After I finally managed to finish the Toronto Public Library’s reading challenge last year, after so many years of leaving it half-done, some of you asked if I was planning to do the new challenge.
Not likely, I said. But then the 2025 challenge was in the form of a Bingo card. Which I found irresistible. Almost immediately, “not likely” transformed into “maybe”.
So, then I thought, well, I’ll just complete a column or a line: that will be fun.
And, since then, I’ve read 12 books… none of which connect to form a column or line. (Honestly, what are the odds? I’m not math-y.)
Some I’ve written about here already, and I’ve included their National identity (as they, themselves, have defined it, whenever possible) in brackets, because I’m choosing Indigenous, First Nations, and/or Inuit writers.
3. A Book Written By a Neurodivergent Author:
i heard a crow before I was born by jules delorme (2024) [Kanien’kehá:ka]
9. A Book about Nature:
The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer (2024) [Citizen Potawatomi Nation]
18. A Book by an Author Who Has Written More than 25 Books:
Black Ice by Thomas King (2024) [Cherokee/German-Greek]
19. A Book with Ghosts:
Exposure by Ramona Emerson (2024) [Diné]
20. A Book Likely to Become a Classic:
Don’t Take Your Love to Town by Ruby Langford (1988) [Bundjalung, Aboriginal]
But I’ve read seven books that fit seven other categories too, so I’ll share more about those next time. (Sneak peek in the accompanying image!)
Which categories would you find the easiest, and which the most challenging? Is there one that is neither the hardest or easiest but which strikes you as exceptionally interesting?
And, if you were going to choose a theme, to add another layer of challenge to your reading, what would you choose?
After combining your first two TPL posts, you also need a book with a number in the title to get a row. That one shouldn’t be too hard. You’ve probably already done it! Lol
I listened to The Serviceberry – so lovely!
Heheh Yes, I did, actually. I was on the hold list for awhile, but then it crashed down when all the others arrived too. And I was so surprised that it actually finished a column: it seemed that would never happen!
Ok interesting category – a book by an incarcerated, or formerly incarcerated person. My pick for that one – Anne Perry!
CPL does a reading challenge that is simply encouraging people to read every single day. Kids and adults alike. There are pretty awesome prizes (apple airpods are one of the prizes for the adults). It’s called “ultimate summer challenge” and I’m trying to find a sponsor for it – any ideas? LOL
Ha! I was just noticing her in my reading log, her Charlotte and Thomas Pitt historical mysteries. Summer does seem like a good time to read mysteries but, then, you are an all-year-round mystery/suspense reader, so who cares about the weather. lol
Calling out to…everyone. heheh If you actually get a sponser out of this comment section, you need to TELL ME. lol #untappedpotential
OMG could you imagine!? What an upper hand I would have on all the other fundraisers out there LOL
I couldn’t access the website either! So weird. Good luck with your challenge. Seems like it’s working well for you!
My own “challenge” it to read down my piles of books at my bedside. I’m on a buying ban and a library holds ban until I do.
On a couple of sites recently I’ve had the “waiting to verify” loading screen, and I think that something similar must be in place for the library (given that the cyberattack in fall 2023 took their computers offline for 6 months), but it’s not flagging for me (or Anne, apparently) in Canada.
That’s an excellent “challenge”. Ohhh, dear. I should also be “doing” that one. Over the winter, I was happily focused on my own shelves but, now that it’s easier to get around on the sidewalks again, my library loans are busting out all over the place. Do you simply “pause” your holds? Or you disallow yourself from even placing them?
Looks like a great challenge! I got the Forbidden message that others have mentioned, but sneaked in via a Canadian VPN. I don’t tend to do challenges like this, but it does seem like a good way of broadening your reading out. I think some of them I’d cover naturally, but others would force me to read something new. For example, I have read a “book by an incarcerated or formerly incarcerated person” in the past, but it’s not a regular thing, and I’d like to do it more. So maybe I’ll try that as my Toronto Library inspired challenge! Also this was my first time seeing the “2SLGBTQ+” designation, so it was good to read about that and learn about the two-spirit identity.
That’s the part of reading challenges that works for me too, almost like a memory aid…remember the time you read that thing you don’t usually read and remember how interesting it was…why don’t you do that again. For that category, do you know the poetry of Reginald Dwayne Betts? I think you might like how he plays with ideas about masculinity alongisde his political observations. Which makes his poetry sound very serious and heavy, but it’s not all that. His new one is titled Doggerel which hints at that quiet playfulness, and his debut was Felon (I bought it immediately after borrowing it from the library). There are quite a few good books by writers who identify as two-spirit, but if the concept is new-to-you, this biography could be a great introduction, because her style is so straightforward and clear (and it’s had a lot of press, so I’m guessing that has translated into wider availability for epubs). Thanks for reminding me that I could have tried a VPN “from” other countries to see what others were seeing! /headbonk heheh
Good luck with the new Toronto Public Library’s reading challenge! I’m doing a couple of challenges that are prompting me to declutter my shelf.
Now that’s an interesting way to approach a challenge…as an incentive to make new/different spaces on your shelves! Because simply saying “I must read from this shelf” doesn’t always work. lol
Like Stephanie I got a message ‘403 Forbidden’ when I attempted the link, and also when I attempted to access TPL directly.
For the categories you’ve chosen above, 18 is easy, a Simenon (400 novels), The Widow Couderc. For 19 the closest I get is Margaret Cavendish’s The Blazing World in which bodiless spirits predominate. I read classics all the time, but the last new book I read likely to become a classic was, well Praiseworthy was a classic from the moment it was published, but let’s say The House of Rust, (2021) by Khadija Abdalla Bajaber,
Oooooh, okay, so it seems like an anywhere-outside-Canada-Thing then. Thank you: I will find a way to include the list here, and I’ll remember that for the next post for this challenge.
