Count me among the two thirds of American adults without a TikTok account. I’m slow, therefore, to pick up on TikTok trends and challenges. Having only just heard about the 75 Booked Challenge, I figured I’d offer my thoughts.
75 Booked Challenge
Unlike many TikTok challenges, this one doesn’t involve dancing, music, or posting videos, and it poses no physical danger to participants. Over the course of seventy-five days, you must:
- Complete two 45-minute reading sessions each day (one of them not in bed),
- Finish drinking a bottle of water during each reading session,
- Log all your reading in a physical journal, and
- Read books (paper, ebooks, or audiobooks) you already own, or that you bought secondhand, or borrowed from a library. Do not purchase new books for this challenge.
You can learn more about the challenge itself here, here, and here.
Benefits
Not long ago, I lamented, in a blogpost about the decline of reading in America. In that post, I cited a study showing reading for pleasure reduces stress, increases creativity, boosts empathy, improves your vocabulary, and aids sleep.
75 Days
The 75 Booked Challenge seems a fine way to re-start a stalled reading habit. The duration of seventy-five days spans enough time to challenge you, but not so long as to seem impossible.
Two 45-Minute Sessions
The two sessions per day allow enough time for focused reading while still permitting time for other daily tasks. However, for many people, those ninety minutes will force other important daily chores and activities to the sidelines during the challenge.
Physical Journal
I find the requirement to log the accomplishments in a physical journal interesting. The challenge doesn’t mandate full book reviews or anything specific. However, logging anything about the book you’ve just read may help you retain basic facts about it. The log serves as a record of your accomplishment. At the end of the challenge it will stand as proof of what you’ve done, and could spur you to continue reading, and logging, at some level.
Already-Owned Books
I support readers purchasing books, so this aspect of the challenge disappoints me. However, it helps clear out the TBR (to be read) list of books people bought and haven’t gotten to yet.
Water Bottle?
I puzzled over this aspect. Water and reading occupy non-overlapping circles in any Venn diagram. Still, drinking water won’t harm you.
Conclusion
All in all, this challenge could benefit most Americans. I hope it catches on. Personally, I do plenty of reading, but a writing challenge might be better bet for—
Poseidon’s Scribe
