Book Riot has created a reading challenge for 2014 that calls for participants to read books that cover 24 areas designed to broaden our horizons.
These “tasks” are as follows:
A book written by someone when they were under the age of 25
A book written by someone when they were over the age of 65
A collection of short stories (either by one person or an anthology by many people)
A book published by an indie press
A book by or about someone that identifies as LGBTQ
A book by a person whose gender is different from your own
A book that takes place in Asia
A book by an author from Africa
A book that is by or about someone from an indigenous culture (Native Americans, Aboriginals, etc.)
A microhistory
A YA novel
A sci-fi novel
A romance novel
A National Book Award, Man Booker Prize or Pulitzer Prize winner from the last decade
A book that is a retelling of a classic story (fairytale, Shakespearian play, classic novel, etc.)
An audiobook
A collection of poetry
A book that someone else has recommended to you
A book that was originally published in another language
A graphic novel, a graphic memoir or a collection of comics of any kind
A book that you would consider a guilty pleasure (Read, and then realize that good entertainment is nothing to feel guilty over)
A book published before 1850
A book published this year
A self-improvement book (can be traditionally or non-traditionally considered “self-improvementâ€)
Interestingly, the task I see myself having the hardest time with is the guilty pleasure. What would that be for me? I’m not inclined to feel guilty about what I read, so maybe I’ll categorize that as something someone else might feel guilty about. (In checking out the discussion on this topic in Goodreads, I see others with similar concerns have suggested impulse buys and re-reads as ways to fill this category.)
Goodreads has “Twilight” as the number 1, 2, and 3 book on the Guilty Pleasure shelves, and “Fifty Shades..” as 4, 6, and 7.
Both series I’ve not read and understand the opinions are love or hate, never in between.
The Southern Vampire books (Sookie Stackhouse) I have read, and enjoyed. Not sure why people feel guilty over that.
But then, Harry Potter made the list of top guilty pleasures, which is ridiculous. Harry Potter is just pleasure. No guilt.
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/guilty-pleasure
Comment by Grey Kitten 01.31.15 @ 8:24 amSo excited you’re doing this, too! I’ve been working at my list already. For my guilty pleasure, I’m going with the next Outlander book (I’m on 5 or 6, I think?)… I don’t really feel guilty about reading anything, but for such long books so little happens, and they really are the books I feel silliest reading.
In comparison, the romance novel I read recently was much less guilty to me!
Comment by Mikaiya 01.31.15 @ 1:11 pmInteresting reading challenge, but complicated. It’s a good thing they provided examples for most of the categories. Even so, it requires some research. If I can come up with something to fit each category, maybe I’ll join you.
Comment by Karen 02.01.15 @ 12:54 pm