As my ‘Books to Read in 2014‘ post was such a failure, most of 2015 shall be spent trying to catch up on that list! But here are a few suggestions for reading challenges you can do, with links below to where they’re from.
I’ll try to follow them as well, but mainly I’ll be trying to clear lists of books I already had from years before.
Goodreads 2015 Reading Challenge
Again, I’ll be aiming to read 150 books over on Goodreads. Graphic novels, short stories etc aren’t included – this is only for novels.
Bit by Bit
This’ll tie into other challenges, but a few books on my to-read pile are so massive or daunting that I’ve been putting off reading them for far too long. so now, even if I only read 2% or something a day, I swear that this year I’ll get through a few of them!
- Let the Land Speak by Jackie French (reason: 400+ pages, non-fiction)
- The Mists of Avalon (Avalon #1) by Marion Zimmer Bradley (reason: 1000+ pages, author-behaving-badly)
- Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts (reason: 900+ pages)
- Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase & Fable by Chambers (reason: 1500+ pages, non-fiction)
(Only four books so far, gotta keep it manageable! I doubt I’ll even manage these to be honest.)
Book Riot’s Read Harder Challenge
There are 24 tasks in the Read Harder Challenge (or roughly two per month). You can tackle them in any order, make any changes, do them all in a month or spread them out over the year. Make the challenge yours!
- A book written by someone when they were under the age of 25
- A book written by someone when they were over the age of 65
- A collection of short stories (either by one person or an anthology by many people)
- A book published by an indie press
- A book by or about someone that identifies as LGBTQ
- A book by a person whose gender is different from your own
- A book that takes place in Asia
- A book by an author from Africa
- A book that is by or about someone from an indigenous culture (Native Americans, Aboriginals, etc.)
- A microhistory
- A YA novel
- A sci-fi novel
- A romance novel
- A National Book Award, Man Booker Prize or Pulitzer Prize winner from the last decade
- A book that is a retelling of a classic story (fairytale, Shakespearian play, classic novel, etc.)
- An audiobook
- A collection of poetry
- A book that someone else has recommended to you
- A book that was originally published in another language
- A graphic novel, a graphic memoir or a collection of comics of any kind (Hi, have you met Panels?)
- A book that you would consider a guilty pleasure (Read, and then realise that good entertainment is nothing to feel guilty over)
- A book published before 1850
- A book published this year
- A self-improvement book (can be traditionally or non-traditionally considered “self-improvement”)
The ABC challenge
I couldn’t find an original link to this one, only various people doing it. Pretty simple – read a book that has a title starting with A, then B, then C… and so on! I may just do this one, as it seems an easy way to get through books I’ve already listed.
A – A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
B – Besieged (The Outcast Chronicles #1) by Rowena Cory Daniells
C – Cold Magic (Spiritwalker #1) by Kate Elliot OR Cordelia’s Honor (Vorkosigan Saga) by Lois McMaster Bujold
D – Daggerspell (Deverry #1) by Katharine Kerr OR Dust and Shadow by Lyndsay Faye
E – The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next #1) by Jasper Fforde
F – Flame of Sevenwaters (Sevenwaters, #6) by Juliet Marillier
G – Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn OR Geist (Book of the Order #1) by Philippa Ballantine
H – Heart of the Mirage (Mirage Makers #1) by Glenda Larke
I – The Innocent Mage (Kingmaker, Kingbreaker #1) by Karen Miller
J – Jubilee Manor (Landry Park #2) by Bethany Hagen
K – Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
L – Libriomancer (#1 Magic Ex Libris) by Jim C. Hines
M – Mao’s Last Dancer by Li Cunxin
N – Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
O – Oryx and Crake (MaddAddam Trilogy #1) by Margaret Atwood
P – Perfume by Patrick Süskind
Q – All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
R – Range of Ghosts (#1 Eternal Sky) by Elizabeth Bear
S – Sarum by Edward Rutherfurd
T – A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute
U – Untold (#2 The Lynburn Legacy) by Sarah Rees Brennan
V – The Vesuvius Club (Lucifer Box #1) by Mark Gatiss
W – For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
X – I tried, but it just seems impossible to find a worthy book that begins with x. I’ll keep searching, or I’ll use this as a free space.
Y – The Year of the Flood (MaddAddam Trilogy #2) by Margaret Atwood
Z – Zoo City by Lauren Beukes
Speculating on SpecFic‘s Sequel Challenge
Over on Speculating on SpecFic I saw the very awesome idea to assist with getting caught up on series that you’re currently part way through. The way it works is:
- 1 point for Book Two of a series;
- 2 points for Book Three of a series; and
- 3 points for any additional books in longer series.
What a brilliant idea! I’ll certainly be trying this one out for size. No idea how many points I should aim for though? Seems from my above ABC list I’m starting too many new series rather than finishing off ones already started!
Though I did make an excellent decision of letting go a few series. The first book can be good and the second book utterly dull sometimes – and you know what, that’s okay. The first book was enjoyable and I should be able to let it go after that, regardless of how many are in the series.
PopSugar’s Reading Challenge 2015
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