Bookish Challenges discussion

Hi! Please introduce yourself here :)
Tell us a bit about the genres you like and why you're reading!

About me - I'm Fiona, 27 and from Germany. My favorite genres are romance and cozy mysteries and I'm reading for fun - I especially love challenges.
This is why I decided to create this group. I have so many challenge ideas and want to share them with others :)

Hi! I am Nistha, also 27 and currently living in London. I am originally from India but have been moving a lot throughout my life. Though the genres I tend to lean to are romance, thrillers and historical fiction, I generally like books where I don't have to keep checking how many pages are left haha!

Challenges motivate me to take up reading which I might not take up and a little badges give me a sense of accomplishment. I used to read a lot when I was in school, but then I switched to TV series. I started reading again and re-discovered how much I love to read and what I was missing out.

This sounds a lot like me haha

I love India btw :)

Hi! I'm Aya from Indonesia. My favorite genres are mystery, thriller, and middle grade.

I like that the group has a flexibility about the minimum pages and the type of books we can read, so I think it's a good start to read my piles of short books!

Hi Aya, happy to see you joining the group!

Often enough I found myself wanting to read a book for a challenge but it just didn’t gave enough pages. And I know that a lot of people like graphic novels and mangas and I don’t want to make an extra rule about them. A book is a book.

Yeah. It's been a while since the last time I read graphic novels, so maybe I'll read more, having the opportunity

Hi all, I am Kabrada from Germany and cannot stay away from challenges of all kinds. ;)

My favourite books at the moment are British police procedurals, but I am trying to diversify my reading a bit. Not too far though, as life is too short to read books that I do not enjoy or at least learn something from.
I love audio books and have been known to choose them by narrator.

Welcome to the group, Kabrada!

Hopefully the challenges can give you a little bit of both - being able to read more of your favorite books and reading books that differ from your normal reading taste.

Hi everyone! I'm Anna and my reading is very sporadic! I am currently in a reading zone, after many months of not really feeling it. My favorite genres are crime, mystery, thriller etc. but I will try anything and I always like to try to read some of the literary prize shortlisted books if I can.

I'm very much looking forward to participating in the group and getting to know you all.

Hi Anna! Welcome to the group :) I'm glad you found us and I hope you'll have a lot of fun with the challenges!

Hi, I am Rachel (but go by RachelG. as there are typically other Rachel's around). I live in the U.S. near Seattle, Washington and am also 40 something. My favorite genres are cozy mystery, fantasy, memoirs and manga.

Thanks for inviting me to the group, Fiona! I am really looking forward to participating and getting to know you all!

Hi Rachel, welcome to the group! So good to see you here :) I hope you'll have fun with the challenges :)

Hey Rachel! Welcome to the group!

Hello, I'm Kylie, cats or catsalive, whichever is easiest to remember, & I live in Australia. Fiona sent me an invitation so I thought I'd pop over & see what was happening here.

I have a very busy challenge schedule but I'm always willing to try fitting one more in, so I'll sign up for a couple here & see how I get on. I suspect I'll be having a much busier year in 2024 & will find I've over-extended myself but it won't hurt to try.

My favourite genre is mystery, this includes crime, thriller & suspense as I just lump them all into one big, amorphous mass. I enjoy contemporary, fantasy (inc. pnr & uf - qv. mystery), historical lit, Regency romance, some scifi, a bit of non-fic occasionally. I'll give most things a try but I rarely enjoy horror or contemporary romance.

Welcome to the group, cats :)

Very happy to see you here giving it a shot! And don't worry, this group is pressure free and just for fun :)

Catsalive wrote: "Hello, I'm Kylie, cats or catsalive, whichever is easiest to remember, & I live in Australia. Fiona sent me an invitation so I thought I'd pop over & see what was happening here.

I have a very bus..."

Welcome!

Hi I'm Jasmine

I'm in a couple of challenge groups with Catsalive and saw she'd joined on here so looked out of interest. I have also most probably over stretched myself for 2024 already but love book challenges so would like to join in.
I love historical fiction, thrillers, crime, mystery and have just gotten into fantasy with the retelling of fairytales. I enjoy audiobooks as i find these fit with my family lifestyle better as i have a 4 year old whom i'm home educating. I love country and folk music as well a binge watching tv series (currently enjoying Reacher and the Night Shift on Prime). Also a Rotarian and love volunteering in my community and a active litter picker!!
Hoping to make new bookish friends xx

Welcome to the group, Jasmine!
I always love to see new people joining the group. I hope you’ll find some nice challenges for you here :)

Welcome Jasmine! It looks like you have a busy life!

Jasmine's wrote: "Hi I'm Jasmine

I'm in a couple of challenge groups with Catsalive and saw she'd joined on here so looked out of interest. I have also most probably over stretched myself for 2024 already but love ..."

You can squeeze in one more challenge 😃

Catsalive wrote: "Hello, I'm Kylie, cats or catsalive, whichever is easiest to remember, & I live in Australia. Fiona sent me an invitation so I thought I'd pop over & see what was happening here.

I have a very bus..."

Hi Cats!

Welcome to the group :-)

How do you keep your challenges organised? I would really love to participate more this year but often get overwhelmed with keeping on top of what I plan to read and what challenge it is for! Any advice or pointers would be greatly appreciated!

Jasmine's wrote: "Hi I'm Jasmine

I'm in a couple of challenge groups with Catsalive and saw she'd joined on here so looked out of interest. I have also most probably over stretched myself for 2024 already but love ..."

Hi Jasmine!

I'm watching Reacher too and absolutely love it! Have you read any of the Lee Child books?

Welcome to the group!

