2020 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!