Whilst travelling, I always have a good book in tow with me. Long waits in airports, tedious plane journeys and quiet evenings sitting on balconies all call for a good book to be in my hand. I have already established what books are great reads when inspiring a sense of wanderlust in myself, but what about other genres of literary material?
How could I not write about romantic fiction? And sci-fi novels? And of course the fantasy world of Harry Potter? This post is dedicated to all of those books that just won’t fit into a wanderlust or travel inspiration post.
Last year, I embarked on a reading challenge to get myself reading more. I was finally checking off items from my never-ending ‘to-read’ list and I was being challenged by different genres that I ordinarily wouldn’t have read. This challenge saw me read 45 books throughout the year. I must confess that my reading tailed off towards October when I launched this blog, ahem other priorities called … (sorry to all you books out there, especially the really old ones)…
So, what were these 45 books?
Ready? Here we go…
- The Time Traveller’s Wife
- Teacher Toolkit
- Vivien’s Heavenly Ice Cream Shop
- Churchill: A Study in Greatness
- The Maze Runner
- The Girl on the Train
- Who’s That Girl?
- The Secret
- Death Comes To Pemberley
- Colleen: Welcome To My World
- US
- A Daughter’s Secret
- How To Be A Heroine… (or what I’ve learned from reading too much)…
- Holly’s Inbox
- The Jane Austen Book Club
- Sleigh Bells in the Snow
- Etta and Otto and Russell and James
- Rumour Has It
- The Simpsons Graphic Novels / Comics x9
- The Darren Shan Saga (technically 12 books)
- Birth of a Killer
- Ms America and the Offing on O’ahu
- Quidditch Through The Ages
- Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them
- The Tales of Beedle the Bard
- Hogwarts: A Complete Unreliable Guide
- Short Stories from Hogwarts of Power, Politics and Pesky Poltergeists
- Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
- Short Stories from Hogwarts of Heroism, Hardship and Dangerous Hobbies
- Harry Potter Series (4 read in 2016)
My other half and I are re-reading all of the original Harry Potter novels again. We’re big Harry Potter fans as you know from our Scotland trip and from our tour of the Harry Potter Studios near London. Anyway, so we also finished the first 4 Harry Potter novels in 2016.
But I know I can do better than 45 books in a year. And okay, admittedly we’re in April already, but I still think I could tackle more than 45 good books throughout the rest of this year…
… Introducing my 2017 reading challenge
I love Popsugar’s reading challenges, so I will yet again be embarking on one of those. Interestingly this year, they have included a bonus 12 books for hard-core bibliophiles that finish the challenge before the year is up. Now, that’s a challenge!!
Right, let’s see what 2017 has in store for me and my book-loving brain…
- A book recommended by a librarian
- A book that’s been on your to be read list for way too long
- A book of letters
- An audiobook
- A book by a person of colour
- A book with one of the four seasons in the title
- A book that is a story within a story
- A book with multiple authors
- An espionage thriller
- A book with a dog on the cover
- A book by an author who uses a pseudonym
- A bestseller from a genre you don’t normally read
- A book by or about a person who has a disability
- A book involving travel
- A book with a subtitle
- A book that’s published in 2017
- A book involving a mythical creature
- A book you’ve read before that never fails to make you smile
- A book about food (mmm…)
- A book with career advice
- A book from a nonhuman perspective (believe it or not I actually own a book told by a mouse… a mixup in the bookshop caused that)!
- A steampunk novel
- A book with a red spine
- A book set in the wilderness
- A book you loved as a child
- A book by an author from your home country
- A book with a title that is a character’s name
- A novel set during wartime
- A book with an unreliable narrator
- A book with pictures
- A book where the main character is a different ethnicity to you
- A book about an interesting woman
- A book set in two different time periods
- A book with a month or day of the week in the title
- A book set in a hotel
- A book written by someone you admire
- A book that’s becoming a movie in 2017
- A book set around a holiday other than Christmas
- The first book in a series you haven’t read before
- A book you bought on a trip
Advanced Bonus Reads
- A book recommended by an author you love
- A bestseller from 2016
- A book with a family member term in the title
- A book that takes place over a character’s life span
- A book about an immigrant or refugee
- A book from a genre or subgenre that you’ve never heard of
- A book with an eccentric character
- A book that’s more than 700 pages
- A book you got from a used book sale
- A book that’s been mentioned in another book
- A book about a difficult topic
- A book based on mythology
Have you embarked on a reading challenge before? Or are you going to this year? Could we start this challenge together?
Also, do you have any recommendations for me on books I could try reading as part of this challenge? I’d love to hear from you! Just jot a note down in the comments as I’m always on the lookout for new book suggestions…
Like this? Pin it for later!
Love your post/personal goals! My personal challenge is to read books (easy ones) I love but in Italian – I think I’ve been working on “Il leone, la strega e l’armadio” all year!
Thanks so much! Wow, now that’s a goal! I studied Italian in college but I doubt very much I’d be able to read any books in the language… even easy ones. I’m impressed with your dedication on that!! 🙂
Love your personal challenge. Yeah, when I travel, I too tend to read more. 🙂
Thanks Audrey! I’m looking forward to where this reading challenge is going to take me… time will tell! 😉
If you don’t already have no.5 covered, I’d recommend A Piece Of Cake – absolutely gripping and I read it in 3 days…just couldn’t put it down!
Excellent, thanks Becky! I don’t yet have that one covered so I’ll be sure to check out A Piece of Cake… keep the awesome book recommendations coming! 🙂