For most of my life, I’ve just read whatever was next in the stack or something I was in the mood for. Reading challenges have helped broaden my horizons and be more intentional in my reading. Plus it’s fun to share reading lists with the other participants. And some challenge hosts offer drawings for prizes!
I dropped one challenge I participated in last year. All of these are categories I already read anyway. Plus they leave me some room to still delve into something new and unexpected through the year.
I have not heard or seen anything from Karen at Books and Chocolate about whether she is hosting the Back to the Classics Challenge again this year–so that probably means she isn’t. That’s too bad, as this was one of my favorites. But I’m sure she has other priorities in her life right now.
I will still read classics, though. I’ve made it a mission to since I wasn’t exposed to many growing up. I’ve been trying to read through Dickens novels that I haven’t read yet. All I have left are Martin Chuzzlewit, Barnaby Rudge, Dombey and Son, and The Mystery of Edwin Drood, so I’ll read at least one of those. I also got the audiobooks for Pilgrim’s Regress by C. S. Lewis and Martyr of the Catacombs. I finished Anthony Trollope’s Barsetshire series last year, so I’d like to explore some of his other works.
Bev at My Reader’s Block hosts the Mount TBR Reading Challenge, which encourages us to get to those books we already own but have not read yet. That’s something I need to do every year, and I have enjoyed participating with Bev the last few years. She has the goals set out as a series of mountains, and we’re supposed to declare which one we’re aiming for. I think I’ll stay with Mt. Vancouver (36 books), even though I’ve reached the next level a couple of years. The sign-up and more information for this challenge are here.
Shelly Rae at Book’d Out hosts the Nonfiction Reader Challenge. This can be done one of two ways. Shelly has twelve books in different categories that we can aim for. Or we can be a “Nonfiction Grazer” and make our own goal. Although I might hit a few of her categories, I’ll go the grazer route. I normally read several nonfiction books (over 30 last year). This year, I’d like to hit these categories:
- At least one biography, autobiography, or memoir.
- One writing book
- One book of humor
- One Bible study book
- One Christian living book
- One book of letters or journals
- One book by C. S. Lewis that I have not read yet
- One book on organization or productivity
- One book pertaining to a holiday (probably Christmas)
- One book related to midlife or aging
Finally, The Intrepid Reader. hosts the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. A good many of my fictional reads fit this category. I’m going to aim for the Medieval level at 15 books.
And that does it for this year, I think!
Do you participate in reading challenges? Which ones.
I enjoy participating in the Goodreads reading challenge. I like keeping track of the books I read. Reading and writing are two of my favorite things to do. 🙂 Have a blessed day!
I do the Goodreads challenge, too. I didn’t think to mention it. Reading and writing are among my favoritest things, too. 🙂
Goodreads here as well. It’s also a great place to keep track of them, plus I write a short review for nearly all of them. Just finished my second for the year (Marcus Brotherton’s “A Bright and Blinding Sun”), although the first one I’d begun in December and needed more savoring. (“Son of the Middle Border” by Hamlin Garland, an oldie I’d missed.)
I do Goodreads, too. Good work on finishing two books already!
One was a “A Son of the Middle Border,” which I’d started a month earlier. Then Marcus Brotherton’s incredible “The Bright and Blazing Sun” came and I couldn’t put it down! (I recently learned that his fingerprints are on a couple of Adom Makos’s amazing books, and also the memoir of Gary Sinise.)
Thirty non-fiction books boggles my mind. That is amazing. I just posted on my personal Reading Challenges for the year. My Goodreads goal is 40 books for this year, but I’m hoping to make it to 45.
A third of the 30 were the Wiersbe Bible study books to go along with what I was reading in the Bible this year. I gravitate more toward fiction, though I do enjoy nonfiction. I think of fiction as something to relax with, though I do also learn from it. But I think of nonfiction as something to learn from, so I approach it with a different mindset. It’s a little harder for me to just pick up nonfiction and start reading–I feel I need to be ready to take notes. 🙂 I wish you well on your reading goals.
That is exactly the same for me. Except for memoirs and autobiographies. Those I read with the same kind of ease as fiction.
Goodreads is all I do — I like the freedom to pick up whatever appeals to me when I finish my current book. I do have an extensive (to me, it’s over 100 books) to-read list that I often choose from. I do admire all the challenges you participate in! And I too would like to read more classics. I notice that every time I read a book AFTER reading a classic, that book tends to seem pretty meh to me. Happy reading in 2023!
Good luck with your goals, and thanks for participating in the 2023 Nonfiction Reader Challenge
I love these reading challenges! I especially like the one that encourages you to read what you already have. That would keep me busy for a bit. I also want to get into classics this year. And I was given the Lord of the Rings trilogy so that’s one of my challenges.