Reading Challenges 2013

I know we are already more than a week into 2013, but it is not too late to make a New Year’s resolution. As you have probably guessed, my resolution has to do with reading and how much of it I can get done. And lucky for me there are a number of web-based supports that I can draw on. Here is a quick list of the reading challenges and pledges I am taking part in this year. You should challenge yourself too!

50bookpledge brought to you by The Savvy Reader is better than ever this year. In the past it has been a mostly Twitter based thing, but this year it has its own website. Although it is called the 50 book pledge, it is really just about getting people to read more. You set your challenge for yourself, anywhere from 12 – 200 books in 2013. The graphics of the site are really good and easy to use. You get your own bookshelf (you choose the colour) to record the books you’ve read and those you want to read. And to keep you motivated, it is all designed so that you can see what your friends are reading, earn badges and win prizes. So far, I love it!!

Not to be out done, Retreat by RandomHouse has developed their own version of ReadingBingo. This is reading with a bit of a twist. Each square of the Bingo card, which you can print out yourself, has a challenge that you can stamp once you have completed it. Examples include Reading a Book By a Celebrity, a Book of Poetry and a Book with an Animal on the Cover. It’s up to you whether you decide to fill your card, go for a line or make an X. If this isn’t a good excuse to go buy a Bingo blotter, I don’t know what is.

And then there is the tried and true favorite over at GoodReads, plain old 2013 Reading Challenge. Not quite as visually pleasing as 50bookpledge, but since many people are already signed up on GoodReads it is handy. As you enter the books you’ve read it lets you know by way of percentage how far you have to go. And like 50bookpledge, you can set your own goal. Mine is 75 books in 2013. Now the only question is, will I be able to do it?

Finally, there are also a plethora of challenges for the niche read, a group to which I can sometimes claim to belong. I have a particular penchant for books and writers from India and other areas of South Asia. Well, it should come as no surprise that out there on the world wide web I could find a challenge to fit this hankering. So in addition to the others, I have signed up for the Indian Quills Reading Challenge. Like with other challenges you can set the goal for yourself. I am challenging myself to read 20 books by South Asian writers. The books I blog about will also be linked up to their website at The Tales Pensieve.

Addendum

Of course after I got this all looking pretty and posted I realized that there is another book challenge that should be mentioned: Simon&Schuster Canada has announced their Read-Along 2013. Each month they will present a reading challenge of sorts. This month’s is to read a book you never got around to reading last year even though it was on your To Read list. For me that book is Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter.