I didn’t think I would actually finish the 2015 Reading Challenge, but I knew I would put a big dent in it and I have: 28 categories (30 if I finish those in progress). That’s pretty good, for me, especially considering I haven’t tagged any for multiple categories, even though I could have.
Here’s the ones I finished, and the remaining two in progress that I hope to finish this week (I finished Trilby this week, after I made this chart):
I am pretty happy to have attempted the challenge — there are several on here I wouldn’t have been as likely to pick up if they hadn’t fit a category. On the other hand, I had to work to wedge some of them in — especially the ones I read for the Evil Book Club. As a result, I missed a few months of evil reading through the year — I managed only 7 of the 12, but six of those did double duty being wedged into this challenge too.
What I haven’t been able to decide is whether or not to structure my next year of reading. There are lots of options:
- I could continue working through the sections I didn’t finish of this year’s challenge.
- I could choose the new challenge from PopSugar, the same group that devised this year’s.
- I could go with the variation that our GoodReads group came up with — it has two tiers and includes wild cards.
- There is also a challenge from Book Riot and a Bingo-Card style variant from CBC Reads.
- Or I could just cull from my overflowing shelves….
Increasingly, as I look at my shelves, I am leaning toward the latter. I will still set myself a challenge of at least 36 books (that was achievable but a challenge — if I finish the two I have in progress for this challenge, I will hit 39 for the year) and continue to read many of the Evil Book Club selections, but I am eager to take on some of the many books I have been given and collected in the past few months. However, if you’ve never done one of these challenges, I do recommend it — it’s good to have a focus and to read outside your comfort zone from time to time.