Whether you’ve been meaning to work your way through that stack of books on your nightstand or been wanting to explore a new genre, participating in an online book challenge may be just the thing to get you started. The rules are simple: pick a challenge, read books according to that challenge’s guidelines, and share your reviews of those books with other readers. There are food writing challenges, historical fiction challenges, young adult book challenges and “to be read pile” challenges, just to name a few.
Taking up a book challenge is much more fun than making another resolution to join a gym. And if you choose the Chunkster Challenge (pledging to read books of 450 pages or more), you’ll get a workout just hauling those tomes around.
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This is such a great idea. I’ve been thinking of setting concrete reading goals for myself each month, but never considered doing a book challenge. However, I do have a specific interest for this month: reading books that will teach me about other cultures. I absolutely loved The Kite Runner, and it taught me a lot about life in Afghanistan. I’ve been looking for similar books that delve deeper than politics or news into day-to-day life of a country’s inhabitants. I just started ‘Israela’ by Batya Casper (http://www.israelathebook.com) and it’s definitely a good start to my goal. It’s a novel set in Israel about a family of sisters. It goes into the religious and racial tensions of Israel, but from an individual’s perspective rather than a journalist from the outside. I really love it so far, and if I can find a book challenge that caters to a similar theme I’ll certainly join it! Thanks for the idea!