Reading Challenges Announcement Post 2021

 I really was intending to cut back quite a bit on my reI'ading challenges this year, keeping up only the ones that helped me decide on books for the coming months and helped me push myself out of my comfort zone a bit. But when you start looking online, there are so many cool options and so many challenges I've enjoyed in the past. So the list for 2021 turns out to be just as long as the one for last year. 

I've set myself a few general reading goals, just to try to stop the doom scrolling and get myself motivated to do what I enjoy doing the most, reading and reviewing books. So I'm going to try to read and/or listen to books for at least 30 minutes a day. I'm going to try to read more diversely, BIPOC and LGBTQIA-authors and characters. I'm going to try to listen more to audiobooks, as it's a great way to get reading done, while I also do other things, like knitting, commute, do chores, go to the shops, and so forth. I'm also going to try never being more than five books behind on my review backlog, but I fear that by the end of January, I'm already back to my old bad habits again. Finally, I'm going to try to be better about taking notes while and/or after I finish a book, to help me remember my thoughts when I sit down to review.

My reading challenge list for 2021 - just as ridiculous as last year:

1. The Cannonball Read - read and review 52 books.

2. Double Cannonball - read and review another 52 books, bringing my total to 104. This year, I hopefully won't have to resort to doing short reviews of my DNFs of the year to find enough books. Also hoping I'll at least finish in the top ten. 

3. The Goodreads Reading Challenge - set to 100. They allow you to count re-reads now, but I've been burned in the past. 

4. The StoryGraph Reading Challenge - also set to 100. What, you don't log all the books you read on multiple sites?

5. Cannonball Book Bingo - you can bet I'm going to be aiming to fill another bingo card this year.

6. 52 Books in 52 Weeks - This challenge was relatively easy to complete last year. All books have to be more than 100 pages, and no children's books are allowed. 

7. Audiobook Challenge 2021 - I'm playing it safe and aiming for the same goal as last year. Socially awkward (don't talk to me) - how very fitting. 15-20 audiobooks, hopefully, I'll smash this goal. 

8. Beat the Backlist - Read as many books as possible from my reading lists published in 2020 or earlier. The books have to be started and finished in 2021. 

9. The Backlist Reader Challenge 2021 - I love me some challenges with an overlap. Pretty much exactly as the challenge listed above, only here the books have to be published before 2019 and earlier. 

10. Books and Tea Challenge 2021 - This is a new to me challenge with 12 prompts that looked interesting and not too fiendishly difficult to complete. So onto the list, it goes. 

11. Chunkster Challenge - this little challenge amused me, as the only goal seems to be that the books have to be 450 pages or above to be counted. As I read quite a few chunky books, it seemed like a fun one to add to my list. It'll also motivate me to not just read short books all year. 

12. Colour Coded Challenge - since it became acceptable to read both books with a cover primarily featuring the colours in question, not just books with the colour in the title, this has become one of my must complete challeges every year. It's another one that allows me to chip off my TBR list gradually.

13. Diversity Reading Challenge 2021 - this year, as with previous years, I'm setting my goal to 40 books. 

14. Fantasy Reading Challenge 2021 - This challenge gives 12 prompts (and helpful suggestions), one for each month, and will help me get more books of my ever-growing TBR list. Pretty sure the only prompt that will give me any difficulties is the "read a fantasy book from 50 years ago".

15. Finishing the Series 2021 - Once again, I'm going to have to go for the highest difficulty level, A-list finisher, 9+ series finished. 

16. Historical Fiction Reading Challenge - This is another every year challenge for me, and I'm choosing to go for "Ancient History" - 25-50 books once more. 

17. Historical Romance Book Bingo - This is another new challenge, with a high probability that I won't manage to finish it over the course of the year, I certainly don't foresee myself completing the entire bingo card, which comes to 30 different books. I haven't read that much historical romance in years, but it could be fun to try to motivate myself to read more of it. 

18. Monthly Keyword Challenge - six keywords per month, with flexible interpretations for those who need it. Probably the best way for me to keep myself motivated for reading, as it helps me find books to read every month. 

19. Monthly Motif Challenge - one motif or overarching theme per month. Also a lot of fun. 

20. Mount TBR Challenge - As always, I'm picking challenge level Mount Vancouver - 37-48 books. 

21. New Releases Challenge - Read books released in 2021. Like last year, I'm choosing level "New Releases Pro" - 31-60 books. 

22. Tackle My TBR - this is pretty much exactly the same challenge as nr 20. Two challenges with one amount of reading. Win. This one has monthly challenges as well, will try to be better about completing those this year. My goal - Field Goal - 37-48 books. 

23. What an Animal Challenge 2021 - This is a challenge I used to do all the time, as it only really required there to be an animal mentioned in the title or featured on the cover. Now, the animal has to feature prominently in the story. Luckily, it allows for all manner of supernatural beasties and shapeshifters, so I'm probably going to be just fine. I've signed up for level 2 - 7-12 books. 

24. What's in a Name 2021 - 6 different book prompts, which looked fun again this year. So I'm back for another year. I've already completed my first book for this one!

25. R.I.P. 16 Reading Challenge - won't start until September, but I'll read some spooky books that qualify. 

26. Reading Challenge Addict - Out of This World - 16+ Challenges entered and completed. I think we can all agree that I have a bit of a reading challenge problem, right?

Reading Challenge Wrap-Up post 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. This is the primary reading challenge I take part in every year, to be the first to read and review 52 books. As I'm writing this, Vel Veeter, the winner of the last, I want to say three, years has already reviewed 24 books, so being number one isn't really going to happen. Still, it's challenging enough reading and reviewing 104 books by the end of the year, in 2020, I managed with an hour to spare. I finished in 8th place, which is all I can hope for these days. Hence I count this as two challenges, entered and completed. 

3. Goodreads 2020 Reading Challenge: I signed up to read 100 books and managed to complete that goal. 

4. 52 Books in 52 Weeks: Exactly what it sounds like. Read 52 books over the course of the year.  Books counted need to be at least a hundred pages long. I finished this one by mid-July.

5. Alphabet Challenge: Read one book starting with each letter of the alphabet. For Q, X and Z, the word that starts with the letter can be anywhere in the title. This challenge proved tricky enough to complete (last book finished just before Christmas) that I won't be continuing it again this year - I need a year or two to "collect" suitable books. 

6. 2020 Audiobook Challenge: I signed up for Level 4, Socially Awkward. 15-20 books. I ended up having read 31 at the end of the year, so I'm proud of that. 

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. My final tally was 54 books. 

8. The Backlist Reader Challenge 2020: For this one, you also read books from your TBR, but here the book has to be published in 2018 or before, and has to have been on your TBR list from before you actually read it. Here the final tally was 34

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. This year, since the Cannonball Read Bingo Card also had squares that involved colour, I had additional motivation to complete this challenge. I only needed to read 9, I ended up reading 27 books. 

