As an English student, I find my summers to be incredibly exciting. I not only have time to read for myself, but I also get to choose what I want to read. I have a Goodreads.com account, with a want to read list of over 1200 books, so I have no shortage of material, however, I have a hard time deciding what is important enough for me to read first. Maybe this isn’t a problem for other people, but when I get to choose what I read, I have sort of a mental break down because there are just too many options. I usually resort to a number generator and then count out a random list to let fate choose my next book. This summer was a bit different because I came across the 2015 reading challenge on Pinterest.

The challenge I found consisted of 50 (excluding the trilogy) books, covering separate categories for reading material. These categories provided me to pick books from my own list, but varied the genre and form I would normally fall back on. Over the next 8 weeks I did not get through all 50, but I was able to read a lot of books that probably would not have made it into my reading. I was able to read books ranging from Beloved by Toni Morison for “A Pulitzer-Prize winning book” to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson for “A book that was originally written in a different language.” This reading challenge was able to expand my usual book choice and yet at the same time was able to let me pick the books I wanted to fit those categories. Now that we are back at college, it is much more difficult for me to find the time to finish this challenge, but I will definitely be saving this for next summer.

If anyone has any other ways they pick their next book, or if they have a favorite challenge of their own, please let us know! I am always looking for new ways to expand my reading and avoid the panic-attack accompanying the choice of what to read next.

If you are like me, I included the challenge for you to try too.

By Marissa Bouska

Photo credit: Pop Sugar blog

http://www.popsugar.com/love/Reading-Challenge-2015-36071458