Another year, another reading challenge for me to tackle. I am not always successful with these reading goals I set for myself, regardless I find fun in the challenge. If you are setting a goal this year, remember it is for fun. You do not have to have a challenge or goal to be a reader, engaging blogger, or reviewer. Read what makes you happy, do what makes you happy.
This year I am focusing on reading for free. No buying books, new or used. I am going to explore the accessibility of reading for free the United States. I have a small reading list I will be focusing on as well.
I am impatient and want to read what I want as soon as possible. I was an active library user, but since the influx of readers to libraries at the start of the pandemic, I got way from it. Prior to covid, I was dependent on my local libraries for free reads, desktop computers, and printing. Beyond libraries I would swap books with friends and coworkers, which I also got away from turning to ebooks.
Why do this?
I have written a few post about libraries and often see many write about how amazing libraries are. I think there is truth in this, but also is not true for every library. I have lived in central Texas, west Texas, south Oklahoma, central Delaware, and now Colorado. All of which have offered a verity of services, innovatory, and used various reading apps (Hoopla, Libby, Overdrive, their own website). I am an advocate for literacy, so it is time to fully explore what America has to offer for free reading.
I am expecting this to be difficult, but also hope to have a positive experience.
What are my guidelines?
I came up with a few rules to follow as I navigate this free reading experience.
- Buy no books. New or used.
- I will use my library cards for my main source of books.
- Other free options can be explored
- Read all of the books on my reading list, from a library.
- I can read books I currently own
- I will accept books as gifts and ARCS
Reading list for the 2022
My husband bought me a scratch off reading poster two years ago, 100 Epic Reads of a Lifetime. I have been too nervous to actually scratch off the titles, so it is time to actually use the poster. I have read a few of the titles listed and decided it would be the most reasonable list to tackle while reading from a library since most of the books are older.

After going through the books, I have 35 titles to read from this list. I have a few novels and series to finish as well, I am not going to list those out.
- Life of Pi
- The Catcher in the Rye
- The Count of Monto Christopher
- The Old Man and the Sea
- And Then There We’re None
- Don Quixote
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
- Anne of Green Gables
- Grapes of Wrath
- The Adventure of Sherlock Homes
- A Suitable Boy
- Midnight Children
- Things Fall Apart
- The Color Purple
- Little Women
- The Posionwood Bible
- The Brothers Karamazov
- Crime and Punishment
- On the Road
- Ulysses
- The Help
- Great Expectation
- The Bell Jar
- Beloved
- Outlander
- David Copperfield
- Emma
- Memories of a Geisha
- Rebecca
- Never Let Me Go
- The Sun Also Rises
- One Hundred Years of Solitude
- Anna Karenina
- Catch-22
- A Prayer for Own Meany

YAY for 2022!
I am excited to tackle this challenge and share my reading experience with you. Do you have any reading goals or challenge you are planning to follow in 2022?
That poster is a fantastic idea! This year I started using Scribd and I haven’t look back. It has such a great selection of books that I managed to not buy any new books in 2021!
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I haven’t used Scribd myself but have only read good things about it!
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I am late to this post, I followed a link from Brianna at Pages Unbound. This is such a good idea. I’m sure that you will find lots of ways around this to read for free. Indie and self-pub
authors would be a great source of both physical and e-books in exchange for a review.
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I have gotten more ARC and ebooks in exchange for a review lately!
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