2016 Summer Reading Challenge

Ever since I fell in love with reading, the beginning of summer has meant the beginning of reading season. Of course, I read throughout the year, but there’s something about summer that makes reading special. Whether it’s staying up into the small hours of the morning to finish a page-turner, or it’s laying on the beach reading a fluffy romance, or it’s feeling accomplished for finishing that four-hundred page classic you’ve been meaning to read forever and finally had the uninterrupted time, reading in the summer just feels different.

Although I am a strong supporter of the “read whatever you want, when you want to read it” philosophy, especially if the rest of your reading year is determined by school or work assigned books, it’s also fun to create your own reading challenge. If you’re anything like me, there are certain books that have been collecting dust on your bookshelf for years, just waiting for you to finally pick them up and read them. Let’s start a #nobookleftbehind movement and read those books that we’ve always intended to read but never quite got around to it. Okay?

So here’s my own personal challenge:

1. Read a long classic (ideas: Emma, Middlemarch)

2. Re-read a favorite (ideas: I Capture the Castle)

3. Read a poetry collection (ideas: Keats, Frost)

4. Read a recommended book

5. Read something non-fiction (ideas: On Writing)

And because my #1 way to make something official is to write it down, and my #1 way to make myself actually do something is to write it down and put a checkbox next to it, I’ve created a printable worksheet to help you create your own challenge! If you already subscribe to BrightMail, click here to go straight to the WBT Library and download! And if you haven’t subscribed, click here or the image below to subscribe, gain instant access to the library, and become part of the #brightclub. It even comes with a Library Card 🙂

There are two versions of this worksheet available for download- a black and white option, and one with a pop of hot pink and turquoise because… it’s summer! Print it out, fill it out with your own personal 2016 Summer Reading Challenge, and keep track of your progress! You can even print it at 50% to keep in your planner or bullet journal.

And if you’re looking for some ideas to create your own challenge, feel free to steal the five I listed above! Also, here are a few more to get you started:

• A book that you haven’t read by your favorite author
• A book published in the year you were born
• A book outside your favorite genre(s)
• Re-read a book you read in high school
• A book on the NY Times Bestseller List right now
• An adaptation/modernization of a classic
• A short story collection
• A completely random find at the bookstore/library
• Your parent/sibling/friend’s favorite book
• Five different books from five different decades
• A play
• A book that was made into a film
• A book from one of WBT’s Literature posts 🙂 Like this one, or this one!
• Etc.!

If you think of some other great categories, be sure to share them in the comments! Making your own personal 2016 Summer Reading Challenge is the perfect way to motivate yourself to read more while also accomplishing your own reading goals.

It’s not too late!

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