2020 Reading Challenge
Dec. 15th, 2019 05:14 pmI have nabbed my 2020 Reading Challenge, and now I’m mulling over the categories. So many reading decisions to make! So exciting!
A book published the decade you were born
Maybe Eva Ibbotson’s The Reluctant Heiress (originally published as Magic Flutes in 1982)? This has been on my list a loooong time (I’ve been reluctant to read it because it’s the last of Ibbotson’s adult novels that I haven’t read), so perhaps it’s time to bite the bullet and read it.
A debut novel
I must confess, I am not super up to date on new novels coming out (let alone new novels by debut authors), so this one is going to be up for grabs.
A book recommended by a source you trust
We’ll have to see what my trusted sources are recommending this year, I guess!
A book by a local author
Conveniently, John Green lives in Indianapolis, and I still haven’t read Turtles All the Way Down. So probably that one.
A book outside your (genre) comfort zone
Oh, gosh, this was one of the hardest categories last year - although I ended up reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s City of Girls, so probably one of the most rewarding, too. I’m planning to read Ann Patchett’s The Dutch House, which is outside my usual genre comfort zone, buuuuuut I really loved Patchett’s Truth and Beauty (her memoir about her friendship with Lucy Grealy) and so it seems wrong to call Patchett’s work outside my comfort zone.
A book in translation
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evelyn_b, you still up for Don Quixote?
A book nominated for an award in 2020
I already read the Newbery Award winner and the honor books each year, so perhaps I ought to branch out and snag a book nominated for a non-Newbery Award for this category. But on the other hand… I am already reading all the Newbery books… Well, we’ll see if I’m feeling lazy or not, I suppose.
A re-read
I’ll just leave this open and see what I end up rereading, I suppose.
A classic you didn’t read in school
I feel that Don Quixote ought to count for this one too, being 800 pages long and so forth… but no, I should take the opportunity to read something else as well. Maybe this is my year to finally read The Brothers Karamazov? Or perhaps I should read some Turgenev. William Dean Howells spoke of him highly. (But I could count that for the category “a book recommended by a source you trust.”)
Three books by the same author
I’m tempted to do Mary Stewart for this one - I’m getting close to having read all the Mary Stewart books! But I know I’m going to read the rest of the Mary Stewarts eventually, so it almost feels like a waste of a category to use it for that.
Maybe Margaret Atwood? I’m always meaning to read more Margaret Atwood without having actually read a Margaret Atwood since I read The Handmaid’s Tale in high school. I could read The Testaments, Alias Grace (I saw the miniseries & loved it), and The Penelopiad.
A book published the decade you were born
Maybe Eva Ibbotson’s The Reluctant Heiress (originally published as Magic Flutes in 1982)? This has been on my list a loooong time (I’ve been reluctant to read it because it’s the last of Ibbotson’s adult novels that I haven’t read), so perhaps it’s time to bite the bullet and read it.
A debut novel
I must confess, I am not super up to date on new novels coming out (let alone new novels by debut authors), so this one is going to be up for grabs.
A book recommended by a source you trust
We’ll have to see what my trusted sources are recommending this year, I guess!
A book by a local author
Conveniently, John Green lives in Indianapolis, and I still haven’t read Turtles All the Way Down. So probably that one.
A book outside your (genre) comfort zone
Oh, gosh, this was one of the hardest categories last year - although I ended up reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s City of Girls, so probably one of the most rewarding, too. I’m planning to read Ann Patchett’s The Dutch House, which is outside my usual genre comfort zone, buuuuuut I really loved Patchett’s Truth and Beauty (her memoir about her friendship with Lucy Grealy) and so it seems wrong to call Patchett’s work outside my comfort zone.
A book in translation
evelyn_b, you still up for Don Quixote? A book nominated for an award in 2020
I already read the Newbery Award winner and the honor books each year, so perhaps I ought to branch out and snag a book nominated for a non-Newbery Award for this category. But on the other hand… I am already reading all the Newbery books… Well, we’ll see if I’m feeling lazy or not, I suppose.
A re-read
I’ll just leave this open and see what I end up rereading, I suppose.
A classic you didn’t read in school
I feel that Don Quixote ought to count for this one too, being 800 pages long and so forth… but no, I should take the opportunity to read something else as well. Maybe this is my year to finally read The Brothers Karamazov? Or perhaps I should read some Turgenev. William Dean Howells spoke of him highly. (But I could count that for the category “a book recommended by a source you trust.”)
Three books by the same author
I’m tempted to do Mary Stewart for this one - I’m getting close to having read all the Mary Stewart books! But I know I’m going to read the rest of the Mary Stewarts eventually, so it almost feels like a waste of a category to use it for that.
Maybe Margaret Atwood? I’m always meaning to read more Margaret Atwood without having actually read a Margaret Atwood since I read The Handmaid’s Tale in high school. I could read The Testaments, Alias Grace (I saw the miniseries & loved it), and The Penelopiad.
