After spending the past year working on Escape With Dollycas Into a Good Book’s Alphabet Soup Challenge (for which I’m nearing completion–you can follow my progress here), I had a brainwave and thought I’d like to do something similar next year, but this time for authors instead of book titles. And so, with great pleasure and excitement, I’d like to announce that I will be hosting the 2015 Authors A to Z Reading Challenge!
– The challenge runs from 1 January to 31 December 2015
– Read a book written by authors with last names from A to Z, and try to collect every letter of the alphabet
– Only last names count, so William Shakespeare would fall under S, not W
– Speaking of Shakespeare, the books you read may fall under any form/genre: prose, poetry, drama; fiction, non-fiction, academic monographs…
– Your books don’t have to be “physical” either–ebooks and audiobooks are more than welcome!
– Crossovers with other challenges and re-reads are also more than welcome!
– You do not need to have a blog or review the books in order to participate–having a list somewhere (such as GoodReads) is fine
– Sign-ups are open till 30 November 2015
– Come December 2015, I’ll be making a post for you to submit your completed challenges. Here’s the post! If you manage to finish by 31 Dec 2015, then you’ll be in the running for a booktastic prize draw!
How to join:
– If you’re a blogger, grab the challenge banner and link back to this post to help spread the word and encourage others to join! Fill out the form below, and include a link to your challenge sign-up post (not to your overall blog).
– If you’re a non-blogger, keep track of your authors list any way you wish (I know quite a few people start up a challenge bookshelf on Goodreads), and use the form below to fill out your details (and perhaps a link to your challenge bookshelf, if you’re setting one up).
If you want to follow my blog, I may post special challenge-related announcements throughout the year; alternatively, just check back during December 2015. I have compiled a list of author suggestions for Q, X, and Z, which you can find here. I’ll be participating in the challenge too, and in case you’re interested, here’s my list. If you have any other questions, please feel free to drop me a comment.
And that’s it, really! Happy reading, and all the best with the challenge!
Update (2 June 2015): Since X has been causing a bit of strife, any author with X in their last name (not necessarily as the first letter) qualifies for the challenge. Hope that’ll make things a little more manageable!
Finished the challenge? Submit your completion post here!
Interesting! I am unofficially following this… =D
I am sure I will fail spectacularly at this… but I’ll give it a go! You might need to give me a prod every so often to make sure I don’t forget…
I’m assuming re-reads would be okay?
Thanks for your comment, Lois–yup, they are indeedy! I’ll go add that to the post now!
I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to fill everything out. I tend to read the same authors all the time and non of those start with a Q, X or Z. But I will still give my best, so count me in :D
Thanks for your comment, and for signing up! I suspect I’ll find it quite a challenge with the Q, X, & Z authors, but I might do a bit of “research” (read: Googling) next year and put together a list of authors with those last names–hopefully that’ll help!
That would be pretty awesome :)
Could we maybe change the rules regarding the letter X? Could we change it so that the x only has to be in the last name but not the first letter. Because I really can’t find an author that starts with X and I don’t want to read any of those on the suggestion list … :/ I will never finish it otherwise… and I think I’m not the only one.
Hi Emalie, thanks for dropping a line! I think that’s a great suggestion as X seems to be causing quite a bit of trouble and I wasn’t sure how to resolve it (especially since this is my first year hosting the challenge). I’ll update the rules to reflect this, and will announce it in the second quarterly check-in post (though participants haven’t been checking-in–I’m just assuming everyone’s busily and happily reading away). :)
Thanks again!
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Not sure how I will do with this but I thought I would give it a try. I filled out the letters of the authors I know I will be reading next year because of another challenge and it filled in more than I thought, so I might be able to do it…LOL I will give a good try! :)
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Fun, I’ll join! My blog is in Finnish, so I’m going to include letters Å, Ä and Ö to this challenge. Good luck, everybody!
Oooh, that sounds like some wonderful additions–I like that you’re taking this challenge to the next level! :D
More of a challenge to me than a-z titles as completed for 2014, so I have posted my participation. Possibly will create a new goodreads shelf – if so will link in my signup post. Will be searching out those Q X and Z :))
Thanks for hosting!
I love this challenge! I am still stuck without an author for X, but I haven’t given up the search. Hopefully I’ll track one down by January 1st!
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Does “unknown” count for U?
Also, if we use poetry do we need to read a whole book of poetry by the person or is just one poem okay?
Thanks for your questions! Yes, “Unknown” can count for “U”. If you’re reading poetry, then I guess it’s up to your own discretion and your own levels of comfort. For example, I would try the whole book/collection rather than just a single poem (especially if it’s short), though I suppose it also depends on the length of the collection. I’d happily count Milton’s Paradise Lost as one title, but I’d feel guilty just doing one of his sonnets; conversely, I’d count one Shakespeare play even if I’d read it from the Norton Complete Works or some such. Ultimately, it’s up to you–it should be challenging and fun, but not super stressful!
Hope that helps!
Thanks! That helps. :)
For some of the more difficult letters like Q and X I found poets but my library doesn’t have their poetry books so I found their poems online. I’ll probably just read several of their poems so it adds up to something similar to what was in a book. :)
Thanks again! I’m looking forward to this challenge as already it’s pushing outside my comfort zone trying to find authors that fit into the requirements. :)
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I am definitely participating in this one! I do have a goodreads as well, it is goodreads.com/booknerrd
Oh hooray! I already made plans to do this on my own but now I’ll have others to play with!
My book choices will be limited to crime fiction
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I just joined, but my post doesn’t go live until Monday. Either way, I’m excited about the challenge!
Thanks for setting this up! I’m excited to find new authors. I’m also glad we don’t have to read in alphabetical order since I’ve got 2 books already started. I set up a Good Reads shelf for my titles. Who knows maybe this challenge will get me to use my Tumblr account more : )
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I will be doing this challenge with two caveats: mikne are all mysteries and I’m doing authors and titles. I was able to finish this for the last two years so I’m looking forward to a third year!
I will be doing this challenge with two caveats: mine are all mysteries and I’m doing authors and titles. I was able to finish this for the last two years so I’m looking forward to a third year!
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if a book has two authors con you use both to cross two letters off the list? and if i started a book in December and am nearly finished would that count as one of the letters
Hi Daniel, thanks for your questions. Unfortunately, I’ll have to say a co-authored book would only count once, but you may choose which author you want to use. Also, I’m afraid the books need to have been begun (and finished) in 2015 in order to count for the “official” challenge and the subsequent prize draw. That being said, feel free to tweak the challenge to meet your personal needs–at the end of the day, it’s about reading and exploring more books and authors!
Okay, thank for letting me know
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Looking forward to tackling this one. Thanks for hosting. :)
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really looking forward to this..will start as soon as my exams are over
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Hi, I have joined and the page will go live shortly.
Could you please delete entry 76 as I had submitted an incorrect url.
Resubmitted correctly on 77
Thank you!
Thanks for joining, and for dropping a line! I’ve deleted the incorrect link, and look forward to seeing the page soon.
Good luck with the challenge, and happy reading!
Hello!
The page is finally live :-)
happy challenge!
Also unofficialy in. Im doing another reading challenge right now. But after that one im starting the ‘authors a to z reading challenge’. Little bit late, but I’m a fast reader anyway. Lots of Love Lijstje (which means List in Dutch ;))
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