10. Contemporary Romance Challenge: Here I signed up for 3rd base, 11-15 books, and since contemporary romance turned out to be the genre I read more than anything else last year, it wasn't very difficult to complete, even though no paranormal, historical, time travel, fantasy, sci-fi or mystery/suspense/thriller were allowed. I ended up hitting my goal in February, and read 31 books over the course of the year.

11. Diversity Reading Challenge: I strive to challenge myself 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 challenged myself to read at least 40 by the end of the year, and managed by the end of October. In the end, I read 51 books that qualify for this list.

12. For the Love of E-books Challenge: I set myself the most difficult challenge level here, Legend Status, with 60 or more books, because I wanted to make sure I read more than in previous years. Since I listened to more audio books this year, it took longer to complete this challenge than I was expecting. I didn't actually finish it until Christmas Eve, and by New Year's Eve, I'd only read 62 e-books this year.

13. Finishing the Series: I read far too many multi-book series, and frequently get bored and/or distracted halfway through. To encourage me to actually complete some of the many series I read, I signed up for this challenge again, I've set myself a harder goal, going for A-list, to finish 9 or more ongoing series over the course of the year. Obviously, it doesn't count if you also START the series during the year (if it did, my total would be way higher). I ended up finishing 13 series, some are still ongoing. 

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 was a more achievable 25-50 books (the Ancient History level). As it was, I only reached my goal in mid-December and only read 28 books that would qualify as historical fiction all year.

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. I signed up for level 2 - Garage Sale Guru, where I had to tick off 25 of the 100 items on the list. Some of the categories were absolutely more difficult this year, but I still managed to find 25 items by mid-April, and by the end of the years, I'd ticked 44 different items off the list.

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 them from other sources. It also allows me to start each month by making a long, comprehensive list, which I absolutely 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. Obviously, the minimum amount of books to complete in a year is 12, I ended up reading 28.

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. I needed to read 12 books, I completed 29.

18. New Releases Challenge: This challenge was all about reading books released in 2020, and there are enough new and exciting books coming out any given that I was pretty certain I was going to manage level 2 - New Release Pro - 31-60 books. I finished my 31st book about a third of the way through December, and ended on 37 new releases at the end of the year.

19. Retellings Challenge: I exceeded my expectations for this challenge in 201, and so decided to do it again in 2020. I signed up for the level Warrior Princess - 6-10 retellings. Sadly, this is the only one of my many challenges that I completely failed at this year - I managed only three retellings over the course of the year, despite having so many worthy candidates that would have fit the bill on my TBR list. Guess my heart just wasn't in it. 

20. Tackle my TBR list: For this challenge, I set myself the goal of 37-48 books (Field Goal). Until about halfway through the year, I also did pretty well on the various monthly challenges, but that fizzled out as the year progressed and my work became more demanding. I completed 37 books by the end of July and managed to cull 54 books from my TBR in total (I bet I added more than that to the list again - sigh)

21. Mount TBR Challenge: For this challenge, the various levels are named after various peaks and mountains. Matching my other TBR challenge, I chose 37-48 books, Mount Vancouver. I like when I can complete two challenges at once, with the same amount of effort. 

22. What's in a Name 2020: This was a challenge that I took a break from for a few years because I didn't like the categories offered. In 2020, the list seemed achievable, and I'd finished it by the end of November. 

23. The RIP 15 Challenge: This challenge, now hosted on Twitter,  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. I frequently do seven books for this one, but only did the minimum required of 4 this year.

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 reviews on the site from dwindling. I've managed to complete the full card each time and obviously set myself that same goal in 2020. I had filled my card with about three weeks to spare, so this one felt good. 

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. Since I entered 25 challenges and completed 24, this challenge is well and truly met.

That concludes my reading challenge round-up of 2020. Stay tuned for my announcement post for 2021!

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.

Reading challenge wrap-up post 2019

While I may not have completed as many books, or read as many pages as I entirely would have liked (I may just have to accept that I simply don't have as much time to read anymore - sob) in 2019, I signed up for a wide array of Reading Challenges (they really do help me read more diversely and get through more of my infinite TBR list), and I can happily say that I completed most of them. Now, some might say that counting my first and second Cannonball as separate challenges is cheating, but since I honestly didn't know if I was going to make it to 104 reviews this year, I'm going to say it counts.

Total list of Reading Challenges for 2019 - all of these challenges have separate lists on Goodreads, which I simply cannot be bothered to all link here. Anyone who searches for me on there can find them, though:
1. The Cannonball Read: As I said, I'm going to count this as two separate challenges. I finally completed my first Cannonball, 52 reviews on the 23rd of July, which I think is the latest in the year that's ever happened. So I feel I deserve to count 52 more as an added achievement, finally reached on the 29th of December. As it turned out, I managed to finish in the top 10 of reviewers, which considering the winner read and posted reviews for a staggering 730 books, I count as a win.

2. The Goodreads Reading Challenge: I signed up for 104 books (I'm so glad Goodreads finally counts re-reads towards your total tally) and hit that goal towards the end of December.

3. The Audiobook Challenge 2019, hosted by Caffeinated Reviewer:  I really wanted to motivate myself to listen to books more this year, and to help myself along, I signed up for "Socially Awkward" - 15-20 books. As it turns out, I listened to a whopping 25 in total, hitting my lower goal of 15 on the 20th of July.

4. The Backlist Reader Challenge 2019: For this challenge, books have to be published in 2017 or earlier and they have to have already have been on your TBR. In the end, I read 41 books that qualified for this list, and completed it on New Year's Eve.

5. Beat the Backlist: This one is obviously rather similar to the one above, but books have to be from 2018 or earlier. I love challenges that overlap heavily. The books had to be started and finished in 2019 to count, and I completed my last one on New Year's Eve.

6. #Bookiary 2019 Challenge: Read and review at least 52 books in a year. Books have to be more than 100 pages long. Reviews have to be at least 150 words long. Comics and graphic novels don't count. I really liked it when Cannonball Read decided that you could read whatever you wanted, short or long, as long as you could write 250 words about it. Still, this challenge didn't ask me to do anything I wasn't already going to be doing - I completed it on the 7th of August.

7. Color Coded Reading Challenge: This is one of the reading challenges I pretty much do every year. It's become slightly easier to complete since the rules were changed so the colour can be the main one on the book cover, rather than one that has to be mentioned in the book title (seriously, green and brown were super hard to complete before that change). The challenge is to read at least nine books, one per category (blue, red, yellow, green, brown, black, white, any other colour, implies colour). The book's title has to feature the colour, or dominate the cover of the book. This year, I completed the challenge on the 30th of April.

8. Contemporary Romance Challenge: I was always going to do well in a contemporary romance challenge, even one that doesn't let you count anything from a sub-genre like elements of historical, paranormal, time travel, fantasy, science fiction, mystery/suspense/thriller) The  books/novellas had to be at least 100 pages. I signed up for "3rd base" - 11-15 books, and ended up reading 21 books that qualified. I completed it on the 26th of May.

