Summer Reading Challenge 2020 is here!

Calling all readers!

It’s a day of rejoicing because the Summer Reading Challenge 2020 is here! If you can believe it, this is the fifth summer of the challenge.

Like a kid pouring over the toy catalog in days gone by, I’ve chatted with family members, dreamed about books, and looked for ways to expand the reading challenge. Today, I  am excited today to reveal this summer’s reading challenge!

It will start on June 1  and run through August 18, 2020. To enter, read seven books from 25 categories.

What is different?

• Pandemic, anyone? For some you’ve already been reading extra, for others, the past few months have dinged your ability to concentrate and read.
• You may have less access to libraries.
• So, you might need this challenge more than ever to get your reading mojo back. BUT you might have less access to libraries and may need to borrow books from friends and family.
• In recognition of the graduations and weddings that were planned and the medical personnel impacted, students, teachers, and parents doing school different, and those in isolation who had a very different than expected first half of the year we have four “COVID-19 Special Categories.”

What is the same?

• Many categories will be similar because reading is reading. But you will notice a few new gems
• Counting a book of more than 700 pages as two books.
• Choosing a penalty book within the first week of the year. A penalty book or category you declare I will read or be penalized. The last two summers I have selected a penalty book and it worked! I read books I’d been meaning to read for ages and I am all the richer for reading them. This year Abigail Adams by Woody Holton is my penalty book. Can I tell you how many years I’ve meant to read this book?! This is the summer!
• Like last year, if you do not read your “penalty” book, you will subtract two books from your total.

What’s in it for you?

• All who comment on August 18-21st with the names of the books they read will be entered to win one of ten $10 Amazon gift cards.

Drumroll . . . here are the categories!

In recognition of the graduations, weddings, medical personnel, and those in isolation who had a very different than expected first half of the year we have four COVID-19 Special Categories:

• A book with either something old, something new, something borrowed, or something blue
• A book with a nurse, doctor, or other medical personnel
• A book with a teacher, student, or classroom
• A book about a pandemic or outbreak

In Recognition of the Joy of reading:

• A Biography
• A book I already own
• A book a friend recommended
• A Young Adult book (YA)
• A book with a great cover
• A book of poetry
• A memoir or autobiography
• A graphic Novel
• A book for professional development (loosely defined)
• A book longer than 700 pages (counts as two books)
• A book with a verb in the title
• A play
• A book about a country or culture you have never visited
• A book about history
• A book that won an award
• A classic
• A novel 
• An audiobook
• A book with an animal
• A book less than 100 pages
• A book You want to discuss with others

My penalty book is: Abilgail Adams by Woody Holton.

Download the 2020 SUMMER READING CHALLENGE, print it off, and track your progress. But most of all, have fun and read books you might not read in other times of the year!

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In short: Read seven books from June 1 to August 18, 2020.

Are you in? What books are you looking forward to reading during the challenge?

Photo by David Lezcano on Unsplash