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The EK’s Life Safari’s 2019 Reading Challenge

So since we are now into month two of 2019, I think it is time to final commit to my 2019 Reading Challenge. I have written earlier that my overall goal is to read 72 books in 2019. That’s seven books over my 2018 Challenge Goal. And  while I thought that goal of 65 books was unreachable I made it.So this ea I thought I’d  added some more!

Though the years I have read mostly mysteries and thrillers. Occasionally I read history and political books. and maybe even a few self-help books. A four years ago when I started creating my Reading Challenges my goal was to expand the genres of the books I read. I created challenges to read more science fiction, more general fiction  as well as a variety of non-fiction books.

Thoughts About Last  Year’s Challenge

Last year I added the challenge of reading more books that line my various bookshelves and are parked on my Kindle. That resulted in me reading books by some of my favorite authors like Bill Pronzini, William G Tapply, and Tony Hillerman.. whose books I haven’t read for years.

Ultimately though last year’s reads were primarily mysteries or thrillers. A total of thirty-eight (38) of the books I read were Mysteries or Thrillers. Of those thirty-eight (38)books , twenty-two (22) were written by mystery authors whose books I currently read. Sixteen (16) books are part of a series I am current on.  Sixteen (16) of the books read were “ new to me” mystery authors.Of those books eight (8) of them are part of a series. Several of those were the first book in a new series!

Within the next few days, I will create a page with  a list of the books I read in 2019.

The 2019 Reading Challenge

Now to construct the 2019 Challenge. Let’s begin b assuming that I probably will read one new book from each of the series mentioned above in 2019. That’s  twenty-four (24) books out of my 72!

That leaves forty-eight (48) books to be divide among the other genres. First, I want to read one science fiction book per month, as well as  one general fiction (no serial killers or plots to blow up the world).

That leaves twenty-four books. I’ll make those nonfiction and divide the nonfiction  books between: history or politics, biographies, science and self-help. Dividing twenty-four by four results six books for each category.

Ok so all of the above sounds pretty good for a start. However, each year I set out to read general literature and/or current fiction and each year I never reach my goal. So this year I’m lowering the goal to 6. And I’ll add the other six book to mystery and thrillers With that change made My 2019 Reading Challenge looks like this…….

Maybe Some Mini-Challenges to Change Things Up??

Sometimes in a reading challenge you do things like read a book with blue on the cover. Or read a book whose author’s name starts with A. Maybe what I’ll do mini-challenges some months concerning the six books I will be reading. Maybe, but probably not. Anyway, there you have it my 2019 Reading Challenge. So wish me luck!

In the next post I’ll write about the books I’ve already read in 2019. So far I’m on track. I’ve read six books! Oh, and we’ll see where they fit among my challenges!