Friday, January 1, 2010

Welcome to the 10-10-10 Challenge!

Greetings, intrepid bookish friends! I am Melissa, and I'm happy you've decided to come check out the 10-10-10 Reading Challenge. This was introduced to me via Twitter, which has developed a fantastic community of book people--authors, readers, publishers, editors and agents. Kalen Landow, (@kalenski on Twitter) introduced us to this link from Library Thing (http://www.librarything.com/groups/1010challenge). She upped the ante a little by suggesting 10 books in 10 genres/categories by October 10. Although this is a very audacious goal, I know I feel excited about ratcheting up my reading by an order of magnitude. I, like many, tend to gravitate toward one or two categories of books (for me, mysteries and literary fiction)--so to branch out will be a great goal on its own; to read 100 books by Oct 10 will be a very challenging benchmark.

Here are the basic "rules"--which are free to be modified in any manner that works for you. To me, this challenge is about branching out in reading, not a checklist of do and don't.
1. Choose 10 different categories or genres.
2. Start reading books from these categories, with a goal to read 10 books of each by 10/10/10.
2. 10 books may count as multiple categories: i.e., if I choose "mystery" and "authors I've never read" and read a book by Joseph Wambaugh, that may count as two categories.
3. Catalog your progress by emailing me at 101010reading@gmail.com. I will add your categories/genres and books read as I receive them.
If 10 books is too audacious of a goal, make a goal that is reasonable for you--perhaps one book in each of 10 genres, or 5. The point again is to branch out.

I look forward to "meeting" everyone and challenging each other to read widely and well in 2010!

5 comments:

  1. Melissa, I'm doing this challenge, too, albeit in a modified format (more explanation on my blog on Tuesday). These are my categories...

    Food as Central Theme
    Biographies, Memoirs
    Mystery, Crime, Thriller
    Elevating Snobby Fiction
    Epistolatory
    Travel
    Mythological Fairytales
    In French
    Writing Craft
    Spiritual and Organizational

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  2. I've just sent you an email to sign on. Should be fun! My categories are:

    NYT bestsellers
    American Classics
    Sci-Fi
    Biography/Memoirs
    Prinz Winners
    non-fiction
    Books in Translation
    Poetry
    Children's books I'm ashamed to admit I've never read
    Essays

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  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. Oops, let's try that again: I'm in!

    www.desperateirishhousewife.blogspot.com

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  5. Hi Kalen and Melissa,

    Great idea! It would be wonderful to welcome you, and all those who take up the 10-10-10 challenge, to She Writes: a community, virtual workplace, and emerging marketplace for women who write, with over 12,000 active members from all 50 states and more than 30 countries. Come have a look! www.shewrites.com

    All best,

    Caroline Cooper
    Editorial and Community Asst.
    SHE WRITES

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