Opinions of a Wolf

I am pleased to announce that I will again by hosting the Mental Illness Advocacy (MIA) Reading Challenge for 2012!  Just what is the MIA Reading Challenge?  I’m glad you asked!

I started the MIA Reading Challenge in December 2010 in an effort to raise awareness, knowledge, and acceptance of mental illness.  Reading, both fiction and nonfiction, is an excellent way to broaden one’s horizons and expose one to new ideas and ways of thinking and being.  Many reading challenges already exist in the book blogging community to address racism, sexism, and homophobia, but I could not find any to address the stigma faced by those suffering from mental illness.  In spite of mental illnesses being recognized by the scientific community as diseases just like physical ones, many still think those suffering from one are at fault for their own suffering.  I hope reading and reviewing books featuring characters struggling to deal with mental illness, whether their own or another person’s, will help remove the stigma faced on a daily basis by those with a mental illness.  They already have to struggle with an illness; they shouldn’t have to face a stigma too.

Challenge Levels:
Acquainted–4 books
Aware–8 books
Advocate–12 books

I think in the world of book blog reading challenges this is a fairly unique one for a good cause, and I hope you will consider signing up for it!

Just head on over to the challenge’s main page to sign up by commenting with a link to your announcement of participation and feel free to grab the 2012 button for your blog.  The challenge page also contains a list of suggested books sorted by illness that 2011’s participants found to be very helpful.

Rock on, advocates!