2025 Reading Challenge discussion
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Yearly Theme Suggestion Thread
I really like the idea of around the world in books!
I would definitely love the around the world theme as I have a personal challenge of reading books based in every country, while at the same time reading an author from every country.
I'd third an Around the World theme. A Based On My Favorites theme might be cool as well. A lot of members have a shelf for their favorite books, the goal of the challenge would be to read new books that have something in common with old favorites. Like a similar character, being written by the same author, the next book in the series, being set in the same era/setting, being of the same genre, or being recommended by GR because of a favorite book or your favorites shelf. I think it might offer a good amount of potential monthly challenges & group reads throughout the year.
I like the 'Around the World' theme. I also wonder if we could do a theme where we only read books from home, including ebooks if you have them on kindle, nook or similar. This would mean that people wouldn't need to buy any books.
Ariel wrote: "I'd third an Around the World theme. A Based On My Favorites theme might be cool as well. A lot of members have a shelf for their favorite books, the goal of the challenge would be to read new bo..."
Ariel, that idea would make a wonderful yearly challenge! Would you mind if I moved that idea into the possible yearly challenge folder instead of the theme?
How about a fairy tale theme? There are fairy tales in every culture and we've probably all grown up with these stories. Plus there are plenty of retellings and books based on fairy tales so lots of scope for challenges etc
Kadijah Michelle wrote: "Ariel, that idea would make a wonderful yearly challenge! Would you mind if I moved that idea into the possible yearly challenge folder instead of the theme? "Sure, no problem, Kadijah! :)
Reading across earth's major biomes: aquatic, deserts, forests, grasslands, tundra. This is a variation of the Around the World theme but hasn't been done as much to my knowledge.
Mindy wrote: "Reading across earth's major biomes: aquatic, deserts, forests, grasslands, tundra. This is a variation of the Around the World theme but hasn't been done as much to my knowledge."I like this idea! Lots of challenge possibilities!
How about around my country? In general the countries that we live have many different borders and we do not explore the literature around, is not as big as Around the world but can help us to learn also about the countries that surround us (I will have some issues since I have dual citizenship so it can be interesting...)Also some interesting thing can be "from the roots", to read books that are considered classics or with historical importance in the literature for our countries or to challenge ourselves to find these books for other countries. For instance, Popol Vuh is consider the first l book written by the indians (in this case of Guatemala) , or I can say that in Colombia we have One Hundred Years of Solitude that is the book of Garcia Marquez that won the nobel of literature. The interesting part of this challenge is that not only we are reading new books but also we will have to learn a bit of literature history.
I like the idea of Around the World and Based On My Favourites. Like maybe Based On My Favourites could be a partner thing, kind of like twin reads except you both need to suggest a book you think the other would like based on their favourites shelves?I was going to suggest diversity reads. A book with an unusual setting, or an unusual protagonist. Could be diverse because their poc/lgbt/ect but maybe it can be "unusual" as in not human - maybe alien/robot something like that. Also read from diverse authors (include more lgbt/poc reads) or diverse as in an unusual genre or something that doesn't really fit into one genre.
I don't know but more diverse reading was my idea, but I like some of the one's already mentioned alot
I like both Around the World and Based on My Favorites. It might also be interesting to do Classics, going back to earliest known novels and up to contemporary ones. Every month is an era in time so there's a wide selection or maybe every quarter for the bigger eras. You could spend months on Victorian Era alone. :)
I just wanted to let people know there is another group challenge available that focuses on reading books from around the world. Their link is: Around the World in 80 Books.It might be fun to do something else for this group if people are already keen to join another group. I like the idea of diversity reads as it could include a wide variety of interesting characters, topics/events, even non-fiction.
I also like the idea of Classics - a through the decades theme with different decade ranges per month maybe? There is also another Classics group reading challenge if people are interested in that:
Catching Up on the Classics.
How about a word hunt combined with a monthly theme? Participants would hunt for books with titles that contain the words e.g. in February the words could be: love, heart, kiss, affair, together, passion, romance, wife, husband, partner.
Perhaps have 3-5 words (commonly found in book titles), either pick a word and read many books with the same word in the title or try to complete all the words for that month.
The idea could be used also in combination with the around the world theme, where for each country you could select words related to it, or what that country is famous for, e.g. for France you could have Paris, wine, food, fashion, perfume etc. or even French words like café, chateau, charm, souvenir, champagne …
Also a fan of a diversity theme, there's definitely a wealth of potential challenges there.
I also think Diversity would be great. It would get me to finally read a bunch of books on my TBR!
Ok all, so many great ideas for our yearly Theme! I'm really enjoying what you all are writing! 1st: The Based on Favorites is a great idea for a yearly challenge, and I've already added it to the list that we mods have started, in fact it may be a great twist for our I Spy challenge. The wheels are turning, but because it's so individualized, it won't be a good group theme. Still, major kudos to Ariel for the awesome idea!
