We love a good reading challenge, so we’ve designed four fun options for adults (as well as one for kids). The challenge options include reading around the world, reading around the US states, reading through decades from the 1880s-2010s, and exploring characters of different ages.
How Our Reading Challenges Are Different
When we launched The Book Girls Guide in 2019, our first big idea was to host a year-long reading challenge. We wanted it to be fun, flexible, and pressure-free while still being intentional and with a bit of structure. Other challenges we had seen followed two main formats. Either everyone was assigned the same book each month, or there was a set of prompts, and you were on your own to find a book that fit each prompt.
We developed a hybrid model where we provide a challenge theme with monthly reading prompts, along with a curated list of book recommendations for each prompt. Unlike many other challenges, we also provide an opportunity for participants to discuss their books with other readers. It’s been so successful that each year we’ve followed the same format, adding an additional reading challenge theme. Many readers are participating in more than one!
Choose From These Reading Challenges
All of these reading challenges allow you to find books that you’ll love within your preferred genre, or to push yourself outside of your reading comfort zone if that’s what you’re after. These challenges are designed to run from January through December, but you’re welcome to jump in anytime!
Once you’ve picked your challenge (of course, you can do more than one if you’d like), be sure to join our Facebook Group! We have a very welcoming and active group of book lovers who enjoy discussing books from these reading challenges, as well as sharing other book recommendations.
Read Around the USA Challenge
BRAND NEW FOR 2023! We’ll be reading around the United States! This is a year-long challenge, but we do NOT expect you to read a book in every state. Instead, we broke the map into regional groups of states. You'll choose ONE book from each month's region. Of course, if you have time to read more than one, that’s okay too.
Click the button below to read all the details about this challenge, and sign up for the free printable map tracker. Each month we'll publish a new book recommendation list for the next group of states. These lists include contemporary fiction, historical fiction, non-fiction, and memoirs, and cover a wide variety of topics.
Decades Reading Challenge
Through this challenge, you'll read some of the best books set in each decade from the 1880s through the 2010s, and you'll experience the dramatic changes of day-to-day life over the last 140 years!
Click the button below to read all the details about this challenge, and sign up for the free printable reading tracker. You'll also find links to our book recommendations for each decade. These lists include historical fiction, non-fiction, and memoirs, and cover a wide variety of topics. The post for each decade also includes a timeline of major events from that period in history to help provide some context for the book recommendations.
Book Voyage: Read Around the World
Are you ready to go on an unforgettable journey from the comfort of your favorite reading chair? Let us be your travel guide! Through the Read Around the World Reading Challenge, you’ll get to experience every continent and the vastly different landscapes and cultures that make up our beautiful planet.
Click the button below to read all the details about this challenge and sign up to receive our printable custom map book tracker. We have a list of recommended books for each region, ranging from novels to memoirs and covering a variety of cities, as well as both contemporary and historical topics.
Lifetime of Reading Challenge
Throughout this self-paced challenge, you'll enjoy a wide range of books featuring main characters of different age ranges. 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.
Life doesn’t always allow the same amount of reading each month, so this challenge offers total flexibility.
Click the button below to read more about the challenge, sign up for your free printable book tracker, and find the links to the book lists for each main character's age range.
Book Lists For Each Reading Challenge
Read Around the USA Book Lists
Throughout 2023, a new list will be released for this challenge on the 20th of each month.
Decades Reading Challenge Book Lists
Throughout 2023, these lists will be updated with some new titles in advance of each monthly reading prompt.
Book Voyage Book Lists
Throughout 2023, these lists will be updated with some new titles in advance of each monthly reading prompt.
Lifetime of Reading Book Lists
The Lifetime of Reading challnge is self-paced for 2023, so you are free to read books for the Lifetime prompts in any order throughout the year.
