 10-15 books by PoC.
Page to Screen Reading Challenge - Books that have been turned into TV shows or movies. Level 1 is 5 books, and I think that's my aim, although I might be able to do Level 2, which is 10.
Chunkster Challenge - Now I'm stretching. To be a Chubby Chunkster (the basic level), you have to read 4 books of 450 pages or more. I think that's all I can handle.
Gender Identity & Expression Challenge - I'm going for Pink here, which is 5 books that deal positively with gender identity and expression. Not sure why Pink is 5 and Blue is 1, but whatevs.
Haruki Murakami - I have 3 books of his to read just on my shelf, so if I read those alone, that gets me to Sheep Man level. Done and done.
Global Reading Challenge - I'm super excited about this one. I'm going for Medium, which is 2 novels from each inhabited continent, plus a "7th continent" which can be anything. I think I might try books by island authors.
Global Reading Challenge
Foodie's Reading Challenge - Epicurean (7 to 9 books) and they can be anything about FOOD! I'mma kill this one.
War Through the Generations - This year the theme is the Civil War and to Dip, you just need 3-5 with U.S. Civil War as the primary or secondary theme. I figure this can overlap somewhat with my Southern Lit challenge.
Finally, a couple of overarching ones:
2011 Year of Reading - A different theme each month to spice it up and keep me from getting complacent.
100+ Reading Challenge - 2 books a week? I can do that!
The Challenges in Which I Shall Participate
Southern Literature Challenge - I've never read enough Southern Lit, and while some of the newer stuff is truly awful, I'd like to explore some older books. It's any book set in the South by a Southern author. I shall aim for level 4, which is 4 books, and will probably pull at least 2 from the Best Southern Literature list at GoodReads, but I haven't picked them yet.
PoC Reading Challenge - Read books by Persons of Color. Once again, kind of an easy one because I usually end up doing this anyway, but I like the idea of a public declaration that these are good reads. Also, this forces me to blog about them. The blog hosting the challenge has a great reading list to pull from. I haven't pulled yet. I like the idea of being able to choose stuff as I go. Level 4 is 10-15 books by PoC.
Page to Screen Reading Challenge - Books that have been turned into TV shows or movies. Level 1 is 5 books, and I think that's my aim, although I might be able to do Level 2, which is 10.
Chunkster Challenge - Now I'm stretching. To be a Chubby Chunkster (the basic level), you have to read 4 books of 450 pages or more. I think that's all I can handle.
Gender Identity & Expression Challenge - I'm going for Pink here, which is 5 books that deal positively with gender identity and expression. Not sure why Pink is 5 and Blue is 1, but whatevs.
Haruki Murakami - I have 3 books of his to read just on my shelf, so if I read those alone, that gets me to Sheep Man level. Done and done.
Global Reading Challenge - I'm super excited about this one. I'm going for Medium, which is 2 novels from each inhabited continent, plus a "7th continent" which can be anything. I think I might try books by island authors.
Global Reading Challenge
Foodie's Reading Challenge - Epicurean (7 to 9 books) and they can be anything about FOOD! I'mma kill this one.
War Through the Generations - This year the theme is the Civil War and to Dip, you just need 3-5 with U.S. Civil War as the primary or secondary theme. I figure this can overlap somewhat with my Southern Lit challenge.
Finally, a couple of overarching ones:
2011 Year of Reading - A different theme each month to spice it up and keep me from getting complacent.
100+ Reading Challenge - 2 books a week? I can do that!
Comments
If you have any reviews for January, you can post them here
Good luck with all of these challenges!