2026 Reading Challenge discussion

Challenges/goals etc.

Personal Goals

1: Read 12 books by PoC authors, five of which are new-to-me
1/12
(1/5)

1. A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James (new-to-me)
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Some options:
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri (new-to-me)
Drown by Junot Díaz (new-to-me)
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (new-to-me)
The Palm-Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola (new-to-me)
The River Between by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (new-to-me)
On Black Sisters Street: A Novel by Chika Unigwe (new-to-me)
The Nigger Factory by Gil-Scott Heron (new-to-me)
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (new-to-me)
Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson (new-to-me)
Death's End by Liu Cixin
Dawn by Octavia E. Butler
Adulthood Rites by Octavia E. Butler
Imago by Octavia E. Butler
Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi

Personal Goals

2: Read 10 non-fiction works
0/10

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Some options:
The Bassoon King: My Life in Art, Faith, and Idiocy
James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital
Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea
The Year of Magical Thinking
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!
Just Kids
Columbine
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas
Unfaithful Music and Disappearing Ink
Autobiography

Personal Goals

3: Read 10 haunted house novels
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Some options:
The Secret Of Crickley Hall
Hell House
The Shining
The Haunting of Hill House
The Woman In Black
The Turn of the Screw
The Amityville Horror
Rebecca
Horrorstör
Burnt Offerings
Dark Matter
The Ghost Hunters
14

Yearly Challenge

I-Spy Challenge
(Link)

0/25

1. Of Mice and Men: The Sand Men, Men at Arms
2. A Tale of Two Cities: The Handmaid's Tale, A Tale for the Time Being, Invisible Cities
3. Gone with the Wind: Gone Girl, The Windup Girl
4. A Wrinkle in Time: Interesting Times
5. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn: ?
6. The Little Prince: The Princess and the Goblin
7. Alice's Adventures & Through the Looking Glass: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, A River Runs Through It and Other Stories
8. Brave New World: The War of the Worlds, The Gone-Away World, American Ghosts & Old World Wonders
9. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?: The Dream Thieves, Einstein's Dreams, The Sheep Look Up
10. Joy Luck Club: Lucky Jim, The Girls at the Kingfisher Club
11. The Diary of a Young Girl: Young Skins: Stories, Young Hearts Crying The Drowning Girl
12. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings: Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?, Boy, Snow, Bird
13. The Book Thief: The Summer Book, The Quantum Thief
14. The God of Small Things: Gods Behaving Badly, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, Small Gods, Things Fall Apart
15. Around the World in 80 Days: Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital
16. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Dog Stars
17. The Time Traveller's Wife: The Time Machine, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
18. All Quiet on the Western Front: All Clear
19. The Old Man & the Sea: Reaper Man, The Man in the High Castle
20. Where the Red Fern Grows: The Red Pony
21. Island of the Blue Dolphins: The Brides of Rollrock Island, Blue Lily, Lily Blue
22. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle-stop Cafe: How Green Was My Valley, Non-Stop
23. The Girl with the Pearl Earring: The Pearl
24. The Call of the Wild: Last Call, Wild Seed, The Wolf Wilder
25. The Good Earth: A Good School, The Good Soldier, A Wizard of Earthsea

Yearly Challenge

Around the World in Books
(Link)

1/20

1. USA - Carrie
2. Scotland - The Wasp Factory
3. Nigeria - Things Fall Apart
4. Kenya - The River Between
5. South Africa - Zoo City
6. Belgium - On Black Sisters Street
7. China - Death's End
8. England - The Moonstone
9. UAE - The Sand Men
10. Tunisia - Salammbô
11. Russia - Anna Karenina
12. France - The Three Musketeers
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Yearly Challenge

Every Year Challenge
(Link)

0/25

1992: Small Gods
1993: Men at Arms
1994: Soul Music
1995: Maskerade
1996: Drown
1997: Assassin's Quest
1998: The Savage Detectives
1999:
2000: Perdido Street Station
2001: The Namesake
2002:
2003:
2004:
2005:
2006: Blindsight
2007: On Black Sisters Street
2008: The Knife of Never Letting Go
2009: The Ask and the Answer
2010: Zoo City
2011: The Scorpio Races
2012: The Drowning Girl
2013: Hild
2014: The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
2015: Sleeping Embers of an Ordinary Mind: A Novel
2016: Morning Star

Yearly Challenge

From Fiction to Reality
(Link)

0/12

1. Warm Worlds and Otherwise (fiction) and James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon (non-fiction) - one a collection of short stories by James Tiptree Jr/Alice B. Sheldon, the other an account of her life
2. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (non-fiction) and Blindsight (fiction) - the first is a book about neurological disorders, and the second has neurological disorders spring up during the course of the novel
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Yearly Challenge

A to Z Challenge: Character Edition
(Link)

0/26

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Note: Only one character per book.

