My reading plan so far this year has been to try to get through some of the books I own. I want to have a full and interesting library, and I love scouring second-hand bookstores for books I am missing. However, I have a bad habit of collecting them, and then not reading them! Lately, I have been taking e-books out of the library instead.
I came across the Mount TBR Reading Challenge on My Reader’s Block (https://myreadersblock.blogspot.ca/2016/11/2017-mount-tbr-challenge-sign-up.html), and I am considering signing up. I like that there are different levels, because I would be a little worried of straying from the reading challenge if I had to only read books from my TBR pile. Since it’s mid-february, and I have already read 8 books that I own and haven’t previously read, I am considering reading either 36 or 48 books (the Mt. Vancouver and Mt. Ararat challenges, respectively).
I am also interested in Book Riot’s Read Harder challenge (http://bookriot.com/2016/12/15/book-riots-2017-read-harder-challenge/), which includes interesting challenges like read a book about sports, read a book written by a Central or South American author, and read an LGBTQ+ romance novel. I think I am going to try to combine both challenges as best I can, with a focus on getting through books that I own, but trying to match books I already own to the Read Harder challenge. Looking at the list, I can already fill in some of the blanks:
- Read a book about sports – My husband has so many biographies about footballers.
- Read a debut novel – I have a book I won through a Goodread’s giveaway that certainly fits this goal, A Fierce and Subtle Poison by Samantha Mabry.
- Read a book set in Central or South America, written by a Central or South American author – About ten years ago, I purchased a couple of books by Columbian author Gabriel García Márquez that I would really like to get to.
Some of these may require some fudging to fit with some books I own, but that’s ok because more than anything, it’s just for me. For example, I really want to read Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White, published 1859, which I might use for “Read a book published between 1900 and 1950”.
I’ve never taken on an official annual reading challenge, other than the Goodread’s reading challenge based on number of books read. My previous goals have been to read more of my favourite authors (2016), read for fun and stress release (2015, 2014), read more books with POC characters (2013), and read more female authors (2013, 2012). These are all great goals, but I don’t really measure at the end to see if I’ve met them. I certainly didn’t meet last years, since I only read two books by Kelley Armstrong (City of the Lost and The Summoning), and none by Neil Gaiman. For the first time in two years, I won’t have to read anything for school, so I’m excited to try something a little different!
Emma Kristensen 