Reading Challenges

It’s that time of year again…time when readers are starting to look at the different reading challenges and wondering if they should attempt one or fifty.  For myself, I like reading challenges.  They help when you have a huge stack of books to read and you’re not sure where to start.  This year, I participated in a few.  Well, let’s be honest, I was going to participate in a few and totally failed at it.  Here’s the ones I signed up for:

  1. New Authors – with this being my own challenge, I really didn’t set a goal for me, which is probably a good thing since I’ve only read 1 new authors this year, unless you want to count all the individual authors I tried in the Kiss Me Deadly anthology, then that number is probably a little higher..  That is really sad considering the year before I do 50.  At the same time, when I started the NAChallenge, it was because I didn’t know that many UF authors.  Now I do, so mimicking that number will start to get hard I think.  Especially considering I’ll be trying to keep up with the various authors I have tried.
  2. Year of the Historical (12) – I have totally failed on this one.  I haven’t read a single historical.  *hangs head in shame*  There were a bunch of novels I want to try too, but they were added to my TBR list, so I’ll definitely get to them in the future.
  3. 1st in a Series (12) – I’ve actually done pretty well in this one, in fact I think I completed it.  I’ve read 16 novels that begun a series.  So yeah, I’m not a complete failure. *grin*
  4. 2nds Challenge (12) – While I didn’t finish this challenge, I did get through 7 novels that were either the second in a series or the second time I read an author.  Although, if I’m going to be honest, only two of the novels I read were the second time I read the author; the rest were from fave authors who had new series out.
  5. Debut Urban Fantasy Challenge and Debut Paranormal Romance Challenge (30) – I’m not really sure how I did here.  I know I’ve read some debut novels from some great authors, but I can’t really say if they all came out this year.

There were a couple of challenges that I had originally signed up for, but I ended up dropping them earlier this summer simply because I haven’t been reading like I did in 2009.  I’ve only read 53 novels since the beginning of the year, so my low numbers above make sense.  My second pregnancy and a very active three year old completely threw me off my reading game, I’m positive of that, but I’m starting to get back into it.

In fact, I’m going to make an effort to get back into it next year.  I enjoy reading and I have been missing it.  So I’m definitely going to be joining a few reading challenges next year, but not as many.  A lot of the ones I tried above worked great together, so well in fact that I could’ve read the same 15 novels for three of them.  So I think I’m going to only do the Year of the Historical, Debut Urban Fantasy and Debut Paranormal Romance challenges if they happen again next year.  In addition to the New Authors Challenge of course. That will definitely be back next year and the announcement post will be up in December.

So what about everyone else.  Did you participate in a challenge this year?  How did you do? Are you planning on joining one next year?  If you’re already thinking about trying a few challenges, but don’t know which ones, definitely check out Novel Challenges.  Wendy and Teddy are a great resource when it comes to challenges.

About Jackie 3282 Articles
I am a 30-something SAHM with two adorable boys and a supportive husband who is very tolerant of my reading addiction. I love to read and easily go through about a dozen books a month – well I did before I had kids. Now, not so much. After my first son was born, I began to take my hobby of reviewing a little more serious and started Literary Escapism to help with my sanity. I love to discuss the fabulous novels I’ve read and meeting all the wonderful people in the book blogging community has been amazing.

3 Comments

  1. I hadn’t heard of these challenges before but I’m definitely checking out that site. The one I did do, that I’ve done for a few years now, is 104 books read. I’ve already completed that one and am just seeing how high my total gets for this year. There were a number of new to me authors in there and a few classics which are things I try to get in but without any challenge numbers associated with them. I look forward to checking out your lists to see if I can grow mine any larger. :)

    Found you on FB because you had Carrie Vaughn tagged in a picture of your bookshelf. :)

  2. I’ve done horribly at the reading challenges I entered. Horrible. the one I’ve done the best at is the speculative Fiction challenge, but then I love that kind of fiction, so it wasn’t hard. Oh-Well. All we can do is try, and maybe not sign up for as many next year…who am I kidding? I’m obsessed with them – especially at the beginning of the year, fresh start, good intentions…. :)

  3. I didn’t participate in any reading challenge this year, but since I’ve my own blog now I will try one or two next year… there are a lot available and it’s quite hard to choose…

Comments are closed.