2017 Challenges | #DiversityBingo2017 + #DiverseReads2016

From the challenges this year you might of noticed a theme: diversity. I think all three of these challenges are good at pushing diversity, I mean two of them have diversity in the title, but the Read Harder challenge always has a diverse list of books to check out - genre, content, such.

Normally I'd talk about the challenges in no specific order, but there's definitely an order for how I feel towards these three challenges. #DiversityBingo2017 (felt too weird to type without the hashtag since I've been talking about it on twitter non-stop, not sorry) is the number one thing. I'm going to post a TBR, with everything I found for every category, and if you've got any recommendations for a book in a west asian setting (or if you can give me a straight answer on what is considered west asian because googling gave me various answers).

Diverse Reads mostly lines up with Diversity Bingo, so I figured I might as well take part because the google doc they created is pretty great so I wanted to talk about that too. Honestly, I'd of completed it by just doing the others so it's perfect, and fun.

Read Harder is run by Book Riot and is 24 challenges, so 2 a month, and is always great (though I've never completed it, normally because there's at least one that I don't really care about. See: for 2016, food memoir. I mean sure but also...? Just isn't really my thing).

#DiversityBingo2017 - all the info

Yes, it's an actual bingo card, I'm very happy about it. I original made it as big as I could so you could see the creators, but it's still hard. So I'm going to type out their twitter handles:

@novelparadise, @headinherbooks, @thesebooklions, @thebooksbuzz, @rhaegardied, @ohbrekker, @aimalfarooq, @bookwormwanders, @theauslibrary

If you're interested I'd go check out/hangout in the twitter hashtag, it's a great place to be. I'm really excited about this one and trying to complete all 36 spaces - so many! - and making sure I have books for each that I'm excited for (so far it hasn't been too hard, but finding own voices books has been, but only because of how much time you can put into it and still not have an answer).

But any reccs I'll accept, I've picked out most of my books, but some I'm going back and forth on (a few because too many I want to read!)

Diverse Reads is being hosted by Mishma of Chasing Faerytales and Shelly of Read.Sleep.Repeat. They have specific monthly challenges, that I won't be following simply because I can't structure my reading that much it'll drive me insane (I wish I could, I'd be more organized as a human).

2016 Reading Plans| Book Riot Read Harder + #ReadMyOwnDamnBooks

Last year, I listed a bunch of challenges - series, classics, banned books - but I kind of stopped paying attention to that pretty early because of some things that happened. So I've only got two, maybe three, this year - let's get right into it, shall we?

Book Riot's Read Harder challenge

I didn't end up finishing this one last year, I just kind of let it go (sadly), but I do feel like it makes me look at my reading and realize how non-diverse it can get at points. Especially how white it is, which just isn't something I'm comfortable with. I want to read widely and always enjoy when I do. So there's a new list for 2016, with some interesting things. Some should be easy, others a tad harder but I made a full list of possibilities, with normally at least one or two options for each. 

Link

#ReadMyOwnDamnBooks

An idea, and hashtag, from Andi at Estella's Revenge, and she's left it pretty open. It's less of a challenge and more just something for people to work towards their own goals and to cheer each other on. I don't have any hard and fast rules yet - I've tried the 'read 5 before i buy 1' kind of thing, and I just broke that immediately - so I think I'm just going to be conscious of what I'm buying. Nothing to just buy it, everything I want to read, and can see myself reading in the next year. I can preorder things, but only if I'm really, really excited for it, an author I adore kind of thing. 

And I'm sure I'll come up with a few more for myself - mostly it's going to just be mindful of what I'm buying.

Andi has a post about her goals and such, also just talking about it a little more, and a place to link up if you've decided to take part. This is exactly my kind of thing, I think, though - not too pressuring and such. 

#HamAlong + Popsugar 2016 challenge are the two other things I'm considering. Well, I want to read the Hamilton biography, anyway, so I might as well read it with everyone up, probably over about 2 months. I want to read it because my obsession with the musical is real, but also because I can't think of another biography I'd want to read and it's one of the read harder challenges this year.

