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…
Good luck with the challenge. It really is a great idea. Also thanks for including the challenge I host; it will be back again next year (slightly modified) and hopefully will continue from there.
Very glad to have you on board! How exciting – and what a lovely blog layout etc., by the by 🙂