2016: The Year to Read More Books!

Are you in a reading rut? Do you need a push to turn off the TV and open more books? Or are you feeling compelled to try a wider variety of titles? Then take one of these reading challenges that have been created to get us excited about reading.

The Goodreads 2016 Reading Challenge: When January 1^st rolls around, I usually make resolutions that involve my ongoing challenges: To lose weight, save money, and be more organized. But in 2012, I also signed up for the Goodreads challenge to read more books. Not surprisingly, my reading resolution was the only one I’ve consistently met. I’ve taken the Goodreads challenge every year since then, and each time I increase the number of books I read.

In 2015, more than 1,700,000 people took the Goodreads reading challenge. The average pledge was 54 books, with people reading as few as 10 and as many as several hundred (Speed readers?). Interested in taking the Goodreads challenge? First you need to get a Goodreads account, which is free and easy to join by going to http://www.goodreads.com/

Goodreads is a handy tool for keeping track of what you have read, and keep a list of books you want to read. You can review your own books and read reviews from other fellow readers around the world. Once you build up your virtual library, the site will even recommend books for you to try. And don’t forget to become friends with Cook Library on Goodreads to get our book recommendations.

Book Riot’s 2016 Read Harder Challenge: The staff at Book Riot created 24 tasks for the New Year that offer a wide variety of reading ideas, from choosing a story set in the Middle East to enjoying a volume of poetry. Book Riot even offers a list of recommended books for each category provided by the New York Public Library staff. Of course, Cook Memorial Library’s staff will also be happy to find books to meet your criteria!

PopSugar 2016 Ultimate Reading Challenge: PopSugar is a website geared toward women, but its reading challenge will appeal to men and women alike who are “truly book obsessed’’. The challenge is designed to broaden the reader’s scope by reading a wide variety of books and provides a printable PDF. Two of my favorite challenges are a book based on a fairytale and a book set in your home state.

The Modern Mrs. Darcy: This blog written by a bookworm offers a fun reading list with a challenge for each month, including a book you own but never read and a book chosen for you by your spouse, partner, sibling, child or BFF. The Modern Mrs. Darcy provides a printable PDF for you to keep track and even lists what she is going to read for the challenge.

The Tournament of Books: If you just looking for a list of highly recommended books to read from the last year, check out the Tournament of Books Long List. The tournament is run by the Morning News in Dallas and pits top books against each other in bracket form during college basketball’s March Madness. The tournament starts with a long list of great books, which gets whittled down to a shorter list. Here is the long list of books, which provides a lot of great titles to challenge your reading experience.

I wish you a great 2016 full of wonderful reading experiences. Happy New Year!