Yesterday, I shared my 2020 Reading Challenge results (you can see it here); today, we’re looking ahead. Who’s ready to set 2021 reading goals?

Like last year, I’m taking a two-pronged approach to reading:

  1. Quantity
  2. Variety

For the past two years, I’ve read 100+ books, so it’s tempting to set that as my goal for next year. I’m not going to, though. I know myself. I’m too competitive. If I set the goal at 100, then get busy writing and editing, I’ll stop working to finish reading (even though there’s nothing to be earned by reading). With that in mind, I’m going to keep the same goal as 2020: 75 books. That’s attainable, even if I schedule plenty of writing and editing gigs.

Now for the fun part — the variety list! I cultivated this list from other reading challenges online. You can find a reading challenge just about anywhere, but many of them include books I’ll just never read, nor would I want to (e.g. erotica, horror, etc.). Instead, I pull ideas from those lists and create my own. Brilliant!

Here’s the 2021 Variety Reading List:

  1. Book published in 2021
  2. Heart, diamond, club, or spade on the cover
  3. Gem, mineral, or rock in the title
  4. Best-seller from the 1990s
  5. A book set mostly outdoors
  6. A magical realism book
  7. Set somewhere you’ve visted
  8. Set somewhere you’d like to visit
  9. Written by a celebrity
  10. From someone else’s TBR pile
  11. Featuring a restaurant
  12. With a black-and-white cover
  13. With fewer than 1,000 reviews on Amazon or Goodreads
  14. Book about art or an artist
  15. Debut book of an already-famous author
  16. A dual timeline
  17. Featuring a character with the same name as a family member
  18. Title starts with the same letter as your first name
  19. A book mentioned in another book
  20. A book with dragons
  21. By an author of a different race
  22. Featuring a character with a disability
  23. Title with five words
  24. A cover you DON’T like
  25. An award-winning book
  26. A memoir
  27. Recommended by a librarian
  28. An indie published book
  29. By an author who uses initials
  30. Published in the 1800s

Who else is excited for this list! I always start by scanning my current TBR pile to see which books I have that will fit, but I’m sure I’ll need recommendations from others for some of these, so get ready to recommend!

So, who’s with me — who wants to commit to reading 30 books in this variety of categories?