2025 Reading Challenge discussion

I did not do terribly well in 2022 or 2023. So I made an executive decision.

I wont be doing any regular readathons - which means no monthly or quarterly read-a-thons because most of those I either never started or never finished.

So I am going to choose 4 year long challenges - with 12 prompts each - which means I get to read 4 books per month or 1 book a week - on average. A total of 48 books.

I'm also gonna keep my annual goal at 40 which seems to be doable since I did manage to pass that in 2023.

if I had any other long term goals for 2022 or 2023, I am just gonna shove them aside for now.

As I mentioned in 2023 - I am just so addicted to buying books, most of which I do not actually read. Some books I buy simply because they are so hyped up on Booktube, I can't NOT buy them. But whether I will actually read them or not, is an entirely different matter. FOMO I guess.

Below are some of the year long challenges I plan to do in 2024.

Towards the end of 2023 we were invited to submit a theme for the year of 2024. I submitted a ROARING TWENTIES Theme, because I love that era and it was exactly 100 years ago.

Sadly my theme idea did not win the poll, so I thought I would do it for myself.

I have 12 Prompts and I plan to read at least one book set in that industry sector or location in the 1920s.

Below are the Prompts.

Writers
Fashion and Flappers,
The Mafia,
Prohibition,
Art Deco,
Paris in the 1920s,
Impressionist Art
Great World Fairs,
Suffragettes, Women
Silent Movies
Jazz Music
Libraries

These can be read in any order...

Libraries - Personal Librarian
Impressionist Art - The Van Gogh Woman OR Vincent & Theo OR The Secret Life of Sunflowers

BOOKWORMS TAKE SHELFIES is too ambitious for me.

Lets try a lighter one.

2023 Goodreads Choice Awards

These are the books I voted for in the 2nd round of voting for the 2023 Goodreads Choice Awards.

If any of these win, I will read those!!!

Fiction - Yellowface
Hist Fic - Two choices - Echo of old Books - OR - Kitty Karr
Mystery & thriller - I have some questions for you
Romance - Love theoretically
Romantasy - NONE
Fantasy - Bookshops and Bonedust
Sci fi - The Lives of Puppets - TJ Klune
Horror - How to sell a Haunted House
YA Scifi & Fantasy - Divine Rivals
YA Fiction - The Davenports
Debut Novel - Pineapple street
Non fiction - The Art Thief
Memoir & Bio - Spare
History & Bio - Astor - the rise & fall of an american fortune
Humor - Being Henry - The Fonz and beyond


7 Dec 2023 - Update - the results are in!!!!

1st Place - Winners
Yellowface
The Lives of Puppets
Being Henry
Divine Rivals


2nd Place
Love Theoretically
How to Sell a Haunted House
Spare


3rd place
Pineapple Street
The Art Thief

I'm going to buy and read the 2nd and 3rd place books as well.

So that's a total of 9 Books - during 2024 - I hope.

Ok so one of the Year-long challenges is The DEWEY DECIMAL Challenge and Since I love anything to do with Books and Libraries, this will be the 3rd of my 4 Challenges.

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Message 8


The idea is to read 10 books in total - one from each of the 10 main classifications. This covers all the non fiction subjects.

000 – Computer Science, information and general works
100 – Philosophy and Psychology
200 – Religion
300 – Social Sciences
400 – Language
500 – Pure Science
600 – Technology
700 – Arts and Recreation
800 – Literature
900 – History and Geography

BUT the challenge also says that FICTIONAL stories may also be read if they are about one specific classification in the list.

I will keep it to 10 books, so I get a bit of a break and a buffer. As always, one book per month.

026 - Personal Librarian - Fiction - Library
131 - The Embroidered Book - Fiction - Magic
213 - The Purpose Guided Universe - Bernard Haisch - Creation
328 - Disloyal - Michael Cohen - Trump Politics & Impeachment
413 - Is that a Word? - Scrabble History, Trivia and Game-Winning Words.
576 - Codebreaker - Walter Isaccson - DNA
641 - Mango and Peppercorns - Food & Drink - Memoir
791 - From Scratch - Uncensored History of the Food Network
813 - The Picture of Dorian Grey - Fiction - American Literature
929 - Great Uncle Harry - Michael Palin - Genealogy

For more details about these classifications, see the Wikipedia Page - List of Dewey Decimal Classes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...

Also December 10 is Dewey Decimal Day!!

