Sure, you can resolve to make 2016 the year to lose 10 pounds, run a marathon or learn to speak Spanish. Those are all fine goals. But here at the library we like our resolutions literary, and book challenges fit the bill quite nicely.
What’s a book challenge? Basically, you read books according to a certain set of guidelines and share your reviews of those books with other readers. There are food writing challenges, debut author challenges and “to be read pile” challenges, just to name a few.
This year I’ve got my eye on Book Riot’s Read Harder Challenge. The idea is to read a book in each of 24 categories, many of which will require you to sample new genres and stretch your usual reading boundaries. Read a play! Read a collection of essays! Read a nonfiction book about science! Join this book challenge and be a better person. (Or at least get way better at trivia night and cocktail party small talk.) If you want to join this challenge, you can download a pdf of the reading task list. Not sure where to start? I’ve got recommendations for each of the categories below. Enjoy!
Read a horror book
“Shining Girls” or “Broken Monsters” by Lauren Beukes or “Revival” by Stephen King
Read a nonfiction book about science
“The Nurture Effect” by Anthony Biglan or anything by Mary Roach (“Gulp,” “Packing for Mars”)
Read a collection of essays
“The Empathy Exams” by Leslie Jamison or “Our Only World” by Wendell Berry
Read a book out loud to someone else
“To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, “The Phantom Tollbooth” by Norton Juster or “The Book With no Pictures” by B. J. Novak
Read a middle grade novel
“Wonder” by R.J. Palacio or “My Diary From the Edge of the World” by Jodi Lynn Anderson
Read a biography (not a memoir or autobiography)
“Clementine: The Life of Mrs. Winston Churchill” by Sonia Purnell, “E.E. Cummings: A Life” by Susan Cheever or “The Wright Brothers” by David McCullough
Read a dystopian or post-apocalyptic novel
“The Road” by Cormac McCarthy (obvious choice), “Zone One” by Colson Whitehead (zombies!) or “Station Eleven” by Emily St. John Mandel (no zombies! Shakespeare!)
Read a book originally published in the decade you were born
1960s: “Silent Spring” by Rachel Carson
1970s: “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” by John Le Carré
1980s: “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood
1990s: “Paradise” by Toni Morrison
Listen to an audiobook that has won an Audie award
“Silkworm” by Robert Galbraith (Read by Robert Glenister) or “Still Foolin’ ‘Em” by Billy Crystal (Read by Billy Crystal)
Read a book over 500 pages long
“All the Light we Cannot See” by Anthony Doerr or “The Secret History” by Donna Tartt
Read a book under 100 pages
“The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka or “Turn of the Screw” by Henry James
Read a book by or about a person that identifies as transgender
“George” by Alex Gino or “She’s Not There” by Jennifer Finney Boylan
Read a book that is set in the Middle East
“The Ruins of Us” by Keija Parssinen or “Persepolis” by Marjane Satrapi
Read a book that is by an author from Southeast Asia
“In the Shadow of the Banyan” by Vaddey Ratner or “Sightseeing: Stories” by Rattawut Lapcharoensap
Read a book of historical fiction set before 1900
“Caleb’s Crossing” by Geraldine Brooks or “The White Queen” by Philippa Gregory
Read the first book in a series by a person of color
“Devil in A Blue Dress” (first in a mystery series) by Walter Mosley or “The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms” (first in a sci-fi trilogy) by N.K. Jemisin
Read a non-superhero comic that debuted in the last three years
“Descender” by Jeff Lemire or “The Woods” by James Tynion
Read a book that was adapted into a movie, then watch the movie. Debate which is better
“Brooklyn” by Colm Tóibín, “The Martian” by Andy Weir or “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” by Jesse Andrews
Read a nonfiction book about feminism or dealing with feminist themes
“How to Be a Woman” by Caitlin Moran or “Bad Feminist” by Roxane Gay
Read a book about religion (fiction or nonfiction)
“Learning to Walk in the Dark” by Barbara Brown Taylor or “Islam Without Extremes: A Muslim Case for Liberty” by Mustafa Akyol
Read a book about politics, in your country or another (fiction or nonfiction)
“Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln” by Doris Kearns Goodwin or “Double Down” by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann
Read a food memoir
“Blood, Bones, and Butter” by Gabrielle Hamilton or “Tender at the Bone” by Ruth Reichl
Read a play
“Wit” by Margaret Edson or “The Piano Lesson” by August Wilson
Read a book with a main character that has a mental illness
“Furiously Happy” by Jenny Lawson, “I Know This Much is True” by Wally Lamb or “Too Bright to Hear Too Loud to See” by Juliann Garey
Have other books you’d like to suggest in any of these categories? Let us know in the comments.
