2026 Reading Challenge discussion
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September - Whimsical You
✨📚Whimsical You - September Monthly Challenge 📚✨Duration: September 1 - September 30, 2025
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Hello everyone, welcome to the 📚✨ Whimsical You 📚✨ reading challenge. I'm really quite excited to see what words and books would reflect your beautiful, whimsical life stories!
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📚✨ How to participate:📚✨
1. To join the challenge, post a comment below with your goal.
You can choose to read as many books as you wish. If you don't know how many books you want to read yet, you can decide and update later. In such case, to make it easier, I will automatically write down 1 book as the initial goal, which can be changed later.
2. Note down your message number and use it for updates.
As you finish reading a book, edit your original message and post a new comment to update, including your original message number. For challenge updates and statistics, I will be looking at the update comments, not the original messages.
✨✨✨Example of an update message: Update to message #1: 5/8 ✨✨✨
5 being the books read so far, 8 being the goal.
3. Update if you do not wish to be a part of the challenge anymore.
If you decide to drop out of the challenge, please don’t delete your original sign-up post. You can just edit it instead and add a new comment with the original message number so that I would see it sooner. You can also message me privately. Thanks! 😊
Example:
* Original post edit: Opting out of the challenge.
* New comment: Update to message #1: Opting out of the challenge.
4. You can choose the books you'll read in advance or add them as you go.
5. You may join late if the challenge hasn't ended yet, and may count any relevant books completed during the challenge dates.
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I will post updates every few days. That will include:
* Updating the statistics in the message #3 (the one below).
* Posting an update comment.
If you have any questions or need help, please feel free to ask me here, or message me privately!
Participants:LinaVer (# 4) - 0/5
Rachael (# 5) - 4/4 Completed!
Debra Diggs (# 6) - 6/4 Completed!
Laurie (# 7) - 3/3 Completed!
Alyssa (# 8) - 5/12
Sarah (# 9) - 0/10
Ciara (# 11) - 6/6 Completed!
Kristina (# 12) - 5/4 Completed!
TerryJane (# 13) - 22/10 Completed!
Theresa (# 14) - 0/3
✨ Brianna Raquel ✨ (# 15) - 14/14 Completed!
Carrie (# 16) - 1/3
Amy (Other Amy) (# 17) - 5/5 Completed!
Amy (# 18) - 4/4 Completed!
Caroline (# 19) - 0/3
Melissa (# 20) - 2/4
Blākie (# 36) - 3/3 Completed!
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General stats:
Number of participants: 17
Books Read: 80
Book Goal: 97
Goal progress: 82,5%
Participants who completed the challenge: 10
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Last update: 03-10 up to msg #54
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Thank you to everyone who took part in this challenge, it was an honor and a pleasure to meet your whimsical characters! I hope you had a lot of reading pleasure no matter if you didn’t reach or exceeded your goal. Every page turned counts. 🎉📚💕
I'll try for 5 books.Progress: 1/5
My character lives a peaceful life in a countryside (cozy genre), has a cat and is an artist. She's prone to searching for deeper meaning and, honestly, overthinking stuff 😅 and is always seeking joy in day to day life.
Prompts & books:
1. Cozy genre -
2. Cat - either We'll Prescribe You a Cat or ✅Catching Fire if I don't have enough time (Prim has a cat)
3. Artist - either The Story of Art Without Men or Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative if I have too little time
4. Searching for (deeper) meaning - The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
5. (Seeking) joy - The Book of Delights: Essays or Year of Yes
Please sign me up for 4 books.COMPLETED: 4/4
My character has a raven familiar and can often be found baking at midnight and watching movies at breakfast.
✔️ Raven: The Raven Spell finished 14 September, ⭐⭐⭐⭐ with review
✔️ Baking: A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking finished 16 September, ⭐⭐⭐⭐
✔️ Midnight: Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil finished 9 September, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ with review
✔️ Movies: Movies Showing Nowhere finished 19 September, ⭐⭐⭐⭐ with review
Please sign me up for 4 books. Looking forward to this creative challenge.
6/4
Completed
Character: retired older woman
Genre: fantasy
Description: has cats, plants, books and lives in cabin in West Virginia
Potential book choices:
- Olive Kitteridge (older woman)
- Children of Memory (memories)
- Rosemary and Rue (cat's names)
✔ The Enchanted Greenhouse by Sarah Beth Durst (plants)
✔ The Quiet Librarian by Allen Eskens (books)
✔ Rednecks by Taylor Brown(West Virginia)
✔ The Silver Dark Sea by Susan Fletcher (fantasy)
✔ The Cat Who Saved Books by Sōsuke Natsukawa (cats, books)
✔ The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger (setting)
✨📚Whimsical You - September Monthly Challenge 📚✨3/3 Completed!
