Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge discussion

By done, I mean I have completed the entire challenge!

Wow, congrats! What will you do with the rest of the year?

Just finished Safekeeping by Jessamyn Hope. Although I'm trying not to double dip, it could count towards both micropress and debut novel. Highly recommend it!

I finished Passing by Nella Larsen earlier this week. It counts toward tasks #7 (published between 1900-1950), #17 (classic by author of color), and #24 (all POV characters are persons of color). As a bonus, (a) it's excellent, and (b), it is only 94 pages.

I read The Never Ending story. That worked for a book about books and Fantasy. At first I was apprehensive about double dipping, but I'm in a book club and I have a TBR list I'll never finish so I'll do what I have to.

Carol wrote: "I finished Passing by Nella Larsen earlier this week. It counts toward tasks #7 (published between 1900-1950), #17 (classic by author of color), and #24 (all POV charact..."

Sold! Meaning I'm going to read this year ;-) Thanks for the recommendation!

Monica wrote: "Carol wrote: "I finished Passing by Nella Larsen earlier this week. It counts toward tasks #7 (published between 1900-1950), #17 (classic by author of color), and #24 (a..."

Monica, I think you would love it. I keep hearing from friends that Quicksand is even stronger. Both are in the public domain so, while not easy to find in print, are easy to find online and in digital.

I just finished Never Look an American in the Eye: A Memoir of Flying Turtles, Colonial Ghosts, and the Making of a Nigerian American by Okey Ndibe. I was reading it for a book about an immigrant but was surprised to find the book filled with books and authors. I think it could also apply for reading a book about books. I enjoyed the memoir and learned quite a bit.

I am conflicted - I love reading and I want to do the list without double-dipping! But, I also have a full time job and a 4 year old and an infant, sooo.... this is not a book-heavy season of my life.

By which I mean to say, great idea with The Color Purple. I'm totally sextuple-dipping!

Karen wrote: "I am conflicted - I love reading and I want to do the list without double-dipping! But, I also have a full time job and a 4 year old and an infant, sooo.... this is not a book-heavy season of my li..."

Might as well double and then maybe later on, replace some! :)

For me, Octavia Butler's book Kindred counted for four categories:

*the characters are mostly people of color
*it is a fantasy novel
*it was written by a person of color
*the main character goes on a spiritual journey

I thought I read somewhere that the book was banned, but I can't find out more info on that, so I'm not counting it there.

Also, just counted And Tango Makes Three for a few as well. I read it to my son. We use it mainly to discuss adoption with him, but it also counts for LGBTQ+.

So where I'm counting it:
*a book I've read before
*A debut novel (I know this is loosely interpreted here, but I'm counting it because I am)
*A YA book by an LGBTQ+ author
*An LGBTQ+ romance (again, loosely interpreted here, but the author did intend it to help parents discuss same-sex relationships in a positive light).

I also counted Code Name Verity under a book about war and a book set 5000 miles away

Colleen wrote: "For me, Octavia Butler's book Kindred counted for four categories:

*the characters are mostly people of color
*it is a fantasy novel
*it was written by a person of color
*the main ch..."

I wouldn't call Time Travel a spiritual journey, although I think applying that to Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower (which I read for the "1st in a series by an author of color" challenge last year) would be more than fair.

Colleen wrote: "Also, just counted And Tango Makes Three for a few as well. I read it to my son. We use it mainly to discuss adoption with him, but it also counts for LGBTQ+.

So where I'm counting..."

I'm pretty sure you're right that Kindred has been challenged, but I know for certain And Tango Makes Three was.

https://www.nypl.org/blog/2013/09/23/...

I double-dipped using C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy! The third book That Hideous Strength was the only one in the series I hadn't read yet, and it was originally published in 1945. It is also listed as a fantasy book.

I'm thinking of doing the opposite of double dipping for the poetry prompt. I don't want to buy any new books and my library doesn't have a lot of translated poetry on Overdrive that isn't about love. So I was thinking I might read a translated poet and then also a book of poetry not about love and the two together complete the prompt.

I also think I'm likely going to cheat on the micropress. I have two options that are, I'm 99% sure, self-published rather than a micropress. Both have a made up publisher but when I looked into them they seem to only publish their own books. But again, Overdrice doesn't have anything else for me. While I realize I could try to get a tree book at the library, most of my reading is done while breastfeeding or while in bed and so tree books just get abandoned due to lack of spare time for them.