Yearly Challenge

The TBR Randomiser Challenge
(Link)

0/20

1. The Eisenberg Constant
2. The Flamethrowers
3. All the Birds, Singing
4. Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
5. Ender's Game
6. Crandolin
7. I Am Legend
8. The Headless Cupid
9. The Pursuit of Love
10. The Golem and the Djinni
11. The Boat of a Million Years
12. Do Zombies Dream of Undead Sheep?: A Neuroscientific View of the Zombie Brain
13. Some of the Best From Tor.com, 2013 Edition
14. The Tunnel
15. The Wine-Dark Sea
16. The Day of the Triffids
17. Not Dark Yet
18. The Outsider
19. Swordspoint
20. On the Road

Yearly Challenge

Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge
(Link)

0/24

1. Read a horror book - Carrie
2. Read a nonfiction book about science - Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman!
3. Read a collection of essays - Pulphead or Bossypants or Sister Outsider or I Was Told There'd Be Cake
4. Read a book out loud to someone else - hoping my cat counts as "someone else"
5. Read a middle grade novel -
6. Read a biography - The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
7. Read a dystopian or post-apocalyptic novel -
8. Read a book originally published in the decade you were born - 90s
9. Listen to an audiobook that has won an Audie Award - Not My Fathers Son or Yes Please or Matilda
10. Read a book over 500 pages long -
11. Read a book under 100 pages
12. Read a book by or about a person that identifies as transgender -
13. Read a book that is set in the Middle East -
14. Read a book by an author from Southeast Asia -
15. Read a book of historical fiction set before 1900 -
16. Read the first book in a series by a person of color - Wild Seed
17. Read a non-superhero comic that debuted in the last three years -
18. Read a book that was adapted into a movie, then watch the movie. Debate which is better. -
19. Read a nonfiction book about feminism or dealing with feminist themes - Pornography Feminism or The Politics of the Body or Delusions of Gender
20. Read a book about religion (fiction or nonfiction) - The Sparrow
21. Read a book about politics in your country or another (fiction or nonfiction) -
22. Read a food memoir -
23. Read a play -
24. Read a book with a main character that has a mental illness - The Drowning Girl

Yearly Challenge

The Listopia Challenge
(Link)

0/25

Goodreads Picks for Tournament of Books 2016 - 0/5
1. A Little Life
2. Fates and Furies
3. Did You Ever Have a Family
4. Get in Trouble
5. Satin Island

Hugo 2016 Eligible Works - 0/5
1. Aurora
2. The Girl with Ghost Eyes
3. Archivist Wasp
4. Planetfall
5. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

Radcliffe's 100 Best Novels of the 20th Century - 0/5
1. Animal Farm
2. Mrs. Dalloway
3. Brave New World
4. Charlotte's Web
5. Lord of the Flies

Haunted Houses - 0/10
1. The Shining
2. The Haunting of Hill House
3. Hell House
4. The Woman in Black
5. The Amityville Horror
6. The Turn of the Screw
7. Rebecca
8. Pet Sematary
9. The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales
10. The Secret Of Crickley Hall

Yearly Challenge

Recommended by Reading Challengers Challenge
(Link)


0/5

1. The Hunger Games
2. The Fault in Our Stars
3. The Hobbit
4. Northern Lights
5. Station Eleven

Yearly Challenge

The 2016 Goodreads Choice Awards Challenge
(Link)

0/25

1. Morning Star (Science Fiction)
2. After the Woods (Young Adult)
3. Death's End (Science Fiction)
4. The Fireman (Science Fiction)
5. The Raven King (Young Adult Fantasy)
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Yearly Challenge

Surprise Challenge!
(Link)

0/12

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First Quarter Challenge

Group Reads
(Link)

0/4

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Possibles:
Northern Lights
Station Eleven
Lolita
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
The Golem and the Djinni

First Quarter Challenge

Box Sets
(Link)

Creepy Crawlies Collection - 0/3
1. The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
2. The Bees by Laline Paull
3. Perdido Street Station by China Miéville (contains lots of bugs)

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Monthly Challenge

January: Marathon
(Link)

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