Happy New Year!

I’ve heard from many of you and your feedback was helpful in radically changing our Reading Challenge this year. Lots of you don’t think you are going to be able to read 52 books in one year, which has been the hallmark of this project, and we still want you to feel included. Others felt that they wanted to choose harder or longer books, which trying to read a certain number doesn’t encourage. And obviously, reading is the point and quantity is not.

So this year, we are doing this differently. We’ve made a PDF chart for you to record what you’ve read, along with some details about it, and plenty of space for comments. You might want to record what you thought about it, or who recommended it, or when you finished it, whether it was an audio book, or the type of book it was (mystery, historical fiction, memoir etc). I added columns to rank each book, a column to earmark the really long books, and included whether it came from my own library or the public library, since I’m not alone in needing to read what I already own instead of buying more.

We’ve made this something you can print-off and use non-digitally, which feels cozier and less official. Nurturing a reading habit of whatever scale and tracking it a bit are the goals here.

No longer are we after getting different categories covered, as in the past. I know people who only read biography, or only read fantasy. Personally, I would recommend reading at least something that is outside your general default reading, but not if doing so will stop the flow of reading. Reading for interest, and reading easy stuff, is not only valid, but will strengthen your reading muscle and make you a better reader. I’ve done that myself, and can vouch for that method, since I did not start off as a strong reader myself.

You can see what our chart looks like in the photos below; there are two pages of blanks you can fill.

Click here to download the PDF of our all new 2024 Reading Challenge

Then check your downloads folder!

Let me know what you think of this easily customizable approach to our reading year. I hope you join me in reading this year!