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Decades Reading Challenge
Back by popular demand, 2025 will mark the sixth year of the Decades Reading Challenge. This was the first reading challenge we launched in 2020 with a small group of readers. We love seeing how it’s grown, with nearly 10,000 readers registering to participate over the past five years.
Throughout this 2025 reading challenge, we’ll read some of the best books set in each decade from the 1880s through the 2010s. Whether it’s your first time or your sixth joining the Decades Challenge, we’re happy to have you!
How Does the Decades Challenge Work?
Each month, choose a book set in a specific decade, working your way chronologically from the late nineteenth century and working your way up to the early twenty-first century by year-end. You’ll find a recommended monthly reading schedule below.
For each monthly prompt, we do the research for you! Our carefully curated book recommendation lists span a wide variety of genres, allowing you to spend more time reading and less time researching.
After you finish reading, share your feedback by completing our short book rating log. We also invite you to join our Facebook group to chat about what you’re reading throughout the month.
Join the Decades Challenge
When you sign up using the box below, you’ll get a welcome email with a link to download the cute printable tracker for this challenge. Even if you’re already on the email list, you can provide the same email address in the box below to receive this year’s tracker.
Once you’ve signed up for the challenge, you’ll begin receiving our Friday email newsletter. This is the easiest way to help you stay on track.
In addition to signing up for the challenge, we recommend joining our Read with the Book Girls Facebook group. It’s a friendly place where we discuss books, both for the challenges and anything else that we’re reading.
Monthly Reading Schedule & Rating Logs
While the book lists are available below from prior years, keep in mind that they may change. Any updates will be made by the 3rd Friday of the prior month and the updated link will be in the email newsletter that day. For example, the February list will be finalized for this year on January 17th. Books may be removed, and others added, so we recommend waiting until the updated list is finalized before choosing your book.
For the months that cover two decades, you only need to read one book from that time period.
| Reading Month | Choose Your Book | After Reading* |
|---|---|---|
| January | 1880s – 1890s | Rate Your Book |
| February | 1900s – 1910s | Rate Your Book |
| March | 1920s | Rate Your Book |
| April | 1930s | Rate Your Book |
| May | 1940s | Rate Your Book |
| June | 1950s | Rate Your Book |
| July | 1960s | Rate Your Book |
| August | 1970s | Rate Your Book |
| September | 1980s | Rate Your Book |
| October | 1990s | Rate Your Book |
| November | 2000s – 2010s | Rate Your Book |
| December | Spanning Decades | Rate Your Book |
Printable Book Lists
Readers who support The Book Girls’ Guide through our Buy Me a Coffee (BMAC) membership site can access printable versions of the reading challenge book lists. As we update each book list throughout the year – following the monthly reading challenge schedule above – each list will be available in a single-page printable format for our BMAC members.
We offer two membership levels. Both our BFF members and our Inner Circle members get access to the single-page printables for the year-long reading challenges. Visit our Buy Me a Coffee membership page for a full list of benefits for each level.
Our BMAC members help cover the cost of running the challenges so we can keep them free for everyone!
What Do I Do When I Finish Reading My Book Each Month?
As a member of our email list and Facebook group, you can share your rating and other feedback about your monthly challenge reads via our book rating logs. We share a link to the rating form in the Friday newsletter every week, and you’ll also find them in the “Monthly Reading Schedule & Rating Log” section above.
The book rating forms help us determine which books should stay on our recommendation lists, which should be removed, and whether any changes are needed to our descriptions. Additionally, we use the data to calculate the “BGG Reader Ratings” that you’ll see noted for many of the books.
Additional Frequently Asked Questions
If you’ve signed up for the challenge above, you’re all set, and our emails will help guide you through everything throughout the year.
If you have any questions, you can continue reading the most commonly asked questions below.
How much does it cost to participate?
