Goodbye, 2019 (Favorite reads) Hello, 2020 (First Book of the Year, Reading Challenges)

Another year, and decade, in the books. I always look forward to a new year because it means new beginnings, and another chance to accomplish what we might not have in the past year. I'm trying to learn not to beat myself up when I don't reach a goal, and to try to remember that we are all works in progress.

I'm proud of myself with my reading last year, even if I once again did not meet my Goodreads reading challenge goal of 75 books. Take a look at the graphic though. I read 47. That's almost a book a week AND I read 16 more books than in 2018. If I can read 16 books more in 2020, that will put me even closer to my goal of 75. Who knows...I might even hit 75. Never say never.

Top 11 reads in 2020, in no particular order:

Joy in the Morning, Betty Smith
The Miniaturist, Jessie Burton
The Giver, Lois Lowry
Good Omens, Gaiman and Pratchett
Behind Closed Doors, B.A. Paris
The Dark Game, Jonathan Janz
Parable of the Sower, Octavia E. Butler
Oryx and Crake, Margaret Atwood
The First Mistake, Sandie Jones
Floating Staircase, Ronald Malfi
Full Dark, No Stars, Stephen King

First Book of the Year 2020

Though I'm actually reading several for various read-alongs, book groups, Classics Club Spin, my official book of the year is Stephen King's The Outsider. I'm already almost halfway through (trying to finish before the series this Sunday on HBO) and it is VERY good. Probably one of King's best.

2020 Reading Challenges

Here's a quick rundown of the reading challenges I'm participating in this year (four of them are hosted by me at Gather Together and Read). You can see the full details of all challenges, and what I'm reading for them on my 2020 Reading Challenges page (tab in the menu).

I really did not make any real resolutions this year. What I did was make a promise to myself to work on my novel, and get it written, in 2020. I'll probably post updates from time to time on my writing blog. Go here if you would like to subscribe and receive my updates. 

Happy New Year!

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I'm signing up for my new reading challenge...you should too! #13WLRP

I decided to creat the 13 Ways of Looking at The Lifetime Reading Plan perpetual reading challenge after recently reading from two books: 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel by Jane Smiley and The New Lifetime Reading Plan by Clifton Fadiman and John S. Major. As I was looking at the lists in both books, I thought that these lists would make for an awesome reading challenge to broaden our reading horizons.

This new reading challenge is being hosted at my new reading community site, Gather Together and Read. I have also moved all the challenges I host to this site so everything is easily gathered in one place.

INFO ABOUT THE CHALLENGE
This is a perpetual challenge, meaning there is no set ending or goal. You read at your own pace. It's really about challenging ourselves to read perhaps beyond our comfort zone, and to read books that are considered "great" or, as Jane Smiley said, books "that would illuminate the whole concept of the novel." Also, many of the titles on the lists will easily crossover with other reading challenges!

To make things a bit more challenging (just so the challenge doesn't languish, as many perpetual challenges do), I'm going to follow the lead of Read the Nobels and host a yearly challenge inside this challenge where you commit to reading a set amount of books from the lists in a year. That will kick off on January 1, 2017.

In addition, I will host read-alongs of books from the list periodically. I want to make this site about community and I think read-alongs are an excellent way to foster community.

Both lists for the reading challenge can be accessed in the sidebar menu at the site.

I hope you will join me! Sign up here.

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