2nd: We don't want to take exact challenges from other groups without their permission...it's just icky, but Sam F, I'm like you, I belong to other groups on Goodreads and love the variety!
So here are the ideas I've been able to pull out:
1. Around the World
2. Coming of Age
3. Fairy Tale Theme
4. Biomes Theme
5. From Our Roots
6. Classics
7. Diversity
If I missed anything, or misunderstood anything, please let me know!
I just wanted to add my support for diverse books as a theme. I'm not sure how you wanted the yearly theme to work but I feel like it could split into sections to focus on really well - either in a monthly/quarterly way, or for people to choose a personal focus throughout the year. E.g diverse authors, characters, settings, genres etc.
Also raising my hand for a diversity theme. I think that it could be very relevant to contemporary social issues. On a selfish note, it could help me knock quite a few things off of my TBR shelf, too ;)
I raise my hand for a Classic. I haven't read one in so long.
So everyone in for the Diversity Theme, how would you all like to see this run?Since most famous books are written by old white men, do we focus each month of the year on another group?
January: South Asian Writers (Iran, Pakistan, and India)
February: African Writers
March: Women Writers
April: South East Asian Writers (The Orient)
May: Jewish Writers
June: Muslim Writers
July: LGBT Writers
August: Women Writers of Color
September: Latino Writers
October: Disabled Writers
November: Native American Writers
December: Writers under the age 30
That's just throwing something out there. Please feel free to help me edit this list or come up with your own!
I like the idea of focusing on diverse groups throughout the year. It might be cool to focus on a different group each month but also contrast that with a read about that group. I like that popular challenges (like BR's Read Harder Challenge) have included more diverse challenges throughout but I think that reading books both by diverse authors and about their culture might be even more enlightening. Plus, it would be a bit of a mixture between the Diversity and Around The World ideas - I've seen both as themes for groups individually but not a blend of the two yet.
I think it would be more fun to do it by way of exploring humanity, so to speak. So, the books could be by authors of different nations/lifestyles. However, they could also simply be about characters that follow those lifestyles or live in those regions. It would sort of make us literary anthropologists. I think it would be easier to design monthly and quarterly challenges if we organized it that way. Just my 2 cents.
Kadijah Michelle wrote: "So everyone in for the Diversity Theme, how would you all like to see this run?Since most famous books are written by old white men, do we focus each month of the year on another group?
January:..."
In the month of November I will suggest not only Native American writers but maybe Indian cultures? In latin America for example we also have a huge range of Indian cultures that can be add it. Native American will limit us just to US. For december instead of young people I will suggest the Arabian peninsula or the persian gulf. I think that those regions are kind of forgotten and authors that are younger than 30 does not really promote diverse books. ..
Caro, how about November: people indigenous to the Americas
And December: Arabs and Persian Writers
Kadijah Michelle wrote: "Caro, how about November: people indigenous to the Americas
And December: Arabs and Persian Writers"
That sound good! I was trying to get a sentence that summarize all and you made them perfect!
I second what Stephanie said - is the diversity only about the writers? Or could it also be LGBT characters, disabled characters, characters from different regions? Either or both are fine by me :)
I like that Karoline Tufte...2017 Diversity Theme
January South Asia
February Africa
March Western Women
April The Orient
May Jewish/Hebrew Traditions
June Islamic Traditions
July LGTBQ
August Eastern Women
September Latino
October Disabilities including Mental Health
November People Indigenous to the Americas
December Arabs and Persian
This turns the Diversity Theme into the Around the World theme as well which makes it a 2 in 1.
Just to let you all know, I was for Innovations in Books like the Printing Press and the Internet, but you all have started to swing me.
As for the Classics People, I'm still with you too. as well as the rest of you.
Keep the ideas coming, and if anyone wants to write out a yearly plan, please do!
How about to make classics around the world? or by decades or centuries? Maybe people can decide if they do it around the world or just in their country....
My thought for classics would be one of two things,We could
1. Pick from several of the lists that claim to have the best books on them...1001 Books to Read before you Die, the Penguin Classics, The Modern Library's List, and so on and so forth
or
2. Break the Year Down into Ages
Month 1 Before the year CE (Mythologies, Religious texts, Philosophies
Month 2 CE to Shakespeare (the Saints, European Epics, Japanese Tales)
Month 3 Shakespeare
Month 4 Books of the Western Cannon 1700 to 1800
Month 5 Books of my Country 1700 to 1800
Month 6 Books of the World to 1900
Month 7 Books of Western Cannon 1800 to 1900
Month 8 Books of my Country 1800 to 1900
Month 9 Books of the World 1900 to 2000
Month 10 Books of the Western Cannon 1900 to 2000
Month 11 Books of my Country 1900 to 2000
Monthe 12 A Modern Classic
Personally, I say we go with the lists. That way people can personalize the theme to what makes them comfortable. That way if they like classic mysteries, they can make their year about reading Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes instead of feeling left out because 20 of us decided to struggle through Paradise Lost one month.
