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Lifetime of Reading Challenge
Welcome to the 2025 Lifetime of Reading Challenge! Throughout this year-long challenge, you’ll enjoy a wide range of books featuring main characters of different age ranges.
While we’re both enjoying our 40s, the Book Girls’ Guide has readers ranging from their early 20s to 90s. No matter the age, we’re constantly impressed by your willingness to learn and stretch beyond your normal reading comfort zone.
Each decade of life brings different joys and challenges. It’s easy to dismiss those younger or older, but we believe that each generation is worth embracing and has plenty of things to teach us. We’re stronger when we work together to find similarities instead of focusing on differences. While everyone’s individual story is unique, we hope this challenge will reinforce your appreciation for those in different phases of life.
How Does the Lifetime Challenge Work?
Each month, choose a book with a main character in a specific age range, working your way chronologically from child protagonists to centenarians. Two additional reading prompts, one focused on books that span a character’s lifetime and another on intergenerational novels, for a total of twelve reading prompts. 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. These book lists will allow you to find something that suits your reading style and mood without forcing you to spend hours researching novels on your own.
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 Lifetime of Reading 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. We couldn’t think of a better representation of a lifetime than the rings of a tree.
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 | Child Protagonist | Rate Your Book |
| February | Teenagers | Rate Your Book |
| March | 20-Somethings | Rate Your Book |
| April | 30-Somethings | Rate Your Book |
| May | 40-Somethings | Rate Your Book |
| June | Intergenerational | Rate Your Book |
| July | 50-Somethings | Rate Your Book |
| August | 60-Somethings | Rate Your Book |
| September | 70-Somethings | Rate Your Book |
| October | 80-Somethings | Rate Your Book |
| November | 90 & 100-Somethings | Rate Your Book |
| December | Spanning Lifetime | 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 age range 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 read in age 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 age range as you.
But no matter how you choose to complete the prompts, by the end of the year, you’ll have a fresh perspective on what struggles and perks come with different age ranges.
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!