9. Diversify Your Reading 2019: This one actually pushed me out of my comfort zone, I really doubt I would have read poetry without it. Each month of the year was given a different category and genre, and the goal is to read at least one book from each of them. Ironically, December's prompt of fantasy should have been an easy one to complete, and then I became super busy with work (and knocked out by illness) and in the end, I only managed to read one book that would straight up qualify as fantasy, completed, you guessed it, on New Year's Eve.

10. 2019 Diversity Reading Challenge: This challenge does exactly what it says on the tin: read more diversely. Read books featuring characters with or by authors including, but not limited to People of colour/non-caucasian background, Native American or other indigenous background, LGBTQIA, gender fluid/transgender/non-binary, refugees, ethnic or religious minorities, mental illness, neurodiversity, feminist issues, physical/mental disabilities. I'm a white, cis-gendered, coming up on middle age, lower middle class woman (who to be fair, after I realised I was asexual fits in on the queer spectrum, but that's about it). I need to challenge myself in my reading. I set myself a goal of 40 books and completed it at the end of October. In the end, I read 51 books that qualify for the list, so a bit under half of my total for the year. I'm happy with that.

11. E-book reading challenge: Read e-books. I signed up for the "Terabyte" - 75 books, and this is one of the few challenges I didn't manage to complete. At the end of the year, I was on 71 e-books, close, no cigar. So while I surpassed my audiobook goal, I failed on this one.

12. For the love of E-books Challenge: I did manage to complete this one, where the goal was simply  40+ e-books. This one, I completed at the end of July.

13. Finishing the Series: The goal was to finish series you've already started before 2019. For an ongoing series, the goal was to catch up to the most recently published book by the end of 2019. I signed up for the "B-list" - finish 5-8 series over the course of the year, and ended up completing 24 whole series in the end. I think that's pretty good.

14. Historical Fiction Reading Challenge: As a big fan of historical fiction (especially romance), this is one of my favourite challenges. This year, I aimed a bit lower than in previous years, and signed up for "Ancient History" - 25-50 books. I hit my goal of 25 on the 12th of August, but would never have managed the next level up of 51 or more books - as I ended the year on 38 historical novels.

15. Literary Pickers Challenge 2019: This is one challenge that I've really enjoyed in the past few years, it's pretty much a literary scavenger hunt of sorts. The books need to be romance or have a strong romantic element. Only one item per book is allowed. As in previous years, I signed up for level 2- "Garage sale guru" - 25 items or more. I completed the challenge requirements at the beginning of August, and managed to tick off 47 items on the list at the end of the year.

16. Monthly Keyword Challenge: This is another of the challenges that I do each and every year, because it helps me read from my TBR list. Each month, you get a bunch of keywords. The goal is to read at least one book per month that features one (or several) of the words. At the beginning of every month, I make a long list of potential books (some months make for VERY long lists) and then I do my best to read as many as possible from it. This year, I managed 33 books, finishing the last on New Year's Eve.

17. Monthly Motif Challenge: Very similar to the one above, and another challenge that helps me read from my TBR list. Each month is assigned a motif or theme. The goal is to read at least one book a month that fits. For December, I finished the challenge on New Year's Eve and I read 20 books over the course of the year that fit into this challenge.

18. 2019 New Releases Challenge: To make myself feel slightly less guilty about reading new and shiny books, I signed up for this challenge. I chose level "New Release Pro" - 31-60 books. For a long while, I wasn't sure I was going to hit my goal, but I managed 38 books from 2019 by the end of the year.

19. Outdo Yourself Challenge 2019: I so wanted 2019 to be a better reading year than 2018. I signed up for the "Breaking a Sweat" category - to read 11-15 more books or 2750-3999 more pages than in 2018. This is one of the challenges I failed, and rather spectacularly too. I read fewer books and pages in 2019 than in 2018, I will need to step up my game in 2020.

20. Pages Read 2019: I seriously doubted I would be able to complete this challenge, where I chose  "Dwarf Peach" - 36 000-48 000 pages. In the end, I only just managed to clear 36 000 pages, but I managed, and since I thought I would fail, that feels extra satisfying. Once again, this challenge was completed on New Year's Eve itself.

21. Pick a Theme: For this challenge, I picked historical romance as my theme, and because I read enough of that each year, I couldn't really aim lower than the highest level, "Expert" - 8+ books. I completed the challenge my mid-June and by the end of the year, I had read 16 historical romances in total during the year, which long-time readers of my blog will know is a shockingly low number.

22. 2019 Retellings Challenge: I absolutely love retellings of all kinds, and had so many on my TBR list already. So this challenge pretty much seemed made for me. I signed up for level 2 - "Warrior Princess" - 6-10 retellings and hit my goal at the beginning of March. By the year's close, I'd read 11 books that qualified for the challenge, and I think this is one of the reading challenges I'm going to repeat in 2020.

23. #Tackle My TBR: My TBR list is always out of control (it has more than a thousand books on it now) and as a result, I always strive to cut down a bit on it every year. Hence this challenge, where I signed up for level "Field Goal" - 37-48 books. I completed my 37th book by the 20th of July and read 54 books (about half of my total) from my TBR list this year. I'm very happy with that.

24. Virtual Mount TBR Reading Challenge: Overlapping challenges are the best, I get twice the credit for doing exactly the same thing. "Mount Munch" 36-48 books, again completed by mid-July.

25. You Read How Many Books? - I signed up for "Teen" - 104 books, which a few years ago would have been low-balling it. This year, I only got that far by the very end of December. If I repeat the challenge, I probably have to aim for an even lower number.

26. RIP 14 Reading Challenge: A autumnal challenge where readers are encouraged to read books from the mystery, suspense, thriller, dark fantasy, gothic, horror and supernatural genres. I always sign up for 7 books, and completed the challenge by the 26th of October.

27. Cannonball Read Book Bingo: For the second year in a row, my book blogging buddies launched a Bingo Card in the second half of the year to keep review numbers fairly stable even in the months when a lot of people are losing their motivation. The Bingo ended on the 31st of October this year, and mainly thanks to the fact that my husband kept promising to read the books we were going to co-review and then failing to do so, I only got my last reviews in just before the deadline.

28. Reading Challenge Addict: Out of This World - 16+ Reading Challenges signed up for and completed. As you can see, I signed up for WAY more, and even with two failures, I more than adequately completed this goal, by the 31st of October.

Reading Challenges for 2019

Last year, 2018, was a pretty momentous year for me. I became a mother, a goal I had worked towards for the best end of eight years. Recovering from a c-section and keeping said child alive required a lot of energy. Returning to work in November, after having been away for more than a year was much harder than I was expecting.

