Full rules and sign-up linkups can be found at the link for each challenge.
The quarantimes had a significant impact on my reading habits in 2020. There were times when I couldn’t focus on reading at all, times when I reread voraciously but couldn’t face reading anything new (or new to me), and a few periods when I felt up to reading books I hadn’t read before.
Since I don’t expect life to get back to “normal” before summer at the earliest (more likely fall or winter), I am cutting way back on challenges this year. I’ll be focusing on just a few, and throwing in the occasional short-term challenge or readathon. There are a lot of tempting challenges out there, and I may add some later in the year if things are going well, but… well, right now, I don’t want a lot of pressure when it comes to reading. Reading isn’t only my escape; it’s how I keep my balance, emotionally. I want to feel free to read whatever I want, whenever the mood strikes me. And I want the freedom to reread without guilt, if that’s what it takes to get through the coming months.
My 2021 Challenges
I’m setting my Goodreads Reading Challenge goal at 180 books for 2021. (Graphic to come, once Goodreads makes the 2021 Challenge available.)
I will be hosting The Backlist Reader Challenge 2021 again this year! After a disappointing personal finish in last year’s challenge, my goal this year is to read 15 books published in 2019 or earlier that have been on my TBR list (on Goodreads) for a while. My secondary goal is to actually post reviews for all of them… or at least most of them.
I’m participating in the Audiobook Challenge again this year, hosted by Kimberly at Caffeinated Reviewer. I set my sights too high last year, so this year I’m aiming for the Weekend Warrior level of 5-10 audiobooks.
COYER now runs all year, and has built a whole community of readers and bloggers. For 2021, it will become 2 separate but connected challenges: COYER Seasons and COYER Community. There are associated readathons and even a book club. I will be participating in one way or another all year — certainly in COYER Community, and in most or all of the COYER Seasons challenges. I’ll set goals for the Seasons as they approach, and update them below:
- Winter Season (Jan. 1 – Feb 28, 2021): My goal is to read and review at least 4 of my January and February ARCs. How did I do? I pretty much failed this one. I read and reviewed 1 ARC.
- Spring Season (March 1 – June 23, 2021): My goal is to read and review at least 5 books for COYER Spring 2021.
Additional Goals
I want to read and review at least some of my backlog of review copies. 2020 was a bad year for me in terms of reading the ARCs I received. 2019 wasn’t a whole lot better. I would like to clear at least some of those books from my NetGalley shelves—and my conscience. (As a bonus, they will all count for COYER Seasons, and the 2019 books will count for The Backlist Reader Challenge.
I want to read more of my own books, especially books that were given to me, or books recommended by close friends and family. Robin mentioned to me this year that I never read what they give me or recommend to me, and I realized in the last few years, that has been true. There are so many books clamoring for my attention now that I haven’t been good about reading the ones I was given, and that isn’t fair to the givers, to the books, or to me.
I want to be better about reviewing generally. For some reason, I have been in a major reviewing slump for a while now. I hope it’s just inertia, and that I can do better this year. However, I am not setting a specific goal, for the reasons I mentioned at the top of this post.
I want to read more diversely. Books by and about BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) people. Books by and about LGBTQIA+ people. Books about people of non-Christian religious faiths. Books about people with disabilities and books about people with mental illness.*
*Some books are apt to trigger my anxiety, and I will continue to avoid those. Oddly, it’s not usually the ones about people who have anxiety disorders. What I find difficult are books about certain traumas that I never experienced myself but find horrifying, like child abuse, or books that delve into the minds of people who prey on other people in some way, or who relish mistreating others.)
So that’s it, for now: the Goodreads Reading Challenge, The Backlist Reader Challenge, the Audiobook Challenge, and COYER, plus my general reading and reviewing goals. I will miss the PopSugar Reading Challenge, the Library Love challenge, and the Diversity Reading Challenge, along with some of the other challenges I have done in years past. But this year, they all became too much to keep track of, especially when it came to linking up reviews. Challenges came to feel like a burden instead of like fun. Hopefully by cutting back, I can rediscover the joys of a good challenge while not overcommitting myself.
