Challenges: 2020 Check-In

I set a couple reading challenges for myself this year (in addition to some monthly ones) and with only 3 months of 2020 to go, it’s time to see how I’m doing!

I’ve got 3 year-long challenges that I set for myself: my “chosen TBR”, my Quarantine TBR, and the alphabet challenge. Here’s the progress I’ve made so far:

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Chosen TBR

At the end of 2019, I asked for you all to give me a number so I could make a (manageable) TBR of books to read in 2020, narrowed down from my Goodreads TBR. I chose 10 books based on those numbers (according to where they were on the list):

Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig | Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies by Lindsay Ribar

Crush by Richard Siken | The Woman Who Stole My Life by Marian Keyes

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

I Hate that You Bloody Left Me by Heather Hill | Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Texts from Jane Eyre by Daniel Ortberg | Not Your Sidekick by C.B. Lee

The Lonely Hearts Hotel by Heather O’Neill

and 2 bonus ones: Northanger Abbey and Lady Susan by Jane Austen

So far I’ve read 5 books from the list (reviews linked above). I also re-assessed and decided to remove Gone Girl and The Woman Who Stole My Life from my TBR, as I’m just not interested in reading them anymore. So only 5 more to go!

I am dependent on the library for this list so my reading’s slowed down quite a lot as I haven’t yet faced physical loans in this time but perhaps I’ll get to at least a couple before the new year.

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Quarantine TBR

So then quarantine hit, I was faced with little more to do than clean my room and realized how many unread books I have on my bookshelf. Inspired by Kate @ the living hours, I made a list of all the ones I have yet to read, sorted by genre, and set the challenge for myself to tackle these during quarantine.

I’m steadily picking away and so far I’ve read a couple, found several that my mom has picked up to read, and given away many (either through book hiding, donation, or to the bookshelf the whole family shares). Here’s my current breakdown:

• Read: The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency (mystery), The Year Mrs. Montague Cried (middle grade), Back to Blackbrick (middle grade), The Little Old Lady Who Broke All the Rules (fiction), Fifteen Dogs (fiction), Tiny Infinities (pretty books), Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography (pretty books)

• Gave away: Buried Prey (mystery), The Girl With All the Gifts (fiction), Cold Summer (fiction), The Woman Who Stole My Life (fiction), The Call of the Wild (fiction), Animals in Translation (non-fiction)

Of the 25 I started with, I have 12 left to read! Not bad! The only category I haven’t touched yet is the Poetry / Short Stories collections. I’ve also given away 4 of the books I’ve read so my shelves are looking much neater.

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Alphabet challenge

A new one I just impulsively decided to add to the list, I’m working my way through the alphabet based on the titles of each book I read.

I haven’t made any progress since my post but some of the ARCs I’ve received that are on my immediate future TBR, as well as ones I haven’t yet read from the challenges above, cover some of the missing letters:

• H – The Heaviness of Things that Float by Jennifer Manuel
• K – knot body by Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch
• O – The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
• P – A Perfect Explanation by Eleanor Anstruther, Priscilla by Nicholas Shakespeare

That only leaves Q, V, X, and Z – thanks to those who commented on my last post for your suggestions!

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I’ve made much more progress than I anticipated before putting this post together! I still don’t know whether I’ll complete any of these challenges but I liked these ones because it helped me address both my physical and digital TBR (and cutting down on clutter is always great!).

What are some of your 2020 reading challenges?

Cover images from Goodreads.