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Reading challenges

Photo by George Hodan. Source PublicDomainPictures.net
I haven’t participated or set myself any reading challenges in several years, but when I read this post on A Little Reading and saw all the juicy challenges on offer, I thought it might be fun to participate in one or two.

Since most of them started in January and it is now August, I would have to choose something with a small or smallish number of books, so as to leave me a window for reading non-challenge books as well.

I was thinking maybe the What’s in a Name challenge and/or the Nonfiction challenge

The 100+ books challenge is something I have already finished without needing to make a challenge of it - I routinely finish more than 150 books in a year, sometimes more than 200. 

One of the TBR challenges (I counted 9 that are still going and one more that has run its course), however would be an incentive to get me reading my own books, since many of the books I have read this year have been ones I either borrowed or was lent. Funny how one can own 800+ books that are waiting to be read (not counting eBooks) and still be unable to find anything I want to read among them. The grass is greener and all that…

I also have a private challenge I’m mulling over, one that I might actually turn into a public one. I’ll post about it later if something comes of it. 


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