2016 Reading Challenges

Happy New Year! I’m not much of a resolutions person, but I do enjoy setting some goals for reading. This will be my third year with the Goodreads Reading Challenge. I am pledging 50 books, which is a pretty dramatic increase from last year, but I think I’ll complete it. For the first time, I am also going to try a more structured reading challenge: The 2016 Book Riot Read Harder Challenge. The goal of this 24-task challenge is to push your reading boundaries by exploring a variety of genres, authors, page lengths, and more (Examples: Read a book originally published in the decade you were born, Read a book that is by an author from Southeast Asia, Read a food memoir). There’s no guarantee that I’ll get through the entire list, but I’m hoping that it will open new doors in my reading life!

Below are a few more challenges if you’re interested in diverse reading, a little competition, or just having an objective in mind throughout the year. You can also search the web for hundreds more challenges like these. Remember, the great thing about reading goals and challenges is that no one is forcing you to do it. If you complete them, hooray! If not, at least you can say you tried and are a better reader for it. Either way, good luck!

• Popsugar’s 2016 Reading Challenge: printable list of 40 tasks to grow as a reader
• #BustleReads Challenge: list of 20 tasks (with suggestions for each) to encourage diverse reading, share your progress and ideas with the hashtag on social media
• Challies.com 2016 Reading Challenge: choose your list based on how much you want to read this year (Light, Avid, Committed, Obsessed), designed for the Christian reader or those wanting to learn more about Christianity