Thursday 19 March 2020

Reading Challenges for 2020

New year, new challenges. I've had a lot of work already this year, which is why I'm already terribly behind on my reviews, and on writing this post, announcing my sign-up for the many challenges which will help me plan my reading lists over the course of 2020. By now, I've been doing so many varied challenges for so long that I'm not entirely sure how I'd plan my reading without various prompts. Just pick up any old book I fancy - that's just madness.

Challenges 1 and 2: The Cannonball Read. I am allowing myself to count this as two challenges, because it was only touch and go that I managed to complete my double Cannonball last year. I'm not going to be the first to read and review 52 books (someone has already done that), but I managed to end in the top ten of reviewers last year and hope to do so again this year. My official goal is for 52, but I hope to manage at least 104 books reviewed (or more) by the end of 2020.

3. Goodreads 2020 Reading Challenge: I've signed up to read 100 books, and am pleased to be ahead of schedule so far.

4. 52 Books in 52 Weeks: Exactly what it sounds like. Read 52 books over the course of the year. Children's books are not allowed to be counted, unless the reader participating is also a child. Books counted need to be at least a hundred pages long.

5. Alphabet Challenge:

6. 2020 Audiobook Challenge: I've signed up for Level 4, Socially Awkward. 15-20 books.

7. Beat the Backlist: Read as many books from your backlist/TBR as possible. As long as the books were published in 2019 or earlier, they are fair game.

8. The Backlist Reader Challenge 2020: For this one, you also read books from your TBR, but here the book have to be published in 2018 or before, and have to have been on your TBR list from before you actually read it.

9. Colour Coded Reading Challenge 2020: This is a challenge I've been doing for years, and I really like it. Read at least nine books, one for each category with blue, red, yellow, green, brown, black, white, any other colour or which implies colour in the title or on the cover. Before the rules changed so the primary colour of the cover could count to fill the category, it was a much more difficult challenge to complete. The "Implies colour" one still sometimes stumps me, though.

10. Contemporary Romance Challenge: Here I have signed up for 3rd base, 11-15 books, and it should hopefully not be too difficult to complete the challenge. Nevertheless, only straight up contemporaries count for this, no paranormal, historical, time travel, fantasy, sci-fi or mystery/suspense/thriller.

11. Diversity Reading Challenge: I need to try to expand my horizons and read more diversely, so challenges like these are good to make sure I hit my goals. For this challenge, the author and/or one of the main characters (preferably a POV character) has to belong to a diverse group, including, but not limited to LGBTQIA, native, people of colour, gender diversity, people with disabilities, ethnic, cultural or religious minorities. I've challenged myself to read at least 40 books that fit these criteria.

12. For the Love of E-books Challenge: I read mostly e-books now anyway, and I want to read more this year than last year, so I've set myself the most difficult challenge level here, Legend Status, with 60 or more books.

13. Finishing the Series: I read far too many multi-book series, and frequently get bored and/or distracted halfway through. This is to encourage me to actually complete some of the many series I read, and since I did so well on this challenge last year, I've set myself a harder goal, going for A-list, to finish 9 or more ongoing series over the course of the year.

14. Historical Fiction Reading Challenge: Once upon a time, I could easily finish the most difficult level of this (50+ books), but nowadays, I just don't read as many historical novels as I used to. Hence, my goal for this one is now a more achievable 25-50 books (the Ancient History level).

15. Literary Pickers Challenge: Making my romance reading that little bit more fun, this challenge is like a book scavenger hunt, where you are supposed to tick off a list of items in romances, or books with a strong romantic element. Just as in previous years, I have signed up for level 2 - Garage Sale Guru, where I have to tick off 25 of the 100 items on the list. It looks like some of the categories are tricksier than last year, so we'll see how I do.

16. Monthly Keyword Challenge: This is one of the challenges that really helps me get through a lot of the older books on my TBR and especially encourages me to read books I actually own, not just get from other sources. It also allows me to start each month by making a long, comprehensive list, which I also love doing. There are six keywords for each month, and you can be pretty creative in interpreting the words as well, so my selection of books is rarely limited.

17. Monthly Motif Challenge: Another list that helps me work through my ever-expanding TBR list.With each month given its own motif or theme, it gives the reader a pretty wide scope to choose from.

18. New Releases Challenge: This challenge is all about reading books released in 2020, and there are enough new and exciting books coming out each year that I'm pretty certain I'm going to manage level 2 - New Release Pro - 31-60 books (although it seems likely I'll be closer to 31 than 60).

19. Retellings Challenge: I exceeded my expectations for this challenge last year, and so decided to do it again this year. I've signed up for the level Warrior Princess - 6-10 retellings and hope I can find enough stories to complete it over the course of the year.

20. Tackle my TBR list: For this challenge, I have set myself the goal of 37-48 books (Field Goal). There are also monthly challenges, which I'm hoping will further encourage me to work through my very long TBR list.

21. Mount TBR Challenge: For this challenge, the various levels are named after various peaks and mountains. Matching my other TBR challenge, I've chosen 37-48 books, Mount Vancouver.

22. What's in a Name 2020: This is a challenge that I haven't done in a few years, because I didn't like the categories offered. This year, the list seemed very achievable, though, so it's back on my list.

23. The RIP 15 Challenge: This challenge is one that I take part in every September to October, because I like the genres it suggests you read, and it's another easy one to complete.

24. The Cannonball Bingo: For the past two years, the Cannonball Read has arranged a Bingo in the latter half of the year to keep the readers interested and motivated and the review on the site from dwindling. I've managed to complete the full card each time, and assume I will manage the same onc more.

25. Reading Challenge Addict: As with pretty much every year since I started doing reading challenges, I have chosen "Out of this world" - 16 challenges or more entered and completed.

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