2025 & 2026 Reading Challenge discussion

I’M WITH THE BANNED
Duration: January 1, 2024 - December 31, 2024

Great literary works have been challenged and banned for generations. The reasons are wide ranging and include fear of change, anger over new ideas, language they find offensive, or reminders of painful times in our past. We believe it’s never a bad thing to read about people different from us, or to see things from a different perspective.

Let’s take this negative action and turn it into a positive!

For this challenge, you will spell out your favorite words with the titles of banned books, or their author’s names! Choose words that spark joy in you - your favorite sports team, favorite food, favorite child (we won’t tell! 😉), or even the title of your favorite book!
You can use the first letter of any word in the title, or the first letter of the author’s first or last name. “The,” “and,” and other filler words don’t apply.

EXAMPLE
My favorite fictional character is Groot from the Marvel comics!
G - The Giver by Lois Lowry
R - Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
O - The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
O - Animal Farm by George Orwell
T - Bridge to Terabithia

To join, simply tell us how many banned or challenged books you would like to read this year!

RESOURCES
The American Library Association’s list of 100 most banned and challenged books (2010-2019):
www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentl.... This site also has comprehensive lists of banned and challenged books by decade and year, and includes reasons why they were banned.

Wikipedia’s list of books banned by governments around the world:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_books_b...

Wikipedia’s lists of banned books by country (not necessarily banned by the government):
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_banned...

Listopias on Goodreads:
Best Banned Censored and Challenged Books
Banned and Challenged YA Novels
Forbidden Books Now Often Considered Classics

How to Participate:

1. Post here telling the challenge leader how many books you plan to read.
You can choose your books for the challenge at the beginning, or add them as you go. You can join a challenge at any time during the year and may also change your goal whenever needed.

2. When you finish a book for the challenge, post it here to let the challenge leader know.
Please be sure to post the total number of books you have completed and the number of your original message every time you post an update. We use the number of the original message to identify you, as there can be many members with the same name. The challenge leader will not look at this post to track your progress.

Example:
Update to message 32: 2/25 books read!

For more information about how challenges work, check out this thread or ask your challenge leader.

P.S. Please do not delete posts! It makes updating very confusing for the Moderators! If you decide to leave the challenge, please just let us know. You can edit your original post to say {deleted}. Thank you!

Participants
Alla (Message #33) - 0/15
Amy (Message #7) - 7/12
Barb (Message #23) - 6/9
Beth (Message #6) - 15/15Completed!
Brianne (Message #16) - 0/7
Cariana (Message #28) - 1/8
Carri Carey (Message #15) - 27/27Completed!
Chrissie (Message #9) - 6/10
Christene Paula✨ (Message #12) - 0/15
Gail W (Message #4) - 3/7
Kimberly (Message #22) - 0/12
Kristina (Message #11) - 0/25
Kylie (Message #21) - 0/4
Lara (Message #53) - 0/8
Lina (Message #5) - 8/10
Lorraine (Message #8) - 0/5
Panda (Message #63) - 4/4Completed!
ReGina (Message #24) - 12/12Completed!
Sara (Message #71) - 0/10
Sarah (Message #18) - 17/17Completed!
SarahKat (Message #19) - 4/4Completed!
Serena (Message #13) - 0/6
Shari (Message #25) - 0/10
Sheila (Message #20) - 18/15Completed!
Stormie ~ Book Dragon ~ (Message #10) - 0/12
.sunflower. (Message #29) - 9/9Completed!
Suzanne (Message #41) - 0/9
Tara (Message #26) - 8/8Completed!
TerryJane (Message #17) - 52/52Completed!

STATS
Participants: 29
Books Pledged: 357
Books Read: 197
Challenges Completed: 10
%Books Read: 55.18%
%Challenges Completed: 34.48%

Updated through Message #88 on Jan 05, 2025.

Reserved

☀ 4 / 7

Please add me in for 7 to start. Trying to work around the books already slotted in my personal challenge to fit this. Thanks! Love this one.