Anna's Reading Life wrote: "How do you keep your challenges organised?..."

Anna, I tend to read what I want & then find a way to fit them into my challenges. Sometimes I have to read specific books, particularly for team challenges, but mostly I read what I feel like.

Anna's Reading Life wrote: "I'm watching Reacher too and absolutely love it! Have you read any of the Lee Child books?..."

I'm not enjoying this Reacher as much as the first series, it doesn't seem as well done. I wish Neagley would speak more clearly, the actor doesn't enunciate which makes it hard to understand her - my partner has had to put subtitles on.

I've read them all except the most recent.

read all except most recent. love the series as Alan is a much better Reacher than TC, not sure what Lee was thinking there!! Looking forward to the next series xx

Hello all. I am Melissa from Florida. I am 40 something as well and have three boys (10, 8, and 4). I cannot seem to resist challenges and have probably overextended myself, but it cannot be helped. I enjoy reading psychological thrillers, supernatural fiction, historical fiction, romance, a little bit of everything really. I am currently doing a group challenge with Fiona and couldn't resist checking out this group.
I have only watched the first Reacher series and now will have to check out the next. With three kids at home I don't usually get to watch my own shows. I loved Lucifer too.

Hi Melissa, it's so good to see you! I hope you'll enjoy the challenges my silly little brain came up with :)
Lucifer was really good!

Welcome Melissa!!! I know what you mean about not getting what u want to watch i only get to watch my programs on my breaks at work normally. Looking forward to seeing what books you pick xx

Hello, I'm Jennifer. I love reading challenges (and in fact may have a problem...). My favorite genres are historical fiction and mystery, but I'll read pretty much anything. I look forward to participating in the challenges.

Hi Jennifer, welcome to the group :)
I know this challenge problem haha
It takes me about an hour to go through all the challenges and see if the book I just finished fits any of the tasks

Fiona wrote: "I know this challenge problem haha
It takes me about an hour to go through all the challenges and see if the book I just finished fits any of the tasks"

Glad I'm not alone :)

Hello! My name is Elena and it's nice to meet you all! I am Romanian, currently living in Switzerland. I enjoy reading, but for quite a few years I haven't read at all due to focusing on other things in life. I am getting back into it, and while I know I enjoy thrillers, psychology books and romance, I am also looking into other genres as I am sure there are others I will love, it's just I haven't read any representative books of them yet. I love the idea of the challenges, I am looking forward to sign up for at least one of them.

Very nice to meet you, Elena! Welcome to the group :)

Hello, I’m Meera from the US. I love to read and my comfort zone genres are mysteries, sci-fi, fantasy and now the occasional romance. But I also like to stretch myself with literary fiction, nonfiction and classics. So basically, I read everything! I don’t have a good track record with challenges but the challenges here look open-ended so maybe I’ll be ok! Thank you for the invite Fiona!

Hi Meera! Good to see you here :)
The challenges are usually all open-ended so no pressure to finish anything in a certain amount of time!

Happy moderating, Nistha & Elena. I hope it's fun for you both :0)

Thank you! Hope we can come up with some fun times for all

Hi! My name is Caroline, and I am from the US. I am 20, and I am in university for a computer science degree. I love reading, and I have since I was a child (I learned how to read when I was 4). My favorite genre is definitely high fantasy or epic fantasy. I love escaping to a new world, where my problems just seem so insignificant. I also enjoy the occasional romance, science fiction, or urban fantasy. Anything with a bit of whimsy!

I looked over the challenges in this group, and I just had to join! I really hope that being part of these challenges actually keeps me reading (since I am SO behind on my reading goal for this year... it's been a hard semester).

Hi Caroline, welcome to the group!
I hope you'll like the challenges we created and if the semester gets hard again - all of our challenges are go at your own pace :)

Caroline wrote: "My favorite genre is definitely high fantasy or epic fantasy. I love escaping to a new world, where my problems just seem so insignificant...."

I love to re-visit my epic high fantasies :0)

Caroline wrote: "Hi! My name is Caroline, and I am from the US. I am 20, and I am in university for a computer science degree. I love reading, and I have since I was a child (I learned how to read when I was 4). My..."

Welcome to the group Caroline! We hope our fun and easy challenges will encourage you to pick up some books that you would have otherwise not (for better or worse...) I get the escapism from books, one enters into a different world altogether.

Hi everyone! I am a returning group member :-)

I went through a bit of a slump in all parts of my life and just drifted off. Back now though and hoping to get back into the swing of things.

Welcome back, Anna :)

Hello everyone. I'm Natasha. I'm from New Jersey in the US. My favorite genres are fantasy, science fiction, history, science, physics, and historical fiction (1800s and earlier). I adore reading challenges and am signed up for too many, but I couldn't resist this group. I appreciate the go at your own pace challenges.

Welcome to the group, Natasha :)

Welcome to the group! Hope you find something interesting here :)

Hello everyone!
I was looking for a challenge group. I guess I found a good one 😉 I'm from Germany and I read almost every genre except erotic literature and romance. I think contemporary, historical (non-)fiction and sci-fi are my favorite genres.

Hi Runenmädchen :)
Nice to see a fellow German here!
Hope you will enjoy the challenges :)

Hi ! I am Laurence, 27 from Canada (Quebec).

I used to spend all my free time reading but I lost interest through university. I'm trying to reconnect with this old passion of mine and challenges are a way to motivate me!

My favorite genres are fiction, historical-fiction, non-fiction and classics but I’m interested in exploring some new genres.

Looking foward to sign up for my first challenge !

Hi Laurence, great to have you in the group!
I hope our challenges are fun for you :)