I'm a little late posting this year, but we are still doing the Academic Reading Challenge and the 2025 categories are here. If you want to be in on the choosing or discuss what you read for those categories, we have a Facebook group. If you're not on Facebook, but still want to participate, comment below and I'll get in touch with you. We have a spreadsheet too!
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.
And now, here are this year's categories, with points in parentheses
1. A book by a friend, colleague, former teacher or former student (10)
2.A book about resistance to dictatorships, authoritarian rule, etc (any discipline) (10)
3.A book about borders (and why they're bad) (20)
4. A memoir or novel by a refugee, child of refugees, immigrant or child of immigrants (in any country) (10)
5. A book about medical care, medicine or healthcare policy(20)
6. A book with a provocative title and/or cover, double points if you read it in public (10/20)
7. A book about Reconstruction (in the US after the Civil War) and its overthrow (20)
8.A biography of someone who isn’t famous (20)
9. A book about a specific region within any country (10)
10.A book by, or about a personal hero or heroes (double points if they fall outside of politics) (10/20)
11.A biography of an artist (broadly defined: visual artists; novelists; dancers; musicians) (10)
12. A book about where you live now, or the place you consider your hometown. (10)
13. A novel that deals centrally with the natural world(10)
14.A book by an author who was fired or suspended from their job, denied an award, or disinvited from an awards event, or otherwise de-platformed or dishonored due to their support for Palestine. (20)
15.A book about computers, AI or new media (YouTube, social media, etc) (10)
Extra Credit:
16. Extra-Credit: A book about a country that's no longer there (20)
17. Extra Extra-Credit: A book about crime (10)
18. Super-Duper Extra Credit: An academic book about games and/or gaming (either video or table-top) (20)
The Rules
The challenge starts on January 1, 2025 at midnight and goes till Dec. 31, 2025.
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, book of poetry, 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 about for both 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 1/1/25 and finished no later midnight 12/31/2025
The Points: This isn't a competition, but some find this motivating, so if you're counting…
In case you're wondering what makes some books worth 20 and some books worth 10 points, it's all about how difficult it might be to find books in that category.
Total possible points for 1-15 without any extra points: 200
Total possible points w/3 extra-credit: 250
Total possible points w/ extra credit and extra points for 1-15: 270
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