2012 In Review: The Reading Challenges

While I’ve participated in reading challenges in the past, 2012 was definitely the year I made it a priority. Over the course of last year I took part in 14 reading challenges with varying degrees of success. Some challenges I rocked, and some, well maybe not so much. Below is a brief wrap-up of how I fared.

• Non-Fiction Non-Memoir Reading Challenge and Dewey Decimal Challenge – These two were a snap ’cause that’s my favorite stuff to read. My love of nonfiction helped earn me a “Master” level for both challenges.
• Unread Book Challenge, Off The Shelf Reading Challenge, Mt. TBR Reading Challenge and Old Books Reading Challenge – The purpose of these four challenges was to inspire people to read books they already own, as opposed to books borrowed from the library or books purchased during the year. Since I read mostly library books in 2012 when it came to these challenges I failed BIG TIME! Oh well, maybe in 2013 I will do better.
• Support Your Local Library Reading Challenge – But failing the above-mentioned challenges means I did well with this one. My obsession with library books helped earned me a “Level 4” for my efforts.
• Global Reading Challenge – I thought for sure I was going to make it to the “Expert” level but I stumbled a bit with this one. Neglecting authors from South America and Australasia cost me dearly.
• European Reading Challenge – Even though I didn’t sign up for this one until June, I still made it to the “Deluxe Entourage” level. This ended up being one of my favorite challenges. Besides that, the host and I live in the same city!
• Eastern European Reading Challenge – Unfortunately I came up a few books short of the “Ambassador” level and had to settle for “Tourist.”
• South Asian Reading Challenge – Another one I joined late in the year but I did manage to read a few books as part of this challenge.
• Books in Translation Reading Challenge – Another one of my favorite challenges. Maybe that’s why I made it to the “Linguist” level.
• Africa Reading Challenge – As the year came to a close I wasn’t sure I could pull this one off. Host Kinna asked participants to read at least five books with three by African authors. At least one needed to be fiction and the books needed to cover multiple regions of the continent. Challenging, but in the end I pulled it off.
  
• Middle East Reading Challenge – Over the last few years this one has been my personal favorite. Once again Helen’s challenge inspired me to read a number of interesting books about the Middle East. Per her suggestion, this year I’ll be hosting the 2013 edition of this challenge.

I had a lot of fun with these challenges and I’m hoping for a repeat performance in 2013. My goal is to read fewer library books and more from my own personal library. But then again, I say that every year. So I guess we will have to just wait and see what happens. Happy New Year everyone.