A challenge of relative ease and merriment 2018 discussion

Third year running. Some of you are oldies, some will be newbies. So time to introduce ourselves once again!

Tell us a bit about yourself. Were you a part of the 2017 challenge? How did that go for you?
What do you like to read? Is there something you hate to read?
Which category this year do you look most forward to, and which scares you a little bit?

Hi, I'm Rebecka and I'm from Sweden. I like to read both fiction and non-fiction, in fact I enjoy most genres and tend to read quite broadly. I don't really have a genre that I hate to read, I hate to read boring books or books that aren't well-written though.

I participated in the 2017 challenge, which is the second book challenge I have ever done. (My first book challenge was to only read female authors for an entire year). I enjoyed the challenge and finished it on time. I'm excited to be a part of 2018 year's challenge :) I look forward to reading a book with mythological creatures, and I find reading a how-to book to be a bit scary ;)

Hello, everyone! I've been in the 2016 and 2017 challenges, but I was very quiet this year, because I finished in March, and I felt like it would be braggy to talk about it when other people hadn't finished. I actually had an amazing reading year overall! I think I read more books than I ever have (excluding my picture-book years), and following recommendations from trusted reviewers on YouTube has helped steer me to some really amazing stuff. And the year is not even over! I'm very optimistic for 2018 reading. ^_^


I love to read literary fiction, sci-fi, horror, basically anything with some disturbing element, and memoirs about unique situations. . . I hate reading chick lit and a lot of modern YA (though there are some gems out there).


I am actually looking forward to all of the categories, because I see things in my TBR that match them all! First book in a series is a category that doesn't thrill me as much, because I don't like to sign on for a series, but I do have some books on my TBR that are potentially stand-alone firsts in a series. I don't usually read a lot of books with traditional mythological creatures, so that's slightly concerning, but I'm sure I can come up with something. (I have a couple possibilities written down, but they are a little ambitious, like Dune!)


I'd love suggestions on a book with a main character who has a disability! That's one I can't think of ideas for right away, but I'm sure there are tons that I want to read and just haven't remembered the main character's disability yet.

Hi Laura, it wouldn't have been braggy at all to participate actively despite having finished in March! I hope that you will feel comfortable to participate in discussions more in 2018 even if you finish very early :) Do you participate in several book challenges per year?

I actually googled suggestions for a book with a main character who has a disability, and I found quite a few interesting options. I settled on The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon because it seemed interesting and I can find it at my library. I did find an anthology written by children with disabilities (different disabilities) that I want to read, so I have put it on my to buy list. (I am only allowed to buy a few books a year because I cannot be trusted with money in a bookshop or online bookshop, I have been known to order 20 books in one go.)

Haha--I just felt really weird announcing I was done! I'll try to get over that this year so I don't seem like such a lurking stranger. ^_^ This is the only real challenge I do, other than my general reading goal. . . I like to keep it pretty loose and mood-read a lot!

I loved The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time!! I'm sure you will like it; it's one of my favorites. ^_^

Oh yay, now I am even more excited to read it :)

Hello!!!

I was here for '17, did a little over half the books before it was time to move on to just reading what I most wanted to read... Hoping to do a bit more this year, but we'll see.

Category I most look forward to... "First book in an existing series" must be up there, since I just ordered a book that's the first of two out so far. I hope I like it enough to finish!
I've also got a very handsome stack of TBRs whose authors are people of color, so that should be super easy/fun.
& I've already spotted a very yellow cover on my shelves...
...my super super gay shelves (that'll be easy, too.)
Also, "a book you’ve meant to read for more than year" is probably the majority of my library.
But the top spot for me has to be book out in 2018--I'm SO looking forward to reading the sequel to the book I had for "out this year" last year!

Categories I'll prolly skip... I may have trouble finding books for... Let's see...I don't think I have any how-to books (even keeping in mind how flexible the definition is here) and retelling of a classic made me laugh b/c I'm reading one right now & I think it's the only one I've got, lol! At least I can rec it probably?
& I have no idea how many of the books I've got but not read have important characters with disabilities...b/c I haven't read them yet.

