Bit About Books Winter 2021 Reading Challenge

I felt nostalgic for the days that I anxiously awaited the seasonal reading challenges hosted by Megan Stroup Tristao on her former blog, Semi-Charmed Kind of Life. Fortunately, I still follow Megan on social media, so I reached out and asked her if I could use her format for one of my own, and she graciously agreed. What I enjoyed most about her challenges were they lasted for a few months, the prompts allowed me to read whatever age group or genre I wanted, and the points maxed out at 200. It was a great way to connect with other readers, and pushed me to try books I might not otherwise pick up.

So Laurie and I are kicking off the first Bit About Books Winter 2021 Reading Challenge. We invite you to take part and use the #bitaboutbooks hashtag on social media to let us know what you’re reading. Although we encourage you to read middle grade books, you’re welcome to read books outside that age group. At the beginning of the January, we’d love it if you share the book titles you plan to read for the prompts (totally subject to change!), and we’ll do a check in on February 1st and March 1st here on the website so you can update us with your progress. We’ll also put out some posts with middle grade recommendations for each prompt throughout the challenge to help you out in case you need inspiration.

You can keep track of our books any way you choose, but feel free to use the checklist above if you want to print it out for your reading journal. We’d love it if you also tag Laurie (hnatiukl_turningthepage on Instagram and @lhnatiuk on Twitter) and I (@the_neverending_stack on Instagram and @kmcmac74 on Twitter) so we can follow your progress and see what you’re reading. Hopefully we can all find some great new titles to read.

The guidelines are simple:

• The challenge will run from January 1st until March 30th

• Audiobooks count as books

• A book can only be used for one category

• If the challenge is a success, the first four people who reach 200 points and comment here will be asked to contribute a category for the next challenge. If it’s not a success…well, you get bragging rights.

This is just for fun, so there’s no pressure to complete the challenge. Read at your own pace, and enjoy!

Here are the prompts and point value system:

5 points: Read any book of your choice

10 points: Read a book with 100-200 pages

10 points: Read a book with one word in the title

10 points: Read an author’s debut book

15 points: Read a book with an animal main character

15 points: Read a book that has a direction in the title (eg. up/down/here/there/top/bottom/over/under, etc.)

15 points: Read a book published in 2021

20 points: Read a book set in a country that is not where you currently live

20 points: Read a book that’s won an award

20 points: Read a book with a person’s first or last name in the title

30 points: Read two books by the same author

TOTAL POINTS: 200

We look forward to seeing you on January 1st for the start of the challenge!