I keep forgetting that this comes early in the year. Reading Ahead (formally known at the six book challenge) is all about getting those people who don’t normally read to get into reading. Being in a library, and a college where we have student of all sorts of reading levels, we get rather involved in this.
I talked about it last year, and this year is much the same, between now and June read six things. Newspapers, magazines, books, poem collections, short stories, most things count as long as it gets you reading.
Of course I still have the problem that I did last year, that I am an avid reader and this challenge is not really aimed at me. However, as a librarian, we like to get involved with these things, and it’s good to get my numbers up for the 52 challenge (one book a week, and I’m kind of behind), so I am once again joining in.
Last year I tried to do it in a week, and managed six books in eight days. This year I have a lot more on my plate, and I’m trying not to stress, so I think a month is a pretty good time frame. I’m halfway through a book right now, so if I finish that up by the end of the month, then I can spend February doing this.
What I have set myself, as a sort of little extra on top, is a rainbow reading challenge. Six books, one of each of the prominent colours of the rainbow: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue and Purple (Because splitting purple into indigo and violet is a chore for this sort of thing).
So I’m going to read these six, in the order of the rainbow, top to bottom. There are two library books, and the other four are ones that have all been on my shelves for a little while. I’m going to try and read through all those books that I bought but never read last year, and try to not buy so many new books until I do that. Keyword: try.
I’ll be back with an update on how this has gone at the end of February. Hope your 2016 is going well! Any of my lovely readers reading anything good at the moment?
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I can’t imagine reading six books in eight days, even if reading was all I did in a day. You don’t feel like your comprehension of the story is compromised by going through it that fast, do you?
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Surprisingly no. Having compared what I remember to what other people who read slower remember, I always seem to be about the same level. Of course, I’m hardly likely to remember every detail that happened, but I get all the plots, the characters, and most of what goes on. I just read rather fast. And as I said, this year I’m being a little more sensible than a book a day (ish) 😛
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This challenge looks very interesting. Not just read, but record, rate, and review! That’s something I need to get better at. I feel bad reviewing things though. If I review something outside my realm then I might not be the target audience and I don’t want to bring reviews down, but I do want to get more accurate recommendations from automated systems. And things that are inside my realm I think I way overestimate how much I like them at 3 am when I finish them.
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Reviewing is something that I don’t feel incredibly confident with either, but I think it’s something that can definitely be learnt. Practice and all that. I use goodreads to track, rate and review, what do you use?
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I use goodreads to track as well, I’ve tried rating there. But I always want a double tiered rating system, or the ability to say, “This rating is just for making recommendations for me, I don’t want to put this on the author’s ratings because I’m not their target audience.” I mostly just review in conversation with people who love me and won’t hate me for thinking something Super Popular is just the worst.
I totally agree about it being a learnable skill.
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I love the sound of the Reading Ahead Challenge and have to say that my daughter reads more periodicals (although heavyweight) than books, as she is very time-poor. But as a child who took to reading late, I’m thrilled that she enjoys the process enough to find alternatives that fit her current lifestyle. I enjoyed my reading challenge last year (to read over 50 books) and I suspect it will remain a constant, but am trying to make sure I read what I have, so that I don’t add to my utterly ridiculous TBR pile, let alone the list! I look forward to hearing how your Challenge goes.
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