2019 Reading Challenges

After completing my read-your-own-books challenge last year in 2018, I wanted to do something similar this year in 2019, but I don't want to have so many challenges. I had 18 challenges last year, so my first thought was to have 19 this year to match the year; however, I'm just going to give myself ten challenges this time. I discovered last year that I am going to read whatever I want to read, and most of the books that I wanted to read fit into a challenge anyway, but then it came down to three challenges in the last two months, and I didn't want to read any books that qualified for those challenges, so I had to force myself to read a few books that I wasn't in the mood for. I am trying to prevent that this year by having fewer challenges and ones that are more open-ended. Eight of the ten challenges were ones I had last year, and two are new ones I've added for 2019. Just like last year, I can fulfill a challenge only if I read an unread book that I own—a book on my TBR. And for reference, my TBR at the start of 2019 is 297 books.

Here is my Read-My-Own-Books challenge for this year:

1. Read a book that has been on my TBR the longest.
2. Read my most recently acquired book.
3. Read an advanced copy (ARC) of a book.
4. Read a book that has a screen adaption.
5. Read a popular backlist book.
6. Read a book by an author I've never read before.
7. Read a book by an author that I love.
8. Finish all series I've started but haven't finished yet.
9. Start and finish a new series.
10. Let my husband pick out a book for me to read.


I also have decided that every year I want to tackle a long series. These would be series that I am intimidated by because of the length of the books or the number of books or some other reason that has made me put them off for quite some time. In 2018 I read The Mortal Instruments as my long series, and in 2019 my goal is to read the Throne of Glass series, which has eight books.

There are also some other series and standalone books I'm hoping to read this year, including catching up on a lot of Brandon Sanderson's books. Here is my list of specific titles I hope to get to in 2019:

1. The Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas
    -The Assassin's Blade
    -Throne of Glass
    -Crown of Midnight
    -Heir of Fire
    -Queen of Shadows
    -Empire of Storms
    -Tower of Dawn
    -Kingdom of Ash
2. The Shades of Magic trilogy by V. E. Schwab
    -A Darker Shade of Magic
    -A Gathering of Shadows
    -A Conjuring of Light
3. The Falling Kingdoms series by Morgan Rhodes
    -Falling Kingdoms
    -Rebel Spring
    -Gathering Darkness
    -Frozen Tides
    -Crystal Storm
    -Immortal Reign
4. The Reckoners trilogy by Brandon Sanderson
    -Steelheart
    -Firefight
    -Calamity
5. Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson
6. Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
7. Legion by Brandon Sanderson
8. Arcanum Unbounded by Brandon Sanderson
9. Starsight by Brandon Sanderson (if it actually gets released)
10. Uprooted by Naomi Novik


Lastly, I will be setting another Goodreads reading goal this year, and my goal is going to be 50 books. I am expecting to surpass that number but I also thought it would be wise to aim for a lower number since I intend to read lots of longer books and fantasy series this year, which will take more time for me to read. If I read all the books listed above plus ten other books for my read-my-own-books challenge, I'll still be under 40 books, so that gives me some room to read other random books that come my way.