I really love reading challenges because of the way it stretches your reading comfort zone, but I've always sucked at actually completing them.
In 2015, over at Goodreads, we kicked off our most outrageous challenge ever, borrowing The Beatles Reading Challenge from another group I was a part of, which had turned their songs into reading tasks. And 2016, we whipped up The REM Reading Challenge. (I really sucked at this one. I couldn't even complete one album, but man was it fun trying!). And then to honor David Bowie's passing, in 2017, we pulled together The Bowie Reading Challenge! This past year I decided to take a break from our music theme and challenged everyone to read whatever the fuck they wanted in our RWTFYW challenge. The only rule was that there were no rules : )
(by the way, even those these challenges were kicked off in specific year, you can totally create your challenge for any of them any time you wish!)
I mean, there's just something about reading challenges right??? and so..... because I am glutton for punishment, here we are again!
For 2019, I decided to return to the music theme. And I chose Guster!! I'm late discovering this band. I first heard their song Satellite on Pandora about two years ago and fell in love hard. Since then, I've seen them in concert twice (going back to see them again in January!) and after listening to most of their songs, I realized their lyrics and song titles would pair really well with reading tasks. So.. here we are!
Whether you know and love Guster, or this is the first time you are hearing of them, what I think is most cool about these kinds of reading challenges... is that you don't even have to be a fan of the bands to participate. You just have to be a fan of READING!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(follow the link to create yours!)
So here's how this works:
*The goal is to cross off as many Guster songs as you can throughout the course of 2019.
You can challenge yourself to complete one entire album, focus on completing one decades-worth of albums, or build your own challenge by hitting your favorite song titles... it's totally up to you!
*You cross off the songs by reading a book that meets the criteria listed after each song title.
If the book meets multiple reading tasks, cool! You can apply it to multiple song titles, OR you can make the reading challenge more challenging by limiting yourself to one song title per book.
*There is a built in redundancy with some of the tasks.
They are repetitive on purpose, to give you an opportunity to read more than one type of book and still get credit for completing a task. (Sneaky, I know!)
*You can copy and paste the entire list, or your customized challenge list, into your own thread in this goodreads folder and strike through the song titles as you complete them, OR, you can simply copy and paste each song title and its criteria from the master list here as you complete it. (obviously put your name in the thread title so we know whose challenge it is).
*Do not add your list directly to the thread.
*YOU MUST LIST THE BOOK TITLE AND AUTHOR that coincides with the song as you complete it for the challenge so we know what you read!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
An example of a completed song title task in your Challenge thread would look like this:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Aaaaannnnnnnddddddd here's the list,
broken down by album, in the order of their release:
Parachute (1995)
“Fall in Two” – Read a book with a number in the title
“Mona Lisa” – Read a book about art or that features art
“Love for Me” – Read a love story
“Window” – Read a book with an inanimate object in the
title
“Eden” – Read a book about temptation
“Scars & Stitches” – Read a used book, the more
banged up the better
“The Prize” – Read a book about someone who’s lost
themselves
“Dissolve” – Read a book and take credit here if it
didn’t leave a lasting impression
“Cocoon” – Read a book while you’re wrapped up in a
blanket, or under the sheets in bed
“Happy Frappy” – Read a book that takes place near or on
a river
“Parachute” – Take the plunge and read a book in a genre
you don’t normally read
Goldfly (1997)
“Great Escape” – Read a book while you’re on a road trip,
or in which a portion of the book takes place in a car
“Demons” – Read a book that features an evil entity or
someone with evil intent
“Perfect” – Read a book about drugs and drug use
“Airport Song” – Read a book that you picked up at an
airport, or that features an airplane/airport
“Medicine” – Take a sick day and read a book
“X-Ray Eyes” – Read a song about a superhero or someone
with strange powers
“Grin” – Read a book that makes you feel good
“Getting Even” – Read a book about revenge
“Bury Me” – Read a book in which a character dies
“Rocketship” – Read a book that takes place in outer
space
Lost and Gone Forever (1999)
“What You Wish For” – Read a book that was on your
wishlist
“Barrel of a Gun” – Read a book written by or featuring a
movie star
“Either Way” – Read a book you’ve been on the fence about
“Fa Fa” – Read a book that features a made – up language
or dialect
“I Spy” – Read a book from your TBR pile that is on one
of your friend’s bookshelves
“Center of Attention” – Read a book written in first
person
“All the Way Up to Heaven” – Read a book in your coziest,
most favorite reading spot
“Happier” – Read whatever the fuck you want and take
credit for it here
“So Long” – Read a book with more than 400 pages
“Two Points for Honesty” – Read a book that someone
recommends to you and then tell them what you honestly thought of it
“Rainy Day” – Read a book on a rainy day