1. Character: Queen
2. Genre: Historical Fiction
3. Description: Lives in 17th century Scotland with her black cat
4. Books Read:
✔
: Scotland, 17th century✔
: Historical Fiction, Queen✔
: Black Cat
Sign me up for 120/12
I like the this theme for September.
1. Character: Tea Brewer
2. Genre: Adventure
3. Description: A Kind and loyal tea brewer carrying adventure like a secret ingredient in her blend of life.
4. Potential Book Choices:
-Tea Brewer: The Spell Shop, Pumpkin Spice Cafe, The Coffee Shop of Curiosities.
-Gentle & kind: Growing up Uriel, The Bookish life of Nina Hill, The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender.
-Loyal: Bossy pants, A Court of Thorns and Roses, The Kissing Quotient .
-Adventurous: Year of Yes, Disney High, Small Town Big Magic.
Sign me up for 10 books10/10 - COMPLETED
The genre is Magical Realism. My character is a cartographer, but not of lands and cities. Instead, she maps the fleeting, intangible things of the world: the melody of a forgotten lullaby, the scent of rain on dry pavement, the feeling of a shared secret.
Her latest and most ambitious project is to create the first definitive map of Joy. She's heard whispers of its source—a fabled, ever-changing garden at the heart of the world—but no one has ever found it. Elara believes if she can map its pathways, she can help others find their way back to happiness, even on the darkest of days.
✅The Light of Eternal Spring (Magical Realism) (14/9/25)
✅The Cartographers (Cartographer) (16/9/25)
✅Forgotten Lullaby (Forgotten Lullaby) (20/9/25)
✅The King Who Rained (Rain) (18/9/25)
✅The Secrets of Greystone House (Secrets) (22/9/25)
✅The Little Book of Joy (Joy) (17/9/25)
✅The Forgotten Garden (Garden) (19/9/25)
✅Heart of the World (Heart of the World) (20/9/25)
✅The Little Book of Lykke: The Danish Search for the World's Happiest People (Happiness) (21/9/25)
✅A Haunted House And Other Short Stories (Darkest of Days) (30/9/25)
Welcome everyone, the challenge is about to begin and I'm really excited to meet all the whimsical characters based on your lives! I'm already having a blast reading your descriptions. ✨ Ravens, cats, plants, brewing teas and baking, adventures and, oh, the smell of rain - wow! 🤩Updated on 28/08, up to msg #9
Put me down for six books. My character is a fiercely private artisan documenting the crumbling of society from the outskirts. Keywords: isolation, dystopia, observation, apocalypse, creation. Maybe not the most "whimsical"...I am kind of excessively whimsical in real life, & I prefer to read about darker things!
WHIMSICAL YOUSeptember 01 - September 30, 2025
Progress: 5/4
Sign me up for 4!
1. Character: An adventuring rogue on a quest with a party full of misfits
2. Genre: High fantasy
3. Description: Adventure, friendship, journeys, fantasy, mischief
BOOK CHOICES
✅ 1. Lords and Ladies by Terry Pratchett
✅ 2. The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali
✅ 3. Real Hero Shit by Kendra Wells
✅ 4. The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson
✅ 5. Katabasis by R.F. Kuang
✨ WHIMSICAL YOU - Monthly ChallengeDuration: September 1 - September 30, 2025
Progress: 22/10 -- COMPLETE
My character is a sarcastic retired woman with a huge love for books, especially mysteries! She can travel through time to venture into thrilling stories and uncover clues. When she's not exploring the past, you can find her sipping a steaming coffee or tea, enjoying needlecrafts, and watching birds and woodland creatures from her cozy Georgia mountain home.
1. Character: a retired mystery-loving woman
2. Genre: time travel
3. Description: mystery, history, coffee, family, pets, needlecrafts, birds, home, Georgia, mountains
4. Book choices:
✨ Not Quite Dead Yet (mystery, family)
✨ The River Is Waiting (family, mystery, heron/bird)
✨ One Dark Night (mystery)
✨ My Side of the Mountain (mountains, woods, birds, animals)
✨ Wings and Broken Things (cat, coffee, books, cozy, mystery)
✨ The Backyard Bird Chronicles (older woman, birds, nature)
✨ Great Big Beautiful Life (set in Georgia, older woman)
✨ So Happy Together (mystery)
✨ Park Avenue (mystery)
✨ The Book of Lost Hours (time travel, history)
✨ Once Upon a Time in Dollywood (coffee, mountains)
✨ The Princess of Las Vegas (mystery)
✨ Scents and Sensibility (cozy, mystery, dog)
✨ She Didn't Stand a Chance (mystery)
✨ The Dutch House (family, history, home)
✨ Daughter of Moloka'i (family, history)
✨ Forget Me Not (family, mystery, tea)
✨ Heartwood (older woman, nature, birds, mountains, mystery)
✨ Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng (mystery)
✨ Dead Men Don't Crochet (needlecrafts, cozy, mystery)
✨ Poison for Breakfast (mystery, tea)
✨ Culpability (mystery, family)
My goal is 3 books.*Character: A woman with cabin fever. She's been watching a lot of "Forensic Files" and sitcoms.
