The 52 Book Club: 2025 / 2026 Challenge discussion

WEEKLY CHECK-IN
September 4, 2023 -- Week 36

It's a new month! (And spoiler alert: we've got some fun stuff planned, so if you haven't signed up for e-mails on our website yet, now's a great time to do so!)

For this week's discussion, we'd love to chat about our summer reading challenge! Did you participate? Finish? What did you think of the style of challenge? Favorite prompt? Favorite read? (We'd love any and all feedback!)

I liked it. The two prompts I struggled with the most were the vehicle and the music. Still, picking classical music helped motivated me to read Pride and Prejudice sooner than originally planned, and that was beautiful! I did finish around the first week of August - Forever Young by Hayley Mills was my last one under memoir. Some of my favorite prompts were picking books with mountains and beaches, but I also liked the ones for picking traveling companions too.
Best one I read was Pride and Prejudice, followed by Marrying Off Morgan McBride by Amy Barry for family as the road trip companion, and My Killer Vacation by Tessa Bailey as my beach read.

I did participate. But only completed 5 of the 8 prompts because back to school caused me to not have the reading time I desired. 🙃
I loved the choose your own adventure format. Super fun!!
I loved Island of Sea Women by Lisa See which I used for best friend travel companion prompt.

I am using the same process for the Summer Challenge as I am for the entire challenge and the mini-challenges—I track the books I read by noting which prompts they might fit, but I’m not going to assign a final book to each prompt till the end of the year.

But I do have a few prompts from the Summer Road Trip Challenge that are still empty. I have plans for a few of them but some may end up unfilled.

The style was OK but it felt like a lot of prompts for 3 months.

I enjoyed the Summer Challenge so much that I did all 3 categories under each of the 8 prompts. I think my favorite prompt was the Destination. My least favorite was Snacks, especially the hot and spicy - that's not a genre I like. Overall, my favorite read was The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris.

I liked the style of the challenge which I got to choose my own choices, like my choices have a meaning, and then it became a story of my summer adventure. I completed all 3 categories for vehicle prompt, 2 categories for others, and only 1 for sight and conclusion prompts because I was struggling to find the right book.
My favorite read was Unearthly by Cynthia Hand for set in the woods and Love and other flight delays by Denise Williams for airplane on the cover.

I loved the summer reading challenge. I thought the idea was very fun. I only did 1 category for each of the 8 prompts.

I had a lot of fun with this. I did all the categories in all the prompts. I think my favorite book was If I Ever Get Out of Here by Eric Gansworth, and my biggest surprise was Restless Heart by Wynonna Judd. My least favorite was Sweetness and Light by J.A. Whiting.

I enjoyed it. I finished 17 of the 24 prompts (but I did double dip most of them with the regular challenge). I did not complete any of the vehicles, but I would have liked to if I had time. I found the snacks to be the most difficult. I liked the style. I think "a re-read" was my favorite prompt.
No Land To Light On by Yara Zgheib has been my fave read in a long time.... I used it for the destination prompt

I didn't participate. Just chugging along on the yearly challenge

I participated, but I only went through the list once. I'm participating in multiple reading challenges, and I didn't think I'd be able to keep up if I did all 24. The format was great. I liked having multiple choices for book selection. "Vehicles" was definitely the most difficult prompt, but I enjoyed re-reading Stephen King's Christine. It's a classic.

I loved this challenge! I thought it was so clever and was a great way to read off my shelf. I finished 2 road trips and am in the middle of a third. The graphics were fantastic too!

I was hoping to finish the third road trip, but now that there is a September Mini-Challenge that has taken priority along with finishing the main challenge.

I did participate. I completed every prompt, but the ones I loved most were about the music because I listened to and read some really fun books in particular, Composed by Rosanne Cash and I'm With the Band: Confessions of a Groupie by Pamela Des Barres. Also enjoyed my re-read of The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion.

I didn't participate this year as I have been focusing on the other challenges I am participating in this year. But, fingers crossed I will be participating in 2024. All the challenges are always so much fun!!

I'm participating, but haven't updated yet. Too much going on.