Reading Challenge for Academics

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so with a doff of the professor's  tam and my apologies to Megan C. Troup, I am stealing her reading challenge idea to start one of my own. Troup runs book challenges over at her blog Semi-Charmed Kind of Life. I like the way she does her challenges because they're not just a number, but not so prescriptive as to require everyone to read and discuss the same book. 

Instead, she creates a set of categories designed to get readers to try new things.  I did her summer reading challenge this year, and I may also try her winter challenge. However, since we academics read for a living, I thought we could use our own challenge that included space for more specialized literature, flexed our reading muscles with some interdisciplinary categories, and allowed some breaks for serious but “fun” reads.....all the while, structuring in a bit of promotional support for our friends and colleagues.This one goes for the length of the fall semester and winter break and includes 14 books total.

   Extra instructions for people who like to read academic books, but aren’t professors appear in italics

Rules:

The academic books must be at least 175 pages long

Novels must be at least 200 pages long

Any book on the list, except where specified by category, can be a novel

Books can only count for one category, but you can switch them from one category to the other before you’re done if you like.

Only one book can be a re-read

Audiobooks are fine as long as they are unabridged and the print editions are at least 200 pages long. 

To fit the framework of the challenge, books must be started no earlier than midnight on Tuesday 9/2 and finished no later than Dec. 31 midnight. 

Note for non-professional academics: In any place where it says “academic book” look for any book published by a scholar with a university press.  Look for the publisher info and the “scholarly apparatus”: footnotes /or endnotes, appendices, acknowledgments mentioning colleagues, graduate students, dissertation committees, etc.

5 points: Read any book related to your research or teaching (at least 200 pages long) (Non-professors, read any academic book)

10 points: Read a book written by a friend, acquaintance or colleague

10 points: Read a book by a former student or former teacher

10 points: Read an entire academic journal issue including book reviews

15 points: Read a book reviewed in the journal issue above

15 points: Read an academic book about a country or region that isn’t part of your research or your current teaching.  (Non-academics, read an academic book about a country or region that you don’t usually read about)

15 points:  Read a book that you always meant to read but never got to or never finished  (Non-professors, read a book assigned for a course that you never read or never finished when you were a student)

20 points:  Read a novel that was nominated for the National Book Award in 2014. The long list will be published in September and the finalists will be announced Oct. 15th.

20 points: Read a book about current events written by a journalist

25 points: Read a Pulitzer Prize winning book from before 1970 (any category). Find a list here: http://www.pulitzer.org/bycat

20 points: Read a book with “house”, “apartment” or “room” in the title.

35 points: Read three academic books on the same general subject, one from each category: history, literary criticism, ethnography.

*** As you make your preliminary lists, post them in the comments on this post. I'll do check-ins periodically.