2020 Big Blue Marble / High Point Cafe Reading Challenge
Great Books + Great Coffee = Great Life
For our 2nd Reading Challenge we’re upping the ante by adding Coffee - High Point cafe will be our 2020 partner!
For 2020 we have 10 challenge categories, to encourage all of us to read wider, read deeper, and read beyond our comfort zone. What book you read for each category is your choice - your friendly neighborhood booksellers are happy to offer suggestions.
New this year - readers of any age can find books to match the categories, so kids and teens are invited to participate.
To join just pick up a 2020 Reading Challenge Bookmark at Big Blue Marble or High Point.
When you finish a book for a category, write the title on your bookmark.
In addition to the joy of reading and sense of accomplishment, for each category you finish you can bring the bookmark either to High Point for a free drink or to Big Blue Marble for $1 off a purchase of $20 or more.
Everyone who finishes the challenge will be entered into a drawing for great prizes like bookstore gift certificates or High Point Yummy cards.
Pick Up your bookmark at Big Blue marble or High Point Cafe
Ready to Face Your Challenges?
Indigenous Author
hint hint: the 2020 One Book/ One Philly is by an Indigenous author. There are many great chapter books, YA novels, fiction, poetry and nonfiction by Native/Indigenous authors. In addition to Tommy Orange’s “There There” neighborhood favorites include Robin Wall Kimmerer’s “Braiding Sweetgrass” and Sherman Alexie’s picture book “Thunder Boy, Jr.”
Afrofuturism
Afrofuturism is the reimagining of a future filled with arts, science and technology seen through a Black lens and cultures, myths, and traditions from across the African continent. Neighborhood favorite authors include Octavia Butler, N.K. Jemisin, and Tomi Adeyemi’s Legend of Orisha books.
Poetry
Not up on the best contemporary poets? Let us help you find poetry that moves you. Philly has dozens of award-winning poets - check our display!
Comics/Graphic
Comics/graphic is a format, not a genre - a way to add the emotional power of visual art to story telling. Fiction, nonfiction, memoir, humor - authors and artists are constantly pushing the boundaries of how comics format can be adapted to make beautiful and complicated stories. Look for the illustrated Mueller report, books from Scott McCloud and Lynda Barry that use comics to explain how comics are created, and ask any middle grade reader to find out how Raina Telgemeier dominates middle grade publishing!
How an Object is Made
We live in a material world, yet most objects we use are made by somewhere else by someone else. Take a deep dive into the how of something you care about - food, furniture, fiber, buildings, toys, books - who makes these, and how, and how have they shaped us?
LGBTQ Author
LGBTQ people and families have been part of the weave of our neighborhood for so many years. Celebrate LGBTQ lives!
#OwnVoices
#OwnVoices is a movement to create books about diverse characters written by authors from that same diverse group. While authors have worked hard to responsibly write the “other,” it’s also important to seek out books written from personal experience and books that value accurate representation of race, disability, cultures, gender, and sexuality.
Final Book of a Series
in honor of the March release of the long-awaited final title of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy, finish a series and celebrate!
Immigrant Author
Every part of our daily lives - food, architecture, music, clothes - has been shaped by immigrants to the U.S. We need new voices and new visions in order to see our world more clearly, and to fight back against the current political culture that attacks immigrants.
Something Just for Fun
2020 is going to be a rough year - take time to read something just for pleasure. As pleasure is an important human emotion, we won’t judge or consider a pleasure “guilty.’ Sometimes one just needs to read a happy-ending love story, spend time with a favorite childhood character, or delight in a high-body count thriller.