Happy New Year, friends!

Did you get any books for Christmas? Have you written down your reading goals? Have you finished your first book of 2018?! (if yes, wowza!) Wherever you are in our bookish universe I hope you’re as excited as I am to explore more genres. 🙌🏼

We are kicking off 2018 with two genres we’ve never had on the Colour Me Read Challenge and they are… (drum roll)

Experimental Fiction
You’ve probably read a book from this genre without even knowing it. Experimental fiction is known for breaking the boundaries of traditional fiction or mainstream genres in form, technique, content or theme.

Some that come to mind are House of Leaves, The Illuminae Files, Flowers of Algernon, The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O., Night Film, and The Lover’s Dictionary. Here’s a handy list of books from Goodreads!

Satire
Books from this genre are known for exposing and criticizing the foolishness and corruption of an individual/society by using humour, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule which intends to improve humanity by criticizing its follies and foibles.

Many well-known books fall into this category and they include Animal Farm, Catch-22, Slaughterhouse-Five, 1984, The Screwtape Letters, Fight Club, and Fahrenheit 451. As always here is a list from Goodreads.

I’m not sure if I already own unread books under experimental fiction, but I do own 1984 so I will start with that for my satire pick of the month.

Which book(s) will you be reading?

My favourite time of the year is heeeere! If you love December and its holiday festivities like I do, you’re probably enjoying the happy music, eating all the good food, and burying yourself in everything soft and cozy. 💕

I really don’t know where 2017 went because I can still remember December 2016 like it was yesterday.

Alas, time flies like a banana and it’s time for our last challenge of the year. Who’s ready?! 🙋🏻‍♀️

Readers, here are your genres!

Classics
From Classics to Modern Classics, feel free to take your pick! Whether it’s adult fiction or middle grade, you call the shots too.

Reader’s choice
This was such a great idea last year I think this’ll be our December tradition! If there was a genre from the previous challenges you didn’t get to, now’s the time to pick it up. Another option is to read another book from a genre you loved because of the challenge. Here’s a list of the past genres we’ve covered:

Jan: Action / Adventure
Feb: Poetry / Romance
Mar: Memoir / Magical Realism
Apr: Humour / Nautical Fiction
May: Time-Travel / Translated Fiction
June: Western Fiction / Space Opera
July: Alternate History / Slipstream Fiction
Aug: Women in Translation
Sept: Mythic Fiction / Self-help
Oct: Murder Mystery / Horror
Nov: Slice of Life / Bildungsroman

Did you have a favourite genre you discovered this year? I pretty much fell in love with slipstream fiction which blends elements of sci-fi, fantasy, and literary fiction. Wizard and Glass by Stephen King demonstrated this so perfectly!

I’ve been wanting to read The Count of Monte Cristo so that’s my pick under Classics. If time permits I’d LOVE to do one for Reader’s Choice but I can’t seem to choose between Nautical Fiction or Space Opera! I’ll have to wait and see what I’m in the mood for.

What will you be reading this month?

Your monthly challenge is now back to its regularly scheduled program! I had a poll running on my Instagram a few days ago asking whether or not the Colour Me Read Challenge should continue. Some months are harder than others when it comes to researching genres and writing about it, so I was curious to know if it still benefited anyone.

I was surprised to see how many people voted to keep this challenge alive and I’m so thankful you’re still up for discovering/trying new genres with me!

I know, I know. The October challenge card didn’t go up in time and laid collecting dust in one of my file folders. I’ve posted it here if you want to check it out but I don’t really change much for the October genres because it’s the best time of the year to read spooky books! So if you read a murder mystery/horror book this month, you already unknowingly succeeded in the challenge. *high five!*

I also have the November card ready so without further ado, your genres are…

Another month, another challenge! Here are our genres for the month:

Mythic Fiction
Fiction based on, inspired by, or draws themes from myths, legends, folklores, or fairytales. Goodreads has an extensive shelf with recommendations and ones that stand out to me are Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series, T.H. White’s The Once and Future King, and Juliet Marillier’s Sevenwaters series.

Self-help
This genre of nonfiction books is also falls under self-improvement and this could be economically, intellectually, or emotionally. Goodreads has a list of popular self-help books covering many areas so there is something for everyone!

I’m not sure if I’ll be able to read two books this month but Juliet Marillier’s Child of the Prophecy has been on my TBR for a while so I’m looking forward to reading it for mythic fiction!

What about you? Do you already have books in mind?