From Bigstock photo – copyright Sergey Nivens

Before I talk about reading I want to tell you about music mashups. I love song mashups. My husband got me into them and they’re a lot of fun and can be very creative. There are music mashups I’ve listened to so many times that when I hear one of the songs on the radio I automatically go into the second song at the appropriate places. The songs just don’t sound right anymore unless they’re mashed together. What do song mashups have to do with a reading challenge? I’m getting to that.

So one of my goals for the year is to read more. It’s always a goal and I usually set my target at twenty-five books read for the year. I originally was only going to do the Read Harder Challenge but then I found the Alphabet Soup Challenge. So I’m doing both! Before you think I’m completely crazy the Read Harder Challenge allows you to double up categories. Demon Seed that qualifies for a horror novel also fits the criteria for book published in the decade I was born. And that means for the Alphabet Soup Challenge I have my D novel. With no crossover books the mashup will mean reading fifty books. But with the crossovers I’m hoping it will be around thirty. It will depend on how many books I can add to the Read Harder list with different letters.

Last year out of the twenty-five books I wanted to read I actually read six. Yes, six. I can blame the horrible things that happened last year. I can blame work. I can blame a lot of things but the truth is I didn’t make time for reading. As a writer I need to read to keep on top of the market, not to mention the pure enjoyment factor of plunging into different worlds. I schedule time for writing but I didn’t schedule time for reading. My eight year-old niece reads like I used to read. At every opportunity. She will be my new reading role model.

A new year means a new chance to accomplish goals. When I told someone my reading goal for last year and what I actually read she asked me why I was doing this mashup this year. If I know I can for sure read six books why not make the “challenge” six books? But where’s the challenge in that? The purpose of a challenge is to push yourself to do more than you thought you could, expand your horizons. I achieved that in spades with the writing last year. And there was a time when I could read two books a weeks. Other writers manage to read one hundred books a year and still write, still have a family who remembers them. I can too!

So this year the goal is between thirty to fifty books. Check out my Goodreads Challenge Shelf to follow along.

First book up (because it’s the January book for book club) is A Wise Man’s Fear. It satisfies the book over 500 pages criteria.

Any suggestions for books for either challenge? Throw them at me!

Until next time…

Cindy