20 Indies in 2020 Reading Challenge

One of the challenges I set for myself this year was to read (and subsequently review!) more independently published books. But where to start?

Indie books is, of course, not a genre. In fact, one of the things I’ve loved about reading more indie books over the last year or two has been getting exposure to genres I don’t usually read. I’ve learned a lot about my own writing through reading other genres, and I’ve certainly broadened my tastes in reading.

Over a million books are independently published each year. With so many books, of so many kinds, where should one begin?

That’s where I came up with my own little twist: While preparing a blog post about the significance of numbers in book titles (inspired by my recent release “Number Eight Crispy Chicken”), I hit upon an idea. Why not choose twenty indie books with numbers in their titles?

The challenge was indeed challenging. Some numbers – as I’ll share with you as we go along – seem to be more popular for titles (think of numbers like ‘Thirteen’ or ‘Seven’). Others were very few and far between.

I wanted to ensure that each book chosen was one I actually wanted to read – as judged by blurb and cover. But also, I wanted to give priority to books that, although they looked fabulous, had few or even no reviews so far.

The first book I’ll be reviewing is One for You, One for Me, by Kenyan author Gerald Kithinji, which exposes the trade in ‘magical’ organs and body parts.

Check out the rest of my picks (it’s an evolving list!), and add your own, on Goodreads. Remember, the only requirements are that:

1. The book is independently published (doesn’t matter when, but preferably we’re looking for books that don’t have a huge swathe of reviews yet)
2. It has a number in its title (Like Gerald Kithinji’s One for You, One for Me, or Arly Carmack’s Nineteen)

Let’s discover some great new books, and support some indie authors!