Back in April, I posted about the Sapphic Reading Challenge 2021 that I have signed up for and I’ve continued to plow through books in the 60 categories (50 “regular” categories plus 10 Unicorn categories).

At first I thought I’d be a bit mercenary – picking and choosing books based on their suitability for different categories, but I actually haven’t shied away from a book because it wouldn’t fit or slow me down. In some cases, I’ve stumbled across an author or series that I’ve never read before and, if I liked the book, I’ve gone completely off track and read more of their books, categories be damned.

Overall I’ve really been enjoying the challenge – it’s forcing me out of my regular reading patterns and comfort authors and I’ve been impressed with a lot of the indie and smaller press offerings that give a broader and more diverse set of characters, plots and settings.

With so many books that fit multiple categories, I’ve been tracking the books in a colour-coded spreadsheet – moving books from one category to the next when I find one that fits the first category better or to fill a gap. I’ve also been mapping out potential books for the gapped categories – and where I need to do a bit more searching to find books that meet the criteria. Right now it looks like a clown threw up on the excel spreadsheet – white for read, green for read/reviewed, yellow for book identified/not read, orange for book identified/not sure if I want to read it, red for no book identified. The book nerd in me is very happy.

MEC’s Progress – August 2021

I’ve been making excellent progress so far with reading. When I first posted about this I had completed 61 of the 110 books I need to complete the challenge and I’m now up to 87 of the books needed. I’ve read more than that – but not everything either fits into one of the categories, I’ve already filled the category with other books or they are not books featuring Sapphic characters.

I’m a bit behind on writing up reviews, so once I get a few more down on virtual paper, I’ll post a full list of the books I’ve read for the Book Dragon Level 1 that should contain links to most (hopefully all) reviews.

And now, because it’s all about the bragging rights, I present my latest Badge: