A new year is always a great time to consider your goals for the year, and of course as a book lover reading goals should be somewhere on your list. That’s where these 2024 reading challenges for book lovers come in!
A reading challenge can be a great way to increase your love of reading or perhaps explore new books, authors, or genres that you wouldn’t normally read.
And while the new year can be the perfect time to start a year-long reading challenge, you can also start a reading challenge at any time and do a shorter challenge like a month-long challenge, a seasonal challenge, or any other challenge length of your choosing.
Ready to get started with your reading challenge for 2024? Check out these exciting reading challenge ideas to find the best reading challenges for you!
What are Reading Challenges?
But what is a reading challenge? A reading challenge is a goal you choose for your reading over a specific period of time.
This goal could be to read a certain number of books in a year, to read books from a new genre (or a variety of genres you don’t normally read), to follow a set of reading challenge prompts for a month, to read for a certain amount of time each day…the possibilities are endless!
There’s no one “right” reading challenge; instead, you’ll want to find one that fits your reading style, your goals, and excites your interest.
Readers often choose to participate in a reading challenge to motivate themselves to read more, to read things they might not otherwise pick up, to join in on community book reading fun, or any number of other reasons. So when you’re looking at the book reading challenge ideas below, be sure to keep your own goals and reading styles in mind as you choose the best one for you!
Book Reading Challenge Ideas
Without further ado, here are some of the best book list challenges to participate in for 2024!
1. Goodreads Reading Challenge
The Goodreads reading challenge is a classic in the book lover world, and is one of the most basic ways to challenge yourself to read in 2024. To participate, all you’ll need to do is choose how many books you want to read this year, tell Goodreads that number, and then it will track your progress throughout the year.
You can choose as many or as few books as you want, so this is an easy to customize 12 month reading challenge.
2. Alphabet Reading Challenge
Looking for a fun way to challenge yourself to read? The Alphabet Reading Challenge (sometimes also called the A to Z Book Challenge) can be an exciting option!
With this reading challenge, you choose the length of time for the challenge (a year, a season, a month, etc.) and then try to read a book that starts with each letter of the alphabet. You can find a helpful list of some suggested book titles here!
3. POPSUGAR Reading Challenge
Another reading challenge that many bookworms look forward to every year is the POPSUGAR Reading Challenge! In this reading challenge, the POPSUGAR editors provide 50 different prompts for you to use to choose books to read this year. You then select any book you want to read based on the criteria they provide.
Want to join? You can find the 2024 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge here.
4. Read Around the World Reading Challenge
The Read Around the World Challenge is a fun way to diversify your reading in 2024, especially if you haven’t read many books from other countries.
There are lots of ways to read around the world. One of the easiest ways is to read 52 books (one a week for a year) and choose a book from a different country each week. But you could also modify this to read a book from every country in the world, or to go more localized and read a book from every country in Europe, or a book from every country in Asia, etc.
5. Series Reading Challenge
The Series Reading Challenge is pretty simple—find a series you want to read, set an amount of time you want to read it in (this would be a great monthly reading challenge), and then read the whole series!
This challenge is great for those who want flexibility, as you can customize it to your needs. You can choose a short series if you only want to read a few books, or you can choose a series that has lots of books in it if you want to read more!
6. Author Reading Challenge
Similar to the Series Reading Challenge, the Author Reading Challenge is another exciting challenge that offers some flexibility! To participate, choose an author you want to read and then read everything they’ve written.
This will be an easier challenge if you choose an author who has written only a few books, and harder if you want to read an author that has lots of books already written. But it’s also so cool to read everything an author has written, especially if you already have read something by them and loved it!
7. Barnes & Noble Reading Challenge
Barnes & Noble is also offering a reading challenge for 2024, in which they want you to read 52 books throughout the year.
For 2024, the prompts are to read 26 “Books that have ______” and 26 “Books that made you feel ______”. To learn more about what this means and how to participate, check out Barnes & Noble’s reading challenge post on Instagram!
8. Classics Reading Challenge
Another fun reading challenge for 2024 is the Classics Reading Challenge, where you read some of the best classics of all time!
There are lots of ways to do a classics reading challenge, but a good place to start would be to determine how many books you want to read this year and then check out a list of the best classics to choose which books to add to your challenge. You can read one book a month, one book a week, or any number of books you choose for yourself as a goal!
9. TBR Reading Challenge
The TBR Reading Challenge is a fantastic way to reduce your TBR list in 2024 by reading through the backlist of books you’ve been meaning to read but haven’t gotten around to!
For this challenge, you decide the details. Do you want to completely clear your TBR? Read all the TBR books you already own? Something else? You choose your goal, and then get reading!
10. Summer Reading Challenge
Of all the seasonal reading challenges, Summer Reading Challenges are the most popular…perhaps because summer brings sunshine, beach weather, and hopefully vacation with plenty of time to read!
