The Creation of the LinzTheBookWorm/Logophile Annual Reading Challenge

 

Hi Readers, a lovely person commented on the 2021 reading challenge with a question (find the challenge here) regarding if we take submissions and gave an excellent idea for the 2022 challenge. It made me realize that I don't think Tress and I have really gone into great depths of how this challenge came to be. Or at least, I don't think I have. 

2014

This blog started in 2014 because a couple of friends told me I should start a blog. I couldn't possibly fathom what I could talk about for an extended time beyond books. Somehow seven years later, I'm still writing. I feel like I've grown a lot in those seven years, not only in followers but in writing and communication skills. Thank you to those of you who come and check out what dumb things I have to say. It truly means a lot to me! I hope you'll continue to stick with me as I use this platform to discuss my greatest passion. Since these challenges started, they've become my most successful posts, which genuinely blows me away.

I've been doing the Goodreads annual challenge since 2011. Of those years, I've only actually completed 3 challenge years. Apparently, I like to set myself up for failure by setting my goal at 50 books.  In 2016 I branched out as a way to read outside of my comfort zone and started participating in random challenges I found on the internet. I think I tried to do two or three at once and didn't do very well. 

2017

In 2017, I started my own challenge. I really had no idea what I was doing. Apparently, that year I only read 24/50 books. I don't even remember how many books were on 2017's challenge. One of my dearest friends had been doing the challenge with me, and she was probably the only one. Enter friend and fellow blogger, Tress (aka Logophile). At the end of 2017, I asked Tress what worked and what didn't. She gave me so much feedback that I asked her to participate in the 2018 challenge. 

2018

For 2018, in my head, I had an idea of almost playing bingo with a reading challenge, but you'd have multiple cards. The result is mostly the format you see now in the five-tier format. We brainstormed over Christmas and tried to lump the categories we came up with into different levels going from easiest to hardest. The idea was that if we start with easier ones, it will provide that momentum to continue on to the next tier. 

2019

In 2019, we introduced free spaces and reading a trilogy. We did this because we found 2018 really hard. Tress and I both get into our random binges. She rereads many of her favorite series, and I often get side-tracked by some shiny series on Kindle Unlimited. We wanted a way to be able to read the things we love without completely derailing our progress on the challenge. We tried to vary the categories from easy to hardest and balance between similar topics throughout the five levels.

2020

While I don't feel like we made any considerable changes to how we did things in 2020, one thing we started doing was keeping a list pretty early on for 2021. We started doing this because we had a reader request something from a previous year, making it's way to the 2021 challenge. The list really helped us keep track of the ideas that we had.

2021 

In 2021, Tress unleashed some kind of spreadsheet-nerd Kraken on the challenge, and I love it. She compiled all of the previous categories, grouped them together, and figured out some magical formula for most optimization. We then tried to make it easier to harder like the earlier years and tried to balance these different groups we came up with.

Tress's spreadsheet magic really helped us figure out when we last used a category, if we wanted to use it again, and what broader groups we needed to fill. 

The result of all this work over the years is a build your own challenge where you can either start at level one and work your way to level five, book sixty, pick a level, or go at it haphazardly. Tress likes to plot out her books in advance, and I go into it in reckless abandon. We each have spreadsheets because we're nerds, that list out which books we own and where they'd fit in the challenge. Mine looks like this, and yes, I got this idea from Tress. 

I love our challenge, and I'm blown away at how well each one does. Thank you to all that have joined in, shared it on your own blogs. It is absolutely crazy that so many of you check in on this blog and come back. I love seeing your comments, and if you have suggestions for future categories, by all means, send them to us. I can't guarantee we'll use it, but we'll definitely take it into consideration. 

I'm seriously shocked at the level of page views these challenges have gotten over the years. I hope you all enjoy this behind the scenes look at our challenge. Be sure to visit Tress on her blog (found here).