Challenge 7: Break A Prejudice

Challenge 7: Break A Prejudice is the seventh of the Take Another Chance Challenge tasks.

The “Take Another Chance Challenge” aims to guide you in uncovering fresh reads via a structured literary challenge. This initiative prompts you to navigate the book realm through unconventional and inventive methods. Offering a dozen diverse tasks, each exercise involves elements of randomness, creativity, or exploration. Depending on your level of interest and time commitment, you’re welcome to engage in 3, 6, or the full suite of 12 tasks. While the quest officially spans from January through December, participants have the freedom to continue their exploration beyond this period. The overarching objective is to bring attention to lesser-known books while fostering thoughtful discussion and analysis of them.

Challenge 7: Break A Prejudice

We all carry with us certain biases when it comes to reading, whether it’s a tendency to avoid specific authors, genres, or even publishing houses. Challenge 7 dares you to confront one of these preconceived notions head-on. Choose a book that you would typically bypass due to your personal reading biases. Then, give it a read and share how the experience either altered your initial bias or affirmed it.

Detailed Instructions:

1. Identify Your Prejudice: Spend some time reflecting on your reading habits to identify a particular prejudice you hold. It could be against a genre you’ve always found dull, an author you’ve never jelled with, or even a publisher whose releases you generally skip over.
2. Book Selection: Once you’ve pinpointed your bias, actively seek out a book that falls under that category. This is the book you will be reading for this challenge.
3. Initial Thoughts: Before diving into the book, jot down your preconceptions. What are you expecting to find in this book? What elements are you skeptical about? It would be interesting to see if your initial assumptions hold true or get shattered.
4. Read: Proceed to read the book you’ve chosen. As you do, try to remain open-minded and allow the text to present itself without the cloud of your prejudices affecting your judgment.
5. Make Observations: While reading, keep notes on elements that catch your attention. Do they confirm your prejudices or challenge them?

Writing Prompt:

After completing the book, write a thoughtful essay or blog post discussing your initial prejudices and the impact the book had on them. Was your bias shattered, modified, or reinforced? Dig into specific examples from the book that led you to your conclusions. Did the experience change how you’ll approach similar books in the future?

Privacy Note:

If you’re uncomfortable sharing your specific bias or prejudice, you can opt to discuss your experience in more general terms while still sharing how the challenge influenced your views.

Challenge 7: Break A Prejudice Entry Instructions:

Scroll down to the bottom of the page and post your name as an entry in the comments. List the title of the book you have selected and the name of the author.  Provide a link to your blog where you talk about the book as instructed above.  Also, don’t forget to credit the original website where you discovered the book.

Additional Challenges (Optional):

1. Recommendation Swap: Partner with a friend or family member, and swap book recommendations that you think might challenge the other’s prejudices. Discuss your experiences afterward.
2. Yearly Reflection: Make it an annual activity to confront a new reading bias. Track how your reading preferences evolve over time.

Final Thoughts:

The objective of this challenge is to broaden your reading horizons and offer you a chance to question your ingrained preferences. By confronting your reading biases, you might discover hidden gems or affirm that certain types of books are indeed not your cup of tea—and either way, that’s a valuable revelation. Happy reading!

Click this link to see the rest of the tasks and the three participation levels. Take Another Chance Challenge. This page is the entry form to the seventh step of the challenge.

Click on this link to go to Challenge 6: Prize Winner Book Entries.

Click on this link to go to Challenge 8: Real and Inspired Entries.