My Favs

1. What was your favorite book as a child?
A Hundred Million Francs by Paul Berna

2. What is your favorite book now?
Q's Legacy A Delightful Account of a Lifelong Love Affair with Books by Helene Hanff

3. What book would you never remove from your bookshelf?
Cities of Gold A Novel of the Ancient and Modern Southwest by William K. Hartmann

4. What book have you read more often than any other?
84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff

5. What book kept you up way past your bedtime?
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

6. What books are you looking most forward to reading in 2024?
Great Uncle Harry AND Bookshops & Bonedust

Emily Cook has released her annual BYL Reading Challenge for 2024. (BYL = Build Your Library)

https://buildyourlibrary.com/2024-bui...

So I am going to try and see how many of these 40 prompts i can read. The theme for 2024 is History.

So far the following books are my suggestions, mostly based on those books I already own or books I want to buy.


A War story - Librarian of Auschwitz
A Disaster - Meltdown at Chernobyl

A Turning Point in History - JFK Dallas 1963
Book published in the year you were born - Charlie/Chocolate Factory

About Revolution - Hamilton the Revolution (Musical - Lin-Manual Miranda) - Hamilton by Ron Chernow - Founding Brothers Revolutionary Generation
Epistolary Novel - The Martian/Weir - House of Leaves/Danielewski

By a favorite Author (2x)
Set in the Victorian era - Possession - A S Byatt

An Inspiring Person - Carl Sagan or Neil deGrasse Tyson
Poet or writer - Geraldine Brooks - March

About Civil Rights - Coretta King
Historical event that Happened in your lifetime - 1989 - End of Communism - Berlin Wall - Tiananmen Square

A Woman who ruled
Book set in medieval era

A New Release - Great Uncle Harry - Michael Palin
About a Plague - A Year of Wonders - Geraldine Brooks

A book based on your family history/culture
An Alternate History story - Timarare Dragon series - Book 4

About Royals - SPARE
The Space Race

Set in southern Hemisphere - Morgans Run
Memoir or Biography - Being Henry - Henry Winkler

A Graphic Novel - Dr Strange Omnibus (Comics 1-6)
About a major discovery or innovation - Double Helix - DNA - Watson

Set in my state/province/city
A classic - Dr Zhivago - Boris Pasternak

Based on Mythology or Folklore - Circe or Phaedra
Written from Multiple POVs - Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (January or March)

A Non Fiction Book - Whatever I feel like - I have tons of NF books!!!!
Book with "History" in title - Empire of Pain/Sackler - Four Lost Cities/Secret history - Sapiens

Sub-genre you dont normally read - Fantasy - Bookshops & Bonedust
Book featuring time travel

Set in aftermath of a major event
Dual timelines - The Lost Jewels - Alice Network - Malibu Rising - Physick Book of Deliverance Dane - Katherine Howe - The Night Portrait - Laura Morell - The Riviera House - Natasha Lester - The Sun Down Motel - Simone St. James


Set in ancient times
Written by a BIPOC author - Dorothy Height - White House, MLK

Journey or Quest - People of the Book - Geraldine Brooks
Book about refugees - Armenian Holocaust

A book by a Favorite Author (2x)
LGBTQIA+ history - A Song of Achilles - (PURCH) - I do have Circe!!!

Date - 12 Dec 2023

Gavin Hetherington posted out a video today - describing his feelings of burnout while doing Youtube (Booktube) full time. So he is now going to step back and take some time for himself in 2024.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uvML...

posted 12 December 2023

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As for me - This is also how I feel about 2024..

Burnout also happens when you are just reading.

I am very much a mood reader and I while I do have a wishlist, I try not to make an planned TBR for any challenges because then that challenge just becomes "homework" that has to be done and its no longer exciting. Now its just required reading. Which is why I seldom finish many of the challenges and read-a-thons that I join here at Goodreads.

So for 2024, I have decided to stop doing the monthly and quarterly challenges, and instead I am doing several year long challenges. I will list some books I might read, but if I dont read them, then I wont bad mouth myself.

Doing a 1 year read-a-thon leaves me so much more room and time to mood read books that just happen to fit the requirements of the challenge. And I do not feel quite so much pressure. I should have done this years ago!!!

There are some smaller challenges that I might join. Non Fiction November will definitely be one of them. But if I don't, thats OK. I just dont want to be under pressure that I HAVE to read.

So glad I switched my goals to 1 year. Now I am excited again.

I think it's wonderful that you were able to make some changes regarding your participation in reading challenges. May you find joy, pleasure, and fun in 2024 as you embrace your year long challenges.
Thank you for posting this entry, so that I, I'm sure among many others, can look at our own challenge participation, and set goals that will be fun to achieve.

