My eldest Fancy Girl and I have started a reading challenge to each read 50 books in 2017. Want to join us?

I didn’t set out for us to join any challenge at the beginning of the month, but one of my goals for the two of us was to read together. She LOVES reading and got a boat load of books for Christmas. I enjoy reading too, but I don’t make time for it(when it’s not a marketing or business book). I’ll go through spurts of reading marathons and hop from one book to another over a few weeks, but all it takes is one night of working late to throw me off track. And that’s why I’m making a conscious decision, and a public declaration, that we are going to aim to read 50 books in 2017!

Where did this challenge come from? Honestly, I don’t know. I had just completed Truly, Madly, Guilty (Book #1) by Liane Moriarty and hopped on Instagram to see who else enjoyed it (By the way – I loved it!). As I was scrolling through the various posts, I spotted the hashtag #50booksin2017. I then told my eldest that we should do this challenge together and she was up for it! After a quick search on Google, I found that Goodreads has a Reading Challenge where you can set a personal goal for 2017, but it’s not specifically 50. I’m not sure the origin of the hashtag, but it’s been going on for a few years and is just part of the popular social challenge options for every new year.

So enough talking about it. Let’s get started! Here’s how it works. If you want to join us, comment below that you’re IN and then just start reading. Share the books that you and your daughters read on social media using the hashtag #50booksin2017. If you think about it, come back here and comment with the titles of the books so you can share the book love with others.

My First Books

I typically alternate between mystery and chick lit (and sometimes a little sappy romance). I’m starting with mystery and am already into my 2nd book. I mentioned above that I finished Truly, Madly, Guilty. The original plan was for my daughter and I to read together at the same time, but I just couldn’t put it down. I literally read until my eyes were stinging from exhaustion. That only made her eager to catch up and keep reading too. Since I was reading on my Kindle app, I was shown some suggested books that were similar and was intrigued by  Find Her, by Lisa Gardner. After reading the very enthusiastic reviews on Goodreads, I immediately hopped on my library’s Overdrive app and borrowed it. It’s already a suspenseful page-turner and one that I can imagine playing out on the big (or small) screen.

My Daughter’s First Book

My daughter, who is in 3rd grade, has to read for school (we’ll count those books too), but I wanted to get a new book for her from the local library. I’m still figuring out what she likes, but we finally settled on Take Two, by Julia DeVillers and Jennifer Roy. This is part of the Trading Faces series that DeVillers writes with her twin sister and is about, you guessed it, twins who trade places. So far, she’s really enjoying the book; maybe she’ll read a few of them as part of the challenge.

So how does the 50 books in 2017 challenge sound to you? Are you in? If you don’t think you’ll make it to 50, I would still love to know what you’re reading and what your daughters love too. To be quite honest, 50 books is pretty daunting to me too, but I’m going to give it a try. I don’t always get to spend 1:1 time with her, so this is our chance to do something together.

Happy reading!