So far, double-dipping isn't much of a help. Of the 15 books I've finished this year, they cover only 10 prompts. And if I took away the double-dipping, they'd cover 9. That may change as the year progresses, though.

I don't agree with double dipping, but - that being said - I'd think it would be especially hard with this challenge as opposed to the Ultimate Popsugar challenge.

Two that I've read that aren't listed here are Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit which works for tasks 15 and 20 and Crazy Rich Asians which works for 2 and 11. I started the year wanting to double dip everywhere possible, but now I'm just using it to "finish" the challenge in the first third of the year and then will go back and make sure I've read at least one unique book per task. I haven't finished it yet but Odes of Pindar also works for both 1 and 23.

I'm not double dipping but I've just read a book that I think would qualify for 3 tasks for anyone interested. It's called Are We There Yet?: Travels with My Frontline Family by Rosie Whitehouse. I chose it for my travel memoir as it had been on my book shelf at home for a little while. After a bit of investigation I think it would work for the micropress category too, and also it is (loosely) a book about war.
It is about a woman who travels with her husband who is a war reporter and takes her expanding family with her. As a consequence her eldest children grow up in Romania and Serbia during the time of the wars in the Balkans in the 1990s. The author later becomes a contributor to guide books and travels to some more standard holiday destinations as a result, also with her family in tow. It was an interesting read.

The Complete Persepolis covers many categories:
5. Read a book by an immigrant or with a central immigration narrative.
8. Read a travel memoir
11. Read a book that is set more than 5000 miles from your location. (Or the 100-miles challenge if Iran or Austria is less than 100 miles from you)
14. Read a book about war.
17. Read a classic by an author of color. (arguable, but Persepolis was highly regarded when it came out)
19. Read a book in which a character of color goes on a spiritual journey (If you consider Iranians to be POC - they are often targeted for their ethnicity)
24. Read a book wherein all point-of-view characters are people of color.

Oddly, two categories it doesn't fit are the comic categories. It's not an all-ages comic (there's sex and drug use), and it's not a female superhero comic.

I just finished the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and it was a quick read and very enjoyable. I think it would count for a book about war and a book about books.

Maggie wrote: "I just finished the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and it was a quick read and very enjoyable. I think it would count for a book about war and a book about books."

That book was absolutely delightful.

Maggie wrote: "I just finished the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and it was a quick read and very enjoyable. I think it would count for a book about war and a book about books."

I enjoyed it as well! The audiobook as fun!

Right now, I'm reading Spare Parts: Four Undocumented Teenagers, One Ugly Robot, and the Battle for the American Dream by Joshua Davis. It would fit well for both:
5. Read a book by an immigrant or with a central immigration narrative.
-and-
13. Read a nonfiction book about technology.

Thus far, I'm finding it a quick and engaging read!

I'm going to try really hard not to double dip even though many of the books I've chosen would count for two and three categories easily but I'm really trying to read a separate book for each task. So far so good but we're not even halfway done yet

Some of the books I've considered would count for more than one category, but I really don't understand why I would do that? I thought the point of this challenge was to expose readers to books they normally may not read. It's not a school assignment. I kind of see double dipping as cheating. 24 books in a year is nothing for me...So I don't plan on counting a book for more than one category.

It sounds like double-dipping isn't for you, and that's fine. If reading 24 books is easy and you want to read as many "harder" books as possible, that's a great way to approach it. But I would encourage you to be open-minded about the way others approach the challenge, and not call it "cheating." It's clearly stated in the challenge that double-dipping is fine.

But more importantly - isn't another point of this challenge to understand that not everyone experiences the same life, and that the things you find easy aren't easy for everyone? That this can open our minds to other experiences, encourage us to listen and empathize?

In the spirit of that, I think we can all approach the challenge in different ways, and all of those ways can be accepted within the community.

Elizabeth wrote: "Some of the books I've considered would count for more than one category, but I really don't understand why I would do that? I thought the point of this challenge was to expose readers to books the..."

Amen, Elizabeth!! Exactly!!

