September 2026 Monthly Question > Likes and Comments

Do you do any other reading challenges besides ATY, such as Pop Sugar or other GR group challenges? Why do you like, or dislike, challenges?

I started with Book Riot's Read Harder challenge, then switched over to PopSugar when RH's challenges became too specific. After a couple of years, the same thing happened with PopSugar, so I looked around and found ATY. I've been here about 6 years and am still very happy with it. I do several other challenges: CWTS, a Wales-based year-long challenge that has two monthly aspects, one of which is alphabetical and the other thematic. I also belong to the Habitica (habit tracking site) "Read Your Books" book group, which is on Discord and also has a Goodreads page. I am a mod for two of its challenges, a monthly Read the World geographic challenge and a bi-monthly Read the Beast (books 500 pages or longer). I participate in my co-mod's Keeping It Real monthly challenge (Dewey Decimal-based nonfiction) and the main challenge for our group, a recurring three-month TBR Pile Destruction challenge focused on reading books already on our shelves or at least on our TBR lists for a month or longer. I have some that date back to 2008... This year I'm running a "rejects" challenge here at ATY (Science, Social Issues, and a Sense of Place) and I'm guessing I might do that again for 2027. I am also participating in NancyJ's Lists and Awards rejects challenge and Dubhease's Rocky Horror challenge. I read close to 200 books a year just to cover all of these challenges. But I'm retired and have the time.

I do ATY, Popsugar, and the 52 book clubs challenges. I do allow books to count so one book may fit a prompt for all 3 challenges. Popsugar has gotten ridiculous so I think this is my last year. We will see what next years prompts end up being. I am also doing the HRCYED challenge for the first time. It runs from july to july so will make a good filler to focus on when I finish up this years challenges around the end of october.

I do ATY and PopSugar. I also do add-on ATY challenges, so I have done the lists, sense of place and Rocky Horror Challenges this year. Normally, I use different books for ATY and PopSugar, but this year I have allowed some overlap.

Oh, I forgot: my niece and I are doing an English Premier League reading challenge this EPL season (now through May), which consists of a reading a book somehow connected to each of the 20 EPL teams. ⚽

LeahS wrote: "I do ATY and PopSugar. I also do add-on ATY challenges, so I have done the lists, sense of place and Rocky Horror Challenges this year. Normally, I use different books for ATY and PopSugar, but thi..."

I am going to try to do different books for all next year. Now that I have the time to read enough to do so.

Wow! I'm impressed. I did Read Harder for a couple of years but the prompts kept getting more and more specific. I started a challenge of reading a book published in each year of my life, but got bored with it.

I am addicted to the Seasonal Reading Challenge on GR. Several of my other groups do various challenges by the month, quarter or year.

I do the yearly challenge for The Next Best Book Club. Each year the reading challenge is based on the music of a different recording artist. This year the challenge is based on the music of the band Garbage.

Besides ATY52, I do the BINGO card challenge with the Read Women group. In 2022, the melanatedreader came up with a 20BooksByBlackWomen challenge - I did that one. Since then, I have come up with a personal 20 books challenge each year - one was Indigenous Women authors, the Latina authors, etc.

Dixie wrote: "Oh, I forgot: my niece and I are doing an English Premier League reading challenge this EPL season (now through May), which consists of a reading a book somehow connected to each of the 20 EPL team..."

I LOVE that idea!!!

After our dinner table chat last night, I think my family would say "for Chelsea, you read a book with a robber?" My niece asked why I like Chelsea and I said cause they stole my favorite player from my favorite Italian team so I had to follow him. So she texted her boyfriend "auntie likes Chelsea" and he wrote back "they always steal players."

I have been doing AtY for several years and read in order. I also do the quarterly challenges, as well as Australian monthly, quarterly and annual challenges, all through GR and they all overlap. I have given up Popsugar for the same reasons as everyone else, but also do the Classics Club challenge. Since retirement I usually read around 150 books per year, and the challenges keep me reading a wide variety of books, but unfortunately have fed my addiction to charity shops and street libraries, so my tbr keeps growing!

I've been doing the Popsugar for a few years. Now that I'm retired and reading more, this year I added the 52 Book Club, Booklist Queen and This Challenge Killed the Bookworm. Then I ran across ATY, and realized I'd already completed a lot of the prompts and it would only take a few more books to finish. (I'm currently at 50 out of 52 for the ATY challenge).

What I love is the way it combines my love of reading with my love of puzzle-solving. Figure out how to make the books currently on my TBR pile fit challenge prompts. Match a book from one challenge with prompts from one or more other challenges. Make it all come together like a Rubik's Cube (a puzzle I never could solve, LOL).

Laura Ruth wrote: "What I love is the way it combines my love of reading with my love of puzzle-solving. Figure out how to make the books currently on my TBR pile fit challenge prompts. Match a book from one challenge with prompts from one or more other challenges..."

Yes, exactly!

Robin P wrote: "Do you do any other reading challenges besides ATY, such as Pop Sugar or other GR group challenges? Why do you like, or dislike, challenges?"

The main other one I do is the Seasonal Reading Challenge, which has four three-month challenge through the years, each with as many as 60 tasks (although at lot of those have multiple options). I've only ever finished it twice!

I'm also in a Cozy Mysteries group, which has a five-prompt mini-challenge every month, and four seasonal spell-it-out challenges a year.

I used to do the PopSugar one, but the last couple I did, I found the prompts less than inspiring, and/or exceedingly hard to fill, and let it lapse this year.

I like doing challenges as my Goodreads To-read shelf is so long that I need something to focus in on what to read. Even my "priority" sub-list is over 250 books long! For the ATY, I try to do at least twenty of the prompts using books that have been on the To-Read shelf for over a year, to try to work down the backlog. Of course, it never completely works, as there's always one more book I can read...

I generally don't do additional challenges other than the ATY 52.