#VICTOBER 2021: the challenges, my reading plans and how you can get involved// i'm so excited!

 Hi Everyone!

I am super excited for this post because Victober is back! I took part in this last year for the first time and it really encouraged me to read classics. This post is all about Victober 2021!



If you don't know, Victober is the Victorian October readathon where the aim is simply to read Victorian Classics throughout the month of October. It is hosted on BookTube (the part of YouTube that talks about books) by one of my favourite BookTubers, LucyTheReader also known as Lucy Powrie who also happens to be the author of my favourite book series of all time, Katie Lumsden from her channel Books and Things and Kate Howe from her channel under her name. I watch Lucy Powrie and Katie Lumsden and highly recommend their channels. 

You can see Lucy Powrie's announcement video here. She gives a few really good recommendations! You can also check out Katie's video about it here but she does give ALOT of recommendations in one go so be prepared! I don't watch Kate Howe's videos but if you want another perspective, you can see her video here. I think she has a good number of recommendations and I'm now so indecisive about what I'm going to read!

Each year, they each set an individual challenge, there is a group challenge voted for by booktube viewers, a bonus challenge with no specific reading requirements (so more about the way you read rather than what) and a group readalong. Here are this year's challenges:

Kate's challenge: Read a Victorian sensation novel

Katie's challenge: Read a Victorian book set in the countryside and/or the city

Lucy's challenge: Read a Victorian book with a female main character

Group Challenge: Read a popular Victorian book you haven't read yet

Bonus Challenge: Read aloud a section of Victorian work (or have it read aloud to you)

Group Readalong: Gothic Tales by Elizabeth Gaskell


I'm now going to talk you through what I will be reading for each challenge.

My Victorian sensation novel will be Lady Audley's secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon or A Welsh Witch by Allen Raine (I just can't decide!). 

My Victorian book set in the countryside and/or city will be Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell. I got this for my birthday and I've been saving it for Victober so I'm really pleased it fits into this category as it is set in a northern city. 

Mary Barton does also fit under the Victorian book with a female main character because the main character is Mary Barton (hence the title!). Also for Lucy's challenge, I want to read a few short stories from Women Who Did, which I have already talked a lot about on this blog and it will be nice to read some of the earlier stories after reading some of the later ones for The 1900-1950 readathon back in May. 

There is a very popular Victorian book I want to read but I want to be able to properly take my time and pace myself in reading it and that's Wuthering Heights. This is my most anticipated book at the moment and I really want to get to it but as I said I want to save it for when I can really take my time with it. So for this challenge I would like to maybe read Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. (I really want to get to it and it fits into the two categories!). This is a fairly well known one and I think it counts! 

 I have been wanting to read Gothic Tales by Elizabeth Gaskell for so long so I was very pleased to discover it was the group read! I'll definitely read this one!

Overall, I am VERY excited for Victober 2021! If you want to take part then all you need to do is read Victorian books! You can also share your progress on social media using #Victober and there is a Goodreads group I am also part of which you can join here. I just CAN'T WAIT to get into lots of Victorian books this October and I'll be sharing lots of Victober content on here to, I'm not sure how yet but I've got a whole month to plan all that! 

Happy Victober!🍂


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