Sooooo.....
Let me tell y'all about these reading challenges I've been
obsessed with consumed with doing.
I know I mentioned them a few times in past posts. I hinted to them here and there, but I don't think y'all understand how FANTASTIC these reading challenges are. As if you need another reason to read, or another reason to make reading fun, these are THAT reason. I promise.
Honestly, I can't remember who started them or who found them, but my co-worker and I are in the midst of dozens of these challenges. Last spring, we found a few BINGO challenges on the Internet, which were the beginnings of our madness. One was an audio book challenge, the other full of random fun.
Soon the "BINGO!" texts were flying back and forth, and since we share an office, it was quite easy discussing which squares we had yet to mark off, how many BINGOS we had, and what books fit what criteria. For example, I read
Labor Day for my "a book that became a movie" square and
Seraphina for "a book with non-human characters." A few of my audio books were
Doll Bones for "an audio book that scared me" and
Hokey Pokey for "listened while cooking." For both of these BINGO challenges, we gave ourselves the full year to complete the card. It was so much fun, and for a few squares, like "a book with a one-word title" (for that I chose
Fangirl), I had to dig into my TBR lists to find a book that would fit. It encouraged me to read books I'd been putting off or ones that have been on my list for months.
A BINGO card like this would be great for book clubs, especially when you're not sure what to read next. Once everyone has agreed on a square, for example "a book based on a true story" (for that I read
Wild), then the group can vote on a title that fits the criteria. This is something I've been meaning to bring up to my own book club. They are all fully aware of my love for these reading challenges. However, I'm sure they are not aware my love has turned into an addiction. One I'm slightly embarrassed by. But not really.
These cards were quite fun. It was our new thing. And then we found a group on
Good Reads which featured their own reading challenges. Ummm, a couple groups, actually. (Not that we were searching for them, ahem.) My co-worker and I were like kids in a candy store.
One group we found,
A Million More Pages, has a monthly "Scavenger Hunt" where you have 20 words you need to find while reading. You can't find them all in one book, the most for one title is five words. Once you find your 20 words, "congrats!" you finished. I've been participating since last August and including this month (May) I have finished a month's entire list
TWICE. Any words you can't find rollover to next month's list and so on. Seven months later and I'm still searching for that bloody "hayride."
On the discussion boards, once the group moderator posts the word list (and you can bet we're checking as soon as we get up on the first of the month), members then re-post a copy and cross off the words as they find them. I could glance at what books other participants read for that word, but to me that takes the fun out of stumbling across the needed word while reading and shouting out (to no one in particular) "FOUND ONE!!!" For example, in the book I finished on Monday,
Dancing with Fireflies, I found FOUR words from this month's list: lampshade, mother, five, and butterfly. (FYI. I was super stoked to find lampshade. I thought for sure I was going to have to rollover that one.)
This makes reading so much fun.
Other reading challenges I participated in recently consisted of spelling out words using a book's title or author first/last name, a few book cover challenges (like, the number of books you can read in a four-month period with an actual book on the cover), and monthly mini challenges. For instance, the group
Wacky Reading Challenges' mini May reading assignment was to read one book that fit each of the four criteria: read a book whose title begins with "M"; read a book that is #2 in a series; read a book in which the main character is a mother; read a book with a red, white, or blue cover. As of today, I have four of the four tasks completed. Yay! Go me! Finished! (It's those Christian romances...I devour those.)
And there are so many more reading challenges!
But, I see this post is a tad long already, so I'll share a few other reading challenges in another post.
I hope this gives you an insight as to what I mean when I mention reading challenges, and if you love to read, or read a lot or read a little, or
need a reason to read, definitely check out a few of these fun challenges.
It's perfectly okay to do just one challenge at a time. Or just do the monthly scavenger hunt. You don't have to become obsessed like me. I think I have about 30 different challenges going on right now....
Good thing I'm so organized.
With Love and God Bless,
Brindi