Elizabeth wrote: "Some of the books I've considered would count for more than one category, but I really don't understand why I would do that? I thought the point of this challenge was to expose readers to books the..."

While I am not double dipping myself, I don't begrudge anyone who chooses to. I happen to have the time to read 24 books, but others may not. There have certainly been periods in my life when I wouldn't have been able to manage that. I kind of like that Book Riot allows for double dipping because I think it encourages greater participation. I don't think you need to read some arbitrary number of books to expand your horizons or push the boundaries on what you might normally read.

Oh, I'm not begrudging them. There are no rules, just a framework. It is what we make of it. I try not to criticize people for how they interpret the individual prompts.

That said, personally, I do feel it to be against the spirit of the challenge to double dip. But that's just me. We're all different.

The main goals are for (1) people to read more and (2) for people to have fun!

Kirsten *Make Margaret Atwood Fiction Again!" wrote: "Oh, I'm not begrudging them. There are no rules, just a framework. It is what we make of it. I try not to criticize people for how they interpret the individual prompts.

That said, personally, I ..."

I guess I find it hard to see something as "against the spirit of the challenge" when the creators of the challenge have explicitly stated that douple dipping is acceptable.

From Book Riot's original post about the challenge, "We encourage you to push yourself, to take advantage of this challenge as a way to explore topics or formats or genres that you otherwise wouldn’t try. But this isn’t a test. No one is keeping score and there are no points to post. We like books because they allow us to see the world from a new perspective, and sometimes we all need help to even know which perspectives to try out. That’s what this is – a perspective shift – but one for which you’ll only be accountable to yourself."

The challenge isn't about reading a certain number of books, it is about trying out different kinds of books, pushing yourself, and experiencing new perspectives. You don't need to read 24 books to do that.

Well, I'm glad they said that. Still, it's not a test. It doesn't HAVE to be finished. So, read as many as you can.

Of course, the BookRiot challenge prompts are so diverse it's hard to double dip. Not like in the Popsugar or ATW 52 challenges. (And I don't double dip there, either.)

To me the main reason I like the challenge is that it does diversify my reading. And, to diversify, I need to read as many as possible and not try to force the prompt to match the book I read. (Though, I may have done that with the micropress. Not sure, really.)

But in the end, it's up to each of us to judge ourselves. Some of us may think the point is to finish the challenge, I think the point is to read and have fun doing so.

Kirsten *Make Margaret Atwood Fiction Again!" wrote: "Well, I'm glad they said that. Still, it's not a test. It doesn't HAVE to be finished. So, read as many as you can.

Of course, the BookRiot challenge prompts are so diverse it's hard to double di..."

Coming from a family that never read much, I guess I'm just of the opinion that participation (at whatever level or for whatever reason) in this challenge is generally a good thing (people are reading, yay!), so I don't see need to question how others choose to play the game, so to speak.

Absolutely, Sarah!! We need people to read.

I'm really not trying to be argumentative.

Kirsten *Make Margaret Atwood Fiction Again!" wrote: "Absolutely, Sarah!! We need people to read.

I'm really not trying to be argumentative."

No, I understand. :) I just thought you were trying to express your point of view, which I thought you did respectfully. But I know sometimes tone isn't communicated well in forums like these. For the record, I didn't intend to come across as argumentative either.

*smiles in understanding*

Yikes. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to come off as judgmental or to start an argument. I did read some comments and I do like how some people look at double dipping as a challenge- to see if they can find books that fit more than one category. But yeah- I was just trying to say it isn't for me. 😜

Elizabeth wrote: "Yikes. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to come off as judgmental or to start an argument. I did read some comments and I do like how some people look at double dipping as a challenge- to see if they can f..."

Nah, some of us just have differences of opinion. No biggie. :) I'm not a double dipper either, but I also thought it was interesting that some people look at it as a challenge or puzzle to find books that fit more than one task. It makes me curious, though...I wonder what the smallest number of books is that one could read and complete the challenge (reasonably) using double dipping. But that is an entirely different sort of challenge! :)

That would definitely be a cool challenge. Only 3 books for all categories. Haha.

I used Memoirs of a Geisha for 2 tasks: re-read and more than 5000 miles away. I listened to The Sun is Also a Star on audio and counted it toward multiple POV of color and within 100 miles from where I live.