So the fact that I read a lot less than I had at any point in the same eight years or so was probably not too surprising. I didn't really take part in any reading challenges last year, if you don't count the Cannonball Read, the CBR10 Bingo or the Goodreads Challenge. In previous years, I have found that various reading challenges not only motivate me to read more, but force me out of my comfort zone and make me read more diversely. So this year, I'm going to sign up for a bunch more challenges again. In all honesty, a lot of these challenges just let me collect credit for reading things I would absolutely be doing anyway. I looked through a lot of lists of challenges, and mainly settled for ones I was pretty sure I was going to be able to tackle without too much effort. I hope I'll manage to read more this year than last year, but we'll see. My baby will be a year old in less than two weeks and he's already frightfully mobile, even before he's graduated to the toddler stage. Fingers crossed that I can find the time for reading and reviewing enough.

1. The Cannonball Read: Be the first to read and review 52 books in a year, in memory of AlabamaPink, one of the original two Cannonballers. As I write this, someone has already, before the end of January, crossed the finish line with their first Cannonball. I am going to try to complete a double - 104 books reviewed by the end of the year.

2. The Goodreads Reading Challenge: I've signed up for 104 books.

3. The Audiobook Challenge 2019, hosted by Caffeinated Reviewer: I have a LOT of audio books in my Audible account that I have yet to listen to, so I want to try to motivate myself to listen to books more. I signed up for "Socially Awkward" - 15-20 books.

4. The Backlist Reader Challenge 2019: Books have to be published in 2017 or earlier and they have to have already been on your TBR.

5. Beat the Backlist: Books have to be from 2018 or earlier. Books have to be started and finished in 2019 to count.

6. #Bookiary 2019 Challenge: Read and review at least 52 books in a year. Books have to be more than 100 pages long. Reviews have to be at least 150 words long. Comics and graphic novels don't count.

7. Color Coded Reading Challenge: Read at least nine books, one per category (blue, red, yellow, green, brown, black, white, any other colour, implies colour). The book's title has to feature the colour, or dominate the cover of the book. I always enjoy this one, especially since the rules were changed so the colour can be the main one on the book cover.

8. Contemporary Romance Challenge: Pretty much exactly what it sounds like. Read contemporary romances. Romances with elements of historical, paranormal, time travel, fantasy, science fiction, mystery/suspense/thriller) will not count. Books/novellas have to be at least 100 pages. As I have a huge amount of unread straight contemporaries on my TBR list, I've signed up for "3rd base" - 11-15 books

9. Diversify Your Reading 2019: Each month of the year is given a different category, and the goal is to read at least one book from each of them. Personally, I think November's goal, of reading a book of poetry, may be the most "outside my wheelhouse" of the list.

10. 2019 Diversity Reading Challenge: Read more diversely. Read books featuring characters with or by authors including, but not limited to People of colour/non-caucasion background, Native American or other indigenous background, LGBTQIA, gender fluid/transgender/non-binary, refugees, ethnic or religious minorities, mental illness, neuro diversity, feminist issues, physical/mental disabilities.

11. E-book reading challenge: Read e-books. I've signed up for the "Terabyte" - 75 books.

12. For the love of E-books Challenge: Pretty much the same as above. Read e-books. Preferably ones you already own. Here I've signed up for "Phase 5" - 40+ e-books.

13. Finishing the Series: The goal is to finish series you've already started before 2019. For an ongoing series, the goal is to catch up to the most recently published book by the end of 2019. I have signed up for the "B-list" - finish 5-8 series over the course of the year.

14. Historical Fiction Reading Challenge: As a big fan of historical fiction (especially romance), this is one of my favourite challenges. This year, I've aimed a bit lower than in previous years, and signed up for "Ancient History" - 25-50 books.

15. Literary Pickers Challenge 2019: Pretty much a literary scavenger hunt of sorts. Books need to be romance or have a strong romantic element. Only one item per book is allowed. I've signed up for level 2- "Garage sale guru" - 25 items or more

16. Monthly Keyword Challenge: Each month, you get a bunch of keywords. The goal is to read at least one book per month that features one (or several) of the words. I always like this challenge, as it allows me to make a very extensive list each month with books from my TBR list.

17. Monthly Motif Challenge: Each month is assigned a motif or theme. Try to read at least one book a month that fits.

18. 2019 New Releases Challenge: To make myself feel slightly less guilty about reading new and shiny books, I signed up for this challenge. I chose level "New Release Pro" - 31-60 books.

19. Outdo Yourself Challenge 2019: I really do feel better when I read, and have been upset at how little I read in 2018. Hence this challenge. I have signed up for the "Breaking a Sweat" category - Read 11-15 more books or 2750-3999 more pages than in 2018

20. Pages Read 2019: While I want to read more than in 2018, I also need to be realistic about the chance that it may not happen. Hence I have aimed lower than I might have done on this challenge, and chosen "Dwarf Peach" - 36 000-48 000 pages

21. Pick a Theme: I've picked historical romance, and because I read enough of that each year, I couldn't really aim lower than the highest level, "Expert" - 8+ books.

22. 2019 Retellings Challenge: I absolutely love retellings of all kinds, and have so many on my TBR list already. So this challenge pretty much seemed made for me. I've signed up for level 2 - "Warrior Princess" - 6-10 retellings.

23. #Tackle My TBR: I always strive to cut down a bit on my TBR every year. Hence a challenge like this. I've signed up for level "Field Goal" - 37-48 books.

24. Virtual Mount TBR Reading Challenge: Same as above. "Mount Munch" 36-48 books.

25. You Read How Many Books? - Here I've signed up for "Teen" - 104 books

26. Reading Challenge Addict: Out of This World - 16+ Reading Challenges signed up for and completed

Reading Challenge Round-up 2017

Despite a number of useful resources that help me keep track of my books and my reading like Librarything and Goodreads, since 2007, I have used a spiral-bound notebook where I write down everything I read. From 2009, I actually started writing down page numbers and checking how much I read per month and per year, and became interested in how many physical vs e-books I read and so on. Thanks to this book, it became very clear to me that from about July of this year, my capacity for reading was suffering. I was reading fewer books than in previous years, and my capacity for longer books seems to have gone straight out the window. Despite all this, I have taken part in and completed more reading challenges in 2017 than ever before. Below you can see all of the various challenges, and a short summary of how I did. I must admit, in the second half of the year, I've been absolutely rubbish about linking my reviews to the various challenge blogs (some of which have sadly also disappeared over the course of the year), so all my books will be collected here.

