A Reading Challenge
I will be the first to admit that I haven't read a lot of classical/canonical literature. I much prefer genre fiction to the kind of literature on reading lists or taught in college classes1, and in college I became a pro at reading just enough to B.S. my way through discussions or quizzes (don't be like me). When someone told me "you should read this", I often had the reaction of "well now I don't want to", even if it was a book I had been thinking about or already had on my shelf.
But two things have sort of coincided to create the perfect storm of me wanting to read more of what I've missed. First, I found a woman online who writes and talks about literature in such a positive and enthusiastic way that she convinced me of the worth of a lot of books that I had previously dismissed as pretentious or unworthy of my attention (which sounds pretentious itself). And second, my Youtube algorithm brought up a reading challenge video that really activated my competitive side. The challenge is called 75 Booked, and at its base it's a challenge to build good reading habits.
When I was a teenager and into my early adulthood, I was always reading. My best reading year was 116 books since I started tracking. But over the years my phone and various forms of visual media have overtaken my reading habits, and now it's hard to "find" the time to read. So when I found this reading challenge, I couldn't pass it up, because it seems like the perfect way to rebuild my reading habits and reclaim my bookworm title that has been lost to video games and tv.
So with a challenge (which I started yesterday with a couple of my writing group friends) set, I put together a list of recommended literature that I want to read (it is an absurd 65 books long) to pick from during the challenge2. So of course, on top of trying to write 500 words a day on a secret project (shhhhh, pretend I didn't say anything), walking 45 minutes in the evening (when it's not pouring rain), and trying to woo a man through long distance, I'm now trying to squeeze reading 90 minutes a day into an already full schedule.
But it's going to be great. Because, as I tell myself these days, if I don't do it, I'm not going to do it, so I had better do it. And that usually is enough to get me going.
I may report on how my reading challenge is going in the future. I will continue to review all books I finish.
Except for the two college English classes I took that were focused on specific genres. I took dystopian lit and gothic lit, and both were awesome, though I am more confident in dystopia than the gothic.↩
And I'm sorely tempted to create a second reading list to pick from that is reading around the world, but that may have to be for another time.↩