At the end of 2013, I knew I wanted to read more intentionally this year; I just didn't know how I'd do it. After we got home from our trip to California, I began looking over my bookshelves at all the books we have that I've never even read yet, at books I'd seen mentioned by other bloggers, and at suggested titles mentioned by a couple of nonfiction authors I've read recently. Needless to say, I found a bunch of books I want to read, and I had no idea how I'd organize them (other than fiction and nonfiction) or even where to start. Then I read that my one of my favorite bloggers, Barbara, at Stray Thoughts, was participating in several reading challenges. That sent me looking all around the blogosphere at all the reading challenges that are out there - and there a ton and a half! Since several of the challenges I chose can be overlapped, that's the way I'm going with my reading this year. Are you ready? Here goes!
2014 Operation Deepen Faith, hosted by Becky at Operation Actually Read Bible (I love the title of her blog!). This challenge has six parts to it, but you can choose which ones you want to do. I chose to use a reading plan to read the Bible (the M'Cheyne plan), study one book of the Bible thoroughly (Romans), memorize the book of I John with our church family, and read at least twelve Christian nonfiction books. I'm super excited to have found this one! I'll report on this challenge once a month to keep myself accountable for keeping up with each part.
Also hosted by Becky is the Cloud of Witnesses Reading Challenge. This challenge is to read works by Christian nonfiction authors who are already in Heaven. I've chosen four books from our bookshelves that I've wanted to read and just never picked them up. This challenge has motivated me to finally read them.
I've chosen to join the I Love Library Books Challenge at Book Dragon's Lair.This challenge is to choose a level of books to read, based on how many books you will read from the library. I've chosen the 'middle grades' level, which is 18 books. That sounds like a lot, but I love love love the library - free books! I already have two checked out, with five more coming as they are available. I'm sure there'll be more, because I also want to participate in a few months of . . .
The Reading To Know Classics Book Club hosted by Carrie at Reading To Know. This is one I've watched off and on over the past couple of years, and I want to join in this year. I'll definitely join a couple of months, but I'm interested in several of them.
And finally, I'll be joining Barbara's Laura IngallsWilder Challenge in February. the first year, but not last year, so I'm looking forward to joining in again. I'll be reading two more books in the Little House series, and possibly rereading Little House on the Prairie as part of the above mentioned book club choice in February.
This is her third year to host the challenge. I participated
That sounds like a lot, doesn't it? The reason I've chosen so many is that each of the challenges allows you to overlap with any others. Many of the books I plan to read this year will apply to more than one challenge! I still have to get it all organized in my mind and on paper, but I have a pretty good idea of the books I'm going to read in 2014, and I'm sure a few more will pop up as I go through the year. I'll have a list of books I'm planning to read posted soon. Also, one of my blogging goals for the year is to review as many of the books I read as possible, so that I can pass on good books to you.
What are your reading plans for this year?