The No Ruts Reading Challenge: A Season of Adventurous Reading

Yes, I know - I admitted defeat in my own personal challenge just yesterday. This challenge isn't just for me, it's also for you, my wonderful readers.


I got a lot out of my personal challenge and I think the primary reason for it was this: I tried new things. Reading 50 books in a year, which is kind of an arbitrary number anyway, is all well and good, but far more meaningful to me was the fact that I really got out of my comfort zone with authors and genres.


So I thought it might be fun to try a similar, but slightly scaled-back, challenge with other readers and bloggers, and what better way to do that than to host a challenge? So here it is:

The rules are simple:

Challenge runs from June 1 to September 1, 2010. Feel free to join in any time.


Bronze Level – Read two fiction books: one by an author you’ve never tried before, and one from a genre you’ve never tried before.



Silver Level – Bronze challenge PLUS read a book you weren’t planning to read because someone has given a bad review to. “Someone” can be a friend, a newspaper, a blogger, or a reviewer on a book website. If you read a review that made you think twice about reading the book, and you read the book anyway … it counts.


Gold Level – Bronze and silver challenges PLUS read a book by someone whose viewpoint/fundamental premise you disagree with. For examples: If you’re a Democrat, read some Ann Coulter. Subject does not have to be controversial, book can be any genre. If you think poetry should rhyme and read something by T.S. Eliot … it counts. If you think graphic novels are moronic – get someone in a bookstore to recommend one and read it.


You can include books you read for other challenges, books of any length - no rules other than those stated above.
 
If you'd like to join in, please go ahead and grab the graphic above, which was graciously designed for the challenge by the very talented Cindy at Media Medley.
 
Sign up below using the McLinky, this format "Your name (Your blog name)."  Also, leave a comment to let others know your plans!
 
You can post your reviews HERE  as you finish books. If you don't have a blog, no worries - link to your goodreads review, or just post a comment with your thoughts.
 
That's it! Painless, no? Fun, yes.