I may have a kids book...Amazon says it's for 9 - 12; is that more MG than kids or YA tho? Or are we counting MG as "kids"? I know I have some Middle Grades, but I fear I may be clean out of kids and YAs...unless they do another Star Wars YA this year w/ an author I like. That feels likely enough. (I'm trying to keep my book buying to (a very few) auto-buy authors and subjects... & while I'd like to do more library-ing magic eight ball says...outlook not so good.)

First-timer here! I look forward to the challenge, as it seems like a fun way to choose what to read!

Hi Olive and Kristina! :)

Hi everyone! I am a returning reader from 2017. I had lots of fun reading books outside my normal comfort zone. Not that I would continue along those same genres but you never know what jewels you might run into when you mosey down a new shelf.

I look forward to the new challenges and hopefully it wont take me all year to complete it. But then again I dont like to rush through - I know I will deviate when I need a break - or to clear my palette as I like to say.

Hello all, another returning reader from 2017 here. I peaked at 18 out of 20, so am hoping to finish this year's challenge.

I love sci-fi and true crime. Looking forward to the book set in the future. Not at all sure about the how-to or the yellow cover, although looking through this year's reads, I noticed a lot of yellow covers (hopefully I didn't read them all already!).

Hello! I'm Pernilla, I live in Sweden and took part in the two previous challenges, although I didn't finish either of them. Sometimes I use books as self-medication/escapism, and then I just go with what pulls me the strongest at the time, which might be things that don't fall into any of the unfulfilled challenge categories. I mostly read fantastical fiction (fantasy, sci-fi, paranormal), some historicals, and very little crime. I hardly ever read contemporary fiction, and hardly ever Swedish books, for some reason. Horror is something I stay well away from! I do read some non-fiction, mostly if it's something that pertains to my hobbies and interests (historical costume, textile crafts, that sort of thing). YA often tends to annoy me, probably because I'm well past that age, ha ha. It will be interesting to see how many of the categories I manage to fulfil for 2018!

Welcome everyone!

I guess I should introduce myself too. I'm Pocki, or Rebecka, I started this whole thing in 2016. I'm Swedish, I'm 30, I'm queer, I'm a nerd, I like bones and jellyfish... yeah there you have it XD

I obviously took part in the 2017 challenge, and I managed to finish juuuuuust in time (as in I had about 90 minutes to spare until the year ended. Or ends rather. There's still time left).

My taste in books vary but I like some serious escapism. Contemporary makes that hard. But at the same time I love non-fiction. As for the categories this year... I'm pretty excited for a book about death! And the hardest thing for me will just be to read enough books. I've been in such a slump for most of 2017, but hopefully I can find another job that will make me less tired in the evenings so I can actually read. However, I have been drawn back into fanfiction (both reading and writing) which means that my literary time so to speak won't be 100% books anymore.

Hi everyone,

This is my first time doing anything like this. I was invited by Elizabeth who is part of this challenge/group. I've only ever done the Goodreads challenges of number of books read in a year. It's December 31st and I just finished my goal of reading 50 books this year with a few hours to spare!

My reading is all over the place. Sometimes I am reading for work, sometimes I am reading to review books I've picked up for my many nieces and nephews, and sometimes I even read things I want to read!

I hope I am not a huge disappointment in this challenge!

Hello - another newbie here, I got roped into this by Pocki. :) I've been trying to read 100 books a year for a long time, but last year I utterly failed with not even 60, so I hope that this will give my reading a bit of a boost.

I miss being a real bookworm, and I already made a list with book ideas for all the categories, adding the additional challenge that they have to be by different authors and can't be re-reads. That's something I love doing - I have a huge stack of unread books, but quite often I just go back to old favourites.

I read almost exclusively in English - a lot of fantasy, historical non-fiction, cozy mysteries and the occasional romance (usually m/m). Oh, and my name's Evamaria, I'm turning 37 this Friday and live in Switzerland. :)

Hi all.
I'm Thomas from Sweden and I am 31 years young and work as a care assistant. I am a huge nerd in almost every way :)
I did the 2017 challenge and I am really looking forward to this one. Most of my reads last year were graphic novels and audio books. I'm hoping to get a bit more of "real" text on paper books done this year, but I won't promise myself something I won't keep :)

I mostly read stuff in English with the occationally Swedish work strewn in.

