Are you ready for a new year of reading?
The 2024 #ReadICT Challenge is a great way to expand your reading, stretch your literary comfort zone and commune with a vibrant and growing community of local readers.
Every year, KMUW, The Wichita Eagle and the Wichita Public Library team up for this 12-month, 12-book challenge. And once again, we tried to make the challenge flexible enough to be interpreted widely, so you can pick fiction, nonfiction or even children’s literature to fulfill the various categories.
So here’s what you’ve been waiting for — the 2024 #ReadICT categories:
1. A book with a map
2. A book you meant to read last year
3. A book about something lost or found
4. A collection (stories, poems, essays…)
5. A book by or about someone neurodivergent
6. A book set in space
7. A book someone told you not to read
8. A book with a season in the title
9. A book featuring an animal sidekick
10. A book with a recipe
11. A book published the year you turned 16
12. A book by an indigenous author
As soon as our categories are finalized, I love to scan my home bookshelves and my online TBR (to-be-read) list and compile a list of potential candidates.
Again this year, we’ll discuss a slew of book recommendations during a kickoff at the Advanced Learning Library, 711 W. Second St.
At 6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 4, the hosts of the library’s “Read, Return, Repeat” podcast, will join “Books & Whatnot” hosts Beth Golay and me for a conversation about the new categories and some books we are considering for each one.
Meanwhile, here are some thoughts on a few of this year’s categories:
A book with a map (Category No. 1) could be a historical fiction classic, like Ken Follett’s “The Pillars of the Earth,” or a nonfiction adventure like Bill Bryson’s “A Walk in the Woods.” Two books with maps that I read and loved are “The Wager” by David Grann, and “The Phantom Tollbooth,” a middle-grade classic about Milo and his adventures in the Lands Beyond.
Category No. 5 — a book by or about someone neurodivergent — means someone whose brain processes information in a way that’s not typical of most people. This could include someone on the autism spectrum, someone with a learning difference, or somebody with obsessive-compulsive disorder. I recently read and loved “Strange Sally Diamond” by Liz Nugent, which would fit this category perfectly.
A book someone told you not to read (Category No. 7) could be anything from a growing list of banned or challenged books. Or maybe someone, at some point, steered you away from a particularly scary, sad or disturbing book. I can’t tell you how many people warned me that Hanya Yanagihara’s “A Little Life” would leave me in a shattered, heartbroken puddle on the floor — which it did. And it’s one of my all-time favorite novels.
A book with a season in the title (Category No. 8) offers a wide range of potential reads, including “Damnation Spring,” “Last Summer on State Street,” “Empire Falls” and “Winter’s Bone.”
And Category No. 12 — a book by an indigenous author — is a nod to next year’s Wichita Big Read: “There There” by Tommy Orange. A few of the many books that would qualify for this category are “Braiding Sweetgrass” by Robin Wall Kimmerer, “Poet Warrior” by Joy Harjo, “The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee” by David Treuer, and anything by Native American novelist Louise Erdrich.
Be sure to check out the challenge on social media. The #ReadICT Challenge group on Facebook is more than 7,500 members strong, and it’s a great place to chat with other readers and get book recommendations.
At least four times a year, we also host #ReadICT book swaps, where readers can bring a book (or several) that they no longer need and trade them for others. It’s free, and the books are always first come, first served. The first swap of 2024 is scheduled for Jan. 13, 10:30 a.m. to noon, at the Advanced Learning Library.
If you’re participating in the challenge, check out the Wichita Public Library’s website, where you can track your progress at wichitalibrary.org/readict. Log your reads every month, and you’ll be eligible for fabulous prizes.
Happy new year, and keep turning those pages.
Suzanne Perez writes about education and books for KMUW and the Kansas News Service. She created the #ReadICT Challenge in 2017 while a staff member at The Wichita Eagle.