Elizabeth wrote: "I think it's wonderful that you were able to make some changes regarding your participation in reading challenges. May you find joy, pleasure, and fun in 2024 as you embrace your year long challenges."


Thank you Elizabeth.

Kayla's BUZZWORD read-a-thon for 2024 was released today (14 Dec 2023) so here is the video and the list - along with examples of words or titles...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mACoc...


January - There/Their/They're - Their eyes were watching God - And then there were none (Christie)

February - positive & happy words in the title - rainbows & unicorns - cute, adorable, love etc - positive vibes - VALENTINES DAY!!!!

March - character names as titles - I have several in this category - 7 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle - The Invisible Life of Addy Larue - The Bookish Life of Nina Hill - Daisy Jones and the Six - Note I have already read Jane Eyre and Evelyn Hugo.

April - Nature - earth day - earth month - anything physical and tangible we can see or touch - sea, flower, dirt, rocks, forest etc

May - Every - this specific word!! Can also include Everyone, Everywhere, Everything.

June - Repeating words - even the word THE if it is in the title twice!!! - Tomorrow Tomorrow & Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin or The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - has THE x 2.

July - Measurement - feet, foot, inch, metre, yard, mile - could also be time or distance or recipe - pound, cup, ounce - or anything we measure!!!

August - LIKE - this specific word - can also be part of bigger word - unlikely, unlikeable, etc

September - SENSES - touch, taste, hearing, seeing, smell - the body part that uses the senses - mouth, hands/fingers, nose, ears, eyes - sight, vision, feel,

October - relationships - lover, best friends, spouse, parents, siblings, sister, brother, mother, father, aunt, uncle, cousin etc - My best friends exorcism -

November - ONLY - THIS specific word - NOT part of LONELY!!!

December - Holiday themed words - any title with Xmas in it - Holly Jolly Diwali (DONE) - Kwanza - New Year - Hannukah -

Just to bump this back to the top again, it is now the 1st of January 2024.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Although it was overcast and snowing here in Downtown Toronto!!

Anyway, I can finally start reading my books!!!

Another Update. Today is 13 March 2024

And I have still not yet read one single book!! I am definitely in a slump.

I even dropped my Goodreads goal from 40 books all the way down to 10 books!!!

In April we start the new round of the Magical Readathon. Hosted by G on the Book Roast Youtube Channel.

This read-a-thon allows you, the reader, to create a (fantasy type) character, with a career. And this year are 2 new careers to add to the previous 20+ careers already defined. One of the new Careers is Excavationist. In Muggle terms that would be a Paleontologist!! Digging up the Dinosaurs. I LOVE Archaeology and Paleontology!! This one is perfect for me!!

So now I am planning to read a book or two about Dinosaurs and Fossils. Hopefully that will get me out of my slump. I really do need to get back into reading!!!

And YES, I have been reading these last 3 months. But everything I read is mostly FAN FICTION. Some of it is good. Most of it pretty bad. So I have been forced to re-read my favourites.

But I have also been doing Genealogy and Scrapbooking - 2 of my favourite hobbies. And also Writing. Tons of Writing.

I think it's time I read some new books. Especially since I have continued to buy books. I am just not reading them!!

Roll On April!!

Thursday 28 March 2024 - The Day before Easter Friday.

It's probably been close around 6 months since I last read any book.

But today I am finally READING A BOOK!!

I have been following American Politics ever since Trump was first elected President in 2016.

As of today he is clearly NOT suited to be President again.

Last year in 2023, there were several potential Republican candidates who were also running for the Presidency. The only republican I liked was the former Governor of New Jersey - Chris Christie. I liked what he was saying. That Trump would be no good as President and that he, Chris Christie, should be President instead.

For some reason, people do not seem to like Christie. Maybe because he was too much of a straight shooter and always tells the truth. I loved his straight up truth. It was so refreshing to hear the truth instead of more lies.

Today I purchased and have started reading Christie's Biography.
It is called "Let me Finish" which I think it a common phrase of his.

To get out of a reading slump, you have to find a book that you are excited about. I am excited about this book. The inside story on Donald Trump by someone who was close to him for 14 years.

Currently on chapter 7, so no review yet, but I will let you know when I finish this.

OK I am still reading the Christie book mentioned above. Currently on Chapter 25 - about 75% done. But I will get there.

In the meantime I did finally finish another book - also for the Magical read-a-thon.

