Calendar of Crime Challenge 2020

Published on by Margaret

One of the reading challenges I’ve loved doing this year is Bev’s Calendar of Crime, so I am delighted to see that she is hosting it again in 2020. This may be the only challenge I take part in next year!

This is a reading challenge that allows mystery readers to include any mystery regardless of publication date. If it falls in a mystery category (crime fiction/detective novel/police procedural/suspense/thriller/spy & espionage/hard-boiled/cozy etc.), then it counts and it does not matter if it was published in 1892 or 2019.

The Challenge runs from January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020. All books should be read during this time period and you can sign up on Bev’s blog at any time.

I have summarised the rules below – for all the details see Bev’s sign up post.

  • All books must be mysteries.
  • Twelve books, one representing each month, are required for a completed challenge. Each month comes with several categories (see chart above) that may be selected to fulfil the month’s reading.
  • The “wild card” book is exactly that.
  • For the category that says “Book title contains a word that starts with the letter A,” the following do not count: “A” and “An.”
  • Books may only count for one month and one category, but they may count for other challenges.
  • Books do not have to be read during the month for which they qualify. So–if you’re feeling like a little “Christmas in July” (or May or…), then feel free to read your book for December whenever the mood strikes.
  • A wrap-up post/comment/email will be requested that should include a list of books read and what category they fulfilled. [Example: January: The House of Sudden Sleep by John Hawk (original pub date January 1930)]

8 thoughts on “Calendar of Crime Challenge 2020”

  1. I like challenges like that, Margaret, that have some flexibility, and that let the reader adjust plans, etc. And it’s a good way to help keep one’s reading focus, too. I’ll look forward to hearing about your choices!

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  2. I’ve enjoyed doing this one this year too, plus have been quite successful at it which makes a change (we won’t mention What’s in a Name?) I don’t think I’ll be doing it again next year, I’ll probably just do the European one and ‘maybe’ Mount TBR, not sure, if I do that it’ll just be 12 books. Have fun with this!

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    1. I’ve been quite successful at it too – at least one for each month, with some months having lots of ticks. And I have just one category left for What’s in a Name? Maybe I’ll finish that by the end of the year …

      I’m still not sure about doing Mount TBR – all the books I own are TBRs not just the old ones 🙂

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      1. Exactly, and to be honest, the year I didn’t do Mount TBR I actually got *more* of my own books read – albeit not all older ones – than when I did do it. It was quite interesting to observe what was happening via my Goodreads shelves.

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    1. I have just completed the Calendar challenge – which involves reading a minimum of 12 books – but there are 9 categories for each month and that is where the challenge lies for me and I would have liked to ticked them all off. And I haven’t – it’s harder than it looks.

      There are 6 categories in the Whats in a Name Challenge and the challenge is to read a book in any format (hard copy, ebook, audio) with a title that fits in each category. the categories change each year. Again not as easy as it looks as there is always at least one category that I can’t find a title (that I want to read) to fit.

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