*Genre: Humor
*Description: humorous mysteries, road trip, long overdue night out.
*Books:
1.) Game On: Tempting Twenty-Eight
2.) Murder on a Girls' Night Out
3.) Run for the Hills
WHIMSICAL YOUSeptember 01 - September 30, 2025
14/14
Character: woman in mid-20s
Genre: cozy mystery
Description: baking, family-oriented, southern accent, found family, flowers
1. An Absolutely Remarkable Thing (woman in mid-20s) 🌱
2. A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor (woman in mid-20s) 🌱
3. Detective Aunty (cozy mystery) 🌱
4. The Sideways Life of Denny Voss (cozy mystery) 🌱
5. Murder With a Swirl of Blueberry (baking) 🌱
6. Murder With a Bite of Biscotti : An Ivy Clark Mystery (baking) 🌱
7. Looking for Lucie (family-oriented) 🌱
8. Thirst (family-oriented) 🌱
9. Hot Wax (southern accent) 🌱
10. The Jasmine Project (southern accent) 🌱
11. Competitive Grieving (found family) 🌱
12. Aurora Burning (found family) 🌱
13. Aurora's End (flowers) 🌱
14. Can't Get Enough (flowers) 🌱
I will try for 3.I am a little unsure how I will go about this one but I like the creativity of it.
🪄WHIMSICAL YOU🪄
Duration: September 1 - September 30, 2025
🥳Completed: 3/3
Your Quest
1. Imagine yourself as the protagonist of a whimsical tale.
2. Select the genre of your story.
3. Choose 1-10 descriptive words that capture the essence of your character or story.
4. Read related books.
My Story
1. Character: An emotional and creative but logical woman that is strategic and analytical in both her career and personal life, and loves lists but finds herself in the middle of chaos
2. Genre: romantic suspense
3. Description: high stakes, tension, bad timing, secrets, undeniable chemistry, danger
4. Book Choices:
✅ Dangerous Games
✅Some Kind of Hero
✅Veil of Night
I am blown away by what a great challenge idea this is! Sign me up for 5 and we'll see how many books I need to tell a proper story.5/5
My Story
✅Character: Scientist lost in a fae world: Orbital
✅Genre: Fantasy: But Not Too Bold
✅Forest: A Psalm for the Wild-Built
✅Too curious: Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear
✅Benevolent trap: The River Has Roots
Well, I didn't get the vampire book read, but I found a different story instead :-)
I will attempt 4 books, character and genre TBD4/4-- Challenge Complete
1. Character: Baker
2. Genre: Cozy
3. Description: Secrets, Old Mansion, talking animal companion
4. Books Read:
1. A Forgotten Murder (secrets)
2. Lemon Meringue Pie Murder (cozy, baker)
3. In the Hall with the Knife (old mansion, secrets)
4. Lei and the Fire Goddess (talking animal)
Love this idea. I'm going to attempt 4 books with this one.2/4
1. Character: inquisitive witch
2. Genre: paranormal romance
3. Description: slightly historical, new love, adventure, in the woods
4. Potential book choices: keeping this open
Books:
Disney After Dark - 9/3 - Adventure
Restaurant Wars - 9/11 - Romance
Updated on 06/09 up to msg #20Welcome to the challenge everyone! Great to have you here.
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A kind reminder to anyone who might be new to the challenges:
* You can read the how-to and challenge rules here
* When updating your progress, please use this format: Update to message #1: 5/8 I will NOT be looking at your sign-up messages for updates. No matter how much fun the original messages are, they are for your own tracking and use.
If you are not sure what your message number is, please ask or look at the participant list here 😇
* If you have any additional questions, feel free to ask me, I'm here to help! 🥰
Happy reading 🥳📚
Carrie wrote: "I will try for 3.I am a little unsure how I will go about this one but I like the creativity of it."
Carrie, if you need any help, please let me know :)
Updated message 18-- 2/4
Update #7✨📚Whimsical You - September Monthly Challenge 📚✨
1/3 Completed
1. Character: Queen
2. Genre: Historical Fiction
3. Description: Lives in 17th century Scotland with her black cat
4. Books Read:
✔ The Highland Witch: Scotland, 17th century
The Winter Crown: Historical Fiction, Queen
If It Bleeds: Black Cat
Great progress everyone! Keep it going. 🎉Updated: 14-09 up to msg #31
BlākiePlease sign me up for three books.
