The reading-challenged

It’s halfway through the year, so I thought to give status of the book reading challenges I am participating in. Two challenges came from the online group Flips Flipping Pages, which I am a proud member of. The third challenge I stumbled upon on the web.

• Flips Flipping Pages (FFP) Quantity Challenge

The challenge is to set a certain number of books to read for the entire year. I’ve set mine to 36 books which is more or less the same number I finished last year. I think that setting a higher target this year will just put more pressure on me. That will surely spoil the fun of the challenge for me as I’m not keen on speed reading. I initially planned to divide this into 18 fiction and 18 non-fiction, but this is already somehow taken care of by the next challenge.

Status: Read 23 out of 36 so far. Of those remaining in my to-be-read pile, the Challenge Book is going to be War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. I hope I can finish this thick tome of 900+ pages, with text in very small font!

• Flips Flipping Pages Diversity Challenge

This challenge is to read 24 books from different categories and genres. Following are the specific book counts.

- 12 fiction (with at least one of these books a classic)

6 European/American/Commonwealth

4 Asian/Latin American/African

2 Filipino

- 6 nonfiction

1 Science/Math

1 Lifestyle

1 Politics/Economics/Sociology

1 Biography/Autobiography/Memoir

2 Filipino

- 3 from the monthly reading group selections of FFP

- 1 award winning work

- 1 common title (The chosen books are José Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, as translated into English by Soledad Lacson-Locsin.)

- 1 book recommended by a partner

Status: read 16 out of 24 so far. What I still lack at this point are 4 fiction, 2 Filipino non-fiction, 1 reading group selection, and the Noli and Fili.

• Lost in Translation Reading Challenge

The challenge is to read 6 books in translation within the year.

Status: Finished since May! I’ve read a total of 9 books in translation and I plan to read more.

I’m already happy with this status report. What with my busy schedule, I’m always scrambling to find enough time to read.

I’ll be devising more reading challenges for myself also. They will be mainly focused on world lit books, and specific authors, series, and countries/regions. I have at least 5 more challenges in the works. Excited.