Forget the New Year’s resolutions this year!

(Although really, I could afford to lose some weight…)

But never mind the weight thing. This year, my plan for 2015 is a reading challenge.

In 2014, I participated in the Goodreads Challenge, which allows readers to set a goal for a number of books to read. I set my goal at 30 books (and fell short by six … perhaps I should have read fewer 400+ page books).

For 2015, I ran across this excellent reading challenge at Goodwill Librarian’s Facebook page:

 This challenge is way more interesting than simply tallying how many books I’ve read in a year.

And let’s face it: This also is more fun. It’s a scavenger hunt for literary selections, folks!

Best of all: It encourages readers to step outside their usual reading patterns as they find titles to fit each category.

I already have my picks set aside for a few categories:

• A book written by someone under 30: CALIBUR: THE MONSTER, Jakob L. Waitekus (published in 2012 by a local author when he was 18 years old)
• A book with nonhuman characters: Perfect time for a reread of WATERSHIP DOWN by Richard Adams
• A Pulitzer Prize-winning book: THE GOLDFINCH by Donna Tartt
• A play: INHERIT THE WIND by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee (This was a 5o cent discovery at a used book sale)
• A book you own but have never read: This is an embarrassingly large portion of my bookshelf. I can probably just close my eyes and grab a random book. (What can I say? I love secondhand bookshops. I own hundreds more books than I could ever read in one lifetime.)

If you have any recommendations or want to share books that fit a certain category, do tell! I would love to hear your top picks and favorites.