Whimsy and Mayhem Reading Challenge

“It’s a poor sort of memory that only works backwards.”

The White Queen; Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll

Calling all Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland lovers!

It’s time to look through that mirror of your’s and remember what you read for the year!

Welcome to the Whimsy and Mayhem Reading Challenge!

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What is the Whimsy and Mayhem Reading Challenge?

A reading challenge inspired by Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll. This reading challenge is intended to be a little messy, a little wild, and overall pretty easy. As long as you read, you can win. So long as you like challenges you can win more. There is no losing, so long as you are reading! No two readers are the same, and no two experiences will be.

This is whimsy. This is mayhem. This is the Whimsy and Mayhem Reading Challenge.

If it’s so variable, then how does this work?

Good question!

Video Explanation Here

This challenge is split into three parts: Character Goals, Prompts, and Modes (difficulty levels). Pick a character. Look over the themes and the requirements. Look at the prompts, find books that match the prompts and the themes. That’s it. Want to make it more challenging? Add a Mode (difficulty levels). Want it to be easier? Add a Mode.

There are 13 characters. 52 prompts (new prompts each year). 8 modes.

It might seem confusing, or difficult, or even worth more effort than it is, but trust me. If you are struggling with this, that’s on me for explaining. You as the reader should have no difficulty completing this.

How to Join/Finishing the Challenge

Just say you are going to join with a post!

Read through the year!

At the end of the year, give a wrap up of your character, the mode you accomplished, and give a list of what book you read for each prompt.

For each character you complete, you get “points.” Points are based on which mode you choose. In future reading challenges, these points can come in handy. Regardless of mirror status or not (see below), the points are the same.

White Whimsy = .5 character point
White Mayhem = 1 character point
Red Whimsy = 1.5 character points
Red Mayhem = 2 character points

TIME LINE and Additional Rules

Start Date: January 1st
End Date: December 31st

Just Read

If you want to do an older prompt series than the one currently, that’s cool too. You can repeat a year as much as you want.

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Characters

Some of these characters are harder to complete than others. Characters where chosen by their importance in books and lore from society. Listed are the characters from easiest to complete to most difficult to complete (at any mode).

“Themes” are additional requirements for each book. There are four for each character: a concept, a second concept or genre, a part of the body or character type, and something visual on the cover. For these themes, the book must incorporate them (or you as the reader experience them).

Carroll
The famed author for the novels, which is a pseudonym.
Making him as much of a character and legend as the others.
Themes: Mastery, Reality, Mind, Element on cover (Air, Water, Fire, Earth)
Prompt Requirements: All 52 reading prompts

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Reading Prompts

All prompts are associated with a specific word. This means all prompts are related to the term in card terminology, symbols, or attributes associated with the word. As such, please read a book where the following word is present either in character, theme, experience, cover, or otherwise. All old prompts HERE.

2021: Clubs

What Can I Read?

I’m going to try to make this as easy as possible. Anything and everything goes. You are reading a text book for some class, and somehow it fits these themes or prompts? Use it! Newspapers? Okay, that works. Anything.

Forms of Reading That Count: Audio books, E-books, Physical books, Online translations. (pretty much all forms of reading, go at it)

Types of Content: Anything!
Poetry
Plays
Fiction Novels of all age ranges
Nonfiction Novels
Manga/Manhwa/Manhua
Web Novels
Light Novels
Webtoons

Manga/Manhwa/Manhua counting: If you read online, all chapters for a volume are needed to be counted. You can see chapter breakdowns on baka-updates, or the manga’s wiki page, often times.

Web Novels counting: For some webnovels their translator might separate them into “books” follow those indications. For the others, lets sat every 10-50 chapters is one book. This is your choice, on how long the chapters are. And if you think this is too little, but you are reading Overgeared with over 1000 chapters, I beg you reconsider just how many chapters you are reading and don’t devalue the amount of reading there. (Although in the case of OG, there is a “book” equivalent for every 50 chapters.)

Light Novels counting. Similar to web novels, if there is a book distinction, follow that. If not, 10-50 chapters.

Webtoons counting: For this, I’m intended to say every 10 chapters count as a book, but webtoons tend to be shorter than the average manga chapter. I suppose this will be up to you as the reader, 10-30 chapters will make a book or volume.

If I missed something. Use your own intuition!

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Modes

Here are the difficulty levels! They are separated into three categories: color, chaos, and reflection. Each category has two options, to create a total of eight combinations. The “Modes” are these combinations.

Colors:

If not clear, “external double-up” means doubling up with outside challenges. AKA you read a book for this challenge and another challenge. Note that external double-ups do not count when for reading challenges that are about counting books. (You Read How Many Books this Year, Complete the Series Challenge, etc.) If the challenge is counting the number of books you read, then the books can double-up with that infinitely. This is more in regards to specified rules reading challenges like my dragon reading challenge for instance. While I do that myself, I can not double up the books from that and this.

Chaos:

Internal double-ups are defined by using a book twice in the challenge. AKA you use one book to fulfill two prompts, OR you use the same book for two characters. Yes, if you wanted to use the same nine books for two characters, you could.

Reflection:

Combinations:

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My Completion Status

2020 — Prompt: Hearts — COMPLETED: Carroll’s Red Mayhem

2021 — Prompt: Spades — COMPLETED: Carroll’s Red Mayhem