1. ABSENCE: the most commonly misspelled word according to the Miriam Webster Dictionary website.
Absence of freedom; absence of caring; absence of dignity...

☀ A: author: A : Wajdi Al-Ahdal: A Land Without Jasmine banned in Yemen, the author's home country.
B:
☀ S: title: Stargazing by Jen Wang. Banned from libraries in Florida by Legislative Action per Every Library
E:
N:
☀ C: name of author: Sandra Cisneros: The House on Mango Street. Banned from libraries in Florida by Legislative Action per PEN America
E:

Islandborn by Junot Díaz. Banned in Duval County, Florida along with 175 others.

Signing up for 10 for now, thanks!

🚫 I'm with the Banned - Yearly Challenge 🚫
Duration: January 1 - December 31, 2024

🚫 Progress: 8/10 🚫 - not finished

🚫 R - The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini / Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury (🗸 May 30)
🚫 E - The Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway (🗸 Dec 26)
🚫 S - Chess Story - Stefan Zweig (🗸 Aug 22)
I - The Age of Innocence – Edith Wharton / The House of the Spirits – Isabel Allende
🚫 S - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – Stieg Larsson (🗸 Feb 14)
🚫 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain (🗸 Oct 22)
🚫 A - Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden (🗸 Mar 29)
🚫 N - Coraline – Neil Gaiman (🗸 Feb 21)
🚫 C - A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (🗸 Apr 13)
E - Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides

🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫

30 Jan - Changing my phrase
30 Nov - Challenge completed

R: Ray Bradbury - Fahrenheit 451
E: Ellis, Bret Easton - American Psycho
A: Autobiography of Malcolm X, The by Malcolm X
D: Dai Sijie - Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

B: Beloved by Toni Morrison
A: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
N: Ninteen eighty-four by George Orwell
N: Nasreen's Secret School: A True Story from Afghanistan by Jeanette Winter
E: Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
D: Daniel Keyes - Flowers for Algernon

B: Beartown (Beartown, #1) by Fredrik Backman
O: Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
O: Oscar Wilde: The Picture of Dorian Gray
K: Kite Runner, The by Khaled Hosseini
S: Storyteller, The by Jodi Picoult

Count me in!
7/12

A: Al Capone Does My Shirts
T: Sam Mendes Presents: Oliver Twist
T:
I:
C: Charlotte's Web
U: Uncle Fred in the Springtime
S: The Awakening and Selected Stories

F:
I:
N: 1984: New Classic Edition
C:
H: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley


Weyward

Count me in! I’ll let you know the number of books and the chosen word sometimes in December.

Finished: 2025/09/25

I really like this idea!
I'm going with my favorite author: Oscar Wilde

Progress: 10/10

O - Oscar Wilde - The Importance of Being Earnest ✓
S - F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby ✓
C - Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas ✓
A - Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz ✓
R - Reimann, Brigitte - Die Geschwister ✓

W - Wenn die Lichter ausgehen by Erika Mann ✓
I - Ishida Sui - Tokyo Ghoul 1 ✓
L - Lauren, Christina - Autoboyography ✓
D - Die Bücherdiebin by Markus Zusak ✓
E - Edward Morgan Forster - Maurice ✓

I'm with the Banned - Yearly Challenge
Duration: January 1 - December 31, 2024.

0/12


I am going to start fresh in 2024. and go with 12 for now. I am not sure yet which titles or what words I will use.

I'M WITH THE BANNED
January 01, 2024 - December 31, 2024
Progress: 0/25

Count me in for 25, please!

Member Corner Tracking Post

I'M WITH THE BANNED
January 01, 2024 - December 31, 2024
Progress: 0/15

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This is my first Challenge on Goodreads! I'm so excited and I love this idea! 2023 has been a year of fantasy reading for me so I would love to do the word Dragon!

I'M WITH THE BANNED
January 01, 2024 - December 31, 2024
Progress: 0/6

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Dear Serena, I am so pleased you have joined the Goodreads community. May you have fun, feel like part of a family or community, and learn new things as well.
I love the word you chose.

