With a new year comes new goals, new books, and new reading challenges. I love having specific goals and challenges to follow with my reading as it forces me to get out of my comfort zone and read things that I won’t normally pick up off the shelf.
If you read my last post you will have seen that I read 320 books in 2017. This is a lot more books than I have ever read in the past and I am not betting on reading that many again this year, but we shall see.
Last year I followed the Diversity Bingo spreadsheet for my reading challenge and really enjoyed it. I was challenged to find new books with a variety of authors, genres, and characters.
Besides that one challenge I worked at reading books that had been on my To Read list for years and was able to read (or decide not to read) every book that had been added to my Goodreads shelf before 2017. This is something that I was very proud of and makes my To Read list a lot more accessible and manageable now.
Now on to 2018. I have decided to challenge myself with 3 different reading lists (two of which I have created myself) to diversify and widen my reading this year.
- Diversity Challenge – This challenge picks a different group of people to focus on each month and I will make sure to read something that embodies that category each month.
JANUARY – Biracial Awareness
– The Love That Split the World by Emily Henry FEBRUARY – Black History Month – I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
MARCH – Woman History Month – The Glass Castle by Jeanette Wells
APRIL – Arab Heritage Month – Rooftops of Tehran by Mahbod Seraji
MAY – Asian/Pacific Islander History Month – Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok
JUNE – LGBT Pride Summer – Middlesex by Jeffery EugenedesJULY – LGBT Pride Summer – Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
AUGUST – Mental Health Awareness – Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
SEPTEMBER – Hispanic History Month – Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan
OCTOBER – Physical Disability Awareness Month – The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards
NOVEMBER – Native American History Month – Medicine Walk by Richard Wagamese
DECEMBER – Religious Minorities – Ms. Marvel vol. 1 by G. Willow Wilson - Canadian Book Challenge – This past year I have discovered that I don’t read enough Canadian books and as a proud Canadian that needs to change. I am working off of the CBC list here and have chosen 12 books (one for each month) to read throughout the year.
TITLE AUTHOR Do Not Say We Have Nothing Madeline Thien Company Town Madeline Ashby Oryx and Crake Margaret Atwood The Diviners Margaret Lawrence The Sisters Brothers Patrick deWitt Etta and Otto and Russell and James Emma Hooper The Break Katherena Vermette The Birth House Ami McKay Brother David Chariandy River Thieves Michael Crummey Everything Beautiful is not Ruined Danielle Younge-Ullman One Day We’ll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter Scaatchi Koul - Goodreads Awards Challenge – For my final challenge I have decided to read a book from all 20 of the Goodreads Awards categories, that I haven’t already marked “To Read.” This will get me out of my comfort zone and discover new genres as well as authors and books that I haven’t heard of before.
Genre | Title | Author |
Fiction | Sing, Unburied, Sing | Jesmyn Ward |
Mystery and Thriller | The Dry | The Dry |
Historical Fiction | Before We Were Yours | Lisa Wingate |
Fantasy | Norse Mythology | Neil Gaiman |
Romance | Without Merit | Colleen Hoover |
Science Fiction | Waking Gods | Sylvain Neuvel |
Horror | Sleeping Beauties | Stephen King |
Humor | Unqualified | Anna Faris |
Non-Fiction | Of Mess and Moxie | Jen Hatmaker |
Memoir and Autobiography | Daring to Drive | Manal al-Sharif |
History | The Radium Girls | Kate Moore |
Science and Technology | Inferior | Angela Saini |
Food and Cookbooks | Give a Girl a Knife | Amy Thielen |
Graphic Novels | The Best We Could Do | Thi Bui |
Poetry | Depression and Other Magic Tricks | Sabrina Benaim |
Debut | We Were the Lucky Ones | Georgia Hunter |
Young Adult | Geekerella | Ashley Poston |
Young Adult Fantasy | In Other Lands | Sarah Rees Brennan |
Middle Grade | See You in the Cosmos | Jack Cheng |
Picture Book | Over and Under the Pond | Kate Messner |
Don’t like these ideas? Here are some other challenges:
3 thoughts on “2018 Reading Goals”