2016 Reading Challenges

I started this book blog in August 2015, and didn’t get a chance to partake in as many book challenges as I’d have liked. This time, I’m giving you some of the challenges that will be inspiring this year’s reading in the hope that they help you, too! I’m not all that intent on crossing off each theme on all of these lists– it’s more about inspiring me to thematically diversify my own reading.

Keep an eye on this page, because I may be adding or modifying challenges throughout the year. For example, I’m considering adding a self-motivated “Reading Through the Caribbean” or “Reading Through Sub-Saharan Africa” challenge, but I haven’t fully fleshed out the details yet.

What reading challenges are you lining up for 2016? How many books are you aiming to read?

Challenge 1: Read Around the World

Link to challenge details

Read 80 (that’s the number they’re giving, but I’m thinking more like 60) books from around the world, and tag them with #AW80Books. You must read at least one book connected to each continent, one sea-based book, and a book that involves travel.

As of April 1st, I’ve read books from connected to Asia (India, China and South Korea), Europe (France and Sweden), North America (including Latin America), and a book about travel.

Challenge 2: TBR (To Be Read) Triple Dog Dare

Link to challenge details

Read only books you already own for the first 3 months of the year. I’m making an exception for the one book my book club reads every month. All other books have to come from my TBR shelves.

Challenge completed! I had to purchase a book for my book club meeting (Citizen, by Claudia Rankine), but I also cheated a little bit with ARCs that were mailed to me by publishers. I consider the challenge a success, because it helped me budget much better, and get so many books off my shelf!

Challenge 3: 2016 Book Riot Read Harder Challenge

Link to challenge details

April 1st update: I’ve completed 8 of these challenges– if I continue to do 2 per month, I should be fine.

Challenge 4: PopSugar’s 2016 Ultimate Reading Challenge

Link to challenge details

April 1st Update: So far, I’ve completed 13 of these challenges, mostly in the first half of the list.

Challenge 5: Diversity on the Shelf 2016

Link to challenge here

I know, I read diverse books anyway, so perhaps this challenge isn’t for me. However, I do think its important to support challenges that support diversity in literature. Just a note: if you’re doing this challenge, try to emphasize authors of color, versus just main characters of color.

April 1st update: So far, so good! Like I said, this challenge wasn’t ever going to be that difficult for me, but I’m happy that I’m formally doing enrolled. So far, I’ve read 11/19 books by racially diverse authors. Of the books not by racially diverse authors, 1 discussed transgender rights, 1 author had cerebral palsy, 1 was a book of lesbian short stories, 1 was a book about exploration of the author’s sexuality, 1 was a middle grade book about racial prejudice, and 2 were written by Europeans (French and Swedish).