#TopTenTuesday Tips For Success With Reading Challenges

Top Ten Tuesday new

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.

The rules are simple:

Each Tuesday, Jana assigns a new topic. Create your own Top Ten list that fits that topic – putting your unique spin on it if you want. Everyone is welcome to join but please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own Top Ten Tuesday post. Add your name to the Linky widget on that day’s post so that everyone can check out other bloggers’ lists. Or if you don’t have a blog, just post your answers as a comment.

This week it’s a freebie with participants free to come up with their own topic. A few weeks ago I dedicated a Top Ten Tuesday post to Reasons I Fail At Reading Challenges. As well as a lot of other bloggers identifying with many of my reasons, there were also some great tips suggested. So today’s post is a way of sharing those tips and recognising the supportive nature of the book blogging community.


Tip 1 – Set targets lower to allow for other releases and random finds (The Scented Library)

Tip 2 – Take full advantage of the facility to swap books where a challenge allows it (The Secret Library)

Tip 3 – Join challenges for which you don’t need to read specific books (The Secret Library)

Tip 4 – Stick to reading challenges you know you can achieve, e.g. Goodreads (The Night Is Dark And Full Of Books) 

Tip 5 – Make challenges perpetual so you can read on indefinitely (Readerbuzz)

Tip 6 – Only join challenges that fit your reading pattern (Blue Mood Cafe)

Tip 7 – Stick to small monthly challenges that fit with books you’d read anyway (A Novel Glimpse)

Tip 8 – Pick what’s right for you to strike the right balance between the camaraderie that comes with taking part in a challenge and it not feeling like work  (Jen Ryland)

And a final two from me (although whether I take my own advice is doubtful based on past experience)…

Tip 9 – Remember you don’t have to join every challenge going. There’s always next year!

Tip 10 – Remind yourself of these tips before you start signing up for 2020 reading challenges

 

 

 

My Week in Books – 8th December ‘19

MyWeekinBooks

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Blog posts

Monday – I shared my review of The Honourable Life of Thomas Chayne by Cynthia Jefferies.

Tuesday –  The Top Ten Tuesday topic was Holiday Reads and I shared some ideas about books appropriate for the festive season.

Wednesday – WWW Wednesday is the opportunity to share what I’ve just read, what I’m currently reading and what I plan to read next…and have a good nose around to see what other bloggers are reading.

Thursday – I published my review of The Boy With Blue Trousers by Carol Jones as part of the blog tour.

Friday – I selected my Five Favourite November Reads.

Saturday – I took part in the monthly 6 Degrees of Separation meme creating a chain from Sanditon by Jane Austen to Oliver Loving by Stefan Merrill Block.

As always, thanks to everyone who has liked, commented on or shared my blog posts on social media this week.


New arrivals

Dieudonné_RealLifeReal Life by Adeline Dieudonne, trans. by Roland Glasser (ARC, courtesy of World Editions)

A fierce and poetic debut on surviving the wilderness of family life

At home there are four rooms: one for her, one for her brother, one for her parents…and one for the carcasses. The father is a big game hunter, a powerful predator; the mother is submissive to her violent husband’s demands. The young narrator spends the days with her brother, playing in the shells of cars dumped for scrap and listening out for the chimes of the ice-cream truck, until a brutal accident shatters their world.

The uncompromising pen of Adeline Dieudonné wields flashes of brilliance as she brings her characters to life in a world that is both dark and sensual. This breathtaking debut is a sharp and funny coming-of-age tale in which reality and illusion collide.


On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Cold, Cold HeartAugustusBuchanJoan Smokes

Planned posts

  • Book Review: Cold, Cold Heart by Christine Poulson
  • Top Ten Tuesday
  • Waiting on Wednesday
  • Buchan of the Month/Book Review: Augustus by John Buchan