Renoir: Woman Reading 1877
I've been thinking for a while of starting either a weekly or monthly series.
However, I had some difficulty deciding on what to write about. So many
bloggers have wonderful weekly memes on what they currently reading, what they
are waiting for, and what they just bought, borrowed, or given. My creativity
for something new was extremely lacking. But then, I thought, keep it simple.
Just ask a simple question, why do I love to read sooo much. As I was thinking about
it, I found that it’s not an easy question to answer. It could be different on
any given day or even hour. Sometimes, I read just to read because I feel like
I have to or I had a bad day and I want to escape from the world. There are so many reasons and I now I want to
share those reasons with you. In return, I hope you leave lots of comments on
why you love to read!
Why I Love to Read!
Challenges
Why
do I love to read this week? Challenges, challenges and more challenges! Since
it is the beginning of the year, I have seen so many different reading
challenges; some good and some kind of silly. For the past two years I have
only participated in the Goodreads Challenge which I have completed both years
(very proud!). This year signed up for Goodreads Challenge (I pledged to read
70 books), plus, three other challenges. Since this is my first year of book
blogging, I have only just discovered that other reading challenges existed. I
could have signed up for LOTS of challenges; however, I don’t want to get too
carried away. Now that I have selected my challenges, I’m pretty excited and
motivated to start them.
The
first challenge I signed up for is the Historical Fiction Challenge and set my
goal at 15 HF books. Several years ago the only genre I would read was HF. Then
I discovered urban fantasy and paranormal romance. I left HF behind for a long
time and now I want to dive right back in. I’ve already read one, The Companion
of Lady Holmeshire, and it reminded me why I love historical fiction in the
first place. I’m really excited to be reading HF books again!
The
next challenge is an ebook challenge and set my goal at 50 ebooks. I read A LOT
of books on my Kindle and I just got a new Kindle Fire HD for Christmas. I
figured since I read so much on my Kindle this challenge should be fairly easy;
but you never know.
For
my last challenge, I signed up kind of late but I thought it sounded so much
fun. I pledged to read five books in the
Book Blogger Recommendation Challenge. I picked books that have been on my TBR
list for a very long time and now I have some serious motivation to get them
read. Here is what I picked: The
Night Circus, Rules of Civility, Soulless (which I’m reading now), The Book
Thief, and The Thirteenth Tale. I’m really excited to read them all.
Now
don’t get me wrong! I didn’t enter these challenges to prove that I can read a
large number of books. The reason why is that I want to read books from many
different genres and not get stuck again in one single genre. I want to be a
well-rounded reader. Furthermore, by participating in these challenges, I have
discovered so many new books and authors. I really do love watching my TBR list
grow into Mount Everest!
Well,
that’s it! That’s why I love to read this week. How about you?
I love reading challenges - I signed up for quite a few this year. I love selecting books - finding ones I think I will like that also fits the criteria. I don't get too stressed out if I don't complete them, as I think of all the wonderful books I read that I might never have discovered had I not been exposed to the challenge.
ReplyDeleteWhat challenges are you participating in this year?
ReplyDeleteI never knew about challenges until you convinced me to do GoodReads again. I think they're great to help keep track of the great books read all year as well as to make reading time a priority in our lives (if reading is what we really love to do). I'm really thankful I listened to you and Kathy to get back on GoodReads which I use as my book journal and I joined the GR challenge with a goal to read 50 books this year. G and I also made a mother son challenge to read all 15 of the 2013 Sequoyah Children's List.
ReplyDeleteI got the final book of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series two days ago! I LOVE that series--my absolute favorite! It doesn't dominate my world like it did when I was a teenager, but when I opened the book and started glancing through the prophecies at the beginning and the table of contents, all the old memories rushed back to me. The characters are like old friends, the settings like memories. I won't start reading it until Monday but I suppose I love to read this week because I was reminded of why I love story-telling so much! :D
ReplyDeleteI love historical fiction and non-fiction. Each one offers a different window into the past, one from the point of view of facts, the other with a little bit more fantasy. Good luck with all your reading challenges. http://georgielee.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteWonderful post! :D I'm not doing many challenges this year. I've made my pledge on Goodreads and on SavvyReader for how many books I'll read this year and I'm doing a TBR challenge but that's it for me.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to reading about all of the reasons you love to read! That's why we do what we do!