A Calendar of Reading Challenges

Reading doesn’t have to be a solitary experience. Throughout the year there are many events, readathons and initiatives that readers can take part in. For brevity’s sake, I chose the word challenges for the title. I don’t tend to get involved in many of them, mainly because I only remember about their existence too close to the time that they are about to start and at that point I’ve either already chosen to read other books or I don’t have the appropriate ones on my shelves.

In order to help me remember about some of the “challenges” that I may be interested in taking part in the future and that I’ve seen many people talking about in recent years, I decided to list them on a post. Hopefully, other readers will find this list helpful as well.

 

March

Reading Ireland Month

March is the month to embrace not only literature from Ireland, but also its culture in general. Hosted by Cathy at 746 Books and Niall at The Fluff is Raging, it’s the perfect opportunity to explore the books, music, films and so on that Ireland has to offer.

 

Dewithon – Wales Readathon

Hosted by Paula who runs the blog Book Jotter, Dewithon is a month-long event destined for reading and reviewing books written by authors from Wales, regardless if they were originally written in English or in Welsh. It starts on Saint David’s day, the 1st of March. I’ve never taken part in the Dewithon, but I hope to change that next year.

 

May

Daphne du Maurier Reading Week

I’ve taken part in the Daphne du Maurier Reading Week in the latest years. Hosted by Ali, it takes place during the week of Daphne du Maurier’s birthday, the 13th of May. You can read as many books as you want and share your reviews using the hashtag #DDMreadingweek.

 

June 

20 Books of Summer

During 20 Books of Summer, hosted by Cathy at 746 Books, those who decide to take part are challenged to reduce their TBR piles by reading, as the name suggests, 20 books during the three months of summer. There are also the options to read only 10 or 15 books. This year, it’s running from the 1st of June to the 1st of September and you can follow the journey of those participating via the hashtag #20BooksofSummer21.

 

July

Spanish Lit Month (+ Portuguese)

Since 2012, Stu from Winstonsdad’s blog has been hosting Spanish Lit Month and, a couple of years ago, the Portuguese language was added to the mix. This is a great opportunity to read a variety of books originally written in Spanish and in Portuguese throughout July.

I have to admit that I was a bit confused when I first heard about this initiative, thanks to a difference in vocabulary. In Portugal, when we talk about Portuguese literature, we are most often than not referring to books written by Portuguese authors. When we want to talk about literature originally written in Portuguese, regardless of the author’s nationality, we call it Lusophone (“lusófona”), a word that doesn’t seem to be commonly used in English. The same applies to literature written in Spanish, which we tend to call Hispanic.

 

August

Women in Translation Month

Started by Meytal Radzinski to promote literature from around the world written by women, this initiative has been adopted not only by readers, bloggers and youtubers, but also by bookshops. You can read books translated into English or across different languages. If you are interested in taking part just use the hashtag #WITMonth.

 

October

Victober

As the name suggests, Victober is a month-long readathon dedicated to Victorian literature, that is to books written by British and Irish authors between 1837 and 1901. It is hosted by Katie from Books and Things, Kate from Kate Howe, Lucy from Lucy the Reader and Ange from Beyond the Pages on YouTube. You can take part in the readathon using the hashtag #Victober.

 

November

Margaret Atwood Reading Month

Hosted by Buried in Print and Consumed by Ink, Margaret Atwood Reading Month takes place throughout November, in order to celebrate the Canadian’s author birthday on the 18th. If you want to take part, don’t forget to use the hashtag #MARM.

 

Non-fiction November

Non-fiction November was started to encourage readers to pick up more non-fiction books than they usually do. As someone who hardly ever reads non-fiction nowadays, I should take part in it more often. This is a well-known reading initiative, but I couldn’t unearth who started it.

 

German Literature Month

For those who want to read more German literature, November is a good month. Lizzy and Caroline are the hosts of #germanlitmonth and I think that they usually set a reading plan, though there is no need to follow it. It is possible to just read anything originally written in German, be it fiction, non-fiction, poetry, plays, graphic novels, etc.

 

Do you usually take part in reading challenges? What are your favourites? Tell me in the comments!

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