The after-effects of an online reading challenge!

           Phew! The past 30 days came and whizzed past by. Apart from the normal cooking, cleaning, part-time work, I was just into books and books. That too, children's books! Our daily routine always covered reading but I never accounted for it or for that matter read any books according to a theme! Reading happened according to Swara's whims or her inclination. Sometimes, it used to be just one book days on end, sometimes, one book throughout the day, especially if it were a brand new one. By participating in this challenge, I was thrown to the wonderful world of picture books which I hadn't known earlier!

          And hence, this post is dedicated to the after-effects of The BubbleInk Challenge. Just as there is a positive side to everything, there's also a negative one too! And I'm going to be very truthful about the negative ones too. And these are my views only. No one is responsible except me for the views which I'm expressing over here!

• I came to know many many wonderful books through this challenge.
• Many of my relatives and friends got encouraged to read to their respective kids.
• I never thought that books could be categorized according to so many themes. (The challenge host told me that many prompts were left behind since only 30 days was the limit!)
• All the participants were so enthusiastic and sportive to take efforts and search and read books related to each day's prompt despite their busy schedules.
• All the participants took the competition in their stride and posted the day's reads on time. I could feel that no one is doing this only for the prize. They genuinely were interested to read to their children.
• So many participants posted links everyday to good books and other book-related information was seen passing around among the participants.
• Many participants becoming online friends with each other is given if interaction is done on daily basis.
• I'm sure sale of books through online stores or bookshops or book exhibitions must have increased manifold thanks to this challenge. (The best example is me!)
• 4 days have passed after the challenge ended, still, I'm sure the book-reading routine is continuing at all participants' homes!
• The downside was that I started spending too much time online often leaving other things behind.
• My last month's budget overshot due to huge amounts of books being ordered!
• And last but not the least, I forgot to read my usual stuff and my so-called 'me-time'. (Since all the vacant time was spent in either reading to Swara or blogging about other's reads! Seriously, I did not touch a single book in the last 30 days!) 

          So, all in all, if the positive effects are bragging a lot than all the negative ones, then we can safely assume that the challenge was a hit! Kudos to BubbleInk Writes. And heartiest congratulations to all the winners! And thank you, BubbleInk Writes for this challenge. Otherwise, we would have been online friends only!

Happy Reading!