Sunday, January 10, 2016 11:19 am
I didn’t do a very good job at all last year of fulfilling all of the categories in my self-set reading challenge. So this year, I decided to try something a little different—something which would also work with the idea of trying to read a variety of genres and a variety of new-to-me authors in both fiction and nonfiction.
I actually have two challenges this year, but they mesh well together so it all becomes one big challenge: An Alphabet Challenge!
My first challenge includes seven books for my “book club”—the group of alumni from my grad school program. Because our creative writing program focuses on Popular Fiction, and because each semester, each student participates in a Readings in Genre seminar, as alumni, we’ve decided to try a Readings in Genres program, spanning the first six months of the year with a book in each of the genres represented in the program. After reading, we’re to post a response of at least 500 words, so I know I’ll be posting reviews of at least those six (with a possible bonus 7th book) this year.
Then I decided that for my bigger challenge this year, I’d do an A to Z reading challenge. I enjoy reading reviews on the book blogs I follow (mostly romance) as well as looking through the updates on the main page of Goodreads to see what everyone I’m connected with there is reading or recommending or putting in their virtual TBR piles. And I enjoy curating my own TBR list there, which is currently sitting at 280 titles.
To make my list, I downloaded my database from Goodreads, sorted to get my “sounds interesting” list, and then sorted that list alphabetically by author name. Then I started culling, using the books from my school challenge for those letters.
Because this is a challenge that allows more flexibility, I’ve already changed one of the books on the list to something else—and I know there will be duplicates on several letters—I already have a duplicate for the letters B, F, and M, and we’re only in the second week of the year!
But because it’s easier to stick to a challenge if I have a list to go by, here’s my “suggested” title list for my 2016 Reading Challenge:
CURRENTLY READING: Banks, Maya — In Bed with a Highlander (McCabe Trilogy, #1)
Genre: Historical Romance (12th Century Scotland)
COMPLETED: Foster, Alan Dean — Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Genre: SciFi/Fantasy, Media Tie-In
COMPLETED: McMillan, Rachel — A Singular and Whimsical Problem (Herringford and Watts Mysteries #0.5)
Genre: Historical Mystery (Early 20th Century)
In addition to those specific goals, my overall challenge is to read a total of 60 “books” this year (this includes novellas and longer short stories, too, as I counted “Young Goodman Brown,” a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne, as one of my “books” last year).
What’s your reading challenge for 2016?
Posted by Kaye Dacus
Categories: Authors/Reading, Book-Talk Monday
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Still working on a theme/s for my reading this year, but have a goal of at least 100 books. To date, I have finished 2, which were both re-reads. I am currently reading a Tamera Alexander book, called To Win Her Favor. Once, I decide, I will, of course, let you know, so you can help me be more diligent in tracking and reading my books.
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By Dora Wagner on Sunday, January 10, 2016 at 4:48 pm
I’m going to have to stay on top of mine this year, too, since I need to read 5+ books per month in order to reach my goal, which I haven’t done in years! And if I’m going to do more critical reading in order to write reviews of 75% of them, that means I need to read a little more slowly and thoughtfully than I have been doing recently—when I can barely remember the characters’ names, much less the details of the stories, once I finish reading them.
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By Kaye Dacus on Sunday, January 10, 2016 at 4:59 pm
[…] mentioned in my Reading Challenge Categories post, one of the challenges I’m working on in 2016 is an Readings in the Genres challenge for […]
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By Books Read in 2016: THE SCORPIO RACES by Maggie Stiefvater | KayeDacus.com on Wednesday, January 13, 2016 at 3:45 pm
[…] that for my reading challenge, I’d do an A to Z challenge. You can see how I came up with it here. (As for the other part of my challenge with the books for my grad school reading group, it petered […]
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By Books Read in 2016: A Recap of My Reading Challenge #amreading #bookreport | KayeDacus.com on Sunday, January 1, 2017 at 6:03 pm