29 Book Challenge

Everyone makes goals on New Year's Eve for the new year. I do too but for me, a new year starts on my birthday. A little over a week ago, I turned 29 years old. I am officially in my last year of my 20s! I feel like I have come a long way in my short 29 years but I also feel like I have so much more to live. So does any other 20-30 year old.

I always want to better myself and for me, I would love to go into my 30s in my prime, so to speak. I know there are a lot of areas for me to work on to do that, but in time, I will get there.

I find myself setting goals on my birthday for the follow year of my life. Some I have stuck to but a majority, I have not. I realize I set a lot of goals. This year is different. I have set one major goal with ideas of smaller ones. If I hit those smaller ones, great, but if I don't it is not the end of the world as long as I hit one big goal.

My big goal, if you haven't guest by the title of this article, is to read 29 books before I turn 30. Why this goal? you might ask. Great question. For as long as I can remember, I have always LOVED buying books. I'm not 100% sure why, but I know I have always wanted to grow a library for my future children so by the time they are in school, they have a WIDE variety of books. History, self help, fiction, non-fiction, memoirs and more.

Thanks to Tiktok, I learned that if you own 1,000 books you are considered a library. I love the idea of being my own "library." I know I have a big collection. I have a HUGE bin in my parent's garage, several shelves on a book shelf at my parent's that are mine and I have a big collection, that is constantly growing, at my house. Several years ago, I did start to make a spreadsheet of all my books. Once I finally have them all in one place, then I will make a definite list. Hoping to be an official library.

Anyways, back to my challenge. For me, if you knew me growing up in school, you know I am not the fast reader. I've always struggled with reading and writing. I try my hardest. I tried to get help in college but was denied by the university so it made me want to do better by myself for myself to show others that I don't need help. I can improve on my own and I did.

With this challenge, I want to one: read the books that I own and two: grow as a person and expand my knowledge. Ideally with this challenge I need to read at least two books per month, ideally three books per month. I've talked to a few close people about said challenge and they have asked me if I have any criterias for this challenge. That got me thinking. Here are the list of requirements for said books.

1. I have to read from the beginning to the end of the book for it to count. AKA: No skipping pages or not finishing the last chapter. It all has to be read.

2. I decided the book has to have at least 50 pages. I originally told Kyle that it could be a kids book that I read to our nephews. No, that doesn't count..but!

3. If I read a kids books (less than 50 pages) it has to be in a series and I have to read the whole series. Example, Junie B. Jones. That was one of my favorite book series growing up. I still own all of mine and Costco sells the series. If I ever have a daughter, she will read the series too! But in the case, there are like 30 books. All 30 count as one book. Maybe I'll be nice and count it as more but they are shorter books. I will come to an answer if I cross that path.

4. There is no limit to what genre the books can be. Fiction, non-fiction, memoirs, books for school (if I choose to go back) and so on. As long as they are 50 pages and I read the whole book, it counts.

5. I have started several books in 2022, all before my birthday. If I FINISH them before I'm 30, they count.

I'm sure no one will read all of my postings but I plan to write and rate all the books in articles on my blog. Why? To hold myself accountable. I love the idea of this challenge and I want to better myself. I believe I can do this. This is something I am truly doing for me and not anyone else. If you take this journey with me, I would be so grateful. If you get a recommendation from me and read a book I've read, let me know! I'd love to talk about it with you. This will help me to write more blogs, read more books and hopefully inspire someone to read something with me or because of me.

I hope to fulfill this journey. 29 books is a lot but I believe it can be done. Let's see!

Sarah ♥︎