Your choices for Destined to be a Classic are perfect, but I enjoyed reading all of your possibilites. Dang that Maigret though, he keeps popping up. heheh
Sadly the internet forbids me to view the bingo card link. It sounds like a fund challenge though and you are doing well by the sound of it! I asked my mystery reading mom is she had heard of Thomas King and she hadn’t and then she told he doesn’t write the sorts of books she is interested in. Oh well.
It wouldn’t connect to the page itself even, just with the list of categories, or it wouldn’t let you download the PDF? That’s so weird! Is your internet provider blocking all Canadian sites until we’re the 51st state? (i.e. never)
That made me laugh because I read it as you asking her, and her saying she hadn’t heard of him and he doesn’t write the kind of books she likes, all in one breath, like that’s just how disinterested she was. But, quite possibly, there was plenty of time for her to go investigate further in between there!
I get a 403 forbidden error when I click on the link. Maybe Canada is blocking the U.S.? 😉
LOL, I texted my mom about the book/author and she replied she hadn’t heard of him and she’d look him up. Then a little while later she texted me and said he doesn’t write her kind of book. So there was some passage of time 😀
Given the expression on the Canadian PM’s face at the recent political gathering while 47 was talking, I’m inclined to agree: that could be it. LOL
Well, now, of course I’m going to ask: what IS your mom’s kind of book? It seems like some mystery readers run the gamut from cosy-to-thriller, but I could see some being committed to either end of that spectrum too.
I found the Bingo Card on the TPL Facebook Page. Most challenging would probably be the Canadian specific ones, only because they wouldn;t necessarily be my focus. If I’m going to read poetry, for example, I;d read one of the Aussie collections on ny TBR. But I think we could change those sections of the Bingo Card to reflect the intent, which is the reader’s national location.
I would be most interested in a book – and I mean a novel when I say this – by an incarcerated or formerly incarcerated person and one about artificial intelligence (perhaps not overly speculative but grappling with how it is affecting us now more than second-guessing the future). 14, An unethical main character also interests me.
Least interesting would be an instructional book. There’s nothing I’m particularly keen to be instructed on at the moment! And, I wouldn’t seek one with ghosts. There are many easy ones so I won’t go there.
I’ve just read Olive Kitteridge, and I would say it has a good chance of becoming a classic, given how long it has already lasted. In terms of other recent reads, Theory and Practice by Michelle de Kretser includes love triangles though they are not the novel’s pivot. And, this might be stretching it, but there’s a bit of forced proximity in Everett’s James (but the main proximity in the book, with Huck, you wouldn’t call “forced”) where he, or other slaves, are forced to be in the orbit of those who own them!
Totally fair; I’m sure that a library system as large as Toronto’s is working as much on a cultural level as a community level, so they would be onboard with your selecting an Australian poet. heheh But you could also read more Thomas King!
At first, I was struggling with that category, because I’m trying to select only Indigenous writers, and suddenly I realised that any “residential school” memoir suits. That’s not language that’s commonly used in regards to that system, but it’s appropriate (forced attendance, eradicated cultural traditions, a genocidal policy at the root of it all, etc.). When I realised that, I also realised that these challenges can impact us in many ways: changing not only what we read, but how we frame our reading.
Your words got me thinking about what an instructional book for ghosts would be like. LOL My choice for instructional was perhaps a stretch for what the challenge designers had in mind, but I also think that’s part of the fun. Some psychological books (like Oliver Burkeman’s, for instance) or some philosophical poetry/essays (like Ross Gay’s…if you are not familiar, I think you would LOVE his delights, short pieces on what matters): I think those could be viewed as instructive too, perhaps.
Oh, yes, I have not finished the part in James that I think you’re referencing (beyond the institutional framework of slavery which, I agree, is enough to satisfy the category) but I do recall it clearly in Huck Finn’s (i.e. Twain’s) narrative.
I’m not sure if it would be available for you, but I think so? The mini-series of Olive Kitteridge is very enjoyable and faithful to the book in all the right ways. I really, really loved it. (And the book of course.) And the Love Triangle one is proving to be elusive for me in an Indigenous novel…but there are still a few months left.
I’ve never managed to even start, much less complete, the TPL challenge. I keep thinking of these days I should try. And looking over the list now, I see that I would have completed a few categories.
Book with an athlete would be the challenging one for me!
Tread carefully…that’s just how it happened with me…realising I’d already completed some categories, by the by…and now, look what’s happened.
A few years ago, there was a hockey book on the Toronto Book Awards’ list and…I really liked it? Richard Wagamese’s Indian Horse would have been great; I hope I can find another like it.
I’d struggle with a book set in space, though I could just do Douglas Adams again I suppose! Have fun!
I might have to ask for some suggestions on BlueSky for a couple of the categories, if I actually decide to finish (and not just get a colume/row)!
I definitely don’t need more reading challenges but I think this is a great idea! I’ll look forward to hearing how you get on with it.
Beautiful challenge! Wonderful books you’ve read! Loved Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass. Will add this new one to my list now. Thanks for sharing
Nice to see you here, Vishy! Thank you for coming over to visit. /passes tray of tea and treats
This is a very short book; I think the whole text is available here, or very close to it, and if you follow the “Emergence” podcast you can hear it rather than read it.
Does anyone, I wonder? heheh There are definitely a couple of categories I’m concerned about, but I wasn’t expecting the “Space” one to be solved so neatly (by two books, actually, one after the next, neither one expected to fit), so we’ll see…