Book Riot Read Harder | 2018 Challenge

I absolutely love a good readathon or year long reading challenge, and in the past I have given the Book Riot Read Harder challenge a cursory go. In previous years I have struggled completing many of the challenges, and have quickly lost energy and motivation. I often found that I was trying to complete the challenges for the sake of it, and not because I actually enjoyed reading the books that fit. I looked at the 2018 list at the beginning of January and just felt that this year it was more manageable, and so I set about attempting to do what I have always failed to do before, and ‘read harder’.

The Book Riot Read Harder Challenge is a series of 24 challenges, none of which can be substituted, that are designed to encourage variety and divserity in the books that we read. The aim is that reading for all of the challenges will expand your reading horizons and introduce you to new mediums, characters, and genres. There is a great Goodreads group (found here) that has a community dedicated to suggesting reads and supporting one another, so take a look if you’re giving the reading challenge a go! As I complete the challenges throughout 2018, I plan to cross the challenge out and list the book read for that challenge below. Here are the challenges:

1. A book published posthumously
2. A book of true crime
3. A classic of genre fiction
4. A comic written and illustrated by the same person
5. A book set in or about a BRIC country
6. A book about nature
   • Life of Air: Memoirs of a Broadcaster Sir David Attenborough
7. A western
8. A come written or illustrated by a person of colour
9. A book of colonial or post colonial literature
10. A romance novel by or about a person of colour
    • The Wedding Date Jasmine Guillory
11. A children’s classic published before 1980
    • Anne of Green Gables Lucy Maud Montgomery
12. A celebrity memoir
    • Six Machine: I Don’t Like Cricket…I Love It Chris Gayle
13. A Oprah Book Club selection
14. A book of social science
    • Sapiens Yuval Noah Harari
15. A one-sitting book
    • Fantastic Mr. Fox Roald Dahl
16. The first book in a new to you YA or Middle Grade series
    • The Selection Kiera Cass
17. A Sci-Fi book with a female protagonist written by a female author
    • The Loneliest Girl in the Universe Lauren James
18. A comic that isn’t published by DC, Marvel, or Image
19. A book of genre fiction in translation
20. A book with a cover you hate
    • The Protector Jodi Ellen Malpas
21. A mystery by a person of colour or LGBTQ+ author
22. An essay anthology
23. A book with a female protagonist over 60
    • Elizabeth is Missing Emma Healey
24. An assigned book you hated (or never finished)

Are you taking part this year? If so, what are you reading for each challenge?

Any support and suggestions appreciated!