The Fifty Book Challenge
At the start of 2006, my friend lunacia proposed the Fifty Book Challenge, versions of which have been around online for at least the last four years. The idea is simple - each person taking on the challenge agrees to read at least fifty books in a given calendar year. For some us, this will make little difference to familiar reading habits. For others it may be a bit of strain, but our hope is that it'll provide an exciting opportunity to explore the world of books, to get hold of good recommendations and to encounter new favourites. We hope that it will encourage people to push themselves a bit as readers. We hope it'll be educational, and we hope it'll be fun.
The rules for this challenge are very relaxed. You can count non-fiction books; you can count anthologies; you can count children's books; if you run out of time and are determined to complete the challenge anyway, you can count Mr. Men books. We ask only that you try to enter into the spirit of the thing and use your judgement as to what it is or is not sensible to include. Nobody will be impressed (and you probably shouldn't be too impressed with yourself, unless you're under five) if you've read only Mr. Men books. Graphic novels count, as do anthologies of such work, but individual comics do not. You can count individual books of the Bible, and nobody's going to expect you to treat The Complete Works of Shakespeare as a single entry. On another note, it is okay to include books which you're re-reading.
The Fifty Book Challenge is really about personal commitment. There won't be a test afterwards; no-one will come round to knock on your door and ask what happened at the end of chapter eight. We do, however, encourage you to keep a public record of your reading if you are able to. Make a list on a webpage or post to an appropriate thread in a participating newsgroup or web forum (there are no formal rules for such participation, so if you can get together a group of interested regulars you can start this anywhere). If possible, write small reviews of what you read - even if it's just a couple of sentences, it'll make it possible for interested readers to determine what might appeal to them. At the end of the year, people taking the challenge can compare lists and discuss how their reading habits differ.
Try to make use of your local library system. Tell them about your involvement with the Fifty Book Challenge. If you have difficulty accessing a library, you can always make use of the free e-books (including many popular classics) available from Project Gutenberg. Furthermore, lots of us involved in this year's challenge are borrowing books and swapping them with friends.
I'm using this space (amongst others) to keep a list of the books I read in 2009. I do still have some eye damage caused by my stroke at the end of 2006, so reading can be physically difficult, but I've had two years to pull myself together now, and this year I intend to read the whole fifty.
Okay, nothing's here yet! Give me a few days to get started - I'm already in the middle of three different things, and all my time has been eaten by recoding this site.
Check out my lists for 2006, 2007 and 2008.
This way to go back to Jennie's page about literature.
This way to go back to Jennie's personal pages.
Last updated 10th January, 2009