This was a Light hearted Perry Mason Detective Story. which I managed to complete. Here's my Review.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

As of today, 11 April 2024, I am still reading Chris Christie's memoir, but I took a little break to knock off another Magical Read-a-thon Prompt.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Journey of the Pharaohs - Clive Cussler.

OK I finally finished Chris Christies Memoir - Let Me Finish.

I read this book for the Magical Read-a-thon Prompt - Books to get you out of a slump. This was definitely the right book to get me out of a slump!!

I thoroughly enjoyed this!! I gave it 5 stars

Chris Christie is a straight talker. He does not flatter anyone. He does not tell lies.

The only downside to this book is that it was published in 2019 - before the Pandemic began. I would love to know what Christie thought of how Trump "handled" the Pandemic!!

Here is my review.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

OK so I have done my Magical read-a-thon challenge and am now back into reading books. At long last.

I grabbed an old favorite from the Open Library - Gondar by Nicholas Luard.



Have not read this one for at least 30 years.
A Novel set in and around Ethiopia in the mid 1800s.

I have interests all over the place. So many interests. My biggest interest is history. And there are various other subjects that are almost branches of History such as Genealogy, and the History of Science, and History of Fashion and many other cultural histories as well.

One new branch I recently discovered is called Big History - which not only covers the written record of Humanity, but essentially covers the entire history of this planet AND its place in the universe.

I also discovered a new website called Knowledge Lust which teaches the reader how to self educate yourself (autodidactism) without having been to school or college.

https://knowledgelust.com

Since I have never completed any kind of college degree, I am going to follow my own plan to read all about Big History.

Hopefully this will take me around 2 years - 2024 and 2025.

Whether or not these books will fit into a Challenge prompt is debateable. If they do that would be good. If they don't, then they don't.

Nonfiction November will be a good time to read these books.

The list comes from the below website and there are 17 sections.

https://fourminutebooks.com/best-hist...

My plan is to read one book from each section. So far I have 12 books chosen. Some books are alternative titles within the genre listed usually because I currently do not own any of the other specific titles.

As of today - 19 April 2024, this is my list...

Sapiens
Common Sense
Salt
The Day the Universe Changed
A Brief History of Time
The Double Helix
Freakonomics
Prisoners of Geography
The Republic by Plato
Fascism
The Prince
A Women of No Importance

This list may change.

OK I have just finished reading Dark Vector, - one of the Newest NUMA FILES books by Clive and Dirk Cussler.

Not for any challenge or prompt.
I gave it 3 stars.
Here is my Review.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Robynne wrote: "I have interests all over the place. So many interests. My biggest interest is history. And there are various other subjects that are almost branches of History such as Genealogy, and the History o..."

Salt is a fantastic book

That last post was in April.

Now it's October - 6 months... And I have not read or completed ONE SINGLE book!!

I have instead been staring at the inside of my brain and dealing with a mental health issue. Namely ADHD - or more specifically ADHD - Inattentive Presentation.

At least now I know why I am have been in a reading slump for the last 2 years.

Am trying to find a professional who can assess me and who is covered under the provincial health system.

Most ADHD assessment clinics in Canada and USA are private clinics and cost several hundred dollars.

But I will keep trying.

I dont know if I am going to make my goal this year, but that's OK. At least now I know why.

Non fiction November is coming up. I really want to read at least one non fiction book for November. I will try but we will see how that goes.

NON fiction November 2024.

The 4 challenge words for November 2024 are
CODE - PATH - SHOT - JOIN

You can interpret these words however you choose.

Books I would like to read, include the following

Code - Code Talker - Navajo Language code - WW2

Path - Amber road - Silk road - Route 66 - Camino de Santiago

Shot - 1 of the many JFK assassination books I have.

Join - Family - Memoir - Perhaps American Daughter

Well I have some good news. I finally finished a book. American Daughter



This is my Review.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I read this for Non Fiction November.

I was bored so I read a novel yesterday. Have not read a novel for at least 2 years!! Have been in a major reading slump.

The novel was called The Martian. Below is my Review. I gave it 5 stars.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I finally figured out why I am reading books again.

Its because I have finally got an appointment to see someone for my mental health. I have an appointment this week.

I had only been asking for 1 year.

I finally received the appt time in late October. That is when I started reading again.

Omg Robyn, a whole year!! I am glad you finally have an appointment! That’s just way too long to have to wait!

Todays date - 28 December 2024

Posting an upodate for 2024.

I actually managed to complete my reading goal in 2024.

https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_i...

10 Books in 2024. I am so happy.

The last few books I read can be found on my 2025 Thread.

Robynne's Reading Roster!!

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...