I'm going to try to read 27 banned or challenged books this year.

Favorite Person
✅ B - Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret - Judy Blume - Read 2/15/24
✅ R - Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury - Read 3/6/24
✅ A - The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian - Sherman Alexie - Read 2/12/24
✅ D - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling - Read 9/25/24

Favorite food
✅ T - The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas - Read 11/5/24
✅ A - Flowers in the Attic - V.C. Andrews - Read 2/7/24
✅ C - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - J.K. Rowling - Read 6/10/24
✅ O - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - J.K. Rowling - Read 7/29/24
✅ S - Speak - Laurie Halse Anderson - Read 4/17/24

Favorite Hobby
✅ C - Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking-Glass - Lewis Carroll - Read 5/1/24
✅ R - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone - J.K. Rowling - Read 5/16/24
✅ O - Animal Farm - George Orwell - Read 1/22/24
✅ C - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey - Read 3/3/24
✅ H - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J.K. Rowling - Read 9/19/24
✅ E - How to Eat Fried Worms - Thomas Rockwell - Read 4/23/24
✅ T - Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing - Judy Blume - Read 3/1/24

Favorite Childhood Movie
(The)
✅ G - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - J.K. Rowling - Read 6/25/24
✅ O - Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood - Read 11/9/24
✅ O - Original Fake - Kirstin Cronn-Mills - Read 10/15/14
✅ N - Nineteen Minutes - Jodi Picoult - Read 3/21/24
✅ I - If I Stay - Gayle Forman - Read 11/11/24
✅ E - Eragon - Christopher Paolini - Read 5/23/24
✅ S - Saga, Volume 2 - Brian K. Vaughan - Read 6/14/24

Favorite Color
✅ T - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson - Read 2/5/24
✅ E - The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things - Carolyn Mackler - Read 9/26/24
✅ A - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J.K. Rowling - Read 6/12/24
✅ L - A Light in the Attic - Shel Silverstein - Read 9/1/24

So excited to do a banned book challenge, as this will be my first one!

P: Promised: Manchild in the Promised Land by Claude Brown
A: Alice: The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
T: Tattoo: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
R: Rosemary's: Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin
I: Island: Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane
C: Coraline: Coraline by Neil Gaiman
K: King: The Shining by Stephen King

🚫 I'M WITH THE BANNED - Yearly Challenge
Duration: January 1 - December 31, 2024
Progress: 52/52 -- COMPLETE

HUBBY
🚫 H - The House on Mango Street
🚫 U - The Upstairs Room
🚫 B - The Best Way to Play: A Little Bill Book by Bill Cosby
🚫 B - Saga, Volume 1 by Brian K. Vaughan
🚫 Y - Y: The Last Man, Vol. 1: Unmanned

MOM
🚫 M - Milk and Honey
🚫 O - The Witch Boy by Molly Knox Ostertag
🚫 M - Losing the Girl by MariNaomi

DAD
🚫 D - The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
🚫 A - All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
🚫 D - Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters

BIRDWATCHING
🚫 B - Beyond Magenta: Transgender and Nonbinary Teens Speak Out
🚫 I - The Age of Innocence
🚫 R - The Catcher in the Rye
🚫 D - Delicates
🚫 W - Watchmen
🚫 A - Go Ask Alice
🚫 T - Schindler’s List by Thomas Keneally
🚫 C - They Called Us Enemy
🚫 H - The Henna Wars
🚫 I - This Is My America
🚫 N - Naked Lunch
🚫 G - The Graveyard Book, Volume 1

NEEDLECRAFTS
🚫 N - New Kid
🚫 E - A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
🚫 E - The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
🚫 D - My Friend Dahmer
🚫 L - Les Misérables
🚫 E - Fear of Flying by Erica Jong
🚫 C - The Wonderland Collection
🚫 R - Red Hood
🚫 A - American Psycho
🚫 F - Flowers for Algernon
🚫 T - Tess of the D'Urbervilles
🚫 S - Shopgirl