Keep It Together (2003)
“Diane” – Read a book with a female protag
“Careful” – Read a book that you borrowed from someone (and
had to return in pristine condition)
“Amsterdam” – Read a book set in a different country
“Backyard” – Read a book written by an author from your
hometown/city/state
“Homecoming King” – Read a book about high school or a
book that features teenagers
“Ramona” – Read a book written by someone who identifies
as female
“Jesus on the Radio” – Listen to a bookish podcast or an
audiobook
“Keep it Together” – Read a book that keeps freaking you
right the fuck out
“Come Downstairs and Say Hello” – Read a book while at,
or hiding from, a family gathering
“Red Oyster Cult” – Read a book that features a mother or
focuses on the character’s relationship with their mother
“Long Way Down” – Read a book written in third person
“I Hope Tomorrow is Like Today” – Read a book that takes
place in the future
“Untitled Hidden Track” – Read a book that you uncovered
accidentally
“Two at a Time” – Read a book written by two authors
“Say That to My Face” – Read a book someone would
classify as a “guilty pleasure”
“Starless Heaven” – Read a book at the beach
“Days” – Read a book that takes place over the span of
just a few days
Ganging Up on the Sun (2006)
“Lightning Rod” – Read a Cli-Fi book (a book that
features climate change or strange weather)
“Satellite” – Read a book that takes place primarily at
night
“Manifest Destiny” – Read a book that someone randomly
selects for you off your bookshelf
“One Man Wrecking Machine” – Read a Sci-Fi book (extra
points if it features time travel)
“The Captain” – Read a book that takes place on the ocean
or on a ship/boat
“The New Underground” – Read a book that takes place in a
dystopian setting/time, or features a cult
“Ruby Falls” – Read a book with a color in the title
“C’mon” – Read a book that didn’t sit well with you
“Empire State” – Read a book that takes place in NYC or
is written by an author who calls NYC home
“Dear Valentine” – Read a book that takes place on or
around a holiday
“The Beginning of the End” – Read a book about the end of
the world
“Hang On” – Read a book that’s about another book, or is
written as a book in a book
Satellite EP (2007)
“G Major” – Read a book about music or that features a
band or musician
“Rise & Shine” – Spend the morning reading a book and
take credit here
“Timothy Leary” – Read a book with a man’s name in the
title
“I’m Through” – If you’re reading a book that you’re just
not into, DNF it and take credit here
Easy Wonderful (2010)
“Architects & Engineers” – Read a book that takes
place in a city
“Do You Love Me” – Read a book by your favorite author
“On the Ocean” – Read a book that is dark and
foreshadowing
“This Could All Be Yours” – Read a self-help or
motivational book
“Stay with Me Jesus” – Read a book that features religion
or is about a religious conspiracy
“Bad Bad World” – Read a book in which the title contains
the same word twice
“This is How it Feels to Have a Broken Heart” – Read a
book that takes place during a war or features a character who has served in a
war
“What You Call Love” – Read a book in your favorite genre
“That’s No Way to Get into Heaven” – Read a book in which
the main character(s) does something wicked
“Jesus and Mary” – Read a book that features angels or a
rapture/biblical end times
“Hercules” – Read a book about a mythological character
“Do What You Want” – Read whatever floats your boat and
take credit for it here
“Well” – Read a book that takes you down a weird, trippy
rabbit hole
“Jonah” – Read a book that features a giant fish or whale
“Lost at Sea” – Read a book and if it made it absolutely
no sense to you, take credit here
On the Ocean EP (2011)
“Big White Bed” – Read a book in bed, and only in bed
“Every Moment” – Read a book that you just can’t put
down/stop thinking about
Evermotion (2015)
“Long Night” – Read a book that kept you up all night
“Endlessly” – Read a book and take credit for it here if
it felt like it was never going to end
“Doin’ it By Myself” – Read a book in which the protag is
a hermit/antisocial/lonely
“Lazy Love” – Read a book instead of doing anything else
and take credit for your procrastination here
“Simple Machine” – Read a digital book
“Expectation” – Read a book and if it didn’t meet your
expectations, take credit here
“Gangway” – Read a book with just one word in the title
“Kid Dreams” – Read a book that features a child protagonist
“Never Coming Down” – Read a book that’s set in the 70’s
“It is Just What it is” – Read a book that’s pretty
straightforward
“Farewell” – Read the last book written by an author
Look Alive (2019)
“Look Alive” – Read a book about zombies or dead people
“Don’t Go” – Read a book and if it made you wish it had
never ended, take credit for it here
“Hard Times” – Read a book you borrowed from the library
“Hello Mr Sun” – Go outside, sit in the sun, and read a
book, then take credit for it here
“Overexcited” – Read a book you could not wait to get
your hands on
“Summertime” – Read a book that takes place in the summer
“Terrified” – Read a horror book
“Mind Kontrol” – Give into the hype and read a book that
everyone else is talking about
“Not for Nothing” – Read a book that you know is going to
piss you off
“When You Go Quiet” – Read a book that you get totally,
100% absorbed in and take credit for it here
Good luck! And feel free to have some conversation in the comments section here to let us know how you are making out!!
Good luck! And feel free to have some conversation in the comments section here to let us know how you are making out!!
No comments:
Post a Comment