My Reading Challenges for 2016

Book challenges are kind of a new thing for me. I'm not totally sure how I feel about them, yet, but I know that they do help me read a book or two outside of my usual go-to genres. I guess that's important? Of course, I tend to join book challenges that fit with my usual go-to genres but let us pretend that I'm making sense, shall we. It does work, sometimes. I never would have read the Stiff micro-history if it wasn't for the Read Harder Challenge this year. That turned out to be one of my top books of the year. YAY, book challenges! 

For 2015, I didn't really have a Reading Challenge plan at the beginning of the year. For 2016, I've decided to pick a few things ahead of time. We will see how it goes. I'm pretty good at doing that thing where you sign up for everything but then get too bogged down to really do anything. I also don't want reading to start feeling like a chore. If it starts to be a pain in the butt, then I will totally just abandon ship on the whole idea. 

**TIME LIMITED CHALLENGES**

ROCTBF2016:

Last year I challenged myself to read at least one book by each author scheduled to be at the Rochester Teen Book Festival. I actually found some new favorite authors. I’m going to try that again. One reason I'm doing this is because I want to support the authors who come to this AWESOME event. 

14in4 Book Challenge – Winter 2015 (November – February 2016)

The current challenge started on November 1st and will run through February. Here's my status so far:

Tower Team IV (November 2015 until whenever) 

This is a challenge through Goodreads group: Novel Booksand Reading Challenges. It started on November 7^th and will go until one of the 24 teams reaches the point goal. There are over 900 regular categories, mini – challenges, books of the month, spreadsheets. It is an intense reading challenge! I can’t even talk about it. My strategy thus far has been to just read books and then fit them into the categories as I go. Some of the other folks on my team are reading specific books to fit weird categories (e.g., certain words in the title or text). My goal is really to keep reading and contribute to the team. I am also going to host a discussion day for the December Book of the Month. Twenty points, baby! I'm on Team Bastet.

**2016 YEAR LONG CHALLENGES**

Goodreads Challenge:

I’m going to start with a goal of 52 books. That’s one book per week. I'll change it as I go. (Final 2015 books = 196)

I Love Libraries Reading Challenge 2016 (#ILoveLibraries2016):
This one is exactly what it sounds like. The goal is to support your local library. Any materials that are checked out can be used toward this challenge. I love my library because it's part of a library system that have a massive coffer of books that allow me to get books sent to any library in the system. This is spectacular and I've had very few cases where a book I was looking for was not somewhere in the system. I also use the library at least twice a week for the computer and internet. I have a laptop at home, but I don't actually like my "set up" and the library is so easy. I also love the people. One of my goals is to visit all of the Monroe County branch libraries. 

#2016TBRPile and #RockMyTBR

Both of these challenges are based on reading books that I already own. This has been a goal of mine for far too long. I’m hoping that having a couple of groups working on the same goal will help me shuffle through my shelves and get some things read. My goal is to read two owned books per month for a total of 24 by the end of the year.

  

 TBR Pile Levels:

• 1-10 A Firm Handshake
• 11-20 A Friendly Hug
• 21-30 First Kiss
• 31-40 Sweet Summer Fling
• 41-50 Could This Be Love?
• 50+ Married with Children

Fairy Tale Reading Challenge (#FairytaleRC)

For this challenge, the goal is to readyfairy tale (folklore, fables, mythology, etc) retellings. It’s kind of a weird challenge but it’s a genre I like, so why not!? I'm going to shoot for Goose Girl or Evil Queen Status

• Enchanted Moura: 1 – 4 books.
• Goose Girl: 5 - 9 books.
• Evil Queen: 10 – 15 books.
• Wise princess: 16 – 20 books.
• Kuma Lisa: 21 – 25 books.
• Cheshire cat: 26+ books

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