LJ's Reading Challenge: 16 in 2016

[Laura Jane]

Every year I sign up to a load of reading challenges with the aim of reading an unrealistic amount of books, then start off reading quite a lot quite quickly but later in the year forget all about the challenges and manage to read nothing. So this year I'm setting my target small and keeping things really simple by only choosing one challenge:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

A SMALL YEARLY CHALLENGE

1. A Book Published this Year
2. A Book You Can Finish in One Day
3. A Book You Have Been Meaning to Read: Mindfulness: A practical guide to finding peace in a frantic world
4. A Book Recommended by Your Local Librarian or Bookseller
5. A Book You Should Have Read in School: Blood, Bones And Body Bits
6. A Book Chosen For You by Your Spouse, Partner, Sibling, Child, or BFF: The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August - 30th Jan
7. A Book Published Before You Were Born
8. A Book That Was Banned at Some Point
9. A Book You Previously Abandoned: The Night Circus
10. A Book You Own but Have Never Read
11. A Book the Intimidates You
12. A Book You Have Read at Least Once: A Little Princess

[Megan]

Sounds like a good plan, especially if it helps you enjoy the reading more! Good luck!

[Jackie B. -]

I really like this smaller yearly challenge. It's a great starting place, for sure! I think we're all quite good at overcommitting to reading here... :)

Good luck with your challenge, LJ!

[Laura Jane]

Thanks! I figured it would be more of an achievement to set a low target and smash it than aim high and not get close!

[Jackie B. -]

That's what I did last year! I set my sights at low and busted right through. Instead of updating my challenge goal, I just kept it where it was and looked to see how far I could go. It was quite liberating.

[Piet]

Hi Laura, I really like the challenge that you shared a link to. I chose a manageable number this year, also, and hoping too, to exceed my intended total, a little. Even one or two would be something.

Sounds like you're all set for a great year of reading ~ best of luck!

[Laura Jane]

I'm not going to officially enter any but because I'm a little too obsessed with challenges to ignore them completely, I've decided to just see how the books I read this year happen to fit into each challenge.

AROUND THE WORLD IN BOOKS
Duration: January 1 - December 31, 2016

Read books written by authors from as many different countries as you can. The authors can have either been born there or lived there.
1. UK: The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August - 30th Jan
2. USA: The Night Circus


POPSUGAR 2016 READING CHALLENGE
Duration: January 1 - December 31, 2016

NOTE: Several of these tasks are fairly United States-specific. Feel free to adjust them as you see fit for your country or language.

1. A book based on a fairy tale
2. A National Book Award winner
3. A YA bestseller
4. A book you haven't read since high school
5. A book set in your home state
6. A book translated to English
7. A romance set in the future
8. A book set in Europe:
9. A book that's under 150 pages
10. A New York Times bestseller
11. A book that's becoming a movie this year
12. A book recommended by someone you just met
13. A self-improvement book: Mindfulness: A practical guide to finding peace in a frantic world
14. A book you can finish in a day
15. A book written by a celebrity
16. A political memoir
17. A book at least 100 years older than you:
18. A book that's more than 600 pages
19. A book from Oprah's Book Club
20. A science-fiction novel: The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August - 30th Jan
21. A book recommended by a family member
22. A graphic novel
23. A book that is published in 2016
24. A book with a protagonist that has your occupation
25. A book that takes place during summer
26. A book and its prequel
27. A murder mystery
28. A book written by a comedian
29. A dystopian novel
30. A book with a blue cover
31. A book of poetry
32. The first book you see in a bookstore
33. A classic from the 20th century
34. A book from the library
35. An autobiography
36. A book about a road trip
37. A book about a culture you're unfamiliar with
38. A satirical book
39. A book that takes place on an island
40. A book that's guaranteed to bring you joy: A Little Princess

A TO Z CHALLENGE -- CHARACTER EDITION
Duration: January 1, through December 31, 2016.

Playing off of our I-Spy “Book Title” edition, we are introducing the A to Z Challenge “Character Edition.” Read a book with a character to fit for each letter of the alphabet. You can use the first letters of character’s first or last name. You may only use one character per book, and you may use memoirs/biographies/autobiographies for this challenge.

