Read Harder Challenge

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! I apologize if I have been late responding to some of the comments. I have been soaking up every minute I can of family time before I leave the States and fly back to Italy, which is TODAY! I really love living in Italy, but I miss my family.

Anyway, today I wanted to talk about the 2015 Read Harder Challenge, hosted by Book Riot. I know, I know, I said I would try not to overwhelm myself with challenges but this one seems kind of fun. There are 24 tasks, so roughly two books a month if you wanted to complete all of them. I like this one because it seems more like a scavenger hunt for books! The tasks are very different so I am hoping they take me out of my comfort zone with books. Sometimes I feel I read the same genre or the same type of author over and over. I hope to change that.

Here are the tasks:

1. Read a book written by someone when they were under the age of 25.
2. A book written by someone when they were over the age of 65.
3. A collection of short stories.
4. A book published by an indie press.
5. A book by or about someone who identifies as LGBTQ.
6. A book by someone whose gender is different from your own.
7. A book that takes place in Asia.
8. A book by an author from Africa
9. A book that is by or about someone from an indigenous culture (Native Americans, Aboriginals, etc.)
10. A microhistory
11. A young adult novel
12. A sci-fi novel
13. A romance novel 
14. A National Book Award, Man Booker Prize, or Pulitzer Prize winner from the last decade.
15. A book that is the retelling of a classic story (fairytale, classic novel, Shakesperean play, etc.)
16. An audiobook
17. A collection of poetry 
18. A book that someone has recommended to you 
19. A book that was originally published in another language 
20. A graphic novel, a graphic memoir or a collection of comics of any kind
21. A book that you would consider a guilty pleasure (Read, and then realize that good entertainment is nothing to feel guilty over.)
22. A book published before 1850
23. A book published this year (2015)
24. A self-improvement book

You can talk about the challenge on social media with the hashtag #Read Harder. There is a Goodreads group dedicated to this challenge as well. Click here to join that group. I have already joined it! Also if you go to the Book Riot Read Harder Challenge page, they have resources for each category to help.

I am not going to kill myself to finish all 24 tasks since I do have other challenges. But I think it will be fun to try to do a lot of them.

Would you like to join me in this challenge?