During 2015 I didn't read enough. I briefly talked about this in my last blog post, but since I wrote that post I've been thinking a lot about books. I really want 2016 to be full of new ideas, new stories, and lots and lots of reading. For me personally, one of the best ways to motivate myself to do something is to make it into a challenge or competition. For whatever reason, I really hate failing challenges; so if I publicly commit to a reading challenge then I think there's a good probability that I'll complete it, or at least do my very best to try. 

I've seen people talk about GoodRead's book challenges on twitter and other social platforms, so I thought that during 2016 I'd get involved involved. I'm going to rather bravely set my challenge at 50 books, which works out at roughly one per week. And I accept that as a result of opting for a relatively high challenge number I'm probably going to opt for short or medium length books, rather than the massive tomes that I normally prefer reading. I'm 100% okay with this, in this instance I think that aiming for quantity and variety will do me some good, and hopefully kickstart some long-term reading habits.

I'm going to be reading fiction, non-fiction and graphic novels, and I'm going to try and put together at least one blog post about each of the books that I read. I guess that's the real point of this challenge. I don't just want to read more often, I actually want reading to play a part in thinking more actively and feeling more confident about expressing my opinions about other people's stories and ideas. Therefore, I can pick up a new book every week and find the time to think creatively or critically about that book then I'll consider this whole enterprise a great success. 

If you're interested in reading about books then I warmly encourage you to subscribe to my blog, or if you're attempting a similar undertaking then please do leave me a comment and we can talk more about this daunting personal challenge!