3 Years ago when I joined Bookstagram, I had no idea there were reading challenges. I was overwhelmed by the choices! But some of them were simply impossible for me to join as they included many types of books and I did not have access to a lot of them. In any case, reading challenges were something I never really participated in.
But there was one challenge that seemed to have taken everyone by storm, the good old Good Reads Challenge. For those who do not know, the Good Reads Challenge is an undertaking by readers each year on goodreads.com where they set a goal of number of books to be read in the coming year.
So, being the sheep that I am I joined the challenge as well and set my 2017 reading goal as 52 books, a book a week, which seemed easy to accomplish. The problem was that life kept changing and I was over optimistic near the New Year, in 2017 I read around 35 books. With work and travel and life’s challenges I found there were patches in my year where I just couldn’t read and this frustrated me since I wanted to but alas, this is life…
In 2018 I set my GoodReads Challenge to a more realistic 36 books. But, I traveled to India for a couple of weeks in the beginning of February and by the time I returned home I was already catching up on the Goodreads challenge. By March I found myself lagging way behind and feeling helpless since I knew the amount of time I would get to read even in a calm and quiet month, I knew I wouldn’t catch up unless I’m extremely organised. The general feeling was of dismay and by mid year I stopped updating my goodreads account (I’ve still not updated it)
I found that good reads was no more my happy place. I needed an alternative and I searched in the last week of December for challenges that would suit me. Unfortunately many of the challenges were amazing but not practical for me. (You guys should check #ReadingWomenChallenge)
So, finally I decided to start the #BetterReadsChallenge
This had been going on in my mind for a long time and here’s how it works:
Objective: Read every single day of the year, that’s it.
How to participate:
1- Keep track of each days reading, just that you read or not. It can be 10 pages, it can be 100 pages. You get 1 point for each day.
2 – You can add the hashtag along with your current score on your social media captions/Tweets (Instagram, Facebook, twitter, whatever)
3 – You can dedicate 1 line of your Instagram/twitter bio to it. Currently i have a line that says “#BetterReadsChallenge – 3/365”
And That’s it! You can set a goal of 300/365 but the ultimate challenge is to read every single day!
If you are reading this a few days or weeks into the new year, no worries, just check the number of days left to 2020 and set that as your target. So on first of february its 365 – 31 = 334 days.
In the first 3 days of the year, I’ve been so motivated because of the challenge, I woke up early on the first 2 days of January just to put in half an hours reading in (I ended with 45 minutes on both days) then on day 3 I woke up late so I decided to read during lunch hour. I read 45 minutes again. and i’m happy to say i’m already almost through the first book of the Year 🙂
Tag me on instagram if you join the Challenge!
My name is Faroukh and I am @theguywiththebook
Love. This. I too have been overwhelmed with the goodreads challenges in past years (mostly after I discovered booktube because before then I was just reading to read not to hit some arbitrary number). Last year I decided a book a month was reasonable and made my challenge 12 books for the year – I happened to hit it before mid year and everything after that was gravy because… life…. and I didn’t feel the pressure to catch up.
I’ll definitely be sharing….
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you so much! I think this challenge inherently will make us read more than usual. Coz let’s be honest, who read only 10 pages 🤣I’ve been reading 25 when I pick up to read 10!
LikeLike
Hi, enjoyed your post. Alternative challenges like this are great. Like you I’ve failed my Goodreads challenge twice in a row but I’m not bothered cause it makes reading a priority… Maybe this year I’ll get it, maybe not…
LikeLiked by 2 people
Hope this challenge adds to the experience 😊 Best of luck and Happy Reading!
LikeLike
I’m already in for the challenge and I literally read while standing in the train. Loving this totally and I hope I keep doing it. Also please can you check out my latest blog post too? It’s about ‘Things People Say to Book Lovers’. Thank you😍🙈
LikeLiked by 1 person
Perfect, I’ll check right away!
LikeLike
I really love the idea behind this hashtag. As a person who reads each day, I would be having fun with this hashtag since I share some pages or quotes of my reads on stories anyway. I also decided to be a sheep this year and joined my first goodreads challenge this year. So far, I would say goodreads is good for keeping a handy tbr since I always seem to lose my tbr lists 🤷
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for joining in! It’s keeping me on my toes and I’m trying to constantly make time to read as soon as possible in the day! And yes, goodreads is definitely helpful in a lot of ways!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for this article. I consider reading to be fun and I read everyday. So I guess I’ve always been an unconscious fan of your challenge. It is a good idea. Many of these challenges have taken the fun out of reading. It’s like some unhealthy competition where you always come last. Reading is an escape from life’s vagaries. And #BetterReadsChallenge reminds us of that.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes!! I’m glad you’re on board! 🙌🏼
LikeLiked by 1 person
Love this, I have already sit a bullet journal and I record all the pages I read for the the day. Thank God with this way I was able to read every single day.
LikeLiked by 1 person
So happy to see your comment! Happy Reading!
LikeLike
Yay!!
LikeLike
Love every single article of yours . Currently trying to read silent patient and a place for us as recommended by you and sumaiya.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you!! Hope you enjoy them both!
LikeLike
Though I Discovered it late, I am all hyped up to join in 😍 I hope it isn’t too late 🙈
LikeLiked by 1 person
Never too late 🙌🏼
LikeLike