I like books. I like reading them and I like talking about them. Two years ago, two ladies, inspired by something similar on Library Thing, set a challenge to themselves: Read 10 books in 10 genres by October 10th, 2010. The genres were self created with the hope that they would expand their reading to outside their literary comfort zones.
Of course, I found out about this November 2010, but that’s besides the point. It’s a really awesome idea and there’s no reason not to do it.
A lot of what I read has been written in the last 100 years. And it tends to be dystopian future fiction. That or I reread what I know I like (Harry Potter ad infinitum). I really need to branch out.
So, I am setting a goal for myself: In 2012, I will read 12 books in 12 different categories, before December 12th.
And I will post book reports for every single one.
Maybe I’ll make a spreadsheet!
On to the categories!
- tl;dr (400 pages or more)
- Autobiography/memoir
- Biography/non-fiction
- Collections (poetry, short story, plays)
- Non-American, Canadian, or Western European authors
- Popular: Books from NY Time Bestseller List or Oprah’s Book Club
- Female Authors
- The Dark Ages: 1600-1900 (aka: The books I spent my academic career avoiding)
- Sold by Mysterious Press
- Sci-Fi/Fantasy
- Recommendations
- WILD CARD!
Some rules:
- Books in progress don’t count towards the total (Sorry Anna Karenina and The Marriage Plot).
- Rereads don’t count.
- Books can count towards multiple categories (so Mark Twain’s 760 page autobiography would count towards categories 1 and 2, but not 8 because it was written in 1904).
So this is my wild and crazy plan. Will I succeed? Only time will tell!
Also, if anyone else wants to do this (with their own silly categories), let me know! It’ll be fun!
On that note, any recommendations?
