Reading Challenges I’m Doing in 2022

I’ve decided to go all out this year and tackle four different reading challenges that have caught my eye over the break. Considering I didn’t manage to complete the two challenges I chose to do last year, this could be seen as a ridiculous decision, but I don’t intend to be all that strict about how I approach the task. It’s supposed to be fun, after all.

Here’s what I’m going to play along with:

 

The 12 Challenge

This challenge, created by bookstagrammer Shadowbooker, did the rounds on Twitter between Christmas and New Year and I joined the conga line as it steamed past. I love getting recommendations, but am often bad at then making time to read them. So this will make or break me!

I deliberately took each recommendation without investigating the premise (there was only one title I hadn’t come across before) because I’d like to be surprised by an unexpected delight or two. My only disappointment is that I didn’t receive more sci-fi recommendations.

(The following links are to blogs primarily, and to Twitter accounts otherwise)

The Conductors by Nicola Glover – recommended by Annemieke of A Dance with Books

Vita Nostra by Marina & Sergey Dyachenko – recommended by Aquavenatus

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon – recommended by Ania

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong – recommended by Jordan of Coffee Book and Candle

Blackwing by Ed McDonald – recommended by Sam of The Book in Hand

Race the Sands by Sarah Beth Durst – recommended by Alex of The Wry Writer

Paladin’s Grace by T Kingfisher – recommended by Sarah

Sistersong by Lucy Holland – recommended by Fabienne of Libri Draconis

Miss Percy’s Pocket Guide to the Care and Feeding of British Dragons by Quenby Olson – recommended by Katrina of Read Ruminate Write

Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees – recommended by Peat Long

Glow by Tim Jordan – recommended by Ollie of Infinite Speculation

This is Our Undoing by Lorraine Wilson – recommended by Matt of Runalong the Shelves

Having received a generous gift voucher I was able to purchase copies of those books I didn’t already have on the TBR or my library book stack. The only book I had difficulty acquiring was Miss Percy’s Pocket Guide which is currently only available as an ebook. It’s not on our library’s Libby app and I don’t read ebooks unless I’m really really stuck because I dislike the experience. However, a friend of mine loaned me her Kindle (because she’s a wonderful, marvellous and most beloved being) and I’m just over 60% of the way through Miss Percy, which she’s then going to read after me. I’m very fortunate with my friends.

 

The TBR Reduction Challenge

This challenge was created by Matt (A.K.A. Womble) of Runalong the Shelves who, to help us all with our towering TBRs, has outlined a plan that should enable us to knock at least one book off the TBR stack per month, by reading something to match that month’s theme. The themes are nice and loose, and for the over-achievers there are Stretch Goals each month. As I’m sticking to the bare minimum requirements, I haven’t included the Stretch Goals below.

The monthly themes are as follows:

January – New Beginnings read the most recent book on your TBR

February – Valentine’s Day Gift read a book by an author you love

March – Fresh Blooms read a book by an author you’ve not read before

April – New Openings read the first book in a series

May – Randommmmm pick a random title from your TBR

June – The Longest Day read the longest book on your TBR

July – You Came, You Read, Your Conquered read a book you know will be a challenge

August – Holiday! read a book that takes you to another place

September – Back to School read something with a link to education

October – Booooo and Eeek! read a scary book

November – Short and Sweet read 3 novellas

December – Happy Endings read a finale to a series

 

2022 Adult SFF Backlist Books Challenge

Another monthly themed challenge, this one was created by Bookish Valhalla. I like that where Womble’s themes are practical, Bookish Valhalla’s are subjective, but wide open to interpretation. There are two hard and fast rules to this challenge: books have to have been published before 2022, and they must be categorised as adult. Other than that, anything goes – rereads, short stories, audiobooks, graphic novels (I’m assuming) etc.

The monthly themes are:

January – Winter

February – Time

March – Oaths

April – Hidden Places

May – Starlight

June – To Sea

July – To Sky

August – Sacrifice

September – Fire

October – Ritual

November – Forest

December – Omens

 

Picture Prompt Book Bingo

And finally, of course, I’ll be playing my own Picture Prompt bingo, because there can never be enough book bingo in the world.

 

And so…

This is how I intend to tackle the Herculean task I’ve set myself here: if a book can apply to more than one challenge then I’ll use it for as many as it applies too. I’m not proud. The important thing to my mind is that I enjoy myself, keep motivated over the year (those slumps do bother me when they occur), and make some sort of dent in my TBR, which has grown exponentially over the last year. At my last count I had 217 books on my TBR. I now have 282 (that’s three and a half years’ worth of reading for me if I ignore all the new releases, library books and pretty second-hand volumes I might come into contact with over that period). On top of which I have the motherload of old SFF given to me by a library patron, and that’s another 693 books, even if not all of them are viable reads.

My gravestone will bear the legend: died reading.

 

Are you doing any of these reading challenges? Or any others this year?

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