a husband & wife reading challenge

One of my favorite writers/bloggers/humans Sarah Bessey recently wrote a blog post about a challenge her and her husband are embarking on in 2014. The idea is pretty simple. They each came up with a list of 12 of their favorite books for the other person to finish reading by the end of the year. Interesting, right?

One of of the things my husband and I have always had in common is our love for reading. We are both talking about books we love and books we've read recently, but they are rarely ever the same book. Our tastes in books couldn't be more different and we are constantly telling each other "You really should read XYZ." So when I sent my husband the link to Sarah's post and asked if he was interested in doing something similar, I shouldn't have been surprised when he jumped at the chance.

So we took Sarah's lead and created our very own reading challenge for 2014. Our rules are pretty straightforward:

1. Pick a list of 10 books for the other person to read (12 books seemed quite ambitious, so we stuck with 10)
2. Try to finish the list by the end of 2014
3. Reading only. No audiobooks!

I've enlisted my husband to help me reveal the details of our reading challenge and give some insight into his choices!

Husband's List for Me
1. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card 2. Just a Geek by Wil Wheton 3. Magician's Apprentice by Raymond E Feist 4. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larson 5. Lucky Man by Michael J Fox 6. American Gods by Neil Gaiman 7. 11/22/63 by Stephen King 8. Storm Front by Jim Butcher 9. On a Pale Horse by Piers Anthony 10. Eragon by Christopher Paolini
Husband's Explanation: When Alyssa first asked me to do this project with her, I immediately got excited. Reading was always something that I loved to do as a kid, and now as an adult, I never seem to have the time for it. Almost right away, I started on my list. I started going through the list of books I loved, and couldn't believe I hadn't shared a single one with Alyssa. How was I ever going to narrow that list down to 10?? I tend to get obsessed with authors, so I decided to start there. Who were my favorite authors? Pick 10. From there, I picked my favorite book from each author. I'm looking forward to this challenge because I get to share with Alyssa a side of me that I haven't shown to her before.

My Reaction: When I first read this list I thought: Nerd alert! (Just kidding. Sort of.) I have never even heard of over half of these books and I instantly panicked on how I was going to make it through this list. I shouldn't have been surprised that my Star Wars-loving, Comic Con-attending husband would have a list heavy with fantasty, sci-fi, and Wil Wheaton, but at least throw in a literary classic or a light-hearted comedy, sweetheart! But I know my husband and I know he is drawn to good stories with good characters. Even though the settings and the genre may not be what I picked for myself, I have no doubt that these are great books. I'm excited to step (way wayyyyyyy) out of my comfort zone for this challenge!

My List for Husband
1. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton 2. Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella 3. Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding 4. The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. 5. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald 6. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne 7. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini 8. Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism by bell hooks 9. Jesus Feminist by Sarah Bessey 10. The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin
My Explanation: This sounds bad, but I tried not to think about my husband when I made this list. I really tried to think of 10 books that either made me happy, made me think, or made me fall in love with reading. I intentionally tried to give some variety between genre and style. I think my list has a good mix of classics, recent bestsellers, and non-fiction. There are some very fluffy and fun choices, but also some very thought-provoking ones as well. Overall, I think this list is a good representation of not only what I like to read, but also me as a person. I'm really curious to see which books my husband responds to and I'm so happy I get to share this part of my life with him.

Husband's Reaction: When Alyssa sent me her list, I was very excited to get started. Some of the books were classics, that I had never bothered or made time to read (The Great Gatsby). Some I would have never chosen for myself (Shopaholic), but was happy to try out. And some were some that I should have read a long time ago, but never knew existed (Martin Luther King Jr.'s Autobiography)! I feel like this project is a great way to find out more about the woman I love. I get to see a new side of her that molded her into the person she is today.


My monthly Obsessions posts already include a section about the books that I'm reading, so look for reading challenge updates there! I totally encourage you to consider taking up this challenge with someone in your life! I'm excited for how this reading challenge is going to enrich both of us this year. Let me know if you take on the challenge yourself!

Would you take on a challenge like this? Would it be easy or difficult for you to select only 10 books for another person to read? What do you think of our lists? Let me know in the comments section!