The Challenge with Reading Challenges
Does anyone else wish they loved reading challenges? Every year, I check out Pinterest and book blogs for reading challenges to take me into the new year, but I've never gone much beyond search mode. On paper, reading challenges and I are a perfect match. I love searching for new books. I love checking items off my list. I love anything remotely competitive. And of course, I love reading. So, where's the disconnect? Reading challenges are intended to get you outside of your reading 'comfort zone' and sometimes simply to encourage you to read more. But whenever I skim through reading challenges, I find myself mentally trying to fit books that I already want to read into the challenge categories. Inevitably, there are several categories left over where nothing fits. A book about sports, a novella, a collection of essays, a retelling. That's where the 'challenge' sets in - having to seek out a book that fits a particular subject matter or genre, or sometimes