I have decided to participate in some reading challenges in 2017. The first one is a European Reading Challenge, hosted by Rose City Reader.
THE GIST: The idea is to read books by European authors or books set in European countries (no matter where the author comes from). The books can be anything – novels, short stories, memoirs, travel guides, cookbooks, biography, poetry, or any other genre. You can participate at different levels, but each book must be by a different author and set in a different country – it’s supposed to be a tour.
I am aiming for the Five Star (Deluxe Entourage) level of participation, which means reading at least five such books. Ideally, I’ll read more.
I’ve already picked out and started my first book:
The Immortal Irishman: The Irish Revolutionary Who Became an American Hero, by Timothy Egan.
I’m excited about this reading challenge. Do you participate in reading challenges?
Oh my, thank you for reminding me about this. I need to get a post done. I think my first trip will be to France 🙂
Do paperback romances count? If so, I’d easily make Five Star. lol
Yes, I believe they do! You should sign up. You do have to write a review, though, and post it on your blog (or somewhere?) in order to receive “credit.” Of course, you can just read them for yourself and that works too. LOL
I don’t like writing reviews unless the read was excruciatingly horrible or what I read I know to be blatant lies. Even then, I tend to keep it to myself. I do like to read reviews to see how my thoughts compared to others, but I don’t want to influence someone one way or another. I realize social norms are constantly changing, but reading some reviews, I swear, there are a lot of people who have no idea what the world was like before 1990 (or pick a date not so far into the past). I hate it when books get bad reviews because people don’t understand the times in which they were written or when the story takes place. Wow, am I writing a book here? Sorry.
I find that interesting that you like to read other’s opinions of a book, but feel you might be influencing someone if you write your own.
It is very true that society has changed so much in the last few decades that what once might have made perfect sense in a book (considering the times in which it was written) now might seem very controversial or even frowned upon. Maybe that is when a review is even more important, as a way of reminding readers of the times the book was written in, to be aware that they might need to park their “political correctness” at the door, so to speak.
Thanks for writing a book! 🙂