100 years of reading…

A really good way to broaden your taste in literature is to do commit yourself to a reading challenge.

Attribution: Johannes Jansson/norden.org

I’ve just signed up for A Century of Books after being inspired by Stuck-in-A-Book, who has already completed one Century and is about to start his second in January 2014. A Century of Books is just that – a challenge to read one book for every year of a given century. I’m jumping in with 1900 and will blog about my journey through the 20th century over the coming months. Although you could take this up as a New Year’s Resolution, I’m going to make it my Academic New Year’s Resolution and start now. Who’s with me? I’ll be blogging about each book I read – and I’ll be reading them in chronological order, starting with Lord Jim, by Joseph Conrad.

Other reading challenges to try are:

• Six Books Challenge, for those who find reading difficult
• Book Trust run a series of games and competitions throughout the year for readers of all ages, from babies to grannies and everyone in between
• The Literary Exploration Reading Challenge at Literary Exploration – they’ve dated it 2013 but you could attempt it any time
• Follow in the footsteps of A Penguin a Week but with any publisher or series: how about a poetry one using Faber’s iconic poetry series or Persephone’s beautiful ‘neglected fiction and non-fiction by women, for women and about women’

There are also lots of great online memes and articles to get you thinking about what you read

• My Day in Books, started by the lovely Cornflower Books
• A look at Abandoned Books, from The Literary Stew
• Reading Confessions from the Scottish Book Trust

Right, off to go and collect Lord Jim from his lofty resting place in the library…