2014 - December 20

It's twelve days until 2015 begins. Might as well kick this off a little bit early, in order to lay some groundwork.

This coming year will be my third calendar year of college, starting off with my second semester of the Sophomore Slump. Since I started college - and even before then - my reading has drastically suffered. Over 200 books read a year, easy, has turned into a tooth-and-nail struggle to see if I can hit 150. (Hint: I'm not sure I can. I'm at 143 today.)

What's the obvious solution? A reading challenge!

I found this nifty little thing on Tumblr back when I was indulging in that musty blue hellhole:

It's fifty items, and fifty-two books when you take the "trilogy" item into account. Which works out pretty nicely as a book a week. Obviously I want to read more than 52 books in 2015 - 2015 is going to be a good year like 2014 was supposed to be and wasn't! - but I think this little reading challenge will keep me on track.

Not to mention it's fun! Who doesn't like checking off boxes and feeling that sense of satisfaction that you've achieved a set goal, no matter how insignificant?

I'm going to try to give a quick review of each book, as well. And who knows - maybe since it's a pretty easy challenge to beat, especially when I get to summer break, I'll find another challenge to incorporate!

Let me lay some ground rules:

1. No multitasking. That is, I can't use Les Mis for both "a book over 500 pages" and "a book over 100 years old." I have to read 52 books to win the challenge.
2. Where possible, I'm going to be reading new books, not rereading old ones. Some of them require rereading ("a book from your childhood," "a book that made you cry") but this is a challenge! It's for breaking into new territory!
3. Going in the order shown on the list is not mandatory.
4. Have fun! If I beat the challenge at the end of the year, I will eat an entire carton of Cool Whip and I will not feel guilty about it.

It's a reading challenge, not an Olympic event. Who needs rules, anyway?

Over the next week or so (and probably throughout January), I will be assembling my list of projected books to read. You can check them out at the handy-dandy little page to the right of this post. -----> 

And that's about it for groundwork. If you want to do the challenge, too, comment and tell me! Better yet, start your own blog. It'll be fun! 

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Joyous Reading!