Hi there! Today is time for another Top Ten Tuesday, a meme created by The Broke and the Bookish. The given topic was pretty free – Top Ten Reasons I Love X – so I decided to share with you my love for reading challenges! I know many people find them restraining or boring, but I just love participating in them. Who knows? Maybe I’ll change someone’s mind by listing all the things I like about them. Let’s check them out:
1. They’re really fun!
I just have a great time doing reading challenges, mainly for all the reasons I’m listing here. I always get excited when I join a new one, whether it’s a yearly challenge, or a shorter one (like the current Tome Topple Readathon), because I have a goal to look forward to. It’s motivating.
2. They push your boundaries.
Reading challenges make you read faster, more, and things you wouldn’t normally pick up at a certain moment (or ever). This way, you get to discover new things about yourself as a reader, as well as new genres and different books.
3. They shake up your reading habits.
I’m a one-book-at-a-time type of gal, but every time I join reading challenges, I end up picking two or more books simultaneously. Just by doing that I know I’m doing something different and it makes it fun.
4. They inspire you to read more.
As I said before, when you do a challenge it means you are meant to surpass your normal reading goals, maybe by reading more pages, maybe by reading more books, but it can also mean reading more books of a certain kind – like reading just LGBTQIA+ books for Pride Month or reading just horror novels in October – getting to know more about that genre that you always want to read but normally don’t have the time to.
5. You get to share an experience with other readers.
Thanks to social media you can participate in a ton of reading challenges with people from all around the world and talk about it with them. I love getting to know how other people are doing and what books they choose.
6. You find new things to read.
When I participated two years in a row in a Goodreads group reading challenge, I had to pick up books from a lot of different genres and among them was True Fiction. I had never considered even trying out that genre, but for the challenge I reached out and read two of them. Guess what? I actually really liked them. It was something completely different to anything I had ever read and I learned many interesting things, like how the judicial systems of other countries tend to work.
7. You get to create cute charts to keep track.
I know this one is quite silly, but I really enjoy that kind of stuff. I love being able to see my progress on the page of a notebook or in a graphic made in Photoshop because it motivates and encourages me a lot. It’s really rewarding seeing it after you achieve your goals!
8. They can help if you want to get out of a reading slump.
Though I’ve made my case in defense of reading slumps, I know a lot of people don’t want to welcome them like I do and choose to fight them. Reading challenges are a great way to do that! You get inspiration to pick up different types books and you get people talking about it all around you, so you can’t help yourself to feel encouraged and do the same.
9. They make you pick books you are afraid of.
Taking again the example of the Tome Topple Readathon, I am normally scared to pick books that are 500+ long. Thanks to this reading challenge, I finally got to start reading The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell, which has been on my TBR for quite a while.
10. They are rewarding.
After you’re done with a successful reading challenge, you feel great and inspired to read even more! It’s so rewarding having made it till the end and having read so many things with the company of other readers, that you want to keep participating in other challenges.
I just started doing reading challenges, but I agree with all of your points. Great list!
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Thanks! I hope you enjoy doing them 😀
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I have tried them before. I usually end up completing half of it and then reading whatever I want… lol TBRs rarely work for me either. I rebel against them. 😛
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Hahaha that’s okay. We are all different types of readers 😛
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I think reading challenges can be great for shaking off a slump and pushing a reader outside their comfort zone…I mostly use them as inspiration for ways to expand my own reading…they make me see missing areas in my library I didn’t even know I had! And charts FTW! I’ve got a giant spreadsheet that I use for my reading that I love
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Right?! I love making lists and charts for absolutely everything haha I’m glad you get it 🙂
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I love reading challenges. They force me to diversify my reading, and not always in the conventional sense. I think its great every once in a while, but not something I can use to dictate all of my reading.
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Oh, you are totally right! Doing them from time to time is fun, but I couldn’t bear to read based purely on challenges.