By the way, if you are looking for more challenges, check out the 2021 Master List of Reading Challenges over at GIRLXOXO!
Anne - Books of My Heart
I cut back this year which worked out well. I do all the COYER, and host the Library Love. I still track my audio books and do the Goodreads challenge. I did set a goal to read at least 3 books I own each month and that went well. I will likely do that again.
Anne – Books of My Heart recently posted…🎧 The Toybox by Charly Cox
Lark_Bookwyrm
That sounds like enough to be keeping track of. 🙂 I thought about signing up for the Library Love challenge again, but because of COVID, I haven’t been going to the library. I borrow an occasional e-book, but I don’t think I’ll be using the library regularly enough to manage a challenge until things get back to normal. But you may see me back in 2022!
Shelleyrae @ Book’d Out
Good luck with your goals!
Shelleyrae @ Book’d Out recently posted…Wishing you a Happy New Year!
Angela
One of my goals this year is to read at least one book a month from my shelf of unread physical books. Some of them have been hanging around for a long while, and I need to either read them or admit I’m not interested anymore and get rid of them!
Katherine
I’ve been doing some thinking about my 2021 reading and like you I think I’m going to keep my goals manageable so I can read more of just what I want. As well my focus will be more on reading my own books and finishing up series that I’ve neglected for far too long. Good luck with your reading and goals this year!
Lark
Awesome reading goals for this year. I wish you all the best in 2021. (And lots of good books to read, too.) 😀
Lark recently posted…Happy 2021!
Nicole @ BookWyrm Knits
Not ever-extending sounds like a good plan. And with some of them (like Popsugar for instance) you can always decide to join later and then just figure out where to assign the books you’ve already read!
I have also been awful in the past few months with adding books to the Backlist Reader linky. So sorry about that. I intended to do better with keeping up to date. 🙁
Nicole @ BookWyrm Knits recently posted…Friday Reads: Before the Coffee Gets Cold
Nicole @ BookWyrm Knits
(Ooops, that should be “not OVER-extending.” I’m typing too fast this morning.)
Nicole @ BookWyrm Knits recently posted…Friday Reads: Before the Coffee Gets Cold
Lark_Bookwyrm
😀
Lark_Bookwyrm
Forgetting to add books to the linky has been one of my problems with all my 2020 challenges — including the Backlist Reader Challenge! Well, that and not getting around to reviewing the books I read. I hopt to improve on both counts this year. 🙂
Barbara Harper
I did the same thing–I participated in a lot of challenges last year, thinking it would be ok since the same books could count for several of them. But it was too hard to keep up with all the record keeping.
I have a question about the Backlist challenge for 2020. Is there a particular place you want us to post the wrap-up posts for the challenge? Or should we put them with at the review linky?
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Lark_Bookwyrm
I even created a spreadsheet for keeping track of everything, but it was, as you say, just too much recordkeeping. I’ll be streamlining my spreadsheet for this year. 🙂
For the 2020 Backlist Reader Challenge, the wrap-up post wasn’t required, but there will be a post in a day or so with a linky for the wrap-up posts. Check back on January 2 or 3 and it should be up. (I’m having a little trouble with the home page not always showing the new posts until the following day. I need to contact the tech support folks and get that worked out.)
Bea @ Bea's Book Nook
I’ve cut back my reading challenges the past few years and I think this year, I’ll just do the Goodreads challenge. Although your Backlist challenge is tempting. Your challenge goals look reasonable. I love that you will work harder at reading books you’ve been given. I hosted a challenge a few years ago to read books we’d been gifted or won but very few people participated.
Good luck!
Bea @ Bea’s Book Nook recently posted…Hello 2021! Goodbye 2020!
Lark_Bookwyrm
I completely understand your decision to just do the Goodreads challenge, Bea, and I hope it goes well!