I like the break through ages. I think that the 1001 is focus in US and UK while the one in ages allow us to explore and discover what people around the world knows about that period of time... Maybe a short suggestion... Book of US can be change for books of my country? I think that most of us know a lot about books in US since these are the one that have more publicity while books of my country can help us to find what was going out in their country during that period of time. This is kind of what I wanted to sugest in my first post but didn't knew how to put it.
Definitely like classics through the ages! There's so much to pick from too.
What about Books of my country
Books of the Western Cannon
Kadijah Michelle wrote: "What about Books of my country
Books of the Western Cannon"
I like it!
I really liked the rainbow theme we had last year. Finding covers that fit to make a beautiful rainbow was so much fun!Maybe we could spell out rainbow and find books that have the colors in them like "Red Rooster".
Jannene wrote: "I really liked the rainbow theme we had last year. Finding covers that fit to make a beautiful rainbow was so much fun!Maybe we could spell out rainbow and find books that have the colors in them..."
A Rainbow theme could be fun! We could pick a box of Crayola Crayons and have a year of finding books to match the colors!
Just to let you all know, we still have till the end of October! So keep the great ideas coming!
ABSOLUTELY LOVE the idea of picking a box of Crayola Crayons and finding books to match the colors!!!!! Crayon names are always interesting and I think it could lead to some very intriguing reads! Excellent idea, Kadijah!!! P.S. It could play into the diversity theme as well! :)
I found this great website that has all the Crayola Crayon Colors that would be perfect for the Rainbow Challenge.
Don't forget the retired colors :) Most of them were retired for a reason but I love maize, raw umber, blizzard blue, magic mint and mulberry! :)From Crayola's website...
The eight Crayola Crayon colors retired in 1990 were green blue, orange red, orange yellow, violet blue, maize, lemon yellow, blue gray and raw umber. Blizzard blue, magic mint, teal blue and mulberry have been retired as per the votes in the 2003 Save the Shade contest. Burnt sienna was saved. We currently manufacture 120 different Crayola Crayon colors, not including specialty colors.
Kadijah Michelle wrote: "Jannene wrote: "I really liked the rainbow theme we had last year. Finding covers that fit to make a beautiful rainbow was so much fun!Maybe we could spell out rainbow and find books that have th..."
I like that idea!
Mary Pat wrote: "Don't forget the retired colors :) Most of them were retired for a reason but I love maize, raw umber, blizzard blue, magic mint and mulberry! :)From Crayola's website...
The eight Crayola Crayo..."
Don't worry, I won't forget. I live about two hours from the Crayola Crayon factory, and my family and I go there often. Crayola has made a small fortune off of me over the years!
P.S. I think I have every color crayon they have ever made in my collection. If not, they have made a color I haven't heard of yet.
Living near the crayon factory is very, very cool! Just sayin....
I like the Crayola colour theme - it sounds better than my idea!
What a creative group we have! Must be all that reading they do! I roughed out an outline for a Coming of Age theme. I also drafted another possible outline for the diversity theme. Let us know what you think. And keep the great ideas coming!
Coming of Age Theme
First Quarter of 2017 - Welcome to the World!
January - Birth
February - Nurture
March - Family
Second Quarter of 2017 – Childhood
April - Learning
May - Growth
June - Change
Third Quarter of 2017 – Adolescence
July - Realization
August - Separation
September - Challenge
Fourth Quarter of 2017 – Adulthood
October - Experience
November - Judgement
December - Reintegration/Rebirth
Diversity Theme
January – Age Diversity
February – Geographic Diversity
March – Orientation Diversity
April – Spiritual Diversity
May – Genre Diversity
June – Career Diversity
July – Author Diversity
August – Leisure Diversity
September –Ethnic Diversity
October –Physical Diversity
November - Environmental Diversity
December – Celebration Diversity
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2025 Reading Challenge
Books mentioned in this topic
Popol Vuh (other topics)One Hundred Years of Solitude (other topics)
Hi everyone!
For next year we thought it might be fun to have a theme of the year. And for that we need your help! Throw in your thoughts in this thread. Maybe you have a theme in mind that you would like to see? Let us know!
Some examples of themes could be: Literary Awards, Inventions that Changed the World of Books, Books Around the World.. The sky is the limit! Feel free to support one of these ideas or suggest your own!