Here we have it - the final A to Z challenge post. I've made no secret that this year's challenge has been a real pain. The last time I participated, bloggers signed up and listed their blog category by adding initials after their blog name - LI for lifestyle, AC for adult content, crafts (CR), fashion (FA), and travel (TR) among many other categories. I loved being able to zoom in on blogs that were like my own - lifestyle, a smattering of crafts, fashion, and travel. I knew from the beginning of the challenge that I had no interest in adult content, gaming, science fiction, and others. Perhaps that might seem a bit narrow-minded but honestly, with only so many hours in the day, and (in 2015) 1508 bloggers signed up, there was no way I was going to get through them all. I wanted to focus on bloggers who had the same interests as I do, and I'm happy to say that I met some bloggers that I still follow today.
Fast forward to 2017 and there is no sign up list, no categories. Instead, every day each blogger goes to the A to Z site and posts a link in the comments to their blog post for the letter of the day. Every day, there are between 150 and 250 comments and you have no idea of the blog category. I gave up. I found a few bloggers early on that shared my interests, several of them were followers of another meme and we had all talked about the challenge. I made up a blog list and those were the blogs I read. I did visit some of the bloggers who left comments on my posts but after finding several that I had no interest in whatsoever, I gave up on that too.
I hope that the A to Z admin revisit their policies and bring back the blog categories. It's a fun challenge but this year, it was really quite a chore.
And that brings me to my final A to Z post and that falls right in with everything above - Zero Interest. I have hesitated to participate in reading challenges because you are usually asked to read from a variety of genres and I just can't get through some of them. I've had this problem since sixth grade when I had to read a Newberry Award-winning book and just struggled to get through every page. I have zero interest in science fiction (although I see that Outlander is listed as time travel which is a sub-category of science fiction) but I think you know the kind of science fiction I mean, the really futuristic stuff, space, extra-terrestrials. Not for me. I'm firmly stuck in the genres that make reading such a pleasure and although I may dip my toe in others at times, I usually don't stay for long.
Boy, do I hear you! I often do reading challenges, but they are usually pretty simple ones. My first year challenge was just pulling 14 books from my own shelves that I had been meaning to read forever...one per month with 2 alternates in case you gave up on any. I left the stack on my nightstand, and loved seeing it shrink through the year. That was an awesome one. One year I did classics that I had never gotten around to reading.
ReplyDeleteLast year I didn't do a reading challenge, and my reading slid to the back burner.
This year I found one that is truly challenging exactly for the reason you stated...there are a lot of categories that I have no interest in (Steampunk, espionage, etc), but I am doing the ones that I can, and will sample some of the other ones, and if I can't stand them then I will substitute something else. I do feel good about my reading this year, and I'm almost 50% through the challenge categories. I've enjoyed some that I didn't expect to.
And since you mentioned Outlander, I'm wondering if you like the time travel aspect. If so I just want to mention Susanna Kearsley. 'The Winter Sea' was the first I read of hers and I LOVED it. Her 'Mariana' and 'The Rose Garden' were really good as well. I haven't loved all of her books, but she has a new one coming out this year that I can't wait to try. I believe she's Canadian, but her settings are usually in England or Scotland.
Sorry to leave a book for a comment. :)
Thanks, I'll check her out. I have a stack next to my chair in the living room similar to the one on your nightstand - slowly working my way through it.
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