The Asian Readathon is back for a third year! How exciting! I had so much fun with this last year. This will happen during the month of May, 2021.

2021 Asian Readathon

Here’s the 2021 announcement video:

When: May 2021

CHALLENGES

1. Read any book written by an Asian author.
2. Read any book featuring an Asian protagonist.
3. Read any book written by an Asian author in your favorite genre.
4. Read any nonfiction book written by an Asian author.
5. Read any book written by an Asian author that’s not US-centric.

All books should come from different ethnicity.

Everything you need to know to participate in the 2021 Asian Readathon can be found on this Google Doc page: 2021 Asian Readathon.

Here’s the 2020 announcement video:

When: May 2020

CHALLENGES
1) Read any book by an Asian author.
2) Read a book featuring an Asian character or written by an Asian author who you can relate to.
3) Read a book featuring an Asian character or written by an Asian author who is different from you.
4) Read a book recommended by an Asian.
5) OPTIONAL: Read “Little Fires Everywhere” by Celeste Ng and participate in the Little Fires Readalong and the Little Fires Watchalong

My choices of books to read for the 2020 Asian Readathon

For my participation in the 2020 Asian Readathon on Booktube I’m choosing books that will fill the prompts explained by Cindy in the video above, plus they must also help me with my prompts for the 2020 PopSugar Reading Challenge… because, you know – why read a book for one challenge when you could read it for two? I basically don’t want to fall behind on the PopSugar Reading Challenge because of doing other challenges. Everything counts.

✓ 1. The first book I’m choosing is this one, set in Seoul, Korea.

If I Had Your Face

Asian Readathon Prompt: 1. Read any book by an Asian author.
PopSugar Reading Challenge prompt: 36. A book with a pink cover

✓ 2. Another book I’ve been planning to read is Pachinko, set in Japan.

Pachinko

Asian Readathon Prompt: 2. Read a book featuring an Asian character or written by an Asian author who you can relate to. (We’re both women.)
PopSugar Reading Challenge prompt: A5. A book set in Japan, host of the 2020 Olympics

3. Next, I’ve chosen a novel set at least partially in China!

The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane

Asian Readathon Prompt: 3. Read a book featuring an Asian character or written by an Asian author who is different from you. (She’s adopted; I’m not.)
PopSugar Reading Challenge prompt: 19. A book set in a country beginning with “C”

4. This was recommended by Booktuber Kukadoodles after the 2019 Asian Readathon.

Everyone’s a Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too

Asian Readathon Prompt: 4. Read a book recommended by an Asian.
PopSugar Reading Challenge prompt: 40. Your favorite prompt from a past POPSUGAR Reading Challenge (2015’s prompt #40 was “graphic novel”)

5. I’ve already read Little Fires Everywhere earlier this year, but might join in on the group reading and watching experience. I’ve watched only the first episode in the Hulu series and would love to watch the rest with a group.

Little Fires Everywhere

Asian Readathon Prompt: 5. OPTIONAL: Read “Little Fires Everywhere” by Celeste Ng and participate in the Little Fires Readalong and the Little Fires Watchalong
PopSugar Reading Challenge prompt: 3. A book with a great first line

Here’s my 2020 Asian Readathon TBR video:

2019 Asian Readathon

Originally posted on Apr 29, 2019.

I just found out about the Asian Readathon on Booktube, and plan to participate! The Asian Readathon encourages us to read up to five books by and about Asians during the month of May.

How I learned about the Asian Readathon

I first heard of this readathon in a very unlikely way. I added something on Twitter using the hashtag, #booktube, then went to look at all the tweets using that hashtag, and found a video by a popular Booktuber I’d never heard of before, Lucie Reads:

From her video, I found the creator of the Asian Readathon, Cindy. She put together a document full of book suggestions for the Asian Readathon… at Google Docs. In the document, she also introduces her four co-hosts and there are links to all of their channels.

I wasn’t going to do any readathons at Booktube this year because I’m so focused on finishing the 2019 PopSugar Reading Challenge, but since I’m almost halfway done with that challenge, and it is only the end of April, I’m going to let myself do this readathon.

Here are the 2019 Asian Readathon challenges:

1. Read a book by any Asian author.
2. Read a graphic novel featuring an Asian character or one draw/written by an Asian author.
3. Read a book featuring an intersectional character (has another aspect to their identity) ie: Asian and ______________.
4. Read a book written by an Asian author in their native language, that’s been translated to your language.
5. Read the group book: A Thousand Beginnings and Endings, edited by Ellen Oh and Elsie Chapman – an anthology of Asian short stories based on Asian mythology and legends.

And here’s the twist

The twist is that all the books must be from different Asian countries. There are 48 countries in Asia and I’m sorry I won’t be able to read about every country over there.

I’ll be reading books from four countries for this readathon: Singapore, Vietnam, South Korea and Japan. I wish I could read one from every Asian country, if I could find books in English from them, so maybe I’ll keep this list as a new challenge opportunity, to be used in future years. [Note: I have a memoir from North Korea in my TBR list for later this year.]

Here’s a list of Asian countries, thanks to Bridgat…

The 48 Asian countries are:

Here are the books I chose to read for the Asian Readathon:

✓ 1. Read any book by an Asian author.

I already had this book on my May TBR list… so works fine for me! This book was chosen by the readers at the Ultimate PopSugar Reading Challenge group at Goodreads for our May reading experience, to fulfill prompt #34, a book that includes a wedding. I’ve been looking forward to reading it (haven’t seen the movie yet) and so I purchased the boxed set with this book, and the two sequels.

The country: Singapore

Crazy Rich Asians

2. Read a graphic novel featuring an Asian character or one draw/written by an Asian author.

I’m going the easy route, to read The Boat online.

The country: Vietnam

The Boat

✓ 3. Read a book featuring an intersectional Asian character or written by an intersectional Asian identity . . . meaning, they are Asian plus something else. So I’ve decided to read Han Kang’s popular novel, The Vegetarian. It won the Man Booker International Prize for 2016. I’ve been wanting to read this for a while, ever since I saw the title, a few years back… mainly because I’m a long-time vegetarian and think it is great this diet has reached into literature.

The country: Korea

The Vegetarian

4. Read a book written by an Asian author in their native language, that’s been translated to your language.

I was going to read this one later this year, but changes are necessary. I’ll be reading a novel by Haruki Murakami. This has been translated from his native Japanese language. I had it on my 2019 TBR list already because it fits a PopSugar Reading Challenge prompt for this year: 17. A book set on a college or university campus.

The country: Japan

Norwegian Wood

5. Read the group book: A Thousand Beginnings and Endings edited by Ellen Oh and Elsie Chapman, which will be covered in the live show on Saturday, May 25 at 6pm EST on readwithcindy’s channel.

This looks awesome. There are fifteen short stories based on Asian myths and legends. I’m in. I just ordered a copy of this book from Amazon.

A Thousand Beginnings and Endings

Here’s my Asian Readathon TBR video:

Will you be participating in the Asian Readathon at Booktube? If so, leave your link in the comments below so I can see what you’ll be reading.