I'm excited to host the Genre Decades Reading Challenge. Here's how it works:
1) Choose a decade. I'd recommend starting with one. If you finish you can always come back for another! You will be reading TEN books. One book for each year of the decade you choose. You may choose to sign up for more than one decade from the start. But it's ten books per decade you choose. So it would be committing to twenty books if you choose two.
2) Choose your genre. Or genres. You may choose up to five genres for a single decade. (Two books per genre.) It is up to you if you want a single genre or multiple genres. Genre is different from audience. So if you choose fantasy, you may read fantasy for children, young adults, or adults. But "young adult" is not in and of itself a genre. You can definitely make this challenge your own. For example:
- sci-fi from the seventies
- fantasy from the eighties
- historical fiction from the thirties
- mysteries from the fifties
- romances from the forties
- paranormal from the nineties
3) If you want to make the challenge more difficult, you might consider reading one book per genre per year of your decade. So minimum of ten books, maximum of fifty.
4) Up to five rereads are allowed per decade. I love to reread I do. But part of a challenge is to discover new books and new authors.
5) Reviews are not required. But. They are fun to read! So if you do blog your reviews, you may share links. You may give updates on your progress by leaving comments if you do not have a blog. Definitely let me know when you finish the challenge. I'd love to see your finished list.
6) Sign up in the comments on this post.
© 2014 Becky Laney of
Becky's Book Reviews
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| The Two Sisters, 1889, Pierre-Auguste Renoir |
I'm excited to host the Victorian Reading Challenge for 2015! I hope you'll join me if you love Victorian literature! This year will be a little different from previous years. I think it will be a fun change! I'm offering two options: a 2015 challenge and a perpetual challenge. Let me know which one you are signing up for in the comments. (You can sign up for both, just indicate that.)
The 2015 Challenge. The first Bingo card is for 2015.
The goal is to get a Bingo (horizontal, vertical, diagonal, four corners and center square). This will require a minimum of five books.
One book per square. For example:
Oliver Twist can count for "Book with a name as the title" or "Charles Dickens" or "Book published 1837-1940" or "Book published in serial format" or "Book over 400 pages" or "Book that has been adapted into a movie" or "Book set in England." But obviously, it can only count once.
The categories:
- book published in the 1840s,
- male author,
- female author,
- book with a name as the title,
- book published in serial (monthly) format
- book published 1837-1840,
- book published in the 1850s,
- children's book,
- book of your choice,
- Charles Dickens
- book set in England,
- book that you wish had been adapted into a movie,
- book published in the 1860s,
- reread of your choice,
- Anthony Trollope
- for better or worse (marriage),
- mystery-suspense-sensation,
- book over 400 pages,
- book published in the 1870s
- Wilkie Collins
- book published in the 1890s,
- book that has been adapted into a movie,
- book published 1900-1901,
- collection (poetry, stories, fairy tales),
- book published in the 1880s
If there is enough interest, I can compose a list of examples/suggestions for each category. Or if there is a particular category that puzzles you, and you want suggestions, I could answer your specific question.
- Fiction or nonfiction.
- Books, e-books, audio books all are fine.
- Books and movies can be reviewed together or separately.
- You can create a reading list if you want, but it's not a requirement
- If you do make a list, consider adding a list of five books you'd recommend to others
- If possible try to try a new-to-you author! I know it can be really tempting to stick with familiar favorites.
- Children's books published during these years should not be forgotten!
- Rereads are definitely allowed if you have favorites!
- A blog is not required, a review is not required, but, if you don't review please consider sharing what you read in a comment with one or two sentences of 'reaction' or 'response.'
- for the 2015 challenge, any qualifying book FINISHED January through December 2015 counts. OR any qualifying book REVIEWED January through December 2015 counts.
- for the perpetual challenge, it is up to you if you want to count books read/reviewed in 2014 too. You can if you like. Or you could start fresh in 2015.
A perpetual challenge. For those that LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Victorian literature and want an ambitious challenge that could take over a year or two to complete, I offer the Victorian Bingo card.
(If you're super-ambitious, you might want to try to fill the whole card.) The goal: to get a Bingo by reading eight books. (horizontal, vertical, diagonal, four corners and four center squares). Same guidelines apply as above.
© 2014 Becky Laney of
Becky's Book Reviews
