There is a book store close to where I live that sells books at reasonable prices. I was so excited when I discovered it because I feel like most bookstore chains charge way too much for books. I don't feel like I should spend twenty dollars or more for one book even if it is a new release. Then again, I am cheap. My husband makes jokes about my being frugal all the time but I know that he appreciates it when it comes time to buy books.
A friend of mine recently reminded me that Pioneer Books was doing a book challenge wherein you can get a fifty dollar gift card for the store. I wanted to do it at first because I have never completed a book challenge despite how much I devour the written word. I know that some of you might be surprised by this fact. I thought that any book challenge would be fairly easy for me to complete but I didn't want to just be entered into a raffle with the chance of getting a gift card so I decided not to do it. My friend then explained to me that the store would give out gift cards to anyone that completed the challenge before the end of December '19. Fifty dollars for reading?! Yes, please!
Once I looked at the categories that they wanted readers to read one book each from I knew that this was truly going to be a book challenge. I tend to stay away from Oprah's book club because I don't tend to read a lot of adult books nor do I pay much attention to books that have won lots of awards. I think that books in that way can be a lot like movies that win a lot of awards. They tend to be the ones that bore me or I feel are pretentious or trying way too hard. I like to have the freedom to read without knowing if it merited awards or not. I also saw that I would have to read a book from the science, Nature, Sports, and U.S. History sections. These genres do not thrill me! It was only through another friend that I discovered that there are loopholes to reading from each of these genres. I may not like sports but I could read a fictional book like Balance by Lucia Franco that is a romance about a gymnast and her coach (not worth time spent reading it but it fit the requirement that I needed to complete). I have actually enjoyed the reading challenge more than I expected to. I have begun to really enjoy biographies/memoirs. I recently read Brain on Fire by Susannah Cahalan and Anna Kendrick's book Scrappy Little Nobody and loved both of them. The reading challenge has opened my eyes to the genre and I have learned to try a genre before automatically saying that I won't like it. The challenge has also helped me to explore more adult fantasy books that I had no idea existed. I have to admit that those books have been the funnest for me to read.
I've listed all 44 categories of the reading challenge below. If you are interested in completing it with me or have any suggestions for me to read for any of the categories don't hesitate to let me know.
Yay!!! I'm so glad you are doing this with us!!
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