Reading Goals for 2020

For the first time ever, I decided to list out some reading goals for myself! I do this with full permission to change titles and even completely walk away from my goals if I'm not enjoying myself. Just being honest :-)

I've chosen books for two challenges: Modern Mrs. Darcy reading challenge and the Schole Sisters 5x5 challenge, but I'm double counting, so the same book can appear on both lists.  I'm purposefully only listing a very few difficult titles, with many books being ones that I was hoping to pre-read ahead of our next homeschool year. Yes, that means many of the books were written for a juvenile audience. So hopefully this will make completing the challenges more manageable.

Thus far, I'm off to a very strong start to my reading year, so I have high hopes of completing both challenges. But with a new baby due in July, anything can happen!

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Modern Mrs. Darcy Reading Challenge
This challenge asks you to select books from a variety of categories:

• A book published the decade you were born / Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood
• A debut novel / On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
• A book recommended by a source you trust / America Moves Forward: A History for Peter by Gerald W. Johnson
• A book by a local author / The People of the Broken Neck by Silas Dent Zobel
• A book outside your genre comfort zone / The Outermost House: A Year of Life on the Great Beach of Cape Cod by Henry Beston
• A book in translation / Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
• A book nominated for an award in 2020 / tbd
• A re-read / Hyperion by Dan Simmons
• A classic you didn't read in school / Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes translated by Edith Grossman
• Three books by same author / A Rule Against Murder, The Brutal Telling, Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny

Schole Sisters 5x5 Challenge
In this challenge, you pick five categories and read five books from each, rereads encouraged. I selected the following categories and books:
Nature

• The Outermost House: A Year of Life on the Great Beach of Cape Cod by Henry Beston
• The Sea Around Us by Rachel Carson (available on Hoopla)
• Rascal by Sterling North
• Wandering Through Winter: A Naturalist's 20,000 Mile Journey Through the North American Winter by Edwin Way Teale (ebook check out for free for 14 days)
• Squirrels and Other Fur Bearers by John Burroughs (free online) (reread)

Social Studies (Geography, History, Travelogues)

• Mapmaking with Children: Sense of Place Education for the Elementary Years by David Sobel
• Richard Halliburton's Book of Marvels: The Occident by Richard Halliburton
• Richard Halliburton's Book of Marvels: The Orient by Richard Halliburton
• America Moves Forward: A History for Peter by Gerald W. Johnson
• Tbd - more prereading once I pick more books for next year's homeschooling

STEM

• Competition Math for Middle School by J. Batterson
• Blood and Guts: A History of Surgery by Richard Hollingham (available on Hoopla audiobook)
• Mathematicians Are People Too: Stories from the Lives of Great Mathematicians by Luetta Reimer and Wilmer Reimer (partial reread)
• Hidden Figures Young Readers Edition by Margot Lee Shetterly (available on Hoopla audiobook)
• Brief Answers to the Big Questions by Stephen Hawking

Literature / Classics

• Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes translated by Edith Grossman
• Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
• The Song of Roland
• Beowulf: An Illustrated Edition translated by Seamus Heaney (reread) (available on Hoopla audiobook)
• The Complete Stories by Flannery O'Connor 

Speculative Fiction

• Hyperion by Dan Simmons (ebook on Overdrive/Libby) (reread)
• The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons (reread)
• Endymion by Dan Simmons
• Rise of Endymion by Dan Simmons
• Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

A few comments about my challenges . . . .

Last year I read 36 books not counting a few rereads. If I complete all the books listed above I will have read 32 books including a few rereads. That also leaves me a little wiggle room to add other books I come across and want to read too.

All of the books on my list . . . yes, every single one . . . is one I either already have on my shelves or is available at my local library. If I do buy a book and read it, you can bet it is something I purchased for homeschooling. There are just too many good books to read for free without spending any more money.

So that is it for me. What is on your to-read list this year?