1. The Cannonball Read is the reason I actually have a blog. The Cannonball Read or #CBR (sign-up here for #CBR10 if you're interested) is an online race to read and review 52 books in a year (or 26 or 13, if 13 is too big a commitment) with a mission to donate profits to the American Cancer Society. We’re essentially a virtual book club where participants read what they want and write what they want, all while shouting “F— Cancer!”. My goal has always been at least a double (104 books), which I reached in mid-October and as my reading slowed down massively in the second half of the year, I was starting to wonder if I was going to have the energy to keep going after that. In the end, I actually managed 2 and a half Cannonballs (130 books), with the last book posted on New Year's Eve.
2. The Goodreads Reading Challenge. Since I had my goal of reading and reviewing to a double Cannonball, my Goodreads goal this year was 104 books, which I reached on 22/10/17. It's been bigger in previous years, it's going to be a lot lower in 2018.
3. The Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge. Read a total of 26 books, with a title starting with each of the letters of the alphabet (removing A, and or the). The exception to the rule are letters Q, X and Z, where the letter can be anywhere in the title. While early in the year, it's very easy to find books for the list, it gets harder as the year progresses. I finished the last of the books here on Christmas Eve. List of books here.
4. The Backlist Books Reading Challenge. I have so many books on my TBR-list and books that I own, so this challenge, to read backlist books - defined as anything published a year before you read it, was good. To count for this challenge, the book had to have been published at least one year before the reading dates. I wanted 2/3 of the books I read this year to fit into the "backlist" category, that didn't quite work out. It ended up being a little more than half, which I've decided to be happy with. List here. 
5. Color Coded Reading Challenge Read books with the colour in the title or as the dominant colour of the cover (the challenge became so much more doable once they changed this rule). Brown always seems to be the colour it takes me longest to get round to, I finished this challenge in early October. The colours in question are blue, red, yellow, green, brown, black, white, any other colour in the title/on the cover and a title/cover that implies colour. Full list of books here.  
6. E-books Reading Challenge. This one was a given, as I read mostly e-books nowadays. I signed up for Terabyte - at least 75 books in a year, and was surprised to see that I didn't actually finish the challenge until the start of December, probably because I did a lot of audiobook listens over the course of the year as well. List here. 
7. Flights of Fantasy Reading Challenge. Fantasy has always been one of my preferred genres to read. I challenged myself to read at least 12 books and this was the first challenge I completed in 2017, in early March. In total, I ended on 48 books. 
8. 10th Annual Graphic Novel & Manga Reading Challenge. At the start of the year, I had a lot of unread comics/graphic novels. I really wanted to motivate myself to read through more of them, but ended up reading the bulk of the books in late November, early December. I signed up for Modern Age - to read and review at least 12 books during the year, and finished the very last book (and review) in the afternoon on New Year's Eve. Full list here. 
9. Historical Romance Reading Challenge. I do like a reading challenge that basically lets me keep reading exactly the genres and books that I already enjoy. It'll come as no surprise to people following my reviews that I read a lot of historical romance, but this year, the majority of the romance I read seems to be contemporary. I signed up for level 4 - Marchioness - 26-35 books, and ended the year with 31 books towards the end of November. 
10. Diverse Reads Reading Challenge. Every year, I try to remind myself that I could do a lot better about reading books by and about people who are not cis-gendered, straight white women. In 2017, I challenged myself to read least 30 books that are written by or about characters including but not limited to LGBTQIA, persons of colour, gender diversity, people with disability (including physical, sensory, cognitive, intellectual or developmental; chronic conditions, mental illnesses and addiction) and ethnic, cultural and religious minorities. By the end of June, I'd read 30 books, at the end of the year, my total came to 54, which is not bad at all. 
11. Literary Pickers Reading Challenge. This challenge is basically a scavenger hunt, where you get a list of items (or characters, or story tropes) to check off of a list. The books you use to "pick" things off the list have to be romances, or books with a heavy romantic elements. I signed up for 25 items (the middle level) and managed to complete that by mid-June. In the end, I found 40 items in different books. What I absolutely sucked at, was updating once a month with my progress. Mea culpa. 
12. Monthly Keyword Challenge. This has been one of my favourite challenges for several years now, and it allows me to do one of the things I love almost as much as reading - making lists about things I'm planning to read each month. With five or six keywords for each month of the year, you read books that contain one or more of said keywords. Sadly, this is one of the challenges where the hosting website just seems to have "died" at some point during the year, but my complete list of books can still be found here. 
13. Monthly Motif Challenge. Very similar to the monthly keyword challenge, except you get 12 different motifs featured over the course of the year. Some months I managed several books, other months I only barely managed one. This is another challenge where I completely failed to link up my reviews in the second half of the year (I was struggling just to review at all). My complete list came to 30 books. 
14. New Author Reading Challenge. I do like to try new things, and this year challenged myself to reading books by at least 30 different new authors. I completed the challenge by mid-October, and in total discovered books by 39 authors in 2017.
15. New to Me Reading Challenge. This challenge isn't just for new authors, but also genres or series as well. I wanted to discover at least 40 different new things (which I managed by 22/10, but by the end of the year, I had 52 different "new to me" items, which is a decent result. 
16. Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. This challenge is all about historical fiction of all kinds. If it's set in the past, it counts. It's one of the ones I can normally do fairly easily, without really changing my reading habits at all. As always, I signed up for the highest level (Prehistoric) of 50+ books and I reached it by the beginning of November. At the end of the year, my total was 61 books.
17. Pick Your Genre Challenge. Because I couldn't find a specific challenge for all the various romances I read, I made this my Romance Challenge for both 2016 and 2017. The minimum amount to read here is also 12 books, but knowing how much romance I tend to get through, I set myself the challenge of 50 books, which I reached in early September. By the end of the year, I'd read 75 books. 
18. Paranormal Reading Challenge. As with romance, paranormal/urban fantasy books are a genre I read a lot of. So it seemed pretty natural to sign up for a challenge I'd probably be able to ace without doing anything new. I challenged myself to read at least 24 books, and ended up with 41 at the end of the year. 
19. Pages Read Reading Challenge. In 2016, I didn't read as much as in previous years, and therefore set myself a lower level on this challenge, just in case. I signed up for level 4 - Apple Tree - 48 000 pages. It turns out that was a good idea, as this year, I read fewer pages than since I started actually checking that sort of thing in 2009. I had to read a lot in December to make sure I would even make this goal (which I reached on December 30th). In total, I read 48276 pages, which only just covered this goal. Suffice to say, it's not been a great reading year for me.
20. Review Writing Challenge. Since the whole point of the Cannonball Read is both to read and review, to make money for charity, signing up for a review writing challenge seemed like a good idea. I hadn't counted on how much of the year book reviewing was going to be a massive chore, and I spent far too much of 2017 trying to remember a book I read two months ago when it finally came time to blog it. My goal for this challenge was the same as on my blog - a minimum of 104 reviews, but since I frequently review more than one book in a post, it took me much longer to complete this challenge than to get to my double Cannonball. Having gone back and checked, I didn't actually complete my 104th review until the 23rd of December.
21. #ShelfLove Challenge 2017. This challenge was all about reading the books you actually own already. At the start of 2017, I had 544 books listed as "To Read" in my personal library (according to LibraryThing). In 2016, 28% of the books that I read were ones I'd acquired before 2016, so I wanted my goal for this 2017 to be at least 30% of the total. Because of that, I signed up for level 5 of this challenge, "My shelves are now my BFF (41-50 books)". By Christmas Eve, I'd read 41 books, and by New Year's Eve, I'd read 46 - which means a whole 35% of the books I read this year, were books I physically owned and acquired before 2017. I'm happy with that result. 
22. #RockMyTBR Challenge 2017. After a heroic cull of my Goodreads TBR shelf, said shelf still contained 947 books at the start of 2017, so more books than I could read in about six years, even if I didn't keep adding to it. Now, at the start of 2018, it's on 1096 (Ha! It's never getting smaller) One of the side effects of the Cannonball Read is that I keep discovering authors and books that seem so tempting, and that's before you count all the other ones I find on the many other review sites I frequent. December, with it's many "best of the year" lists is especially dangerous. I set myself a goal of at least 50 books from my TBR list, which I reached in mid-October. At the end of the year, I'd read 68 books (no one message me to say just how many more I actually added to the list over the course of the year). 
23. What an Animal Challenge. A reading challenge that I've taken part in for years was made a tiny bit harder this year as you can no longer count a book if it just has an animal in the title or on the cover. The animal has to play a major part of the plot, or a character has to turn into an animal or creature or some sort. Nevertheless, I was pretty confident that I could manage the highest level - 21 or more books, and I completed my 21st book by early May. By the end of the year, I'd read 54 books that qualified. 
24. What's in a Name 2017 Challenge. I failed to complete more than two of the seven categories of this in 2016, because I just didn't feel inspired. I liked the categories for 2017 a lot more, so decided to try again. I completed the challenge on the 9th of July. 
25. Women Challenge 2017. This reading challenge is clearly geared towards people who don't already read primarily female and female-identifying authors. I still sign up for it, and try to make it a tiny bit harder by only allowing myself to list each female author once on the list. As in many years before, I signed up for level 4, Wonder Woman, 20 or more books written by a woman. I'd hit that number by the end of April, and by the end of the year, I had read books by 66 different female authors. 
26. 2017 YA Reading Challenge. I read a lot of YA literature as well, so I challenged myself to read at least 12 books in 2017. I hit that goal by the end of April, but by the end of the year, I'd only read a total of 26, so I really haven't been hitting the YA books as much this year as in previous ones. 
27. #RIPXII Reading Challenge. Hosted by Estella's revenge. Read books in the mystery, suspense, thriller, dark fantasy, Gothic, horror and supernatural genres. I sign up for all three reading levels, totalling 7 books. 
28. You Read How Many Books? 2017. In 2016, I failed in my goal to reach level 2 of this (150 books), so for 2017, I signed up for level 1, 100 books. As it turns out, this was a good plan, as I was far from reaching level 2 this year. 
29. Reading Challenge Addicts 2017. The highest level for on this challenge is "Out of This World - 16 challenges entered and completed by the end of 2017". While I may have read fewer books and total pages in 2017 than at any point since 2009, I still successfully took part in and completed 29 separate challenges, as this post proves. I'm still not sure if that's sad or impressive.

