2019 13 Ways of Looking at The Lifetime Reading Plan Reading Challenge! #13WLRP

We're back for year three! I created the perpetual reading challenge, 13 Ways of Looking at The Lifetime Reading Plan back in September 2017 (read all the details and sign-up here), and I promised to offer a yearly challenge to assist us in meeting our reading goals and staying accountable with the perpetual challenge.

Details...

1. Be sure to sign up for the 13WLRP perpetual challenge.

I will be hosting these year long challenges annually so you will be able to mark a lot of books off your lists.

2. Pick a reading level.

Decide how many books from the lists you want to read in 2019.

13Ways Challenge Novice: 1 to 3 books
13Ways Challenge Eager Reader : 4 to 8 books
13Ways Challenge Buff: 9 to 13 books
13Ways Challenge Devotee: 14 to 18
13Ways Challenge Diehard Reader: More than 19

3. Grab the challenge button and write a post.

<div class="gather-together-and-read-button" style="width: 380px; margin: 0 auto;">
<a href="https://www.gathertogetherread.com/2018/12/2019-13-ways-of-looking-at-lifetime.html" rel="nofollow">
<img src="http://photos.truebookaddict.com/i.ashx?&mid=103881227&mt=Photo&standardsize=500x333" alt="Gather Together and Read" width="380" height="253" />
</a>
</div>

You can write the post on your blog, website, Facebook or Google+ or any other social media.

Please show your support and help spread the word by including the challenge button in your posts. You can also add the button in your sidebar. Thanks!

4. Register for this challenge in the Linky below.

Fill out the linky by doing the following:
Link title: Name and blog title (e.g. Michelle @ True Book Addict)
URL: Link to your Challenge Post, not your blog
If you ever have any difficulties using the form, or any other questions, don’t hesitate to email me. There's a contact me button in the sidebar.

5. Each time you read a book (and review, if you review) you can add your review to the 13 Ways Challenge review page.

Add your review on the 13 Ways Challenge review page and cross another book off your list for this challenge! Well done!

When sharing your reviews or discussing this challenge on Twitter, use the hashtag #13WLRP

6. Write a wrap-up post

I'll write up a wrap-up post at the end of 2019 and there will be a linky to link your wrap-up posts. If you finish before the end of the year, you can share your wrap-up link in the comments below.

GUIDELINES

• The challenge runs from January 1 through December 31, 2019.
• You can make a pre-selected list of books, or make it up along the way.
• Crossing over with other challenges is encouraged!
• Any book format - print, audio, ebook - is allowed.

RESOURCES

The two lists we are reading from can be found in the sidebar, or access here:
13 Ways Challenge - List 1
13 Ways Challenge - List 2

Sign up below:

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2017 Yearly Challenges - Wrap-Up Post

I want to apologize. I did not have time to do individual wrap-up posts for the three 2017 challenges I hosted. I'm posting the links to those challenges below. If you completed the challenge (or even if you didn't) and you post a wrap-up, please link up in the original linky on the challenge sign up post. When you put your name/blog name, just add "wrap-up." Like so:  truebookaddict/wrap-up

Here are the links to the 2017 challenges:

Read Your (Book) Shelf Challenge

2017 13 Ways of Looking at The Lifetime Reading Plan Reading Challenge

2017 Book to Movie Reading Challenge

Be sure to leave a comment on the post so I know you added your wrap-up. 

In case you missed the sign-up for this year's year long challenges, you can find them below.

2018 Read Your (Book) Shelf Challenge

2018 13 Ways of Looking at The Lifetime Reading Plan Reading Challenge

2018 Book to Movie Reading Challenge

Hope to see you again this year!

2018 13 Ways of Looking at The Lifetime Reading Plan Reading Challenge! #13WLRP

We're back for year two! I created the perpetual reading challenge, 13 Ways of Looking at The Lifetime Reading Plan back in September 2017 (read all the details and sign-up here), and I promised to offer a yearly challenge to assist us in meeting our reading goals and staying accountable with the perpetual challenge.

Details...

1. Be sure to sign up for the 13WLRP perpetual challenge.

I will be hosting these year long challenges annually so you will be able to mark a lot of books off your lists.

2. Pick a reading level.

Decide how many books from the lists you want to read in 2017.

13Ways Challenge Novice: 1 to 3 books
13Ways Challenge Eager Reader : 4 to 8 books
13Ways Challenge Buff: 9 to 13 books
13Ways Challenge Devotee: 14 to 18
13Ways Challenge Diehard Reader: More than 19

3. Grab the challenge button and write a post.

<div class="gather-together-and-read-button" style="width: 380px; margin: 0 auto;">
<a href="http://www.gathertogetherread.com/2017/12/2018-13-ways-of-looking-at-lifetime.html" rel="nofollow">
<img src="http://photos.truebookaddict.com/i.ashx?&mid=102915215&mt=Photo&standardsize=500x333" alt="Gather Together and Read" width="380" height="253" />
</a>
</div>

You can write the post on your blog, website, Facebook or Google+ or any other social media.

Please show your support and help spread the word by including the challenge button in your posts. You can also add the button in your sidebar. Thanks!

4. Register for this challenge in the Linky below.

Fill out the linky by doing the following:
Link title: Name and blog title (e.g. Michelle @ True Book Addict)
URL: Link to your Challenge Post, not your blog (e.g. http://www.truebookaddict.com/2017/01/2017-13-wlrp-challenge-signup.html
If you ever have any difficulties using the form, or any other questions, don’t hesitate to email me. There's a contact me button in the sidebar.