My reading goals for this year, apart from the challenge, is to finish stuff I've started and to read more big, classic graphic novels.

Last year I got a lot of reading done at work. Lately I have been substituting that for Netflix. A flithy habit I must try to kick as soon as possible...

Hello, so nice to read everybody's presentations, feels like here I find people with the same interests and book preferences as me. My name is Diana, 26 years pls, from Sweden. It is my first year here. I have partially done the goodreads reading challanges.
I try to keep myself from New year's resolutions so I don't promise myself to complete this one too. I love to read but I love also Netflix with it's library of Tv-series so my goal is to avoid Netflix and read more instead. I have a pile of books on my reading list, most of them are even books mentioned in the reading challange here. I hope too go get good discussion here in the group, some book ideas and inspiration that will make me more motivated to read than watch Netflix.

And some of my taste: I read mostly fantasy, some sci-fi and sometimes when I am tired of that I read non-fiction. I like YA not all but e.g. Sarah Maas is nice. I usually read while I commute to work or before bed time. When I don't have the possibility to hold in my Kindle but still want to read and do something in parallell, I listen to audiobooks.

I hope for a pleasant new reading year and looking forward for some new inspiration and good discussions from you guys. Have a happy new year and good luck with the reading!

Diana wrote: "I like YA not all but e.g. Sarah Maas is nice..."

Hiii :)
I'm rather happy to hear you say that; I too have trouble finding much YA to like, but I've heard some high praise from places where the reviewers often share my taste, so I thought I'd give her Court of Thorns and Roses series a go this year...

Hello, I'm Debbie and a newbie. I'm friends with Elizabeth and Jeff, above, and live in the U.S.

I love reading romance, graphic fiction and non-fiction of all genres, fantasy, science fiction, and historical fiction. I read less non-fiction, but enjoy memoirs/biographies, history, religion, science, and feminist/women's studies. I hate reading literary fiction and horror (I get scared/grossed out easily!).

I read a LOT of books in 2017, but looking back, most of them were picture books, graphic novels, and romances, so I'm looking forward to branching out with all the different challenges!

Hi, I'm Jill. I started this last year and totally petered out early on. Maybe this year will be the year I complete a book challenge. I'm from the U.S.

I read a lot of fiction. Mostly adult fiction, but some YA. I'm a children's librarian, so I also read A LOT of picture books. One of my personal goals this year is to do more audiobook listening on my commutes, so I'm hoping to blend that goal with this challenge!

Hola, I'm Bunny. I did the challenge last year and aaaaallllllmost lapped myself - curse those books written before 1900. :P I'm in California, I'm 37 years old (how. how did that happen.), I'm impulsive, ridiculous, and my Kindle (which goes everywhere with me) has a utterly fabulous cover that is 100% glittery turquoise. You're never too old for glitter.

This is one of two general challenges I'm doing this year & I've got a few sub-goals, particularly that I don't want to double up on any books I read for either challenge & that I can only use new reads and one book per author to fill challenge requirements.

I find myself less than thrilled about the inclusion of "children's book" on the list again this year because I tend to interpret that as "a picture book" and that feels like cheating on my overall Goodreads challenge but somehow I will survive (/melodrama). I tend to read primarily urban fantasy and YA but there's always a healthy sprinkling of science fiction, nonfiction, romance, and mysteries sprinkled in there. I surprised myself by reading a bunch of graphic novels last year and I'm hoping this year has a similar sort of surprise in store for me.

Last year I read in fits and starts with the bulk of my reading happening in the colder months. I'd really like to balance that out a bit more and read at minimum 8 books a month.

Anyway, I'm excited to see what everyone gets up to this year! Happy reading!

Hello! I'm from the US, and I just heard about this challenge from a friend. I like to read many genres - mostly sci-fi and fantasy, but I also enjoy mysteries and biography/memoir. But there's something
enjoyable in almost every category, and it can usually be found by trusting recommendations from friends. Or complete and utter chance! LOL!

Glancing through the categories, I think that I've satisfied most of them already this year. If that is the case, then my plan is to try for a second read in every category. Reading challenges like this can help me decide what to read next when it is hard for me to decide. Let's me look at my vast TBR with new eyes.

Happy to be here!