Diversify Your Reading 2023 Book Challenge Review
This year, one of my SMART goals was to read 12 books (one book a month). Looking for a way to hold myself accountable, I figured my best bet would be to follow a reading challenge. For someone like me who loves a good checklist, it’s an added bonus to the feeling of finishing a book. Needless to say, I was excited when I came across Kelly Mongan’s Diversify Your Reading Challenge.
The thing I really liked about the Diversify Your Reading Challenge is that it’s super flexible. Readers are free to govern the challenge themselves, and there are no rules about book length, number of each genre read, etc. The challenge also features a broad range of genres (3-4 Non-Fiction genres and 8-9 Fiction genres). More specifically:
In starting this challenge, I didn’t have many personal goals or expectations. I thought it would be cool to only read NYT Bestsellers, but there were some months that I had to forgo that based on book availability. Side note: In the beginning, I started off buying the books I read. This worked out fine some months, but there were others that I was left owning a book I didn’t enjoy. When I switched to borrowing books, it gave me the chance to read the book first and then decide if I wanted to add it to my list of books to own. Don’t sleep on your local library! The books I chose were:
I set the books up tournament style to choose an overall favorite and it was tough. I had such fond memories reading most of these books and choosing a favorite felt like betrayal. So, no overall favorite but I do have superlatives:
Most Insightful Book: Atomic Habits (This book is great whether you’re trying to establish or break habits!)
Biggest Plot Twist: The Maid and Where the Crawdads Sing (No spoilers here, this is a safe space.)
Most “awws”: The Sun Is Also a Star (What can I say, I’m a sucker for a good love story.)
Least Hated Movie Adaptation: The Help (Granted, it wasn’t the word for word, leave-everything-the-way-it-was-in-the-book movie that every bibliophile wants, but it wasn’t too bad.)
The biggest lesson I learned is that books rule and movie adaptations drool! I watched Where the Crawdads Sing after finishing the book and I’m not trying to sound dramatic but it practically ruined my weekend. I only watched the trailer for The Sun Is Also a Star but based on that, I decided that it would be best to preserve my memory of the characters and the story by not watching the movie. Again, the only movie adaptation I didn’t outright hate was The Help (but I could be biased because I like Emma Stone).
Overall, I’m thinking I will definitely do another reading challenge in 2024. I encourage anyone, whether you’re an avid reader or someone who’s trying to become one, to consider a reading challenge!
