Right now, I’m working on two reading projects. The first is because I need to break my habit of buying more books than I’m reading. As a result, I have over 100 books that I own, but haven’t read and sadly, these are just the books I have at my house. (I have a bunch more books at my parents’ house) Therefore, I’ve decided that I can’t buy any more books until I read 75 of the ones that I own. I made a list of these books on my Good Reads profile, so you can check that out if you’re on Good Reads. This is good because I spend so much money on books and I haven’t read very many of the ones that I own. Plus since I think I’ll read the book, I bring it with me when I move, which is a total pain to pack up and take home each May and then bring back to college each August. Lightening the load would be good. Plus, I don’t have a job right now, so I shouldn’t be spending money on books. Lastly, I’ll get rid of the books I don’t like after I read them, so someone else will get the chance to read it, which is important because everyone deserves to be able to read the books they want to read.
My second project is a reading challenge that one of my groups is doing. As a group, we came up with some categories and we’re able to decide what books we want to read to fit each category. I’ll publish my tentative list and cross things off as I read them. I will probably change my list a million times before I actually finish all of the categories, but oh well. I’ll probably make the most progress with this over the summer because that’s when I’ll have more free time to read.
Challenge Categories:
5 points-
1. For Valentines Day: read a book with the word heart or love in it–Love Letters: The Love Letters of Kahlil Gibran to Mary Zida
2. For Saint Patty’s day: read a book set in Ireland, is by an Irish author, or whose main character is Irish–The Importance of Being Earnest
3. Read a classic–A Farewell to Arms
4. Read a book by an author you’ve never read before–The Thorn Birds
5. Read a memoir–The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath (I might move Here’s the Story to this category because Sylvia’s journals are so dense and thought-provoking that I can only read a few pages at a time and then I have to take a long break; not ideal for a challenge that I’m trying to complete, non? I definitely plan on reading them, just at a leisurely pace)
6. March is National Women’s History Month so read a book where a woman is the main character–The Group
7. Read a CS group read (either past or present)–Franny and Zooey
8. Read a book with any kind of food/drink in the title–The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
9. Read a book written in the last 5 years–Here’s the Story (I might substitute The Story of Edgar Sawtelle for this category and move Here’s the Story up to the Memoirs, but I want to see how I like reading Edgar before I add him to the challenge)
10. Read a book that you already own–Brideshead Revisited or Feminine Mystique
10 points
1. Read a book with the name of a month in it–Light in August
2. Read a book with an author that has same birthday month as you–Little Women
3. Read a book with either the word “school”,“class”, “college”, “university” or “teacher” in it–Old School
4. Read a book and then watch the movie adaptation–Peyton Place
5. Read a book that involves a medical condition–Catch-22
6. Read a book with a one word title–Journals (of Arthur Schlesinger)
7. Read a book with the name of a country, state, or city in it–The Witch of Portobello
8. Read a banned/challenged book (http://deletecensorship.org/downloads/booklist_hpb.pdf)–From Here to Eternity
9. Read a book set in a place you’ve always wanted to visit/live–All the King’s Men
10. Read a book written by someone of your same heritage–Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass
15 points
1. Read a book that has a college student as the main character or is a person that is near your age–The Graduate
2. Read a book from an author that was born/or had lived in your state/geographical area–The Outsiders or Invisible Man or The Grapes of Wrath
3. Read a book about/relating to the particular field of study you are in/were in–The Golden Notebook
4. Read a book written by a GoodReads author–Reading Lolita in Tehran
5. Read a book about a person you admire–The Kennedy Women
6. Read a book about a subject you wish you could have studied in school–The Fountainhead
7. Read a book by an author you hate–1984
8. Read that book you were supposed to read in high school but instead used SparkNotes for–The Scarlet Letter
25 points
1. Read a book with over 700 pages–War and Peace
2. Read a book with your name in the title or is by an author with your same name–Lolita
3. Read a book about a different religion than you are–The Year of Living Biblically or The Art of Happiness
4. Read a book that you would normally never consider picking up–Swann’s Way