Regardless of why it’s the most popular, there are plenty of summer reading challenges you can join to make the most of the summer months. If you want a reading challenge with prizes, check your local library to see if they offer an adult reading program alongside their kids’ summer reading challenge. Mine does and it’s so much fun!
But you can also simply set yourself a goal to read summer-themed books, or adapt any other challenge on this list to fit into a few months’ timeframe.
11. Fall Reading Challenge
The Fall Reading Challenge is similar to the summer reading challenge, but obviously takes place in fall. Good fall reading challenge ideas include reading autumn-themed books or anything cozy (like cozy mysteries!) as the weather starts to turn chillier. You can also adapt any other challenges to fit with this seasonal reading challenge.
12. Winter Reading Challenge
The Winter Reading Challenge is perfect for reading holiday-themed books, anything set in Winter, or adapting other reading challenges to fit into the winter timeline. You can also find lots of fun winter reading challenge prompts on sites like Pinterest if you’re looking for inspiration!
13. Spring Reading Challenge
And the last of the season reading challenges is the Spring Reading Challenge. As a time of growth, it can be really fun to read books set in spring, books with flowers or plant names in the titles, or even books for personal growth and improvement. There’s so many options for a spectacular spring challenge!
14. Harry Potter Reading Challenge
The Harry Potter Reading Challenge is one of my favorites, and I highly recommend giving it a try! To participate, you choose a book to read that fits into one of the classes at Hogwarts.
For Potions, you could read a book that relates to cooking. For Defense Against the Dark Arts, read a spooky book. For Charms, read a book with magic as a theme. This is a fun way to give yourself some prompts to get you thinking about books you might otherwise miss, and by the end I’m certain you’ll pass your O.W.L.s!
15. Audiobook Reading Challenge
The Audiobook Reading Challenge is pretty simple. Essentially, all you’re doing is setting a goal to listen to a specific number of audiobooks or to listen to more audiobooks than you did last year!
You can use this challenge on its own, or combine it with one of the other challenges on this list (e.g., do the Read Around the World Challenge but listen to all the books as audiobooks).
16. Read a Decade Reading Challenge
Another exciting reading challenge idea is the Read a Decade Reading Challenge! In this challenge, you choose a decade and then read your way through the bestsellers from those years or discover some gems that have been forgotten by many.
You can choose any decade you like, and then investigate what books were published and decide which ones look interesting to you!
17. Recommended Reading Challenge
If you’re looking to do a reading challenge that will be super personalized to you, then the Recommended Reading Challenge is such a fun choice!
For this reading challenge, you’ll ask your friends and family to tell you their all-time favorite book. Then, you add all their books to your reading challenge list for the year and read them! This is a fun way to get cool new recommendations, and is also a fun way to connect with friends and family and learn more about what they love.
18. Celebrity Reading Challenge
There are lots of celebrities who love reading, so if you’re looking for a fun goal then the Celebrity Reading Challenge is a great one to choose!
For this challenge, you can join a celebrity book club and/or read what they recommend this year. Alternatively, you could choose to only read books that they’ve recommended in the past. Need somewhere to start? Check out Oprah’s Book Club or Reese’s Book Club!
19. Storygraph Reading Challenge
Need more exciting reading challenges? Storygraph is a fun literary community/social book cataloging site, and you can discover all sorts of reading challenges users are participating in on the site! Check out all the ideas here.
20. Mystery Reading Challenge
Another reading challenge you might enjoy is a genre challenge, like the mystery reading challenge! If you love mysteries or want to get into reading more mysteries this year, you could set yourself a goal to only read mystery books. Choose the time length for your challenge (a month? a season? a year?) and then start reading mysteries!
21. Sci-Fi Reading Challenge
The Sci-Fi Reading Challenge works the same as the mystery reading challenge, only you’ll be reading Sci-Fi instead. You could also combine this with another reading challenge like the Decade Challenge if you want, and decide to read only science fiction from a specific decade. There’s so many ways to customize this fun genre reading challenge!
22. Fantasy Reading Challenge
Another genre that is super popular for a reading challenge is Fantasy. So for the Fantasy Reading Challenge, you’ll be reading a certain number of fantasy books for the year, month, or whatever timeframe you set. It’s sure to be fantastical and fun!
23. Buy No Books Reading Challenge
And lastly, the Buy No Books Reading Challenge is perfect if one of your non-reading resolutions is to save money. For this challenge, you commit to only reading books you already own or can borrow from a library, friend, etc. so you don’t spend any money on new books.
This is definitely a challenge for most of us book lovers, as it’s almost as much fun to collect books as it is to read them! But this is a great way to temporarily cut back on spending while also maybe reading something you wouldn’t have otherwise, or finally getting through all those books on your shelf you’ve been meaning to read!