It’s that time of the year when every book club tries to outdo itself in setting up reading challenges for the New Year. This year I discovered some new challenges thanks to Sanch and Shalini who have written a lovely post on each. Their book reviews have been spot on for me since I discovered them.
In total I have signed up for three book challenges in 2019. There is my usual Goodreads challenge where I have signed up for 40 books this year as opposed to 52 in 2018. I was only able to read 41 and decided to limit the number a bit for this year.
In addition I have signed up for two more challenges with some awesome prompts and let me tell you why they got me hooked.
Book Challenge by Erin 10.0
This one I discovered courtesy my blogger friends and just loved the concept of fixing the TBR. First of all this is a four-month long challenge instead of a year. So it starts on 1st January 2019 and lasts up to 30th April 2019. What I have really loved about this challenge is the Facebook page which is just divine. All the prompts have their own albums, where book covers (based on the prompt) are shared. This helps one in making selections and also seeing what others are reading/recommending. There are 10 books to be read, based on the following prompts:
Freebie: The village by the sea by Anita Desai ℜead 2/5 rating
Made into a movie: Eat, pray, love by Elizabeth Gilbert ℜead 4/5 rating
Book set in Europe: Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris ℜead 3.5/5 rating
Newberry Honoree: Hattie Big Sky by Kirsten Potter Changed this to The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman ℜead 3.5/ 5 rating
Friend favorite: Boy swallows Universe by Trent Dalton ℜead 4/5 rating
100+ years old: Dracula by Bram Stoker ℜead 4/5 rating
6-word title: Love in the times of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez Changed this to A Court of Thorns & Roses by Sarah J Maas ℜead 3/5 rating
Cardinal direction: One half from the east by Nadia Hashimi ℜead 3/5 rating
Published in a different language: Crowfall by Shanta Gokhale – missed out on finishing this one by the deadline.
Starts with “N”: Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman ℜead 5/5 rating
Write Tribe Reading Challenge 2019
A book written by a Female author – The village by the sea by Anita Desai ℜead 2/5 rating
Written by someone of a different nationality/color/ethnic group than you – Love in the times of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez changed it to The Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi ℜead 5/5 rating
Man Booker Prize long-list (any year) –The Water Cure by Sophie Mackintosh changed to Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh ℜead 4/5 rating
Retelling of your favorite fairytale/classic – Manolo Blahnik and the tale of The Elves and The Shoemaker ℜead 4/5 rating
Set in a country that you visited/want to visit – The little Paris bookshop by Nina George changed it to Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman ℜead 5/5 rating
A book that was a gift – Ayurveda by Geeta Vara ℜead 4/5 rating
An animal in the title/cover – The art of racing in the rain by Garth Stein ℜead 3/5 rating
Classic which you’ve never read – Dracula by Bram Stoker ℜead 4/5 rating
4-words title – My name is red by Orhan Pamuk
A 2019 release – Boy swallows Universe by Trent Dalton (gifted by a friend) ℜead 4/5 rating
Made into a movie – Eat, love, Pray by Elizabeth Gilbert ℜead 4/5 rating
A book you bought just because of its cover/a book with a beautiful cover – Major Pettigrew’s last stand by Helen Simonson changed it to Ikigai – ℜead 4/5 rating
Best things about these challenges
What I have really loved about both these challenges is that they allow Audiobooks and one can read the same book for different challenges. So I do have some books common to both the challenges even though I tried to diversify more. Maybe I will edit later in the year if I stumble across some yummy book recommendations / gifts. Also both these challenges have books from a popular award included in them. So the diversity in the reading list is huge.
Intrigued? Pin it for later
(Adding my wish list for books as my Bday is coming up in a few months time 😉 )
( Yes, that’s being devious and very obvious)
If you have loved reading this post, maybe you would like to check out a book review of Artemis Fowl series
27th May 2019 – BOOK SALE ALERT
Love the sound of these challenges. I never end up participating all too much in reading challenges (besides GoodReads) because I never know how much reading I’ll do in a year. So I don’t want to commit to something and end up not doing it.
