July Bookish Challenge

Despite the horrible weather, lately, here in the North East of England, it is summer. July is tomorrow. The month of garden parties, trips to the seaside, trashy, short contemporary reads around a glistening pool, a cocktail in hand.

I can’t wait.

With my obvious excitement, I’ve been thinking about July for months –12 to be precise. And those of you that follow me on Instagram know that my absolute favourite social platform is Instagram. I decided to combine the two. Me and my friend Kit, from lost.in.yalit, came up with a bookish challenge. It’s the first one we’ve hosted but I hope It’ll become a regular feature on my account.

We tried to keep it simple and free from specific fandoms, authors or books. We used a few generic hashtags to take the heat off the commitment of a daily challenge and did some recurring ones because I strive for routine.

Everyone is welcome to join in. No tags are needed and there is absolutely no wrong or right way to interpret the daily prompts. Just go with it. Be creative. Make sure you use the hashtag #read_yalitJuly so we can see your wonderful posts. And, it would be great if you could, share our challenge with your followers so they can join in too. The best ones will feature on our stories.

Here’s an in-depth run through of each day and in case you aren’t familiar with the hashtags some explanations. As always, I reply to all DM’s on Instagram so feel free to ask questions if you need to. I hope you’ll be inspired to join in the fun:

1st July: Saturday: Summer Line up. #TBR (What do you intend on reading this month? Take a picture. The hashtag means: To Be Read.)

2nd July: Sunday: #SockSunday (Take a picture of your socks. On or off or a whole collection.)

3rd July: Monday. Book Rainbow. (Take a picture of your colourful books)

4th July: Tuesday. Hot Books. (Photograph books that made your pulse quicken.)

5th July: Wednesday. #wickedwednesday  (Favourite villain. Photograph something to do with your favourite antagonist. A book, a comic they’re in. Merchandise. Anything.)

6th July: Thursday. Favourite Childhood Author. #TBT (An author you loved from your childhood. Take a picture of their books or something that make you think of them. Hashtag means: Throw Back Thursday).

7th July. Friday. #currentlyreading #tgif (What are you going to be spending your weekend reading? Take a picture. The hashtag means Thank God It’s Friday).

8th July: Saturday: Favourite protagonist #supersaturday (story superheroes. Which character do you most relate to? Capture a shot of something that makes you think of them.)

9th July: Sunday. #socksunday (you know what to do).

10th July: Monday. Books and outside. (Go outside and read, take a picture. Let us see where your outdoor reading spot is).

11th July: Tuesday. Bedtime Stories. (Do you read before bed? What genre relaxes you? What genre sends you to sleep because it’s boring? Perhaps you have children, what is their favourite bedtime story?)

12 July: Wednesday. #wickedwednesday  (Favourite villain from any story you like. Tell us why you like them.)

13th July: Thursday. Funniest kids books #tbt (What gave you the giggles as a kid? You know what the hashtag means).

14th July: It’s Friday again. #currentlyreading #tgif (Show us what you’re reading).

15th July: Saturday: #shelfie #shelfiesaturday  (Show us your bookcase, bookshelf, floorpile, dresser stack. Wherever you hoard your books, we want to see it. You could be in it too.)

16th July: Sunday: #socksunday (you get this by now, right?)

17th July: Monday: Favourite colour. (Pile up books in your favourite colour and snap a pic.)

18th July: Tuesday: Indie Appreciation. (Support a self published author and snap a pic of you reading their book). I’m an indie author (just saying again lol and you can get free e copies of my book here, here and here. *cheeky smile*).

19th July: Wednesday. #wickedwednesday  (You got this.)

20th July: Thursday: A classic you hate. #TBT (A classic you were perhaps forced to read at school, or one that felt so condescending you were forced to roll your eyes/throw it at the wall/ re-read every line because the language was so sophisticated (rubbish) it made you feel like an Idiot.) If you love classics, it’s totally fine to share your love instead.

21st July. Friday. What? Again? Just kidding. There are no where near enough. #Currentlyreading #TGIF

22nd July: Saturday: Book Haul (what have you bought this month. What new books, bookish merch, bookish stationary, socks, candles, cushions have you purchased, this month?)

23rd July: Sunday: #socksunday  (as before)

24th July: Monday: Blue books. (Monday blues? Grab all of your blue books and take a picture to brighten up our feed.)

25th July: Tuesday: Merch. (Show us your bookish merchandise. Wands, bookmarks, colouring books, posters, candles. Anything you like. We want to see it.)

26th July: Wednesday: #wickedwednesday  (villain love again. Can you tell I love the bad guys?)

27th July: Thursday: Retro Covers #TBT (any books from way back with really cool covers that would never be seen on a modern book? Plain covers are making a come back, you have any if those? If not, just show us a book you have that you bought totally because of the cover).

28th July: Friday: Fandom Friday (Harry Potter, shadowhunters, ACOTAR, LOTR, GOT. Which fandom do you belong in? Take a picture of something or EVERYTHING you have from that fandom. Brownie points if you have a tattoo.) *please don’t rush out and get one.

29th July. Saturday: Book Tower. (How high can you stack books without them falling over? Take a pic and show us).

30th July: Sunday. #socksunday

31st July: Monday. What did you read? July wrap up. (Show us what you read this month. Tell us in the caption wether you enjoyed the challenge, or not. Did you complete all 31 days? It’s fine if you didn’t. Life happens.)

It’s been great. We hope you’ve enjoyed having us as your hosts and hope you’ll join us again for another book challenge really soon. Keep bring awesome.

P.s please follow Kit @lost.in.yalit on Instagram too. Her feed is all monochrome and surprisingly pleasing to the eye.