Helmet Reading Challenge 2020

During this year’s Reading Challenge we will get lost, write letters and read Sámi literature. The annual Reading Challenge is now held for the sixth time.

The Reading Challenge is a playful, year-long reading project that offers you fifty new ways to choose what to read next. This is the sixth Helmet Reading Challenge in a row. Come explore literature with us!

As usual, the Reading Challenge includes a broad palette of different subjects. This year, we decided to introduce new kinds of challenges as well. Item 19 encourages you to read with someone else. Items 47 and 48 set you on a hunt for a pair of books with very similar titles. Items 4 and 38 that focus on book covers have been made more accessible to all readers: you can also look for a tree or people in the book’s description instead of its cover.

In case you do not feel like taking on the full list of 50 items, check out the lighter option. As its name suggests, the Little Helmet Reading Challenge is a shorter list of 25 items. The Little Reading Challenge is suitable for children in particular but all readers, both young and old, are of course welcome to participate.

The Reading Challenge was created by a group of library professionals, but the majority of the listed ideas have been suggested by the Reading Challenge participants. The aim of the Helmet Reading Challenge is to inspire and surprise and to give readers new perspectives, whether they are Reading Challenge veterans or now taking part for the first time.

The Reading Challenge is an open invitation to everyone to read with us!

Five key points to success in the reading challenge:

All readers who want to take up the Reading Challenge are welcome to do so.
The Reading Challenge is meant to increase the joy of reading, not cause stress. Feel free to find your own way to participate, a way that inspires you!
Everyone is free to pick their own reading style and make up their own rules for the Reading Challenge. It’s up to you to decide whether you want to use the same book to check off more than one item on the list, focus on a particular genre or only read books you have never read before. If you would like to keep track of your progress, please check out the helpful tools below the list.
As sharing multiplies the joy of reading, why not share your Reading Challenge experience with others? You are welcome to join the Reading Challenge group on Facebook or challenge your friends to participate, so that you can discuss what you read this year.
Help is always available! If you need help to find a suitable book, tips are available from your local library, for example. The Reading Challenge group on Facebook also contains lots of tips on suitable books. Tips are also available on the Helmet webpage Tips and in the literature portal Kirjasampo (available in Finnish and Swedish). Help is also available from the Ask a Librarian service.

Have a great reading year 2020!

Helmet Reading Challenge 2020

1. The book is older than you
2. A happy book
3. A book that you have prejudice against
4. There are many people on the cover or in the description of the book
5. A book by a Sámi author
6. The book’s title begins and ends with the same letter
7. Someone breaks the law in the book
8. A book that someone else chooses for you
9. Someone faces their fears in the book
10. The book is located in a country that has fewer residents than Finland
11. An alternative history
12. The book has been made into a play or an opera
13. Someone gets lost in the book
14. A book that is related to sports
15. A work of fiction that includes a real person
16. A book plays an important role in the book
17. A book written by a researcher
18. A book on a subject you are unfamiliar with
19. A book that you read together with someone
20. A book on biodiversity
21. You like the first sentence of the book
22. The book has an unreliable narrator
23. The book has also been published in plain language
24. A book by an author who has published more than 20 books
25. In the book, someone is on an island
26. The author’s last name begins with the letter X, Y, Z, Å, Ä or Ö
27. A story written in verse, narrative poetry or a verse novel
28. A book about the future
29. A book or a comic book related to Japan
30. In the book, someone’s life is saved
31. The book depicts life in the countryside
32. A book originally published in a language that you do not know
33. A transformation happens in the book
34. The title of the book contains a word related to nature
35. Someone in the book uses social media
36. A book recommended by someone famous
37. The era in which the book is set plays a key role in the book
38. There is a tree on the cover or in the description of the book
39. Someone flies in the book
40. A book by an author who passed away in the 2010s
41. Someone cooks or bakes in the book
42. There are grandparents in the book
43. A book published as part of a publisher’s series
44. The book contains correspondence
45. The first published book of an author
46. There is a sauna in the book
47. and 48. Two books with very similar titles
49. A book published in 2020
50. A book recommended by a member of the library staff