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Eight Fun Reading Challenges to Try in 2023
Make it the year you read more than you scroll Facebook
Most readers don’t need a specific prompt to motivate them to read, but even the most voracious readers enjoy the occasional reading challenge to spice things up (it also triggers our competitive side, which is great when not taken to extremes). There are a number of long-running challenges out there, most notably the Rory Gilmore Reading List (from Gilmore Girls) and the Lisa Simpson Reading List (from The Simpsons), and with the new year upon us I thought I would once again share a few reading challenges that you might enjoy.
All of the challenges here are easily adaptable to your own reading goals or preferences, so feel free to take what you like and ignore the rest. There’s no prize for finishing any of them either, unless you value knowledge, wisdom, joy, and guaranteed entrance into the gates of heaven; as Borges said, it will be a kind of library.
1. The Around the World in 80 Books Challenge. I dedicated an entire article to this challenge back in 2021, so I won’t go over all the details again here. I do want to mention it though, as it remains one of my favorite reading challenges ever. To briefly recap, you simply compile your own list of 80 books from 80 different countries and start reading. A Google search of “books in translation” or “best foreign authors” will get you started off right.
2. The Cemetery of Forgotten Books Challenge. This is one that you can easily finish in four to six weeks. It consists solely of the four novels in Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s Cemetery of Forgotten Books series: The Shadow of the Wind, The Angel’s Game, The Prisoner of Heaven, and The Labyrinth of the Spirits. I have rambled on about how much I love Zafon numerous times here before, so I will just say that these books are amazing. This is a great one to start the new year with, but it’s a joy at any time.
3. The 50 States Challenge. This is a slimmed-down version of Around the World in 80 Books that focuses solely on the United States: you see how many US states you can visit by reading a book written by an author from each state. Once again, a Google search here is helpful, and the key is to read only one from each state using the state the author was born in. This…
