| Usually, January is a strange month as we deal with the shock and horror of finding ourselves—impossibly, again!—at the beginning of another year.My January has been stupidly busy with writing and teaching and reading. For the month of January, I decided to read only middle-grade and YA fiction. Why? Because research. I’m teaching a children’s book course this year and I wanted to get a sense of what types of children’s book are being published right now.This week’s video is a recap of the 12 books I read, including a brief summary of their plots, my thoughts on the books, and the overall insights I gained from this experiment. Having a themed reading month was a lot of fun and I enjoyed how it made my reading feel more focussed. It also ‘made’ me read a lot of books that have been on my TBR list that I just haven’t made time for.It’s also made me think about other potential reading themes I could have in the future, such as… – Genre greats of the 70s, 80s, and 90s (think Octavia Butler, Ursula Le Guin, Ray Bradbury, Amy Tan, Anne Rice…) – Short Classics Books I’ve wanted to read for ages but keep avoiding (I’m looking at you Moby Dick) – Read my shelves (i.e., no library books or new books) – Lesser known books by famous female authors (particularly icons like Woolf, Austen, Brontë) – A month of weird fiction |
| I will continue to brainstorm! Have you ever undertaken a reading challenge or read to a specific theme. Got any ideas you’d like to share? Feel free to leave a comment! |
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