Autumn reading challenge: Readers Imbibing Peril XIII (#RIPXII)

Every September through October for the last few years, I've been participating in a fun reading challenge that pretty much lets me get credit for reading a whole load of books I would probably be reading anyway.

The R.I.P challenge (Readers Imbibing Peril) is now in it's 12th year, now with new hosts, over on Estrella's Revenge. Genres included in the challenge are

• Mystery
• Suspense
• Thriller
• Dark fantasy
• Gothic
• Horror
• Supernatural

There are several challenge levels, but since the most advanced one only requires you to read four books, I'm going to do what I always do, which is sign up for Peril the First (4 books), Peril the Second (2 books) and Peril the Third (1 book), making my grand total at least 7 books. I will easily cover that goal in the increasingly darkening autumn months and I like sharing my reviews with new people. So far, I've read three books in September that qualify for the challenge and have another few lined up.

Reading Challenges for 2017

So last year, I tried to cut down on my reading challenges, but still completed a total of about 16 throughout the year. As is always the case during December, once I start looking for new challenges, there are just SO many that look exciting. Case in point, I'm currently looking at 28 different ones, most of them running throughout 2017. A lot of them are ones I've done before, but others are brand new ones I found while browsing online. Doing separate sign-up posts for all of them would just be exhausting (as it is, this post is likely to take hours), so I'll gather them all here.