WATERFALLS
🚫 W - Mexican WhiteBoy
🚫 A - Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret
🚫 T - Wonder Woman Tempest Tossed
🚫 E - Moonstruck, Vol. 1: Magic to Brew by Grace Ellis
🚫 R - The Boy in the Red Dress
🚫 F - Fanny Hill. Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure
🚫 A - Hey, Kiddo: How I Lost My Mother, Found My Father, and Dealt with Family Addiction
🚫 L - The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes
🚫 L - Lighter than My Shadow
🚫 S - The Sorrows of Young Werther

CAMPING
🚫 C - Know My Name by Chanel Miller
🚫 A - V for Vendetta by Alan Moore
🚫 M - Justine, or The Misfortunes of Virtue
🚫 P - A Child Called "It" by Dave Pelzer
🚫 I - Yesterday Is History
🚫 N - Lumberjanes, Vol. 1: Beware the Kitten Holy by N.D. Stevenson
🚫 G - Stay Gold

Please sign me up for 17 books. My favourite boyband is New Kids on the Block.

17/17-COMPLETED

NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK: A boyband from Boston who took the world by storm in the late 80’s and early 90’s. They disbanded in 1994 but reunited in 2008 and have been going strong ever since.

✅N: Night: In the Night Kitchen (30/7/24)
✅E: East: East of Eden (27/5/24)
✅W: Wrinkle: A Wrinkle in Time (18/9/24)

✅K: Kite: The Kite Runner (27/8/24)
✅I: Invisible: Invisible Man (20/9/24)
✅D: Demons: Angels & Demons (4/9/24)
✅S: Speak: Speak (5/12/24)

✅O: Origin: The Origin of Species (5/10/24)
✅N: Native: Native Son (29/8/24)

✅T: Tango: And Tango Makes Three (22/6/24)
✅H: High: High Couch of Silistra (6/10/24)
✅E: Exit: Last Exit to Brooklyn (4/11/24)

✅B: Beauty's: Beauty's Punishment (4/10/24)
✅L: Leaves: Leaves of Grass (31/7/24)
✅O: One: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (23/11/24)
✅C: Cities: A Tale of Two Cities (4/12/24)
✅K: Kingdom: Beauty's Kingdom (5/12/24)

4/4

🦉O: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
🦉W: The Call of the Wild by Jack London
🦉L: Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult
🦉S: The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult

Sheila from NC signing on for 15, although I haven’t narrowed down my word choices yet.

I'll sign up for four.

Progress: 0 / 4

I will sign up for 12, my first Goodreads group challenge :)
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I'm in for 9, using the name of one of my favorite characters from one of my favorite shows- David Rose

Completed: 6/9

D-Demons; Angels & Demons- Dan Brown- READ 2/12
A- Atwood; The Handmaid's Tale- Margaret Atwood
V- von; Gossip Girl- Cecily von Ziesar- READ 1/10
I- I; I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings- Maya Angelou
D- Dimed; Nickle and Dimed- Barbara Ehrenreich

R- Rowling, JK- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban- READ 6/22
O- Orwell; 1984- George Orwell- READ 12/7
S- Scott; The Great Gatsby- F. Scott FItzgerald- READ 10/8
E- Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close- Jonathan Safran Foer- READ 1/15

I work for an organization that is establishing Little Free Diverse Libraries across the state of Florida to specifically address this issue, so I will go with that! I'm in for 12!

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I would like to join for 10 books.

I’M WITH THE BANNED
Duration: January 1, 2024 - December 31, 2024

S -
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I would like to join this challenge. I hope to read 8 banned books.

