2024 Reading Challenge
In February of 2024, I was in California at a work event and ran into a long-distance friend who told me about a reading challenge he and a few other friends had started. It was set up like a bingo game, with each square indicating a kind of book to read: Work from the 1700s, Book Published the Year You Were Born, etc.
My friend said that since graduating from a graduate program with a lot of reading, he wanted to keep up the practice but wanted to read what he wanted instead of what he had to. I felt the same when I graduated from the program had been scrambling to build a “what’s next” list of books. To have categories already picked out and to work on it with friends seemed like a win. I asked him for the list. The goal was to get a blackout before Dec. 31. Knowing I was already a month behind, I relished getting started.
f successful, I would read twenty-five books in the year and be forced outside of my comfort zone to read in eras and genres to which I don’t tend to gravitate.
What I Learned (time, medium, pace)
When I was in the graduate program, I quickly adopted the listen-to-everything-at-2x-speed mentality. This means YouTube videos, podcasts, and audiobooks. Given commute time, work, and the desire to see my children, audiobooks are the only way I was able to be successful at this challenge.
My audiobook listening preferences are Audible and Hoopla. If you aren’t familiar with Hoopla (or Libby), it’s a window into your local library. You need a library card to access the catalog. Inside the app you can download ebooks, audiobooks, music, and movies. This was helpful as my audible account only allows one “purchase” a month. Mercifully, Audible has started releasing “Audible only” books that are free to listen to in addition to your subscription.
Needless to say, this was a significant investment of time (I have not dared to figure out how many hours were spent on this challenge). Since I’m trying to inch my way to the end of a rough draft of the final Pearl Saga book, the different ways authors got themselves in and out of story jams was helpful for me. Also… writers are readers… or so I’m told.
Some of the books were plays (finishing much faster), some were sweeping epics (Gone With the Wind took forever!), but I (except for Hamlet) read only books I had never read before. This pushed me to read books I “should” read or were supposed to read in college, but had never gotten around to it (I’m looking at you Don Quixote).
Recommendations and the Opposite
So, of the books I read, here’s my top and bottom 5, in no particular ranking order:
Faves:
- The Mysterious Benedict Society (One of the few I read out loud… to my family… we LOVED this one!)
- Gone With the Wind (Yes, it was long, but I love the movie. After finishing the book, I made the fam watch the movie, and though it has a runtime that would make Peter Jackson proud, the movie is very much the Cliff Notes version of the greatness that is this story.)
- Letters to Father Christmas (Tolkien wrote letters to his kids as Father Christmas every year until they reached a certain age. Very charming)
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (I saw so much of my boys in this book)
- The Lewis and Clark Journals (I always enjoy reading what people wrote more that reading what people say about what others wrote)
Pans:
- The Tempest (Though I studied theatre, I’m not a big fan of Shakespere generally – though Hamlet is delicious. This is okay, but weird and I likely wouldn’t hurry back)
- Breakfast of Champions (It was hard to find books written in 1973, so having not read Vaunagut before, I thought I’d give it a try… Very Rated R, very cynical, pass.)
- Jack and Jill (I loved Little Women, but this, I think, wanted to be The Secret Garden and missed)
- Ben-Hur (Also long, it says it’s about Jesus, and starts out with a very Lawrence of Arabia-style sweeping Middle East mysterious meeting of the three wise men, but then it’s mostly about Ben-Hur, some rando hints that Jesus is in the area, and then a rushed focus on the resurrection at the end. It was not a bad read, but not what I was expecting.)
- How to Worship a King (As it is, it’s probably an okay book on building a better devotional life. However, it focuses a bit to much on a certain church movement that has hit a bit of significant controversy and should not serve as the “do worship like them” kind of recommendation.)
What’s Next
So, I guess the whole thing went well enough, that the group is going to do it again – 25 in 25. This time with different categories and I’m starting in January with everyone else.
If you have any book recommendations for this year, please let me know. I’ll keep you updated on the progress.
The 2024 List
- Work From the 1800s – Hamlet
- C.S. Lewis Book New to You – On Writing (and Writers)
- Non-Fiction Book – Your Church in Rhythm
- Book Written by and Athlete or Veteran – Ben-Hur
- Work from the 1900s – The Secret Garden
- Read a Fairy Tale – Letters to Father Christmas
- Work from the 1600s – The Tempest
- Greek Play – Medea
- Pulitzer Prize Winning Book – Gone With the Wind
- Missionary Biography – No Mountian Too High: Gladys Aylward
- Book Published the Year You Were Born – Breakfast of Champions
- Book By A Writer Who Inspired the Inklings – The 39 Steps
- Read a Book Series (Min 3 Books) – The Hunger Games
- Nautical Novel – Mr. Midshipman Hornblower
- Education or Growth Book on Any Topic – Get It Done
- Recommended By A Fellow Book Bingo Friend – War of the Worlds
- Book About a Historical Even – The Lewis and Clark Journals
- Book By Louisa May Alcott – Jack and Jill
- Work from the 1700s – Gulliver’s Travels
- Book Originally Published Not in English – Don Quixote
- Work from the 2000s – The Mysterious Benedict Society
- Fantasy, Sci-Fi, or Graphic Novel – Agent to the Stars
- Book Recommended at a 17:6 Network Conference – How to Worship a King
- Biography of Someone Born 100+ Years Ago – Henry V: The Astonishing Triumph of England’s Greatest Warrior King
- Work From the 1800s – The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