For Popsugar - I'm not going to be super strict about it. I might glance at it every few months, but I'm not going to kill myself trying to read stuff for it, I just always find it interesting. 

Now - what are you planning for challenges in 2016? Any or just flying no stress?

2015 Challenges | The Books

Book Riot Read Harder Challenge (Book Riots blog post, the Goodreads group, my post) How the books/challenge match up is going to go - I'm going to put the title, author, and then the challenge it completes in parentheses. I am going to try and do more then one book for some of them, but I doubt for all, I'll mention that at the end of the year:

• The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman (classic retelling)
• The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami (originally published in another language)
• Freakboy by Kristin Elizabeth Clark (about a person who identifies as LGBTQ+)
• Above the Dreamless Dead edited by Chris Duffy (collection of poetry)
• Club Shadowlands by Cheris Sinclair ("guilty pleasure" read)
• Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant by Tony Cliff (graphic novel)
• Warning: Contains Language by Neil Gaiman (audiobook)
• The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black (YA novel)
• The Melancholy of Mechagirl by Catherynne M. Valente (short story collection)
• Rusty Nailed by Alice Clayton (romance novel)
• Redeployment by Phil Klay (award winner from the last decade - national book award 2014)
• March, Book One by John Lewis, + (author over 65)

Series Finished:

• Dante Valentine series by Lilith Saintcrow (3.5/5)
• The Years Quartet by Tiffany Reisz (5/5)
• Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer (4/5)

Banned/Challenged Books Read: (only including ones I could find proof had been challenged/banned, and it's surprisingly hard to figure that out)

• The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
• Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
• Animal Farm by George Orwell

Popsugar's challenge (doing the same thing as the Read Harder challenge).

• The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami (translated)
• Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix (one word title)
• Quiet by Susan Cain (nonfiction)
• Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Carey (memoir)
• The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (made you cry)
• Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz (banned book)
• Not Otherwise Spcified by Hannah Moskowitz (set in high school)
• Southern Reach trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer (trilogy)
• Monstrous Affection edited by Kelly Link (short stories)
• The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman, Chris Riddell (graphic novel)
• Lock In by John Scalzi (set in the future)
• The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks (500+ pages)
• The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (over 100 years old)
• Animal Farm by George Orwell (suppose to read for school) (I did technically read it for school but since no one explained it to me, not joking our teacher didn't, I feel almost like i didn't)
• Trees, Volume One by Warren Ellis, Jason Howard (based just on the cover)

2015 Challenges | BookRiot Read Harder (1)
2015 Challenges | Series & Banned Books (2)

2015 Reading Resolutions

I did very well reading wise in 2014, so I'm not going to be changing up this year resolutions too much. Though - I didn't do good on some of my resolutions (reading more books then I bought didn't happen, because I discovered BookOutlet). I'm going to, or do, have a full post (link) about a wrap up on 2014, related to reading resolutions.

And we're just going to go straight into the resolutions. I have quite a few (I've always been a resolutions kind of person, and they really do work for me. I tend to be aware of my own limits and try not to lie to myself. For example: I'm not resolving to go to the gym this year because the YMCA near me is full of old guys and business men and it's mildly creepy. However - eating better, working out more frequently are on the list).

Now - book resolutions.

• Read 100 books - now I read way more then this amount in 2014, more then double, but I don't want to put too much stress and pressure on myself. And I want to have time to read some longer books and some classics and non-fiction, all of which would take me longer then a normal book and I don't want to worry about it, don't want to push myself to hurry through books.

• Read books from my (physical) TBR / Don't buy as many books - I know putting myself on a book ban will just end up with me cracking and buying a shit ton of books in one go. I think I might try and just buy books I know I could read in the next month (if I don't, like if I'm not in the mood, that's fine. I'm not going to feel guilty about it, that's counterproductive). I'd like to do the 'read 5 books and then I can buy one' kind of thing, but then I'd be pushing myself to speed through books and that'd defeat the purpose also.

