My Personal Book Challenge

With the end of 2015 approaching, I thought I'd reflect on my reading. For a few years, I've heard about something called the "Empty Shelf Challenge". The idea behind it is that you clear off a shelf on your bookcase. Then, after you read a book, place it on the shelf. During the course of the year, you can see the shelf getting more and more filled and by the end of the year, you will be amazed by how much you read. I wanted to motivate myself to read more in 2015, so last winter I thought I'd embrace the challenge. Here was the issue: I read a lot of books from the library and I had just gotten a Kindle. So instead of the "Empty Shelf", I began the "Empty Word Document Challenge". Every time I finished a book, I wrote the title down in a Word Document. I was amazed at how long the list got. I began the list on the first day of winter break last year, and now with winter break right around the corner, I am SUPER excited to announce that over the course of one year I read: 111 books

I can't believe it! It was such a busy year, but I made sure to get lots of reading done. In full disclosure, that number includes numerous junior high novels, which as an adult, I can read quickly. It also includes books that I reread simply because I wanted to enjoy them a second time.

There were definitely spurts of reading -- winter, spring, and summer break had lots of books crammed in, while October and November of this year were definitely my slower points. But keeping track helped me stay motivated and gave me a nice surprise at the end of the year. I'm going to try it again in 2016.

WHO'S JOINING ME??