Hello again, dear readers.
Six years! Yup, that's right. We started this way back in 2019 (which only feels like it was yesterday) and we're still going... strong?
Okay, well the demise of Twitter has impacted things a little bit, but we're still going to be posting and chatting over there for the good folk who've stuck around. And we'll be posting over at Blue Sky too. So pick your platform and enjoy.
For the uninitiated, October is the month we all cosy up (separately or together, whatever works for you) and read as much from our towering to-be-read piles as possible. The cocoa and crumpets we've mentioned previously are optional, but recommended. Just make yourself as comfortable as possible and have fun! Seriously, there isn't enough of it in the world at the moment, so let's try to find it where we can... which for many of us is within the pages of a book.
For those of you who have been here before, welcome back, we missed you!
For those of you who are new here, welcome! Here's what you need to know...
What is the OcTBR Challenge?
The OcTBR Challenge was set up because we figured our TBR book piles were getting out of control and we wanted to dedicate some time to getting through at least some of them. We decided October would be the perfect time to collectively come together and celebrate reading (or listening to) the words we have on our shelves or next to our beds that remain unread, despite our best intentions.
Do you have to get through all of them in the month? Hahahaha... no. If you're doing TBRs like we're doing TBRs then that's not nearly possible. But if you can even get at least ONE of those beautiful books off the pile, wouldn't that be something amazing?
The OcTBR Challenge Plan
We usually kick off on Oct 1st by encouraging everyone to share photos of their TBR piles on Twitter or Blue Sky. Either the whole lot (do you have a wide angle lens?) or maybe just the few you have decided to tackle this month. And they can be any kind of wordage at all, be they physical books, ebooks, audiobooks, the thousand open browser tabs of articles you keep meaning to read... whatever. It all counts.
After that's done, you just focus on the reading!
If you want to keep track of what you're devouring, we've got some downloadable Challenge Sheets to make notes on. And you may also love to collect and share our fun badges celebrating particular reading achievements! All of which can be found on our 'Cool Things' page.
Aside from that, we like to come together on Twitter (we're not calling it the other thing) and Blue Sky every Thursday at 8pm throughout the month of October. These are our OcTBR Chats (follow #OcTBRChat), where we all get involved in conversations on reading. We'll ask questions and you answer them and then we'll chat about all the things reading and have the very best time!
NORMALLY we have prizes at the end of the month, but this year we're just going to be trying to get everyone involved for the fun of it. :)
Anyway. That's all you need to know. If you have any questions, check our our FAQs page or just drop us a message on Twitter or Blue Sky.
Glad you're back, it's lovely to see you again. Now let's get reading!
Love, us.
xx