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I don’t participate that much in reading challenges. In fact, the only one I’ve ever been involved with is the yearly Goodreads challenge, and it was only this year that I joined. Haha! As a reader, I’m a bit afraid of stepping out of my comfort zone, but starting a book blog really made me open up to a lot of genres I wouldn’t normally reach for. Maybe you have some reading challenges recommendations for someone like me who’s just starting 🙂
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That’s great! I am all for stepping out of your reading-comfort-zone 😛
Wow, I have so many ideas I don’t know where to start. I’ve been thinking of doing something like the “Around The World Challenge”, which is reading books set in each of the continents. It’s not too restraining because you can choose any genres you want, you only have to be careful of picking a book that is set in a specific continent. Another idea could be creating your own sort of reading challenge, like picking categories from this one that is quite popular if doing them all is too scary (there are too many categories if you are just looking for a beginners’ style challenge) http://www.popsugar.com/love/Reading-Challenge-2016-39126431
Let me know what you think of those ideas 😉 I have many more haha
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Yayy thank you so much! I’ll check them out right now.
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I’ve seen this reading challenge before somewhere!! But being me, I just completely ignored it. Haha, thanks again, Esther! I was going through the list and realized I’ve already read books this year that satisfy some of the items in it. I’m actually excited now to try out the others!
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That’s great! 😀
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Oooh great list!! I’ve only started doing reading challenges this year, but I really love them! They’re so much fun and really motivating to keep reading 😊 I’m definitely planning on participating in as many readathons as I can.
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I’m glad you also like them 😀 I will also be on the lookout for more readathons, even though I’m pretty much failing Tome Topple hahah
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Haha, aw!! I like to think that any progress is better than none 🙌🏻
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Oh, definitely. I’m still pumped about it. Call me optimistic, but I do think I’ll finish the book I’m reading, the graphic novel and start on Night Film. That would be good enough for me 🙂
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Yes!! That’s the spirit 💪🏻 Really excited to see what you think of Night Film 😊
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I’ve never done reading challenges before. (Except this year’s goodreads which I set at a measly 12.) You raised up a lot of great points, especially about picking up books you’re afraid of. I feel like I should try doing one, but it just feels very intimidating.
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Picking a challenge you are sure you can tackle is key at first. Something that doesn’t have too many rules or many categories involved.
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Any easier ones you would recommend?
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Well, there are many that spring out of Twitter and blogs, this is one that I just saw that seems quite open to do as you please, whether it’s doing a group read, or your own read, the thing is to get you reading amidst your busy life for 3 days straight and sharing that with others.
You could also do your own challenge, as I was telling someone else, and a few pick categories as your goal for 2016 from the Pop Sugar reading challenge
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Thanks! The great twitter readathon sounds like something easy and short termed. Just what I was looking for! I think I’ll participate in that one, if schedule allows.
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Great! I hope it works well for you.
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My favorite is the Goodreads yearly challenges, I find it very motivating to set a reading goal, and there is such a sense of accomplishment when I reach it. I’m also doing the Tome Topple, how is your Tome Topple progress?
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Yes, the Goodreads yearly challenge is great! I love seeing the results at the end – the longest book read, the best rated, pages read, etc. It’s really fun.
I had no idea you were doing the Tome Topple! I’ve doing poorly hahah I’ve been very busy and haven’t been able to read for more than 2 hours a day. But I will take tomorrow for reading and reading alone! How about you? What are you reading?
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I’m reading a 731 page bind up of The Illiad and the Odyssey. I’ve read 50 pages.
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That’s cool! I haven’t read them yet, I’m actually intimidated by them. Are they hard to read?
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A little bit just because of the language. It was translated from ancient Greek to English. The awesome thing, is that while they are poems, they are written in prose and not verse which makes them somewhat easier to read.
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Nice! I should probably get one of the annotated versions that explain things with footnotes and whatnots.
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#7 – I’ve struggled with challenges as a new blogger since I didn’t get organized before I got started. I am hoping to go gang busters next year and track things much better.
MY TTT LIST
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Yes, organizing yourself is really important!! I’ll go check your TTT now 🙂
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I love reading challenges but always end up wanting to read something else if it’s a genre-specific one, or just not feeling up to it if the book isn’t clicking. Just sticking to the annual Goodreads challenge for now lol.
Great list, thanks for stopping by NovelKnight!
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Sure! Thank you 🙂 I get it, it really depends on how strict the challenge might be.
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I love reading challenges, though I rarely join them because I find them after they begin xD but I think they’re super fun to do! My sister and I race each other to see who can read the most books in a year, that gets pretty intense xD
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That happens to me a lot, seeing the challenge midway! But I’m always on the lookout for new ones 😛 That’s so cool that you and your sister compete. My siblings don’t like reading, so it’s super sad.
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Awww T.T sorry! I feel your pain, hopefully I can find a challenge I want to do when sign ups are still avaliable:)
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