All our reading challenges, as well as our other book lists and resources, are free for everyone! It takes an extraordinary amount of time to put together and administer the challenges, but we never want finances to be a barrier to participation. At the request of some of our readers, we established a totally optional Buy Me a Coffee membership for anyone willing to help support our work.
What types of books are included?
As with our other challenges, we provide carefully researched lists of highly-rated titles for you to choose from for each reading prompt. The Decades Challenge is perfect for anyone who enjoys historical fiction, including sub-genres like romance, mystery, literary fiction, and more. However, you don’t have to be a fiction reader to participate. We also include non-fiction suggestions about important people and events from each decade. Additionally, we always try to include diverse characters and authors.
Within the book list, each recommendation includes a synopsis of the book and additional notes to help you select your perfect read. Many also have ratings from our readers who participated in prior years.
Do you host any other reading challenges?
Yes! We host numerous yearlong reading challenges, as well as fun mini-challenges. You are welcome to join in as many challenges as you would like each year. Many of our readers participate in more than one.
If I’m doing more than one challenge, can a single book count twice?
Yes, absolutely! In fact, we even help you find some books that meet more than one challenge with a special crossover list that we update and share in the newsletter each month.
Do audiobooks count?
Yes! We’re equal-opportunity readers. Whether you choose a paper book, ebook, or audiobook, if you finish the material knowing the story the author set out to tell, you’ve “read” the book!
Can I choose my own book?
Absolutely! You can choose any book from our recommendation lists or any other book that meets the challenge prompt. In fact, if you really enjoy an off-list book you select, we’d love for you to share your feedback in our rating logs (select “Other” from the book title dropdown).
Can I recommend a book for one of the decade book lists?
Yes, we’d love to hear your recommendation, and you can submit it using this form. Please only recommend books that you’ve already read and rated highly.
How do I get the printable reading challenge log?
Just scroll back up and fill out the email form in the blue box, which is located above the links to all the book lists.
What if I signed up, but didn’t receive the email?
Sometimes, our emails might get trapped in your spam filter. If you signed up but haven’t received the email with the printable reading tracker, be sure to check your spam folder. To keep future emails out of the spam folder, be sure to add our email address to your address book, or drag our emails over to your Primary tab in Gmail.
If you’ve checked your spam folder and still don’t see the email from us, then please send us a quick email to hello(at)bookgirlsguide(dot)com and we’ll get it sorted out for you as quickly as we can.
Can I join a reading challenge after January?
Absolutely! How you choose to participate is totally up to you, so there’s no such thing as being behind. Any month can be a great time to start!
If you’re a voracious reader, you can double up and complete multiple prompts in one month. Or feel free to just start with the current month and move forward.
No pressure from us. We’re happy for you to join in whenever and wherever!
What happens if I miss a month?
Nothing at all! Life happens, and we’re committed to our challenges being fun and not stressful.
While it feels great to make it to the end of the year with all 12 months completed, sometimes it’s better to skip a month and move on to the next prompt when you can. You can also go back and read the month you skipped if you’d like, but please don’t feel any pressure to do that.
Do I have to go in order?
Yes and no. While the book lists are available above from prior years, keep in mind that they may change. Any updates will be made by the 3rd Friday of the prior month and the updated link will be in the email newsletter that day. For example, the February list will be finalized for this year on January 17th.
If you follow the recommended monthly reading prompts outlined above, you’ll always have access to the most up-to-date book recommendations. And you’ll be able to chat with other readers in our Facebook group who are reading about the same time period as you.
With the Decades Challenge in particular, reading your way through the decades in order allows the opportunity for more insights and observations about the changes over the past century and a half.
Can we use the challenge for our book club?
Absolutely! We’ve had many book clubs use our challenges and reading prompts to help guide their book selections throughout the year. One suggestion is to give each member a link to the book list for each prompt and let them vote on their top 3 options to help narrow down the book options before making the final selection as a club. We also have a list of Universal Book Club Discussion Questions to spark insightful conversations, no matter what title your club is exploring.
We look forward to reading with you this year!
