Year of book reading challenge was a success
This time last year we at Helmet libraries wanted to celebrate the Year of book 2015 by inviting people to a reading challenge. In the reading challenge we gave 50 different criteria to how you could choose books to read. The popularity of the Year of book reading challenge went beyond our wildest expectations: the challenge has had almost 30 000 pageviews.
Very soon a Facebook group (in Finnish) was founded to give people a chance to share tips and reading experiences through the year. Many readers found the reading challenge a positive one. They have told that the reading challenge got them to break their own reading patterns and to pick up books they might not have read without the push the challenge gave them.
– The reading challenge broadened enormously my otherwise conservative and stuck in reading habits. New literary genres, countries, and past memories. The most fun was to do the detective work and to find reading material for the various items – and to keep a record of it all, tells Laura Norris, who has been an active participant of the reading challenge and in the Facebook group.
The reading challenge also inspired some, like Aaro Immonen, to start reading again:
– I won’t be able to check all the items on the list, but to me it was more important that the reading challenge awakened my dormant reading hobby. I found myself as a reader again. Also, for the last few years I had collected numerous unread books to my bookshelves. The challenge encouraged me to read them. It was really worth it – my bookshelves turned out to be an actual treasure trove!
The popularity of this year’s challenge has inspired us to continue challenging readers. That is why we have created a new reading challenge for 2016 called Helmet reading challenge 2016. Just like this year, the new challenge is a collection of 50 items or different criteria for choosing what you read.
Both the participants of the 2015 reading challenge and library staff have suggested new items and many of them made it also to the list. The aim has been to create a reading challenge that will broaden your worldview, inspire, and surprise. And just like last year it’s open for everyone to come and join in the fun!
Helmet reading challenge 2016
Text: Riikka Utriainen
Photo: Karoly Czifra / Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0