• Complete series - This wasn't, actually, a goal of mine last year, but I ended up completing a lot of series (I only completed 2, I believe, in 2013, while I completed 12 in 2014). So I'd like to try and be conscious of trying to complete some of the series I've started, especially the ones that I own all the books in the series and therefor it would be the easiest thing in the world to just finish it up. (Or if I only have the last book left. I don't think there are any series I have left like this, but that always drives me crazy).

• Weekly Wrap-Ups - I did two a few months ago and really liked the format, and so I'd like to do them in 2015. Some weeks I might end up not doing it - it's a lot of work and some weeks I might not have anything to say - but I'd like to keep up with it for the most part. It'll be a wrap-up of my week, so even if I haven't read much, or anything, there will probably be something else to talk about - a TV show I started watching, some YouTube videos, blog posts I've read. I'll still be doing monthly wrap-ups, hopefully including links to the blog posts I've done (including these), so everything is all organized and easier week to week. This is also how I plan to mini-review every book I read, writing a bit about it in the weekly wrap-up after I finish it. I think I'm going to be posting them on... Mondays? covering from Monday to Sunday, finish it up Sunday night (hopefully), and it'll go up Monday. We'll see how this goes. I'd really like to stick to this, but this is the one I'll most likely break, even though I've been thinking about it since I did those two. (The second one I did, is good idea of what I plan on doing if you're confused/curious).

• More discussions / more book reviews - I like writing posts for both, but I don't do either of them as much. With reviews, if I don't write one, I normally just don't have enough to say - meaning I liked it but didn't have enough to say, didn't like it and didn't know how to explain that, or adored it and don't want to spend the review squealing at you. Either way - I'd like to do more. Mostly discussions. I did more reviews in 2014, then I did in 2013, which is good, but I tend to write out my initials thoughts for discussion posts and then second guess myself and not post them, and I'd like to stop doing that.

• Read More... classics, non-fiction, longer books (500+ pages).
• Classics - isn't this always a goal? I own so many classics and I do really want to read them all, but I read classics slowly. I'm not going to put a number on this one, but I'd just like to read some.
• Non-fiction - I own a lot of non-fiction and I never read it at the rate I buy it, since I rarely read non-fiction. And I'm not sure why, I tend to love it and really enjoy it (I also can't get out of the habit of feeling like I should be taking notes? Which isn't a bad thing, but I'd rather just read and tab things). I need to get on this - but I'm also not putting a number amount here.
• Longer books - normally I don't have a problem reading longer books. And I don't think I read abnormally few, I just have a lot I'd like to get to - and I did feel like I was neglecting them more then I would if I hadn't kept pushing myself for a higher goal. All there of these things are linked to that. (Saying that, I just counted and I read 19 books with pages 500 and up - not counting rereads - which does not seem shabby at all to me, I've quite proud of that. Still, I'd like to make sure to read more in 2015).

• Challenges - I'm going separate posts on them, that'll be up this month, but I'm still going to just list them quickly: TBR Double Dog Dare, Banned Book Challenge, series challenges (this one, I'm not participating in a particular one, I'm just doing it on my own).

On the other hand - getting so many books knocked off my TBR, and re-read, was a lot of fun and it felt fantastic to be able to read so many books in one year. So I'm still, definitely, going to push myself, I'm just not going to put too much pressure and stress on myself. I've learned that even setting number goals can cause problems, let alone setting a specific book I want to read. 

It sounds silly and superstitious, but I'm not jinxing anything for this coming year. And this is a fair list of resolutions, which does look like a bit of pressure, but most things are things I've been considering for a little while, and I'm promising myself not to beat myself up too much if I don't hit any of them.

I've considered not counting single issues of comics, because they're really short, but I tend to count everything I read towards Goodreads. And, yes, they're short - but I feel like it evens out (for the things I can't count, or if an edition of something I reread is off on page count. Can't count like: fan fiction, things that aren't on GR in general. So I think it'll even out, and I'm loving the single issues I've been reading and wouldn't want to push them to the side).

And I think that's it, for the resolutions. "It" like there aren't a slightly large number of them.

If you have any resolutions for the coming year, I'd love to read about them! Leave a comment, with a link to your blog or just your resolutions. Reading, writing, everything. Happy New Year!