Tag Archives: reading challenge

Bibliopolis U Summer Reading Challenge!

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Over at Gracepoint Berkeley church, we have had over 110 people get free 5th books this past semester. And I know there are some of you who read but opted not to take a free book — that’s a lot of reading we’ve done together. In fact, my informal survey results of college and post-college folks are in, and we have read over 750 books! That is pretty awesome.

With summer upon us, and building on the reading momentum of this past semester, I’m setting my sights on a collective 1,000. What do you say?

To help us in this endeavor, I am pleased to unveil our Summer Reading Challenge. It’s a bingo-style board that gives you multi-disciplinary categories of books to read. In addition to this past semester’s Christian book reading challenge, you’ll notice some fiction and non-fiction included. You can find a link to an in-progress list of possible suggestions for those squares on the Bibliopolis U Recommended Reading List page.  Last but not least, there are some Bible squares for those of you who have Bible-reading goals for the summer!

For each bingo line you complete (up to 5), you can win a free book. Read the entire board and you’ll be in for a special prize.

Click on the game board to download one for yourself!

“But I didn’t even finish my four books yet!!” If this is you, you’ll notice that all is not lost — you can transfer up to 2 books from your in-progress 1st bookmark. This doesn’t apply to those of you who are on book 8 or 23!

You’ll notice there is a spot at the bottom to include your ministry group affiliation. There may or may not be a prize for the group that read the most books (per capita, to be fair).

You can always contact me directly if you have specific questions regarding any book you’re hoping to apply towards the challenge. Happy reading!

Are you up for the challenge? Which bingo line are you going to start with? Are you in the middle of a book right now that you can use on the board? 🙂

Needing to Chew on What We Read

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People are starting to get competitive about the Free 5th Book Ceremony, especially as I called out (in a friendly way!) certain groups of people…but we have to remember that the most important thing is not finishing books as fast as possible, but allowing yourself the time to be inspired, ministered to, and challenged by what you read!

To that end, we have Baby Corrie from Gracepoint Berkeley church, who captures a couple of valuable lessons for us all.

1) It’s never too early to start reading!
2) We really should chew on what we read! 🙂

 

*By the way, a2f Berkeley is now on the board 🙂

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2016 Reading Resolutions & Reading Challenge!

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You probably saw this one coming. I know we’re almost to the end of January, but 2016 still feels new, and the beginning of the year often means resolutions and goal-setting. “Read more” is often on people’s list of resolutions. In fact it was in the top 10 resolutions of 2015, according to the Nielsen Report.

Whether you’ve set some concrete reading goals (I’m trying to read 365 books this year — I’m on book 28, but then again, I read a lot of children’s books!), or you’re part of the generally “read more” group, I invite you to participate in the official unofficial 2016 Bibliopolis Reading Challenge.

  1. Read a Christian biography or autobiography. As you know, Nikki from Gracepoint San Diego recommends the Watchman Nee biography.
  2. Read, or reread, one of the C.S. Lewis Five: Mere Christianity, Miracles, The Problem of Pain, The Abolition of Man, The Screwtape Letters.
  3. Read a Christian “series,” or basically 3 (or more) books by the same author. Whether it is Lee Strobel’s The Case for… books, Helen Rosevere’s Living… books. You can create your own series. 🙂
  4. Read a book that has been on your TBR (To Be Read) list for a long time. For me, that’s The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky. I’m completely serious when I say that it has been on my TBR since 1995. I think 20 years is long enough.
  5. Read a work of non-fiction that isn’t a memoir or (auto)biography.
  6. Read a book about a historical event or era.
  7. Read a book about or set in a different part of the world. Expand your horizons!
  8. Read one of the books that you were supposed to read in high school, but you fake read. Or if you were a dutiful student who read all of the books you were assigned, you can choose one of the “classic books” that other people seem to have read but your teachers never assigned. For me, that’s Homer’s The Odyssey. (I think it was because Homer was still writing it when I was in high school.)
  9. Read a children’s book you never read. It could be a recent one, or one from long ago. For me, that’s Where the Red Fern Grows. I know you’re thinking, “No, that’s actually impossible, because everyone’s read it.” But I’m not kidding.
  10. Read a book of poetry. Anthologies are good, if you don’t know where to start.

That’s 12 books, so you could break it down to an average of a book a month. If that’s too easy, then just double each of the categories. 🙂

Let the reading challenge begin, and let’s all celebrate having “read more” come December 31, 2016! Reading challenges are always fun to do together, so maybe you and your peers, life group, or housemates can participate together. Are you in? 🙂