Hello, readers and friends, like everything else this year, it took me a little longer than usual to get the next year's challenge set-up. However, I tabulated the votes from loyal regulars, and got this together before the end of the year. I've been running this reading challenge since 2014, and every year a few more people join. If you're not already part of the reading challenge, I hope that you will consider joining us in collective counter-intuitive motivation for work-related and un-work-related academic reading in 2022. Since this is my reading and listening blog, here's a little musical accompaniment for this year's categories. I'll suspend my general dislike of Stephin Merritt in favor of my general appreciation of Peter Gabriel, with a nod to the categories this year that relate to reading about things you love or have loved in the past.
Who and What the Academic Reading Challenge is for:
This is a challenge for academics who feel that their reading has become over-specialized and possibly joyless, who want to read more literature for pleasure, who want to broaden the way they approach their own research and teaching, who like to talk about reading with each other, who are interested in interdisciplinary reading, and who want to support their friends and colleagues by reading their books. You don’t have to be a professor to do the challenge. Maybe you graduated from school but you miss reading academic books. The challenge runs for a year and emphasizes reading across academic disciplines. If you are a professional academic or public intellectual outside the university, this challenge is meant to give you a structure for reading outside your area of specialization - including reading literature - and to provide a space to talk with others about the experience. If you are a general reader who likes reading serious works of non-fiction, this challenge is also for you. It's a structure that you can use to read works of the type that you might not have encountered since you were a student.
We have a facebook group
In this group we talk about the challenge categories for the year and occasionally discuss what we've read and plan to read. There is also an academic article about this challenge that I wrote for a collection on the "slow movement" in academia.
Rules
The challenge starts on January 1, 2022 at midnight and goes till Dec. 31, 2022.
There are a total of 15 regular categories in the challenge, and three “extra credit” categories for over-achievers.
The academic books must be at least 175 pages long .
Novels must be at least 200 pages long
Books of poetry or special issues of journals must be at least 100 pp. long
One book can be a children's or YA book.
To decide whether a book is academic, look for something published by a university press, or check the acknowledgments for references to scholarly mentors and anonymous readers.
Any book on the list, except where specified otherwise, can be a novel or a complete journal issue as long as it fits the general category
Books can only count for one category, but you can switch them from one category to the other before you’re done if you like. (In other words, you cannot count a book by your friend who wrote a book on genre fiction for both the "academic book about genre fiction" and the "by a friend" categories.)
Only one book can be something you’ve read before
Audiobooks are fine as long as they are unabridged and the print edition is at least 175 pages long.
Books must be started no earlier than midnight 1/1/22 and finished no later midnight 12/31/2022
Points: This isn't a competition, but if you're counting…
Total possible points for 1-15 without any extra points: 200
Total possible points for all extra-credit: 250
This Year's Categories with points:
1. Book by a friend, colleague, former teacher or former student 10
2. Book recommended by a friend 10
3. Reread a book or writer you loved earlier in your life 10
4. Academic book on genre fiction 20
5. Book related to a subject that you research, but in a discipline you don't normally read 20
6. Book about a hobby or activity that you already do or would like to try 10
7. Book about a craft or trade (carpentry, plumbing, etc.) 20
8. Book by an author from the Middle-East or North Africa 10
9. Practical book on political organizing (an organizing how-to book) 20
10. Book about a forgotten scandal or "crime of the century" 20
11. Classic in revolutionary political literature 10
12. Book about unions or labor organizing 10
13. Mystery novel where the detective is not a cop (extra points if also not a PI) 10,20
14. Book about or set in any country in the Southern hemisphere 10
15. Book about something or someone you love 10
EXTRA CREDIT:
16: Book about something or someone you hate 10
17. Extra-Extra-Credit: Book on which a movie or TV series that you love is based 20
18. Extra-Extra-Extra Credit:Book about images 10