1. The Cannonball Read. The reason I started book reviewing in the first place. The Cannonball Read (sign-up here until the 13th of January) is an online race to read and review 52 books in a year (or 26 or 13) with a mission to donate profits to the American Cancer Society. We’re essentially a virtual book club where participants read what they want and write what they want, all while shouting “F— Cancer!”. My goal has always been at least a double (104 books), but in a very good year, I can complete a triple (156). My goal this year is just to do better than 2016, when I came in fourth, and reviewed 135 books.
2. The Goodreads Reading Challenge. Again one I do every year, because I like to see the line creeping closer to my goal being fulfilled. For the last few years, my goal has been 104 books (the aforementioned double Cannonball), I don't see any need to change that. 
3. The Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge. Read a total of 26 books, with a title starting with each of the letters of the alphabet (removing A, and or the). The exception to the rule are letters Q, X and Z, where the letter can be anywhere in the title. 
4. The Backlist Books Reading Challenge. In an attempt to get through more of the MANY books on my TBR, most of which were published quite a few years ago, I'm signing up for this challenge, where the goal is to read backlist books - defined as anything published a year before you read it. So if I read a book on the 16th of January 2017, it needs to have been published on the 16th of January 2016 or earlier. I read a lot of new books, but should be fine with this challenge too. My goal is that at least two thirds of the books I read this year fit in this category.
5. Color Coded Reading Challenge - one I really enjoy. Read books with the colour in the title or as the dominant colour of the cover (the challenge became so much more doable once they changed this rule). The colours in question are Blue (or any shade thereof, like turquoise, navy, azure, aquamarine etc.)
   Red (or any shade of it, like Scarlet, Crimson, Burgundy, Bloody etc.)
   Yellow (or Gold, Lemon, Maize, Blonde etc)
   Green (Emerald, Lime, Jade etc)
   Brown (Tan, Beige, Chocolate, Sand, Cinnamon etc.)
   Black (Ebony, Charcoal, Raven, Jet etc.)
   White (Ivory, Eggshell, Cream etc.)
   Any other colour in the title/on the cover (Purple, Orange, Pink, Silver, Grey etc.)
   A title/cover that implies colour (Rainbow, Polka-dot, Paisley, Plaid, Stripe, Darkness etc.)
6. E-books Reading Challenge. As nearly all books I read over the course of a year, with the exception of the occasional dead tree book, or a comic book, are e-books, this challenge seemed like an obvious choice. The books have to have an ISBN, so you can't just read online serials. There are also levels. I signed up for Terabyte - at least 75 books in a year. I can choose to move up levels, but not down.
7. Flights of Fantasy Reading Challenge. Because I find that I have so many fantasy novels littering my TBR shelf (and my physical bookshelves), I figured signing up for this challenge might motivate me to read more of them. It doesn't have any levels, but I've challenged myself to read at least 12, so approximately one a month. I don't know if urban/paranormal fantasy counts, but I'm going to pretend it doesn't, just to make it a bit harder for myself. 
8. 10th Annual Graphic Novel & Manga Reading Challenge. I have far too many comic book trade collections and graphic novels on my shelves that I've not taken the time to read (I bought four in New York last summer - have I read them yet? Nope). So to make myself read them over the course of this year, I'm signing up for the lowest level of this challenge; Modern Age - read and review at least 12 books during the year. 
9. Historical Romance Reading Challenge. I do like a reading challenge that basically lets me keep reading exactly the genres and books that I already enjoy. Because I'm trying to diversify a bit away from historical romance, one of my favoured genres, or at least read a bit more widely within it, I may try to read from some of the various sub-categories suggested on the site: Medieval, Regency, Victorian, Western, Pirate, historical romance with a diverse protagonist or Time Travel romance (must take place 80% in the past). I've signed up for level 4 - Marchioness - 26-35 books.
10. Diverse Reads Reading Challenge. As in previous years, I'm very aware that I could do a lot better about reading books by and about people who are not cis-gendered, straight white women. The challenge doesn't have levels, but I've promised myself to read at least 30 books that are written by or about characters including but not limited to LGBTQIA, persons of colour, gender diversity, people with disability (including physical, sensory, cognitive, intellectual or developmental; chronic conditions, mental illnesses and addiction) and ethnic, cultural and religious minorities.
11. Literary Pickers Reading Challenge. I really enjoyed this literary scavenger hunt last year, so I'm going to do it again. Check the website for the full list of items to be found. Only one item per list can be included per book. The books must be published ones, and be of the romance genre or with a strong romantic element. There are a hundred items on the list, I've signed up for Garage Sale Guru (25 items). Apparently I'm also to make an update post once a month with my progress (will need to set a reminder in my phone for that).
12. Monthly Keyword Challenge. This is one of my favourite challenges of the year, and it allows me to do one of the things I love almost as much as reading - making lists about things I'm planning to read. With five or six keywords for each month of the year, you read books that contain one or more of the keywords. The keywords can also be tweaked so that the keyword "family" lets you choose a title containing "sister", "mother" or the like. 
13. Monthly Motif Challenge. After a year's hiatus, I've once again decided to do this challenge, mainly because I liked the looks of the 12 different motifs featured this year. I need to read at least one book a month featuring the suggested theme or motif, which should be eminently doable. 
14. New Author Reading Challenge. A challenge that simply wants you to try books by new authors, be they debut writers or just ones whose books you've never tried before. Last year I set myself the challenge of 25, and beat that easily, so I'll challenge myself to try 30 new authors this year.
15. New to Me Reading Challenge. It's important to me to not just read the same things and genres, it would get very boring. So I like this challenge, as it prompts me to discover new authors, series and genres. This year, there doesn't appear to be any levels, just a minimum requirement of 12 books, so I've set myself the challenge of at least 40 new things over the course of the year. 
16. Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. This challenge allows all kinds of historical fiction (historical romance, historical mystery, historical fantasy, young adult) which is nice, because I read a lot of it. As in previous years, I'm signing up for the highest level (Prehistoric) of 50+ books.
17. Pick Your Genre Challenge. Because I don't have a specific challenge for all the various romances I read, I made this my Romance Challenge last year, and I intend to do the same this year. The minimum here is also 12 books, but I'd like to be able to read at least 50 over the course of the year. 
18. Paranormal Reading Challenge. Another challenge that is pretty much me linking up reviews for books I will already be reading, whether I'm signed up to this or not. I'm not reading as many paranormals as I used to, but figure I can set myself a challenge of 24 books. 
19. Pages Read Reading Challenge. Last year, due to a massive workload and just generally life getting in the way, I read fewer pages than I had since 2011. I'd like to do better this year, but still don't think I'll be able to sign up for more than level 4 - Apple Tree - 48 000 pages. I do still have a lot of correction work in the coming months. 
20. Review Writing Challenge. This challenge wants readers to actually review the books they read. Because I already try to review everything I read (and post them on a group blog where we try to make money for cancer charities), this seems like a fairly natural one to take part in. My goal is the same as on my blog - a minimum of 104 reviews.
21. #ShelfLove Challenge 2017. This challenge tries to make you grow your TBR pile responsibly and read the books you actually own. As I currently have 544 books listed as "To Read" in my personal library (according to LibraryThing), this seems like a very necessary challenge for me to take part in. Last year, 28% of the books that I read were ones I'd acquired before 2016. I'd like my goal for this year to be at least 30% of the total. Because of that, I'm signing up for level 5, My shelves are now my BFF (41-50 books). 
22. #RockMyTBR Challenge 2017. After a heroic cull of my Goodreads TBR shelf, said shelf still contains 947 books, so more books than I could read in about six years, even if I didn't keep adding to it. One of the side effects of the Cannonball Read is that I keep discovering authors and books that seem so tempting, and that's before you count all the other ones I find on the many other review sites I frequent. So a challenge to try to reduce my TBR list seems essential. With previous TBR challenges, my goal has always been to read at least 50, so while this site doesn't set levels, that's the level I've set for myself. 
23. What an Animal Challenge. This is one that I've taken part in for years now and really enjoy. They appear to have changed the rules so that it's no longer enough if the book you count just has an animal on the cover or an animal as part of the title. An animal has to play a major part in the plot, or one of the characters is or turns into an animal of some sort (dog, cat, monkey, wolf, snake, insect, centaur, mermaid, dragon, vampire, were-creature etc). It does make it a tad bit more challenging than before, but I still think I can manage the highest level - 21 or more books. 
24. What's in a Name 2017 Challenge. I failed to complete more than two of the seven categories of this last year, because I just didn't feel inspired. I like the categories for this year a lot more, and will therefore try again. 
25. Women Challenge 2017. I've mentioned before that I think this challenge may be targeted towards people who don't already read primarily books written by women, but it's not going to stop me from signing up once more. As always, I'm signing up for level 4, Wonder Woman, 20 or more books written by female authors. As always, to make it a teeny bit harder, I'm only allowed to list each author once. 
26. 2017 YA Reading Challenge. This challenge is all about the YA books, of which I also read many. Books may be horror, romance, dystopian, supernatural, graphic novels etc. There are no levels, but I feel like I should challenge myself to at least 12. 
27. You Read How Many Books? 2017. As I failed in my goal to reach level 2 of this (150 books), I'm not going to sign up for more than level 1, 100 books, this year. I don't want to set myself up for failure, after all, but I certainly hope I'll be able to pass level 2 anyway. 
28. Reading Challenge Addicts 2017. As the site says "Some of us have a bit of a problem. Some of us have a huge problem". Looking at the list of challenges I've signed up for this year, I think I'm in the HUGE problem category. I'm just competitive by nature, and like getting credit for things I already like doing. With my monster list of challenges, it'll take something spectacular for me not to be able to complete Out of This World - 16 challenges entered and completed by the end of 2017.

In addition to all of these numerous challenges, I will also be taking part in the RIP Challenge in September and October, and trying for two Dewey Read-a-thons (April and October). 