H-The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, narrated by Betty Harris
A-Looking for Alaska by John Green, narrated by Will Wheaton
N-1984 by George Orwell, narrated by Simon Prebble (ok if it was spelled out it would be Nineteen Eighty Four)
D- The Walking Dead graphic novels Vol 1-5 by Robert Kirkman
M-Last Night at the Telegraph Clubby Malinda Lo, narrated by Emily Woo Zeller
A-The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, narrated by Bahni Turpin
I-A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle, narrated by Hope Davis
D-Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews, narrated by full cast.

Update to message 8. I will start with 5 to add more after. First word is a name, Joyce for James Joyce who had one of his book banned.

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I’M WITH THE BANNED
Duration: January 1, 2024 - December 31, 2024

I'm in for 8 books
Completed: 1/8

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H: The House on Mango Street - Sandra Cisneros 1/16/24
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I'll join for 9 books!

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Update to Message #17 : 1/46

I finally selected some favorite things -- hubby, birdwatching, needlecrafts, waterfalls, and camping -- and the banned/challenged books and authors to go with those words. My daughters and grandson are favorites, too, but I don't have the right books to spell them out. 😂 Please increase my goal from 30 to 46. Thanks!

Update message #9 - 1/10

Update to Post 23: 1/9 read

I would like to sign up for 15 but I am not sure what books or word i will use just yet. Will update later this month.

Update post 23- 2/9

Update to message 28: 1/8 books read!

Update to post 6

3/15 read

Sometimes I'm so happy to live in the Netherlands. In my country, there is only one (yes, ONE) book that is banned. You can guess what book that is.
We have complete freedom in what we want to read. Of course there are books with words in them that we're not allowed to use anymore, but it is still not 1984 here...

Jannelies wrote: "Sometimes I'm so happy to live in the Netherlands. In my country, there is only one (yes, ONE) book that is banned. You can guess what book that is.
We have complete freedom in what we want to rea..."

That is nice! Book banning is a huge problem in the US. That's why I make a point to read as many of them as I can!

Carri Carey wrote: "Jannelies wrote: "Sometimes I'm so happy to live in the Netherlands. In my country, there is only one (yes, ONE) book that is banned. You can guess what book that is.
We have complete freedom in w..."

I think its really shocking that 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 are banned, and of course Anne Frank's diary. The beginning of the end, if you ask me.

Update to message #15 - 1/20 books read!

2024 Reading Challenge
I'm With the Banned - 2024
Duration: January 1, 2024 - December 31, 2024

Progress: 0 out of 9

Great literary works have been challenged and banned for generations. The reasons are wide ranging and include fear of change, anger over new ideas, language they find offensive, or reminders of painful times in our past. We believe it’s never a bad thing to read about people different from us, or to see things from a different perspective.

Let’s take this negative action and turn it into a positive!

For this challenge, you will spell out your favorite words with the titles of banned books, or their author’s names! Choose words that spark joy in you - your favorite sports team, favorite food, favorite child (we won’t tell! 😉), or even the title of your favorite book!
You can use the first letter of any word in the title, or the first letter of the author’s first or last name. “The,” “and,” and other filler words don’t apply.

EXAMPLE
My favorite fictional character is Groot from the Marvel comics!
G - The Giver by Lois Lowry
R - Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
O - The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
O - Animal Farm by George Orwell
T - Bridge to Terabithia

To join, simply tell us how many banned or challenged books you would like to read this year!

B: The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
O: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
O: Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Pérez
K: Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe
S: Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
T: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
O: The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
R: The Chocolate War (Chocolate War, #1) by Robert Cormier
E: Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison

Update message #9 - 2/10

Update to Message #17 : 9/49

Goal increased from 46 to 49.

I had a few stragglers with which I could spell Mom. Seemed apropos, since I love my own Mom, I love being a mom to three daughters, and I love watching my daughter being mom to my grandson. A good favorite even if it's a tiny word. 🥰

Update to #23- 3/9 read

Update to message #15 - 5/22 books read

Update for message #05:
🚫 Progress: 2/10 🚫

Updated message 7-- 1/12

Update to Message #17 : 20/49

Updated message 12- 2/7

Update to message #15 - 9/22 books read!