I always set myself more than one reading challenge per year. Some carry over from year to year, and some are new. Some are broad and some are themed. And in many cases, books read will help me meet more than one challenge. Here’s this year’s list.
TO BE READ CHALLENGE
In past years, the wonderful Roofbeam Reader has hosted a “To Be Read Challenge” with specific rules about posting, etc. He’s not hosting one this year, but I’m going to do a version of the challenge for myself without making it a separate post this year. The idea is to pick 12 books (plus 2 alternates in case you find yourself unable to finish a couple of your main choices) that have sat unread on your bookshelf for a year or more. Thus, books published in 2019 wouldn’t be eligible, nor would re-reads. I plan to come back to this post and add “date completed” for each book individually and for each series as a whole. Here are my 14 for 2020 (not listed in intended reading order):
1. Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin
2. No Longer at Ease by Chinua Achebe
3. Logan’s Run by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson
4. A Diet of Treacle by Lawrence Block
5. Shadowhouse Falls by Daniel Jose Older
6. Greatheart Silver by Philip Jose Farmer - finished September 23, 2020
7. Pirates of Venus by Edgar Rice Burroughs - finished January 22, 2020
8. The Bad Seed by William March - finished October 30, 2020
9. The Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler - finished February 19, 2020
10. Choke Hold by Christa Faust - finished March 29, 2020
11. Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse
12. The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Alternate #1: The Mystery of the Sea by Bram Stoker
Alternate #2: Excalibur! by Gil Kane and John Jakes
366 SHORT STORIES CHALLENGE
Every year, I challenge myself to read one short story per day. Some years I keep the pace pretty well, and some years I fall behind and then scramble to catch up (and some years, I catch up and fall behind again). I used to post thoughts on each individual story over on my now-largely-defunct Livejournal; this year I plan to review a story or two in-depth each Sunday and then do a monthly “round-up” of all stories read that month. I’m defining “short story” as anything from flash fiction to novella-length. If a story/novella is published as a stand-alone book (ebook or otherwise), that story will also count towards my annual Goodreads “Books Read Challenge.” 2020 being a leap-year, the goal is 366 instead of the usual 365.
GOODREADS CHALLENGE
Goodreads allows members to set a challenge. In 2019, I set a goal of 125 books and actually read 144. For 2020, I’m setting the same goal of 125 to start with, and we’ll see what happens. Goodreads counts magazines and individually-published short stories as “books,” so I count them for this challenge as well. Of course, any book read for the TBR Challenge, or the other challenges mentioned in this post count towards this one.
GRAPHIC NOVEL CHALLENGE
I own far more graphic novels and trade paperback collections of classic comics than I’ve read. In 2017 I started trying to turn that around, and I’m again setting a goal in 2020 of reading one graphic novel per week, so 52 for the year, tracking them in the monthly Reading Round-Up Posts.
NON-FICTION CHALLENGE
As with graphic novels, I tend to get intrigued by and purchase far more non-fiction books than I actually end up reading. In an effort to clear some shelf-space, justify the money spent, and increase my knowledge a bit, I’m setting myself a new challenge this year to read two (2) non-fiction books per month, or 24 for the year, also tracked via the monthly Reading Round-Up posts.
READ THE BOOK / WATCH THE MOVIE CHALLENGE
I have so many books in my collection that are the basis for classic (and sometimes not-so-classic) movies that I thought it would be fun to read some of them and then see how the movies compare. In 2019, I didn’t do so well on this challenge, but I’m game to try again, and of course track them in the monthly Reading Round-Up posts.
COMPLETE THE SERIES CHALLENGE
In previous years I’ve challenged myself to come “up to date” on series I’d started but fallen behind on. Last year, I challenged myself to also read one series that I own but have not read. Titles that I have read in each series are indicated with (read). Last year, I blew this completely, so I’m repeating two of the challenges from last year, adding two (one that will be audio rather than print) for 2020. I plan to come back to this post and add “date completed” for each book individually and for each series as a whole. If I complete any other series on my shelves, I’ll come back and add that series to this entry.
THE VELVETEEN SERIES by Seanan McGuire
1. Velveteen Vs. The Junior Super-Patriots
2. Velveteen Vs. The Multiverse
3. Velveteen Vs. The Seasons
THE AFRICA TRILOGY BY Chinua Achebe
1. Things Fall Apart – read in 2018
2. Arrow of God - read in February 2020
3. No Longer At Ease
CARSON OF VENUS by Edgar Rice Burroughs
1. Pirates of Venus - read in January 2020
2. Lost on Venus
3. Carson of Venus
4. Escape on Venus
5. The Wizard of Venus
THE PHILIP MARLOWE SERIES (audiobook versions)
1. The Big Sleep – listened to in November 2019
2. Farewell, My Lovely – listened to in November 2019
3. The High Window - listened to in January 2020
4. The Lady in the Lake - listened to in January 2020
5. The Little Sister - listened to in January 2020
6. The Long Goodbye - listened to in April 2020
7. Playback
8. Poodle Springs (started by Chandler, completed by Robert B. Parker)
MONTHLY MINI-CHALLENGES
In 2019 for the first time I set myself some monthly mini-challenges based on various factors. I’m going to do it again in 2020, but list those challenges here as well:
January: No specific challenge (because I want to catch up on stuff from late 2019)
February: Authors from Africa or of African descent (for Black History Month)
March: Women Authors (for Women’s History Month)
April: Poetry (for National Poetry Month)
May: Asian/Pacifican Authors (for Asian Pacific / South Asian Heritage Month)
June: Queer Authors (for Pride Month)
July: US and World History (because of Independence Day)
August: Classic and New Pulp Authors (because Pulpfest/Farmercon is held this month)
September: Hispanic authors (Hispanic Heritage Month)
October: Horror! Horror! Horror! (because Halloween, obviously)
November: Noir (because “Noirvember”)
December: Winter Holiday-related Fiction (Christmas, Hannukah, etc.)