I am a female book-loving want-to-be writer who likes to be alone in nature holed up in a remote cozy cabin in the woods or a tiny converted boathouse near the ocean.
Three proposed books/short stories:
1. “ The Orchard” by Peter Heller
2. “Surfacing” by Margaret Atwood
4. “ Birds of a Lesser Paradise” by Megan Magee Bergman
I have high hopes as Goodreads prompts usually lead to very cool reads I would not be likely to find otherwise.
Updated message 5: 4/4. Challenge complete thank you
Great progress you guys!Also, everyone, please welcome Blākie to the challenge!🎉📖
Congratulations, Rachael, for being the first one to complete the challenge! 👑
Updated on 20-09 up to msg #37
#36 Blākie update1/3
Finished “The Man Who the Trees Loved” by Algermon Blackwood.
Updated message 18-- 4/4 challenge complete
Update to message #11: challenge complete! 6 of 6 books read.I refined my story a little. I am now a divination witch forever improving the forest caravan in which she lives alone, cooking & observing the natural world.
1. Food Person - Adam D. Roberts (cooking)
2. Endling - Maria Reva (tiny home on wheels)
3. Exalted - Anna Dorn (astrology/divination)
4. Play Nice - Rachel Harrison (home renovations)
5. The Only Good Indians - Stephen Graham Jones (forest creatures)
6. Lucky Day - Chuck Tingle (solitude)
#36 Update 2/3Blākie
1. “The Man Whom the Trees Loved” by Algernon Blackwood. Horror/Weird Fiction
2. “Birds of a Lesser Paradise” by Meghan Mahew Bergman. Contemporary Short Stories
Updated 😊✅📚 up to msg #43 on 25-09These are our stats right now:
Number of participants: 17
Books Read: 38
Book Goal: 97
Goal progress: 39,2%
Participants who completed the challenge: 4
Congratulations to those who have reached their goal, and to those steadily reading towards them 🎉✨
#36 Update 3/3Blākie
My whimsy prompt
I am a female book loving want to be writer who likes to be alone in nature holed up in a cozy little cabin in the middle of nowhere.
This description search led to three books, one of which, “The Orchard” by Peter Heller, hasn’t been released.
So I read the following, most messed up books of my year:
“The Man Whom the Trees Lived” by Algernon Blackwood I’m not sure what I read 😂
“Birds of a Lesser Paradise “ by Megan Mahew Bergman, my favorite of the three, a collection of short stories
“Surfacing “ by Margaret Atwood, which made me reconsider the wisdom of holing up alone in nature in the middle of nowhere.
Update #7 Thanks for a fun challenge!3/3 Completed!
1. Character: Queen
2. Genre: Historical Fiction
3. Description: Lives in 17th century Scotland with her black cat
4. Books Read:
✔
: Scotland, 17th century✔
: Historical Fiction, Queen✔
: Black Cat
Updated 😊 28-09 up to msg #47Blākie, sounds like it was a whole experience with your books, haha. At least I hope you’ve tried something new and had fun!
Congratulations to everyone on your goals!
Update to message #6: 6/4Challenge completed.
Thanks for this creative challenge.
2026 Reading Challenge
Books mentioned in this topic
Daughter of Moloka'i (other topics)The Princess of Las Vegas (other topics)
Culpability (other topics)
She Didn't Stand a Chance (other topics)
The Dutch House (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Sarah Beth Durst (other topics)William Kent Krueger (other topics)
Allen Eskens (other topics)
Taylor Brown (other topics)
Sōsuke Natsukawa (other topics)
More...
Duration: September 1 - September 30, 2025
Have you ever imagined your life as a story — filled with magic, charm, and just a dash of delightful chaos? This open reading challenge invites you to create a whimsical book character inspired by yourself, and let your unique traits guide your reading journey. Celebrate the quirky, the melancholy, and the joyful parts of you. Whimsy-fy your life!
Your Quest
1. Imagine yourself as the protagonist of a whimsical tale.
2. Select the genre of your story.
3. Choose 1-10 descriptive words that capture the essence of your character or story.
4. Read related books.
Example
1. Character: a gentle witch with a house full of talking cats
2. Genre: fantasy
3. Description: chaotic, friendly, cats, cottage
4. Potential book choices:
The Knife of Never Letting Go (chaotic)
Conversations with Friends (friendly)
We'll Prescribe You a Cat (cats)
Eragon (fantasy)
The Spellshop (cottage)
To join, post a message telling the challenge leader how many books you plan to read. If you are new to our group and/or our group challenges, take a moment to check out the Yearly, Quarterly, Monthly Challenges - Start Here thread for more information on how our challenges are run.
Thanks to LinaVer for creating this challenge, and for volunteering to lead it!