5. Each time you read a book (and review, if you review) you can add your review to the 13 Ways Challenge review page.

Add your review on the 13 Ways Challenge review page and cross another book off your list for this challenge! Well done!

When sharing your reviews or discussing this challenge on Twitter, use the hashtag #13WLRP

6. Write a wrap-up post

I'll write up a wrap-up post at the end of 2017 and there will be a linky to link your wrap-up posts. If you finish before the end of the year, you can share your wrap-up link in the comments below.

GUIDELINES

• The challenge runs from January 1 through December 31, 2018.
• You can make a pre-selected list of books, or make it up along the way.
• Crossing over with other challenges is encouraged!
• Any book format - print, audio, ebook - is allowed.

RESOURCES 

The two lists we are reading from can be found in the sidebar, or access here:
13 Ways Challenge - List 1
13 Ways Challenge - List 2

Sign up below:

Mister Linky's Magical Widgets -- Easy-Linky widget will appear right here!
This preview will disappear when the widget is displayed on your site.
If this widget does not appear, click here to display it.

The Handmaid's Tale Read-Along - Discussion #Resistance #13WLRP

I'm wondering if now was a good time to read a book like this...because it scared me, and I had a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach throughout reading it. I now realize that it's an important read because it demonstrates why we must fight to keep the freedoms we have won. We must not let our status as women be demoted to that of the women in this book. We must not let the tenets of our Constitution (United States) be trampled upon. The freedom of speech, of the press, to address grievances. The separation of church and state.

I think the fear really hit me when I read this passage (p. 174, Ch. 28). "It was after the catastrophe, when they shot the president and machine-gunned the Congress and the army declared a state of emergency. They blamed it on the Islamic fanatics, at the time."

Sound familiar?

Then, when Offred (the woman she was in the past) goes to buy cigarettes and is told that her Compubank card is invalid. Then she, along with the other women who work with her, is let go from her job. She finds out later that day from her friend, Moira that "women can't hold property anymore. It's a new law."

Sucker punch. I pride myself on my independence, as I'm sure many women do, whether they're married (or in a relationship) or not. Could this happen? Is this what insidious plan some government officials might have in mind for women?

This is probably my favorite quote from the novel. "Better never means better for everyone...It always means worse for some." The commander is the one who says this to Offred. Its meaning echoes the sentiments of one who says, "Make American great again." The quote is the Commander's justification for Gilead existing when Offred asks why it is such an awful society for women. As in most dictatorships, the elite believe the change they caused were for the public good, no matter how many people suffer as a result. Again, sound familiar?

It is truly alarming when a dystopian novel, a work of fiction, may be foreshadowing what's to come if the state of our country continues to proceed down the path it is currently on. It's a cue to us that we cannot be complacent. As many of us know from history, people never believed that things could get as bad as they did during the Holocaust. They never imagined that people would be imprisoned and killed just because they were Jewish, because they didn't fit the Arian mold that Hitler coined as the supreme human.

Complacency. We cannot smugly sit by and think, "That could never happen" because it very well could.

So, what are your thoughts? Share your insight and/or, if you wrote a blog post, share the link in the comments.


Thanks for reading along!

The Handmaid's Tale Read-Along - Update #Resistance

Okay, so I got behind on the read-along. (I suck, I know) Then I got sick. 😠 So, I've decided to do a final discussion this Friday which will be open all day. I created an event for our discussion here (if you're on Facebook and are a member of our group over there, you should have rec'd invites): https://www.facebook.com/events/168940450278958/ 

If you haven't yet joined the group, you'll find it here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1625188764455723/

I will have a post up here for discussion as well, for those who are not on Facebook. Stop by, start a conversation, share your thoughts, share your blog post(s).

Thanks for bearing with me, guys. Real life (mostly politics 😉 ) keeps interfering with my reading ambitions.

The Handmaid's Tale - A #Resistance Read-Along #13WLRP

In light of recent events in our country, I had decided that I was going to read Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and George Orwell's 1984 in the next couple of months. I had much interaction on Facebook about these titles and, as I've been wanting to read Atwood's book for a very long time, and the TV series is coming to Hulu soon, I decided to go for it and host a read-along next month. A bonus is that this book is on List 2 (#231 in the Going Further section) for the 13 Ways of Looking at The Lifetime Reading Plan challenge. So, it will allow participants of the challenge to mark one off their list for the perpetual challenge, and the yearly challenge.

Note: You do not have to be a challenge participant to join in on the read-along. That being said, I do hope you will take a look at the challenge and think about signing up.

This is not a very long book so there will be a simple read-along schedule. My copy is the 1998 Anchor Books trade paperback edition. Total pages, 311. That page count is including a 13 page Historical Notes section at the end of the book. Excluding those pages, the page count is 295.

Discussion will take place in our Gather Together and Read group on Facebook. I will also post a discussion post here on the blog for those who are not on Facebook. When/if you mention the read-along on social media, please use the hashtag #Resistance

Schedule:

• Start reading on Febrary 1st
  Read through Chapter IX - Night (ending on page 147)
• Midpoint discussion will be on February 15 in our discussion group on Facebook - there will be a post here for those who are not on Facebook.
• Start reading section two on February 16
  Chapter X - Soul Scrolls (page 151) - read to the end of the book (you can elect, or not, to read the historical notes - we will probably discuss, as I'm sure they give insight into the book)
• Discussion on section two/book as a whole on February 28 in our Facebook discussion group - there will be a post here for those who are not on Facebook.

You can sign-up by posting about it on your blog (or on social media) and adding your link in the Mister Linky widget below. Please use #Resistance when sharing about this read-along on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc.

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