Sunday Salon: Read Harder (Without Really Trying?)

The Sunday Salon.comI've finished five books this year. Four of them have counted toward my Read Harder Challenge. While I'm excited to be off to such a great start, I didn't pick any of these books based on the challenge. I'm one-sixth done with the challenge, and I haven't even challenged myself yet. To be fair. I completed seventeen of the twenty-four tasks last year without trying, so for me, a lot of the Read Harder challenge is in line with what I'm already doing. This week I got to thinking: given how easy it is to Read Harder, what other tasks are missing? Here's my list of possibilities so far:

  • A mystery: Romance and sci-fi get love from Read Harder, but what about mysteries? It's my favorite genre, and I think it deserves a spot with those too
  • A historical novel: I love exploring other times and places through historical fiction, and it works across many genres
  • A book published the year you were born: Read Harder goes back before 1850 and includes a 2015 book, but what about all of those year in between? Why not have people pick a title from the year in which they were born? 
  • A book written by someone from each continent (except Antarctica): Read Harder requires a book set in Asia and one written by someone from Africa, but reading the world should include the entire world.
  • A collection of essays: 2014 was the year I realized how much I adore essays, and I wish they were included in Read Harder. As it is, only two categories are mandated nonfiction (microhistory and self-improvement)
  • A book by someone of your gender: Admittedly, I read more women than men, but Read Harder requires a book by someone not of your gender. It would be a shame for a man or woman to read only books written by men (or vice versa.) 
  • A chunkster: if I have a literary fear, it's chunksters. Requiring a book with more than 500 pages would be truly reading harder for me.
  • A book from three different nonfiction subject areas (science, nature, history, criticism, social science, humanities, etc.): Another category to beef up the nonfiction reading.

Now tell me: what tasks do you wish were part of the Read Harder challenge?

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Comments

  1. It's great that you already read in line with the challenges in the Read Harder challenge. I have been looking at the challenge and thinking that the challenges are pretty good. This year, I don't want to do any challenges, or else I would have signed up for it.

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  2. I'll be doing the Panels (comics) read harder challenge. Some will be a legit challenge for me, while I can see them being a challenge for others but they fall nicely into my wheelhouse. Love your list here!

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  3. Great ideas! I wish they'd included a category for local authors (say, a 50-mile radius) and much more nonfiction.

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