Tags
Book 100, books, breakthrough goals, challenges, Chapter After Chapter, genre, reading, Stephen King, writing, writing craft
“If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have time to write.” Stephen King
Last week I wrote about Breakthrough Goals. Goals “that reach outside your comfort zone, change you forever and are worth following with passion.”
I knew one of my breakthrough goals for 2012 would be to read more. In her book Chapter After Chapter author Heather Sellers suggests that a new writer should read at least 100 books like the one they intend on writing. She calls it the Book 100. It’s about deep diving into your genre and although she suggests you can round it out with inspiration, how-to’s and writing craft she says, “Writers learn more from reading (in their genre) than from all the how-to plot books in the world.”
I reflected on my reading for 2011 and discovered I was a little puny in the fiction department. I read from mostly the paranormal and literary genres and most of my reading weighed heavily in research, writing craft and healthy living categories. Not a bad thing. BUT I only read three time travel books last year. Granted, I’m not a new writer and I’ve read tons of time travels over the years but still, I couldn’t believe it. Only three. I write time travels!
I’m happy to report that 2012 will be different. While I was doing research on something totally unrelated I found out about a time travel reading challenge. From there I found hundreds of reading challenges for every genre and topic you can think of. Challenges are hosted by big-time readers and some of the most well read people on the planet. Check this out:
Laura at the Library of Clean Reads is hosting the Time Travel Reading Challenge.
Here are the Rules:
- Challenge runs from January 1, 2012 to December 31st, 2012. You can join anytime.
- Books from other challenges count as long as they are about time travel.
- Books can be children’s, middle-grade, YA or adult fiction.
- Write a post and link it below including the URL to that sign-up post.
Levels:
- Surprise Trip: 1 to 3 time travel books.
- Great Adventure: 4 to 6 time travel books.
- Fantastic Journey: 7 to 9 time travel books
- Mind-boggling Voyage: 10 to 12 time travel books.
Note from Laura: Linking your reviews is optional but I encourage it so that we can discover what time travel books you’ve read and I can add them to the growing list that Alyce started. Here is the Link Review Page.
How perfect is this?
Here’s a sample of other challenges like this one:
Mystery and Suspense Reading Challenge
Sookie Stackhouse Reading Challenge
Historical Fiction Reading Challenge
If these categories don’t enchant you, believe me, this is a teeny tiny sampling. If you google your favorite genre and attach the words reading challenge, I’m certain you’ll find what youre looking for plus more challenges you might never have thought of. You can join as many as you like. Some require you write a review for each book read so be sure and read the instructions. I hope you’re as excited as I am!
I’m going to read 10-12 time travel books putting me in the Mind Boggling Voyage category and I’m going to push myself and see how many books I can read from now until December 31 in my very own version of Book 100. I know with everything on my plate this year that it isn’t possible to read 100 books. Will I read 30, 40 or 50? I’m going for 40. It’s setting the bar a tad high (breakthrough goal material) but it’s not unreachable.
How Many Books?
If you want to challenge yourself to a specific reading goal or if you think you might join one of the “official” reading challenges like the ones above, I started a hashtag on Twitter #howmanybooks. We can talk about our official or unofficial reading challenges, tally our numbers, celebrate our successes, and ask for book recommendations or a kick in the pants 🙂 I hope you’ll join me!
Did you read lots of books in your genre last year? Celebrate and tell me about it in the comments. You earned the bragging rights so dish. How many books will you read in 2012? Tell us your plans. I love hearing from you.
Have a happy reading, writing day!
~Kate
Kate MacNicol's Blog~ 
This is very helpful and good luck with your “time travels!”
Thanks so much!
I like this, Kate! I hesitate to join a formal challenge as I have ROW80 and my heath challenge. But an informal one I can handle. I’ll join you at #howmanybooks. I write historical fiction and I have 8 in that genre sitting on my shelf just begging to be read. So I will also pledge to read 10-12 books in my genre. That should leave me room for craft books and anything else that piques my interest. Great idea! See you there!
I think you have your arms full with all the cool challenges and goals you already have. Informal is good! I’ll see you over at #howmanybooks Thanks Marcia!
Hi Kate,
I’m so excited you’re joining me on my Time Travel challenge! I have just discovered your blog and I like the way you write. I really look forward to reading your reviews of the time travel books you’ll read. Thanks again!
Hi Laura, I’m excited too. I can’t wait to read the reviews of all the people in the group and get some recommendations. I decided to start out with Lady of Hay. My sister-in-law loved it and I’ve read other Barbara Erskine books and enjoyed them. It will be fun to write a review. Thanks for stopping by and THANKS for hosting this challenge. I feel like I’ve discovered a whole new world. LOL!
I strongly agree about reading many books in the genre that one writes in. In the last year alone I probably read over 50 paranormal YA books. Some of them were great, some okay, and – sadly – there were a few that I couldn’t even finish. But that’s expected.
Wonderful idea with the reading challenge. I’m not able to join at this time since I’m planning a complete or, at least, a partial “unplugging” for two weeks soon to concentrate on finishing and editing my manuscript. But in the future I would love to try.
Wow Angela! 50 books is terrific! I’m so happy you’re going to unplug and put your writing front and center. I can see myself doing that sometime this spring as well. You can join an official challenge anytime. #howmanybooks is just to celebrate. Thanks for coming by!
100??? Wow, I’ve set a challenge for myself to read 4 books a month, or 48 this year. I’m really shooting for 50 and that seems so stratospheric to me, so 100 would be insane. I’m mixing up the books between Book Club choices, my genres, craft books on writing, and anything that strikes my fancy. I’m also trying to get all of our WANA peeps books read this year. Right now I’m reading Angela Wallace’s ‘Elemental Magic’ and really enjoying it. A formal challenge? Now that’s out of my comfort zone, so probably something I should look into, right? : )
Yes, 100 but not necessarily in a year. I’m with you 40 or 50 books seems stratospheric. I think you should stick with it because we’re supposed to live life and play too. I’m mixing it up too but I wanted to read more time travel so hence the formal challenge. We’ll check in with each other Tameri. I’m looking forward to discussing the books too which is another perk of joining up with the official challenge. #howmanybooks is informal so come on over.
Wow, Kate, good luck with that challenge. There’s no way I could begin to attempt it. Like Tameri, I ‘m going to try to read all the Wana books first as soon as I finish my current read which is another friend’s debut novel. Somehow I’ve still got to finish my current WIP … I need more hours in my day!
Pingback: Sharing is Caring: My Weekly Finds | Barbara McDowell's Blog