2020 Reading Challenges
- reading challenges
After thinking about my 2019 reading challenges, I’ve decided to go a completely different direction this coming year. In 2019, I signed up for a ton of challenges with so many reading slots. I do like variety. And I upped by Goodreads challenge number to 250. Things went well, but in November I started thinking about the amount of stress and anxiety I was putting on myself. I found that I was focusing on books to fill challenge slots as opposed to the books that I really wanted to read. Everything worked out fine, but I need to shake things up this year. So…
No more reading challenges! Okay. Not completely true. I am not going to sign up for any specific reading challenges (scif, romance, etc). I am not going to sign up for any varied reading challenges (Modern Mrs. Darcy, Popsugar, etc). I’m going back to basics and focus on mood reading and my own shelves. But I am going to have a small list of personal challenges:
*2020 Reading Challenges
- Picture Books
- Goodreads Challenge
- Perpetual Books
- UnRead Shelf
- Library Books
- Ebooks
- Goodreads To Read Random
- TBR Jar Random
- Tournament of Books
- Monthly Themes
Picture Books (100) - I’m not following an outside reading challenge, but just creating my own. We are shooting for 26 books A to Z Authors, 26 book A to Z Titles, and 48 random books.
GoodReads Challenge (200) - In 2019, I started with 175 books and then quickly upped it to 200, then 215, and ended with 250 books. I sped through so many books last year. I’m going to continue making a lot of time for reading, but will be lowering my goal just a bit. For 2020, I’m hoping to read 200 books.
Perpetual Books (30) - So many books I want to get to on these lists. I’m hoping to read 30 books.
UnRead Shelf (50) - I really need to focus on my unread shelves. I’m hoping to read 50 books from the physical shelves. As of January 1st, I have 120 books sitting in the TV room to read. Any physical books that I acquire (e.g. Book of the Month selections) will be added to these shelves. Kindle and ebooks are not counted in this total. UnRead Shelf Top 10:
- Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
- Uprooted by Naomi Novik
- Across the Universe by Beth Revis
- In the Hurricane’s Eye by Nathaniel Philbrick
- Scandalous Women of the Ton Series by Nicola Cornick
- Children of Blood and Bone by Tomikas Adeyemi
- The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman
- Well Met by Jen DeLuca
- Swamplandia by Karen Russell
- Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson
Library Books (50) - Obviously I will be continuing to utilize the local library. I’m going to set a 50 books challenge on library books.
Ebooks (50) - I have way too many ebooks sitting in Books and on my Kindle app. I really need to read some of these. I’m shooting for 50 ebooks.
Goodreads To Read Random (12) - I currently have ____ books listed on my Goodreads To Read shelf. That’s just way too many. There’s so many that I forget what’s even on there. On the last day of every month, I’m going to use a random number generator to pick a book of the list. (Obviously if the pick is part of a series, I will read the first book [or whatever number I am currently on] and not read the one picked) That’s 12 books (at least) for this challenge.
TBR Jar Random (12) - Similar to the Goodreads To Read Random challenge, I have a cute little TBR jar that I have placed book titles into. These titles can be books I run across on podcasts, bookpages, etc, from my own shelves, in ebook form, or from the perpetual lists. I’m going to random pull out a title the last day of every month.
Monthly Themes (72) - Overall I want to move back to mood reading, but I do want to include some fun themes throughout the year. I’ve gone through and picked two themes for each month of the year. For each theme, I am hoping to read three relevant books. So that’s six theme books a month for a total of 72 books for the year. Books selected for this can cross over to other challenges.
- January - Dystopian/Apocalypse Reads; Focus on a Person (fiction or nonfiction)
- February - Romance; Black History Month
- March - Women’s History Month; Mysteries
- April - Graphic Novels and Comics; New Books (published in 2019/2020)
- May - Fairy Tales; Classics
- June - Historical Fiction; Young Adult
- July - Fantasy; Set in Other Countries (England and US excluded)
- August - School Stories; Science Fiction
- September - Banned Books; Hispanic Heritage Month
- October - Spooky Reads; About a Family
- November - Nonfiction Reads; Native American Voices
- December - Holiday Themed Reads; Last Chance Reads
Here’s hoping to a more relaxed reading year in 2020!