books you've collected but not gotten around to in a while. A great exercise in relieving the guilt involved in book buying.
I seriously considered joining this one, but I really make myself grumpy when I force myself to read things from a list. I am working seriously on my TBR list this year but I'm not going to give it any specific number or time frame. I'm also going to be a little pickier about which book club books I read so I can continue to enjoy self-chosen books.
As a first-year children's librarian I have a great desire to read more middle aged chapter books (from about grades 3-6) along with all the picture books I read aloud to K-2 anyway and I have done some of that this past year. But I am really dedicating this year to at least knocking off the big guilt-pullers near my bedside which I feel I must knock off before much more time goes by.
The closest thing I've done to a reading challenge in recent memory is when I took that Children's Lit. class as part of my library degree. I thought about getting out of the class because I felt like I'd read quite enough of that stuff as a teacher. It turned out it was more work to get out of it than just take it. When I saw the syllabus I really had read more than half the books on the list but I was very glad I took it. It made me read books I would have otherwise passed up and I found a few I quite enjoyed. That's probably the best thing about these kinds of challenges.
There will be a little of that in my upcoming polishing off of bedside books. Some gift books I might not necessarily have picked, but from authors I've enjoyed before. That kind of thing.
What about you? What are your favorite reading challenges? I've been thinking about this also because our school does not do AR but some people have been talking about it. I think if I can come up with some kid-friendly "reading challenges" instead that I might be able to head them off at the pass. I'd love to hear your ideas...
Be a better reader in 2011
The TBR Dare
