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Read Around the USA – 2025 States Reading Challenge
Welcome to the 2025 Read Around the USA Challenge! This popular challenge has two fun options to help you armchair travel through the United States as you read.
Two Ways to Participate in the Read Around the USA Challenge
The first option is designed regionally as a one-book-per-month reading challenge. The other is a more comprehensive approach and doesn’t have to be completed in a single year.
Option 1: Regional Read Around the USA
Each month, choose one book from a specific region of the USA. We broke the states and inhabited territories into regional groups. Challenge participants read ONE book from each region throughout the year, for a total of twelve books. You’ll find a recommended monthly reading schedule below.
Option 2: 50+ States Read Around the USA
We heard from many readers that they had a goal of reading a book from every state. You can aim to tackle all 50 states in one year or spread them out over several years. Either way, we also recommend including Washington DC and the 5 inhabited US Territories as part of your goal.
Join the Read Around the USA Challenge
When you sign up using the box below, you’ll get a welcome email with a link to download both of the printable trackers 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.
Reading Schedule & Rating Logs
While we already have regional lists available with five book recommendations for every state, we will be expanding these to comprehensive, stand-alone lists for each state throughout the year.
The individual book lists for all five states in each region will be finalized and sent out in our email newsletter during the month leading up to the regional reading prompt. For example, the book lists for all five states in the Southwest region (February’s reading prompt) will be finalized during the month of January.
| Reading Month | Choose Your Book | After Reading* |
|---|---|---|
| January | New England MA, ME, NH, RI, VT | Rate Your Book MA, ME, NH, RI, VT |
| February | Southwest AZ, CO, NM, UT, WY | Rate Your Book AZ, CO, NM, UT, WY |
| March | Southeast AL, FL, GA, SC, TN | Rate Your Book AL, FL, GA, SC, TN |
| April | Heartland IA, KS, KY, MO, NE | Rate Your Book IA, KS, KY, MO, NE |
| May | Northeast CT, DE, NJ, NY, PA | Rate Your Book CT, DE, NJ, NY, PA |
| June | South Central AR, LA, MS, OK, TX | Rate Your Book AR, LA, MS, OK, TX |
| July | Pacific CA, HI, NV, OR, WA | Rate Your Book CA, HI, NV, OR, WA |
| August | Northern AK, ID, MT, ND, SD | Rate Your Book AK, ID, MT, ND, SD |
| September | Eastern Appalachian DC, MD, NC, OH, VA, WV | Rate Your Book DC, MD, NC, OH, VA, WV |
| October | Upper Midwest IL, IN, MI, MN, WI | Rate Your Book IL, IN, MI, MN, WI |
| November | US Territories (includes all five) | Rate Your Book |
| December | Traveling the USA | Rate Your Book |
If you plan to read a book for every state, you may prefer to browse the book lists using our alphabetical index of all 50 states (use the table of contents to jump directly to the Read Around the USA section). Keep in mind that the book recommendation lists are being heavily updated and expanded according to the schedule above.
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 the book recommendations throughout the year (following the schedule above) each individual state book 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 challenge reads via our book rating logs. We will create the book rating forms each month as we finalize the individual state book lists, and we will add the links in the “Monthly Reading Schedule & Rating Log” section above.
If you find it easier to view the book recommendation lists or rating log links in an alphabetical format, you can find them on this page (use the table of contents to jump directly to the Read Around the USA section).
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 Kind of Books Are Included?
For each state, we do the research for you! Our carefully curated book recommendation 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.
Each book list includes a wide variety of genres, from contemporary and literary fiction to mystery, romance, and non-fiction. Additionally, we always try to include diverse characters and authors. For this challenge, we include many books by authors with strong ties to the region to add authenticity to your state reading.
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 state 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.
And if you are aiming to read a book from all 50 states, we encourage you to give yourself plenty of time. There’s no need to read all 50 in one year. You’ll likely enjoy the challenge more if you allow yourself to read other books in between.
Do I have to read in the recommended regional order?
Yes and no. While there are short book lists for every state available from a prior year, keep in mind that we’ll be creating longer, stand-alone lists for each state according to the schedule outlined above. The updated book lists will be sent out in out in our weekly email newsletter, and we will also link to them in the “Reading Schedule & Rating Logs” section above.
If you follow the recommended regional reading schedule, you’ll always have the most up-to-date list with additional highly-rated recommendations. You’ll also be able to chat with other readers in our Facebook group who are reading about the same region as you.
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!
