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The great indie author reading challenge

Last updated on April 21, 2021

My wife and I read constantly; she’s more of a fantasy reader, but I gravitate toward sci-fi and fantasy, of course, as well as horror and mystery, thriller, and suspense (MTS) stories. We challenge ourselves and broaden our literary horizons, so to speak, with reading challenges.

Our first challenge was a simple author-name challenge, and we’re currently completing another author-name challenge concurrent with a thematic one… I’m a hair behind on the thematic one because of one specific challenge: to read the longest book on your TBR. Mine happened to be Harlot’s Ghost, by Norman Mailer. It was a fantastic book, just one that happens to clock in at around 423,000 words!

For the next one, I want to put together another author-name challenge, but one that’s focused on my fellow independent authors!

So, here’s the plan:

I’m going to ask for recommendations from the #WritingCommunity on Twitter, then create a list based on the authors’ names: first, middle, last; anything goes!

The only rule is this: it’s first come, first served. I mentioned our genre preferences above, but I’m willing to read anything, as long as it’s independently published. (I prefer Kindle Unlimited books, for what it’s worth!)

Here’s the list, as it stands so far. As I get more titles, I’ll update this post. Once it’s complete, I’ll get started. After I finish a book, I’ll post a review to Amazon, Goodreads, and here on my blog. (I can’t make any commitments on my wife’s behalf!)

* I had a devil of a time finding an author whose first, middle, or last name began with a “V”, so I chose someone whose surname ends with one.

** Same as with “V”, except, for “X”, I chose someone whose story collection sounds very appealing to me!

Once I finish a book, I’ll link the review as well. Wish me luck!

Published inReading Challenges

6 Comments

  1. Good Challenge! Wishing more writers did this.
    Anyhow, even though not sci fi, wouldn’t mind you reviewing any of my books. All on Kindle and independently published. Even though PBs they are high word counts with average 2,500 and 3500 words.
    Easy to check them out on author page
    http://www.amazon.com/author/randahandler

    • E. J. Taylor E. J. Taylor

      Hi Randa! Thanks for the kind words. I found some of your books were in Kindle Unlimited (such as The Boy Who Spoke to God and Cubbie Blue and His Dog Dot), and I’d be happy to check one of them out. I’m from the US but I live in South Korea, so shipping a PB would be a bit costly for me.

    • E. J. Taylor E. J. Taylor

      Thanks! I certainly got a lot of good recommendations. 🙂

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