#READICT Reading Challenge Final 2020 Update

I finished!! This is the first year I have completed the #READICT Reading Challenge. Yay me!!

If you didn’t see the first two posts on the #READICT Reading Challenge, the links are here and here. Check them out to read more about the challenge and to see the first eight books I read for the it.

In case you need the reminder, every year in Wichita, KS the Wichita Public Library partners up with the local newspaper, the Wichita Eagle, to challenge residents to read 12 books in 12 months. Each book you read has to match up with one of the 12 categories they have created, and you have to complete a book in every category by the end of the year. Here are the categories for 2020:

A book with a number in the title
A fix-it, how-to or self-help book
An epistolary novel
A speed read (less than 100 pages)
A book about someone you admire
A book that has been or will be adapted to the big or small screen
A selection from a celebrity book club
A book written by an author new to you
A book featuring a strong female lead
A book everyone is talking about
A “cli-fi” (climate fiction) book, or a book about a natural disaster
A book by an author visiting Kansas in 2020

Fun, right? Once you read a book that fits into one of the categories, you log it using Beanstack and move on to the next book. If you complete all 12 categories, then at the end of the year you’re eligible for a prize. So here is the next and final set of books I have read for this challenge:

A cli-fi book:
A Blizzard Year – Gretel Ehrlich
*This book takes place in modern times, but I had to keep reminding myself I wasn’t reading about the 1800s. A tale of a family living the simple life on a ranch in the Rockies, and how they deal with the year following a winter full of deadly blizzards. Wonderful visuals of the beauty found in all seasons of the Rocky Mountains.

Someone I admire:
My Life in Paris – Julia Child
*I have been obsessed with the movie Julie & Julia for years, and it is my go-to if I want something on in the background while I work. Or if I want inspiration for good food. That is how I met Julia Child. Though the movie tells quite a bit about Julia’s life while in Paris, France, this book goes so much deeper… and makes me so much hungrier.

A fix-it, how-to or self-help book:
Living Life Backward: How Ecclesiastes Teaches Us to Live in Light of the End – David Gibson
*I received this book from my pastor a year ago. It has been on my TBR pile for a while, so I jumped at the chance to read it for this challenge. I am always trying to better myself as a Christian, and I recently read the book of Ecclesiastes so it was fresh in my mind. This book helped challenge ideas and thoughts that I hadn’t fully processed before.

Author slated to visit Kansas in 2020:
Eat, Pray, Love – Elizabeth Gilbert
*I have no idea if Elizabeth Gilbert actually came to Kansas this year with everything cancelling around Covid, but I still read her book. It was a really reflective read and I found myself thinking about her statements long after I put the book down for the night. A great read during this crazy pandemic.

For more information about the challenge: https://www.wichitalibrary.org/readict#beanstack