6 Ideas for Choosing Your New Years Reading Goal
It’s a New Year, and as you're making resolutions for 2022, it's time to set your reading goals for the upcoming months. Reading challenges are a fun way to push yourself to read things you might not otherwise gravitate towards, and to keep yourself reading throughout the year. This year, we challenge Pango readers to think outside the box with their reading challenges and get creative, not just strive to read a certain number of books.
Here are some tips for making reading challenges memorable this year:
Go analog.
Rather than logging your books publicly online, which can feel competitive, try keeping a physical reading journal. This can be simple, just a few pages in your journal or planner with the book titles and author names, or if you're feeling creative you can try something a little more artsy, like sketching empty spines on a bookshelf and filling in the blanks as you go. Some readers like to create a separate journal just for book-logging, curating each page with the aesthetics of the books they’ve read to accompany their reviews. Bookstagram, Booktube, or Booktok are a great source of inspiration, or try a book journal that’s already done the hard work for you and just leaves you to fill in the blanks, like Bibliophile’s Reader’s Journal.
Give yourself a book spending budget.
Then try to get as many books as you can with your money! Shopping on PangoBooks is helpful for this challenge–you can save by purchasing bundles from sellers stocking multiple titles on your list, or look in Threads to search for deals and sales to get the most bang for your buck. Your budget can be for the whole year or you can set one per month, your choice!
Join a book club.
Or start one! You can join a larger group like Reese’s Book Club or Book of the Month, or find or start a local one. Book clubs are a great way to expose yourself to new books as well as new ideas and lines of thinking when reading. If gathering with a group isn’t your thing, consider giving yourself a book club challenge where you only read past book club picks. There are easy tags to find these kinds of books right here on Pango–for example, if you're looking for previous Book of the Month picks, just search the "book of the month" tag on the site!
Have fun with creative reading challenges.
Perusing Booktok, Booktube, Booktwt and Bookstagram will give you plenty of ideas for fun reading challenges. Some book bloggers host readathons and create their own reading challenges for people to join, and some even offer Book Bingo cards to inspire readers to get outside of their reading comfort zones. If you’re stuck or just want a jumping off point, here are a few reading challenges we love and think you’ll enjoy, too!
Alphabet Challenge
The rules for this one are simple–read a book that starts with each letter of the alphabet! You don’t have to read them in order of the alphabet, just keep a checklist where you mark off each letter and add the title of the book. Feel free to play around with this and make it your own. Maybe you can make it an Alphabet Authors challenge, going alphabetically by the first or last name of authors rather than book title.
The Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge
If you’re a fan of classic literature or have always wanted to get into it, this one is for you. The Rory Gilmore reading challenge has been taking off on Booktok lately, named after the studious "Gilmore Girls" protagonist. Warning: this one is hefty, with 339 books total, but there is no pressure to actually read them all. To lighten the load, you can pick a few of your choice, or put the names in an online randomizer to choose a few titles. For fans of the show or those who are watching for the first time, you can just choose one book mentioned per season, which will give you a total of 7 books.
Wanderlust Reading Challenge
Challenge yourself to read books that take place in cities or countries (or even galaxies!) that you want to visit. Pay close attention to the landmarks that the characters mention, then when you get the chance to travel to visit, you can seek out the places where the characters spent time and make your own memories there, or at the very least, take a cool picture. If you need a place to start, try searching the name of the city you have in mind on Pango for some book ideas!
High School Reading List Challenge
Ask your friends (online or IRL) what modern or classic books they read in their high school English classes to compare everyone’s reading list. If there are any books you didn’t get to read, read them now! Your friends may even want to join you in reading the books that weren’t on their syllabi.
Movie First Challenge
A lot of people are excited when they discover their favorite book is being adapted into a film. But sometimes, you find the movie first. Make a list of books with film adaptations, and challenge yourself to watch the movie counterparts first. Keep a list, and then read the books the movies were based on. Do you think the movie did the book justice? Do you agree with the casting choices?
PangoBooks Reading Challenge
In the spirit of setting reading goals for the upcoming year, we've made our own reading challenge! You may remember the top ten best selling books on the site from our blog post a few weeks ago–our mission for you is to read through all ten titles on that list. You can go in order from #10 up to the best seller, or mix it up!
If setting a numbered goal is still important to you, remember that these reading challenges can just be a way to supplement your other reading–you can and should still read all the other books on your TBR list.
We hope with all of these tips in mind, you’ll make 2022 your best year of reading yet!