2027 Reading Challenges - My Individual Challenges

At the start of every year, with my one Goodreads Book Club, we start off the year with a set of challenges. Not everybody needs participate but for those of us who do, they are broken down in Reading Challenges, the 12 + 4 Challenges that I've highlighted in the last three posts. The only rule for those 12 + 4's is that you need to choose 12 books with 4 Alternates and that you can't change them once the year commences. The other challenges are the Individual Reading Challenges. You can pick what you want as a challenge, e.g. Series, Start a series, Books by Country, etc.

This is where I am now, seeing what I want for my Individual Challenges. For the moment, I've chosen 5 challenges, three are similar to my 2026 Individual Challenges and I've got 2 others. So let's see.

1. Individual Reading Challenges - Dusty Books. (Explanation here. The First 3 challenges take into account how many books I've got on my shelf and when I added them to the list. As of today, there are 1268 books on my TBR book shelf. So what I do is divide in 3; 423 books. I usually pick a book for these challenges via Random Number Generator. The Dustiest are the 1st 423, etc. At the moment, the dustiest book on my shelf is Glass Houses by Jane Haddam (Gregor Demarkian #22 / 2007).

"For over a year, Philadelphia has been plagued by a serial killer dubbed the Plate Glass Killer by the media. But finally, the police think they've caught a break - a man has been arrested at the site of the most recent murder, covered in the victim's blood. The man taken into custody is Henry Tyder, the scion of one of the most socially prominent families on Philadelphia's Main Line, a family that possesses the largest tracts of real estate in the city. He's also a hopeless alcoholic, frequently homeless and often estranged from his family.

Although Tyder has apparently confessed to the crime, his attorney believes him to be too disordered to be capable of actually committing the crimes and asks Gregor Demarkian, retired head of the FBI's Behavioral Sciences Unit, to look into the case. Gregor, however, has other things on his mind - after having been away for nearly a year without a word to him, his live-in girlfriend, Bennis Hannaford, has returned to Cavanaugh Street. And everyone seems to have seen her but Gregor. While he waits for Bennis to finally appear, Gregor finds himself enmeshed in complex case of the Plate Glass Killer. Specifically, what would have drive Tyder to confess to crimes he was seemingly incapable of committing and, more importantly, if Tyder isn't the killer, then who really is behind the murders of the Plate Glass Killer."

2. Individual Reading Challenges - Middle Range. This would be those books from #424 - 847, the middle third so to speak. This will of course change until end 2026 as I read more books and also add more books. But for fun and games, let's pick the very middle of the pack, #634 - Tarzan and the Forbidden City by Edgar Rice Burroughs (Tarzan #20 / 1938).

"Tarzan cared little for the fate of adventurer Brian Gregory, drawn to the legendary city of Ashair by the rumor of the Father of Diamonds, the world's hugest gem. But to the ape-man the tie of friendship was unbreakable, and Paul d'Arnot's pleas moved him to agree to guide the expedition Gregory's father and sister organized for his rescue. The enigmatic Atan Thome was also obsessed with the Father of Diamonds, and planted agents in the Gregory safari to spy out its route and sabotage its efforts. Both parties reached their goal, remote Ashair . . . as prisoners of its priests, doomed to die in loathsome rites."

3. Individual Reading Challenges - Newest, Shiniest Books. The books, as of today, would range from 848 to the end, as that ending changes over the course of  the years. If I pick my newest and shiniest purchase today, it would be Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros (The Empyrean #2 / 2023).

4. Individual Reading Challenges - Monthly Genre Challenges. Assuming we keep this challenge in our book club, we tend to vote on a specific genre each month, and then, of course, try to read books in each one. We'll see how that one plays out. It does add variety to your reading pleasures and lets you explore genres you might not normally try.

5. Individual Reading Challenges - Non - Fiction. I might change this one as we do have a separate thread for tracking Non Fiction reading. But if I make it a specific challenge, it will allow me actually focus on the genre. In my Goodreads listings, I've broken my Non - Fiction down into various categories, History, Non-Fiction, Biography, Politics. This possible selection fits into history sub-genre; The Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell (1937).

"George Orwell's 'Urban Rides'. in which he recorded the state of the nation in a time of mass unemployment.

These factual, shocking, but sublimely human reports, phrased in a vivid style and shot with a wary mistrust of the political cant of the intelligentsia of all hues, make Orwell's contemporary comment on the miner's life, on class, on slums, unemployment, and malnutrition 'as fresh and stimulating as when he first wrote' - Daily Telegraph"

So there you go, my prospective challenges for 2027. As we get into December, I'll start talking about how successful I've been with my 2026 Reading Challenges. Now to get back to brekkie and my homemade banana bread, which Jo is enjoying. :)