New year, new reading challenges!

As you may recall, in 2018 I joined Nick Singer’s Les Misérables Read-Along Challenge. I successfully completed the book yesterday by reading a chapter a day, and it feels good to know that I’ve finally conquered the full and unabridged version of this story. Long-distance high-five through space and time to my high school self; we did it!

This year it’s time for something a little different: the 2019 Chapter-A-Day Reading Challenge is going to focus on reading four different books which total 365 chapters. The four books will be:

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Lilith by George MacDonald
The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

I’m not sure whether I will join the group for all four titles, but I’m definitely up for reading Don Quixote, as I had already added it to my reading list for 2019 when the challenge was announced. This will be a great way to get one of my big classics out of the way, along with a supportive group of readers going chapter by chapter.

In addition to reading Don Quixote, I’ve also decided to participate in the War and Peace Read Along hosted on Instagram by Jamie (@jsg402) and Steve (@bookstagramsteve). This challenge is about reading the entire book in three months (January through March), so I still have to work out my reading schedule for this one, but it should be exciting to tackle another big book with a reading group.

Unlikeable Female Characters Book Club: January selection

And finally, I am starting a little book club of my own! I’ve been obsessed with the Unlikeable Female Characters podcast since it started up, and I put in a bunch of hold requests at my local library for books they recommended on the show. The first one that came in was Tara Isabella Burton’s Social Creature, which I tore through in the final days of 2018, and which I am now dying to discuss in a group without having to label everything with a spoiler.

So, if you are also obsessed with this show – or its focus on “unlikeable” female characters, particularly in thrillers written by women – then I would encourage you to join my new Facebook group so that we can discuss a new books there once a month, using the podcast discussions as a starting point for some discussions of our own.

January’s pick will be Social Creature, and for February I would like to read Amy Gentry’s Last Woman Standing, which will be released on January 15th.