Completing the Kindle Spring reading challenge

Amazon’s reading challenges inspired me to read again (by coincidence).

Seventy-five days ago, I picked up my abandoned Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (11th gen.) and ruminated over all the unread books. I was shocked by the number of books I wanted to read but never got around to doing so. I had seventeen unread books in my collection. It just so happened at the time of the discovery, I was looking at reducing my YouTube consumption and reviewing what hobbies I wanted to pursue. 

Starting the reading adventure

I browsed at what I had read in the past two years. There was certainly a common theme of self-improvement, tech, finance and minimalism books in the collection of read books. I knew I had a particular interest for personal growth. After reviewing those titles, I looked at what I hadn’t read or stopped midway through. One uncompleted book caught my attention - A Year with Less. It is a book by Cait Flanders, who spends a year of minimalism where she only buys the essentials and nothing else. This is something I am trying right now. However, I would say I am not a draconian about it. I decided to open the book on my Kindle. Immediately, I had recollections of what I had read previously in the book, but I decided I wanted to read the book from the beginning again. I started again. This time, I had an app called Awesome Habits to help track my progress and act as a timer. My plan was to read for thirty minutes each day. 

For the first three days, I read for thirty minutes each time - slowly and distracted by the minute sounds I hadn’t heard before around the house. By day four, I was settling into the routine of reading by myself in the living room, and at the same time of 9pm. Somehow, the fourth day of reading seemed easier than the first three days. My fifth day felt easier than the fourth as I was building up a better focus to read and my reading fluency improved. Reading was not as burdensome as I once thought it was going to be. 

A chance encounter with the Amazon Kindle app

I was curious - what if I install the Kindle app on my Lenovo IdeaTab Pro, so I come read on it with the reading filter on? It was only by chance that I noticed the reading challenges in the more tab. It was there where I saw the Spring Kindle Challenge appear alongside the streaks section. Upon closer inspection, I saw nine challenges in an array of three by three. Clicking on each one gave a description of what they were and how to achieve them. I had already completed one without fully understanding how until I realised it was for reading for one day. I wondered if I could read for a week to get the Perfect Week bookmark (achievements appear as bookmarks). I was hooked. I like gamification, even if the motivation is external. I was wanting to take up reading as a hobby anyway. What was the harm in a little challenge?

A breakdown in the Spring Kindle Challenge

The challenge started 1st April and ended 30th June. In Amazon’s own words, the challenge is to: celebrate your reading with limited-time achievements, collect all the challenges and find out what the achievements are by selecting one. If you exceed a challenge such as the Perfect Week, you get x with the number of weeks you have exceeded it by. 

Daily Read

• Bronze Reader - read on any fifteen days during the challenge
• Silver Reader - read on any forty days during the challenge
• Gold Reader - read on any seventy-five days during the challenge

Books Completed

• Bookish - read one boo
• Bookworm - read two books
• Bibliophile - read three books

Streaks

• Head Start - read one day during the month
• Perfect Week - read 7 days in a row (Sunday through Saturday)
• Perfect Month - read every day for a calendar month (I started at the end of April).

I spent most of the challenge on my Kindle Paperwhite and checked the Kindle periodically to see if my progression was syncing across. In total, I would say I read on my tablet six times over the duration of the challenge. The Kindle’s e-ink display was more appealing and I didn’t have to worry about the battery or blue light omitting from the screen. 

Am I ready for the next challenge?

As much as I enjoyed the challenge, it was not the reason for reading each day in the first place. I wanted a hobby that took me offline and allowed me to focus on something I would enjoy. The seventeen unread books are now only nine unread books. I plan to read on. Hopefully, I should get through most of them this year. I naively thought my target of five books this year was going to be a stretch, so I was surprised when I surpassed this mediocre target fairly quickly into the challenge. 

There’s no reason I can’t read all seventeen books by the end of the year. I even have more lined up for purchasing when I get through the first batch. I have even contemplated buying a Kindle Scribe at some point in the future. However, buying it is not a priority right now - it’s a want, not a need. 

I’m starting to think I am a reader now. I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with books. What I have noticed, though, is my reading habit steers in the direction of non-fiction titles. I want to broaden my horizon and start looking into fictional literature. I’m unsure what would pique my interests right now. In the past, I enjoyed Michael Connelly’s Bosch crime detective series. Maybe I will look at other genres to widen my imagination. Whatever I choose, I’m aware it will be better than mindlessly doom-scrolling or watching endless YouTube videos. 

Completed reads - Kindle Spring Challenge

• The Year of Less - Cait Flanders
• Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right now - Jaron Lanier
• Minimalism: Declutter Your Mind, Declutter Your Life - Todd Foley
• The Maze Runner (Book 1) - James Dashner
• 1984 - George Orwell
• Building a Second Brain - Tiago Forte
• Essentialism - Greg McKeown
• Effortless - Greg McKeown