Book Challenges!

I've only recently, over the past couple of years, become aware of the different reading challenges people set for themselves. Instagram is full of posts and updates about how people are getting on with their 30 day reading challenge, or 'Booktober', or whatever else they've chosen to do. Personally, I love the idea of this, and I've wanted to set myself one for such a long time. Reading is wonderful, and so is challenging yourself to read more often and to read different things. 

At the moment I've set myself a 'Booktober' challenge. Over the month of October I plan to read a book per week - any books of my choosing - so I'll have finished 4 by the end of the month. Now that I've finished my work assignment, I have a lot more free time on my hands, time which can be well spent reading! I wanted to challenge myself, mostly because I'm sometimes quite slow when I'm deep in a book, or I don't make the time to read when I know that I can. 

There are so many different reading challenges you can set for yourself. You don't have to use social media to share them with people, but I find it really enjoyable to see what other people are doing and to share my own journey and chat with people about what we're reading. You could do Twitter or Instagram picture post challenges, sharing a different book every day of the month. Invent your own challenge or take inspiration from someone else. Something like;

Day 1 - a book that surprised you
Day 2 - a book you chose based purely on its cover
Day 3 - a book that made you cry

And so on, up to the end of the month. This works best for books you've already read and want to share with others, and there are a lot of bookstagram accounts that follow challenges like this.

Another idea could be to pick a book for each day and post a photo, giving it a one sentence summary/synopsis. Not only is this a fun little activity for social media, but it can also help hone your writing skills. Try to think of something clever, but that doesn't give away too much of the plot. It's definitely something I think would be interesting to try.

Book clubs are also a wonderful way of challenging your reading. Everyone has their own preferences for genre and author, amongst many other things, so reading as a collective group can really help you step out of your comfort zone. You could read with friends, family, or even join in with some brilliant online book clubs and reading groups. There are loads on Twitter, Instagram, and even some on Youtube - every platform has its own version. Discussing books is a great way to see them from a different persepctive and broaden your literature scope.

Whether you choose to challenge your reading by joining a book club, or if you prefer to make use of social media instead, have fun with it. Reading is amazing and enriching and good for the soul :)

~ C xxx