I can definitely tell you that The Art of Racing in the Rain is a good read from what I remember of reading it back before I had my blog here on WordPress. And Dracula is one of my favorite classics to read.
Thanks Raney – I love book challenges as they give me interesting ideas for picking up books, that I would either never know of or maybe wont read. I am trying out an Audiobook for the very first time and thats Dracula – going good so far though its plodding and heavy in context. Damn I havent read a classic in ages 🙂
Looking forward to Art of racing in the rain!!!
I have never participated in reading challenges. Somehow, I find them daunting and a bit stressful. I do hope to read 2 books a month every month this year. Fingers crossed.
Wish you all the best, Shalz! I am sure you will rock these challenges.
This is the first time for any other than the Goodreads and even that one I have been failing at every year. I dont think I ever lived it up to my Goodreads one even once in the past 5 years of doing it!
I do these for picking up an ecelectic list to read – thats my aim! I have found so many great books that the others are reading that I have compiled a huge list by now. Will wait for the reviews from other participants before deciding to pick them up!
I’m still trying to figure out the what challenges to take up. The goodreads one is a done and I think I’ll do the WT Challenge too. The Erin challenge sounds good too. The fact that it’s short term is a good thing. Most of all I want to finish books that I already have. It is such a waste if you keep buying books but don’t read what you have. That’s going to be my focus this year.
Do that- I look forward to seeing your TBR Tules. I hear you on the growing pile of unread books in the house. This year I intend to be done with them; either read them or give them away!!
Happy reading dear. I also signed up for Write TRibe challenge. Hope to read some amazing book reviews from you.
Wow! So many challenges and books that I’ve never heard of till date. I’m sure you will ace these challenges Shalz.
As for me, I scraped through my Goodreads challenge last and year and after setting a realistic challenge this year, this is the only one I’ll be doing.
Ha ha – tell me about scraping it through!! You read 60 books gurl! I couldnt even read my target of 50; finished at 41
And if you look closely, I have synced it so that most of the books are a repeat in both challenges. I assure you I only did this so I could leave myself to reading more from TBR s of my many book worm friends 😉
I love the arrangement of your books, Shalini. So pretty. Good luck with the challenges! ♥
Thanks so much Corinne – books make the most pretty home decor items in my house 😉
Nice lists! Happy reading and I look forward to hearing about the books! I love Erin’s challenge even though I don’t always complete it.
You and Shalzz are responsible for my TBR and the challenges 🙂 I am kicked by the variety that I have chosen to read this year; whether I complete it or not is not the point. I just want to enjoy this!!
I have only signed up for goodreads challenge. But these look interesting. I read about Erin’s challenge… Will check out the facebook group. You have such an eclectic taste… It’s a pleasure to go through your reading list.
Thank you thank you for calling it eclectic – weird sounds rude no ;-)!!!!
I only discovered these this year, otherwise I am also simply the Goodreads girl. Would love to see you do them too! Join in and share your list!!
Yay Shalz… SO amazing to see you be apart of the challenges. All the best, you would surely rock it :))
Thanks so much Ramya!! Hoping to rock them and not sink them 🙂
A nice way to inculcate a reading habit by force reading against a deadline.
Its more to read a variety of books and also engage with other readers. I always get stuck on the books to read and this is a great way to find new interesting books via like minded readers.
True. Even if you engage with others, they have to read. So a habit is being created.
Haha I am always devious with books, so I totally understand, lol. That being said, your challenges seem fun and doable. Wishing you a happy reading year 2019!
Thanks Shan! Reading has been a little slow in the beginning of Jan and now I am hoping to be more regular at it!
Cosying in the quilt with a book is a great idea, till sleep overtakes the will!! 😉 I guess winters make me very lazy!
These are some amazing book choices, most of them I’ve never even heard of! I’ll be looking forward to your reviews, Shalini. And thank you for the mention 🙂
Its thanks to you that I came to know of these incredible reading challenges. Thank you for your post Shalzz 🙂