January is a time for making resolutions and goals for the new year, and "reading more" is a perennial addition to those lists. But whether your goal is to read one, twelve, or 100+ books, increasing the diversity of your reading habits is a great addition to those number goals. One way to change up your reading habits is to participate in a reading challenge and luckily there are soooo many to chose from. Some focus on reading different genres or formats (audiobooks and graphic novels count!), others are more of a scavenger hunt to help you tackle your TBR, and even more focus on different author identities. Here are a few to check out:
For those who want to ease into a challenge NoveList has a one book a month challenge that is a good mix of trying different genres, formats, and author identities. For those not in the know, NoveList Plus is a library database (through MeL) that recommends books based on themes or read-alikes.
Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge has been going for over a decade and has twenty-four prompts to help you diversify your reading. I have actually used this challenge multiple years to help me break out of slumps and to tryout new genres and authors. I highly recommend checking it out.
If you want a true challenge, try Popsugar's Reading Challenge - forty prompts plus an additional ten "advanced" prompts. This annual challenge has also been going form several years and is more of a scavenger hunt through genres and topics. I've done this one a couple of times and just barely finished it within the year.
Storygraph has been gaining popularity over the past couple of years as a reading tracking app. If you've been toying around with joining, I say take the plunge. One of the things I've liked most about Stroygraph is the ability to participate and even create challenges within the app. On their Reading Challenge Directory there are a couple that are created by the app: Genre Challenge 2025 (ten prompts), Read the World 2025 (ten prompts), and the Onboarding Challenge 2025 (five prompts) that helps you learn how to navigate the app/site a little better. Storygraph also allows you to create your own private challenges or join challenges created and published by others, which you can search for a challenge or browse by categories like "tackle your TBR" or "pop culture." I've found both Book Riot's and Popsugar's challenges this year and I've created my own private challenge to try to help read more from my TBR.
If none of these strike your fancy, Olivia over at The Candid Cover has created the "ultimate list" of 2025 reading challenges.
Good luck and happy reading!
University of Michigan-Flint
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