MMD Reading Challenge

A new year means a new reading challenge!

And the blog behind one of my favorite podcasts, What Should I Read Next?, has the perfect list to tackle. It's short and simple. Twelve categories (so you could say one per month), with good variety (to ensure you push yourself in your reading habits).

I first heard of the Modern Mrs. Darcy Reading Challenge back in 2016 from my dear friend and fellow reader, Erica. However, I didn't actually complete the challenge until last year (and MMD had TWO lists, so I felt pretty accomplished to finish both).

Because of the 2017 MMD Reading Challenge, I ...

• Finally Little Women (it was a book that was more than 600 pages). While I have seem the movies plenty of times, and have read the sequel Little Men more than I can count, I realized that I never actually finished Little Women after I once tried to read it when I was around 8 years old. I only got through Book 1 and never came back to it. Well, finally did in 2017!
• Got through a few series I had bought, but either not finished or never even started (to meet "three books by the same author"): The Rebel Belle series by Rachel Hawkins, The Finishing School series by Gail Carriger, Mark of a Thief series by Jennifer A. Neilsen.
• Discovered that having an unreliable narrator can make for the most compelling story with The One Memory of Flora Banks by Emily Barr and Still Life with Tornado by A.S. King.
• Read a lot more nonfiction that I think I ever have (outside of assigned reading for school), since that fit "A book in a genre you usually avoid." My favorites: Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson and The Queen of Katwe by Tim Crothers.
• Got to feel free to judge a book by its cover, since one of the challenge bullets was, "A book you chose for the cover," and I instantly fell in love with When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon.
• Learned about We Need Diverse Books, when I fell upon their short story collection Flying Lessons and other stories, while looking for a book by an #ownvoices or #diversebooks author. And subsequently also found and loved The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. 

And so much more!

I am excited to see what new books the 2018 Reading Challenge will bring into more world! 

Check out more about the Reading Challenge here.

A friend asked me, "What are the rules? Can a books fall into more than one category?" And my answer was, "No rules! And of course!" These challenges are what you choose to make of them. And in my opinion, the only real goal is to encourage a more meaningful reading life!

Even though I know I will read more than 12 books this year, and I will read many books that will fall into a category over and over again, it's still a lot of fun to begin making lists of books I plan to read to fit into this challenge. 

Like, I need to finally read Jane Erye because it is a classic I've been meaning to read AND it is over 500 pages! I bought at least one book from each of the countries I went to this past summer, and so once I sit down to finally read those, there will be my book(s) in translation! 

I just got a LOVELY set of Anne of Green Gables and Emily of New Moon novels that would definitely check off a book by a favorite author. As would Heartless and Renegades by Marissa Meyer (if you have never heard of, or never read, her Lunar Chronicle series, please go find them now)! 

I could keep going, but you get the point! 

And to top it off, you get to download this excellent image from one my favorite Etsy shop and online friend, Carrot Top Paper Shop.  

Jenny's art is so sweet! I love everything in her shop! 

I hope you join me in doing this!

Happy Reading!