A:
B:
C:
D:
E:
F:
G:
H:
I:
J:
K:
L:
M:
N:
O:
P:
Q:
R:
S:
T:
U:
V: Vincent Rankis The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August - 30th Jan
W: Winston Aidan Murray The Night Circus
X:
Y:
Z:

LET'S TURN PAGES CHALLENGE
Duration: January 1 – December 31, 2016

405 The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August - 30th Jan
490 The Night Circus
205 A Little Princess
249 Mindfulness: A practical guide to finding peace in a frantic world
166 Blood, Bones And Body Bits
346 Buddhism for Dummies
336 Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
311 The Concise Human Body Book: An Illustrated Guide to its Structure, Function, and Disorders

Total:

BOOK RIOT'S READ HARDER CHALLENGE
Duration: January 1st - December 31st 2016

1. Read a horror book
2. Read a nonfiction book about science: The Concise Human Body Book: An Illustrated Guide to its Structure, Function, and Disorders
3. Read a collection of essays
4. Read a book out loud to someone else
5. Read a middle grade novel
6. Read a biography (not memoir or autobiography)
7. Read a dystopian or post-apocalyptic novel
8. Read a book originally published in the decade you were born
9. Listen to an audiobook that has won an Audie Award
10. Read a book over 500 pages long: The Night Circus
11. Read a book under 100 pages
12. Read a book by or about a person that identifies as transgender
13. Read a book that is set in the Middle East
14. Read a book by an author from Southeast Asia
15. Read a book of historical fiction set before 1900
16. Read the first book in a series by a person of color
17. Read a non-superhero comic that debuted in the last three years
18. Read a book that was adapted into a movie, then watch the movie. Debate which is better.: A Little Princess
19. Read a nonfiction book about feminism or dealing with feminist themes
20. Read a book about religion (fiction or nonfiction): Buddhism for Dummies
21. Read a book about politics in your country or another (fiction or nonfiction)
22. Read a food memoir
23. Read a play
24. Read a book with a main character that has a mental illness

FROM FICTION TO REALITY
Duration: January 1 - December 31, 2016

Pair 1: The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August - 30th Jan and

Pair 2: The Night Circus

THE EVERY YEAR CHALLENGE
Duration: January 1 - December 31, 2016

1905: A Little Princess
1996: Blood, Bones And Body Bits
2002 Buddhism for Dummies
2006 Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
2009 The Concise Human Body Book: An Illustrated Guide to its Structure, Function, and Disorders
2011: The Night Circus
2014: The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August - 30th Jan

I SPY: BOOK TITLES EDITION
Duration: January 1 - December 31, 2016

Read a book that contains in its title a word that can be found in each of the classic book titles. The word needs to be there in its entirety; however, homographs (words that are spelled the same but mean different things) and words within words count. Articles (a, and, the) and any two letter words do not count.

Here are the 25 books:
1. Of Mice and Men
2. A Tale of Two Cities
3. Gone with the Wind
4. A Wrinkle in Time
5. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
6. The Little Prince: A Little Princess
7. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass
8. Brave New World
9. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
10. The Joy Luck Club
11. The Diary of a Young Girl
12. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
13. The Book Thief
14. The God of Small Things
15. Around the World in 80 Days: Mindfulness: A practical guide to finding peace in a frantic world
16. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time: The Night Circus
17. The Time Traveler's Wife
18. All Quiet on the Western Front
19. The Old Man and the Sea
20. Where the Red Fern Grows
21. Island of the Blue Dolphins
22. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
23. Girl With a Pearl Earring
24. The Call of the Wild
25. The Good Earth

[Liene]

Such an interesting Challenges. I have few challenges this year too.

[Jackie B. -]

For the Every Year Challenge are you reading books from literally every year? Or, just the years in which you have lived? I'm doing the latter-- but I'm impressed if you're doing the former!

[Laura Jane]

Rather than completing the challenge officially, I thought I would just keep track of the years for the books I happen to read this year. I might see if I can fill in the years from when I was born (1987). I would be made up if I could manage to read enough to fill in right back to 1905 but that is very unlikely!

[Jackie B. -]

Hahaha. That's reasonable. I totally get that. It's interesting to see how old some of the books I read are-- I sometimes forget that what I'm reading is super old, and often super progressive for the time in which it was written.

[Laura Jane]

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

SCAVENGER HUNT

The object of this challenge is find items from the list below in the books you decide to read. No restriction on how many you find in each book.


The items to find~~
a thunderstorm
candy
a restaurant (by name)
a baby
flowers
bird
farm animal
medication
musical instrument
a disease
shoes
magic
ocean or body of water
house
heart
moon
a map
a book ( by title)
bedding
medical instrument
food
a weapon
a social media
a school (by name)
alcoholic beverage

[Jackie B. -]

That's cool! I think I would struggle to be successful with this, but I'm curious to watch your progress.