Reading Challenge Round-Up 2016

Happy New Year! This is my Reading Challenge Round-Up for 2016. I don't have the time or patience to do separate posts for all my challenges. There are still too many essays waiting to be corrected and graded before I go back to work in a few days. For anyone interested in which books I read for the various challenges, visit my Goodreads page, where I have shelves assigned and clearly labelled for each of them.

1. The Cannonball Read. The reason I even have this blog and the "challenge" nearest and dearest to my heart. I was not able to complete as many books as last year, but did manage a total of 135, so a little bit more than two and a half Cannonballs. With my workload this past semester, it's amazing I've managed as much reading and reviewing as I have.

2. You Read How Many Books? hosted by the Crafty Engineer. I signed up for level 2, 150 books and am sad to say that I did not manage to reach this goal. My grand total for the year was 137 (although some of those were re-read more than once). I'll have to set a lower goal next year.

3. Alphabet Soup 2016, hosted by Dollycas. I completed this challenge in the middle of December, mainly because I'd gotten a bit lax about checking off the various letters. It's a really fun challenge, I will be repeating it next year.

4. Colour Coded Reading Challenge 2016, hosted by My Reader's Block. I managed to complete this challenge by the end of May. After they made it possible to read books that feature the colour not just in the name, but as the dominant colour of the cover, this has become a lot easier to complete. Absolutely repeating it next year.

5. The 2016 TBR Pile Reading Challenge, hosted by Bookish Lifestyle once again stopped posting link-up posts by May, I think it was. They seem to be a bit bad about organising the actual challenge throughout the year. Nonetheless, I tried chipping away at my TBR, and was able to reduce it by 78 books. Please don't ask me how many books I've added to the list over the course of the year (I wouldn't be able to answer even if I tried).

6. The Bring Your Own Books Challenge, or B.Y.O.B, is hosted by Literary Distractions. Trying to actually read some of the many many unread books that I own, I finished this challenge having read 42 books that I owned prior to 2016. Again, let's not ask how many books I added to my shelves (most of which I haven't read either)

7. The 2016 Monthly Key Word Challenge, hosted by My Soul Called Life, is one of my favourite challenges and I've really tried to find books I actually OWN with the keywords in them. That doesn't always work, but I managed to read at least one book every month that fit with the assigned keywords, and for most of the months, quite a few more. I ended up having read 43 books for this challenge this year

8. What an Animal IX Challenge, hosted by Socrates' Book Reviews is really a piece of cake for me, as I read so many books featuring paranormal creatures and shapeshifters. As the challenge also allows you to add any book with an animal in the title or on the cover, or in some other way important to the plot, I always enjoy this challenge, because I do so well at it. I set myself the highest level - 21 or more books, and had completed that by early July. In the end, I read 55 books that fit into this challenge.

9. Finishing the Series 2016 is now hosted by Bea's Book Nook was another challenge where the host just plain forgot to make posts where you could log your reviews. I'd promised myself to finish at least 7 ongoing series this year, I ended up managing to complete 28.

10. I suspect the 2016 Women Challenge, hosted by Peek a Book is actually aimed at someone who doesn't primarily read books by female authors. Since I'm a huge fan of challenges that I can complete without actually working to hard, it's another one I've taken part in for the last few years. I read a lot of female authors and therefore set myself the level Wonder Woman - to read 20+ books by female authors. Even if I've read multiple books by some authoresses, I've only allowed myself to count one book per person. I'd completed my initial challenge goal by the end of April, and read books by 81 different female authors this year.

11. The 2016 New Author Challenge, hosted by Literary Escapism, was in its eight year in 2016 and I signed up to discover at least 25 new authors in 2016. I'd completed that challenge by mid-July and ended up nearly doubling my goal, reading books by 49 different new authors over the course of the year.

12. The 2016 New to You Challenge, hosted by The Herd Presents, allows for some crossover with the previous challenge mentioned, as anything new to me - be it an author, a series, a genre all count. I signed up for 50 "new to me" things, and completed that goal in mid-September. In the end, there were 65 "new to me" entries on my list by the end of December.

13. The 2016 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge, once again hosted by Passages to the Past, is one I also enjoy, because I love reading historical novels. As always, I signed up for the highest level, "Prehistoric", with 50+ books and completed my goal by mid-November. My final tally for this challenge was 63 books.

14. The Pick Your Genre Challenge, also hosted by The Herd Presents, allows the reader to pretty much design their own reading challenge. I set myself romance as a genre (of any kind) and read a total of 90 books that would qualify because of a central romance plot or very strong romantic elements as part of the story.

15. The 2016 Diverse Reads Challenge, hosted by Chasing Faerietales, doesn't have any set reading levels. They just want you to read diverse books, with main characters including but not limited to LGBTQIA, persons of colour, gender diversity, people with disability (including physical, sensory, cognitive, intellectual or developmental; chronic conditions, mental illnesses and addiction) and ethnic, cultural and religious minorities. I set myself a personal goal of at least 30 books, which I'd managed to complete by the end of July. In the end, I'm proud to say that I read 52 books that qualify for this challenge, and I should really try to match that number in 2017.

16. What's in a Name 2016, hosted by The Worm Hole is a fairly small challenge, which I completely failed at. Despite the challenge only requiring you to read six books in total, the categories this year were such that I just never felt particularly inspired, and in the end, just gave up on it. I only read two out of the six required books, but the categories for 2017 look more doable, so I will sign up for this one again, to hopefully complete it this time.

17. The 2016 Literary Pickers Challenge, hosted by Delighted Reader is a new one for me this year, a literary scavenger hunt. There's a list of 100 different items to be found in romances (or books with a strong romance element) and I thought it looked like fun. I signed up for level 2, "Garage Sale Guru" (25 items) and had managed to find that many by the end of August, abouts. In the end, I managed to "find" 43 out of the 100 items. I suspect this challenge will require its own round-up post, as just linking to my Goodreads shelf won't actually say what item matches which book in the challenge.

18. The R.I.P (Readers Imbibing Peril) XI Challenge takes place only in September and October and encourages readers to read books in the mystery, suspense, thriller, gothic, horror and dark fantasy genres. I read my seven books fairly quickly and always enjoy this one.

18. I mustn't forget the Goodreads Reading Challenge for 2016 either. I always set my reading goal to 104 books (basically a double Cannonball), but obviously hope to read a lot more. With re-reads and the like, I have read a total of 147 books this year, says the tally.

19. My final challenge of the year was the Reading Challenge Addict where I signed up for "Out of this World", 16+ Reading Challenges entered and completed. For the first year in a long time, there are two that I didn't manage to complete, but the benefit of taking part in such a ridiculous amount of challenges is that I still managed to hit my target for this one (but only just).

I also took part in the October Read-a-thon, but am at a loss to remember why I couldn't do the one in April. I keep saying that I want to reduce the number of challenges I do, but then the end of the reading year finds me discovering all these tempting new ones (or just wanting to repeat the ones that have worked for me for years). I need a day or two to ponder what I want to do with reading year in 2017.