2016 Reading Challenges

I'm not sure about anyone else but setting some reasonable reading goals really helps me stay on target and strive towards reading a little more each year. Beyond that I really enjoy being able to check in from time to time to see how I'm doing and reassess the books I've read at the end of the year to see how far I've come. I sometimes forget what books I've read when and looking back always gives me a little happy jolt of remembrance. Last year I didn't quite meet all my goals so I've tempered it back a little for 2016, hoping to challenge myself but not set myself up for automatic failure. So here are the challenges I'm joining for 2016 and the goals I hope to meet:

Goodreads Reading Challenge

Last year I missed my Goodreads reading challenge goal of 55 books, so this year I've pushed it back to 50. This will still be a challenge for me as I'm not the fastest reader and finding time to read with a full time job and an active (and sometimes lovingly distracting) family can be nearly impossible. Combine all this with the extra time running the blog takes and I just don't have as much reading time as I'd like. However, like so many other readers, I always make the time each day to read at least a little bit, so I think this is something I can manage. I'll be tracking my progress on Goodreads HERE, and if you are on Goodreads I really recommend signing up for the challenge as well. So many readers join in and it is a really supportive group of people.

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

I've been doing the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge for a number of years now as historical fiction is my favorite genre, making this an easy challenge to complete for me. Last year the challenge was hosted by one of my absolute favorite blogs, Passages to the Past. If you aren't following Amy's blog and you love historical fiction than you are really missing out. Anyways, last year I signed up to complete the Ancient History level, which means I needed to read at least 25 historical fiction novels. I went way above that but I'm going to stick with this level as I don't think I can possibly make it to the next (Prehistoric: 50+ historical fiction books). Even if you don't sign up for this challenge (the lowest level starts at 2 books read in 2016 so if you read historical fiction at all you can find a level for you) you can follow along with the challenge and read lots of wonderful reviews by bloggers and reviewers across the sub-genres of historical fiction.

So tell me: do you like to sign up for challenges? If you do, what challenges are you looking to complete this year?   

2015 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge



While this blog is new (and therefore you wouldn't know my reading patterns yet) anyone who knows me knows I love historical fiction! It is my all time favorite genre and has been since as far back as I can remember. For the past few years I have participated in the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge previously hosted by Historical Tapestry and now in the wonderful hands of Amy over at Passages to the Past. As most of the books I choose are historical fiction anyways this is an easy challenge for me to accomplish!

Anyone who might like to participate just needs to go over to Passages to the Past HERE, read the instructions for participating and sign up. Easy  Peasy! For the challenge the levels are as follows:

 

20th century Reader - 2 books
Victorian Reader - 5 books
Renaissance Reader - 10 books
Medieval - 15 books
Ancient History - 25 books
Prehistoric - 50+ books

 

 

I'm going to shoot for Ancient History as Prehistoric is right around my challenge number for total books in 2015. Anyone else going to be participating? Let me know!