2026 Reading Challenge discussion

FROM THE MODS

Happy October!

📅 We are now actively planning for 2027! We encourage all members to visit the below links. Help us shape our group’s direction for the coming year!
▪ Read about What to Expect in 2027.
▪ Nominate or second a 2027 Yearly Theme.
▪ Vote for a current Yearly Challenge to bring back in 2027.
▪ Suggest Yearly Challenge ideas for next year.

‼️Please note that you will receive another group message in mid-October so that you may vote for the 2027 theme.

📃 Please be sure that you have read our group rules.

📩 Messaging is no longer available on Goodreads. You may communicate with the mods in the Questions and Comments for Mods thread.

GAMES & EVENTS
Welcome to a brand-new month of fun and games! Don’t forget to join in on the fun with the older games as well! There’s plenty of fun to be had, so jump in and keep the good times going!

Back by popular demand, a word search and a Halloween Scattergories to get the spooky season started.

The following older games are still available to enjoy:
▪ Alphabetical Add-On Story
▪ Five Letters
▪ Guess a Letter
▪ Last Two Letters
▪ Scattergories (Round 1)
▪ Scattergories (Round 2)
▪ Scattergories (Round 3)
▪ This or That
▪ Word Chain (Book Edition)

Do you have an idea for a fun forum game? Please share your Game Suggestions with us!

GROUP READ
Our October theme is Supernatural, and our group read for this month is Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, in which a glamorous socialite investigates her cousin’s disturbing new life in a decaying Mexican mansion, uncovering terrifying supernatural secrets.

You can join the discussion or post your review of the book!

You can also vote for our November book with the theme of Names, as well as nominate a book for December with the theme of Doors!

CHALLENGES
October brings new monthly challenges with the theme of Supernatural, and we’ll begin our final 2026 quarterly challenges with the theme of Audience Accolades.

Monthly Challenges
Things That Go Bump in the Night is an open challenge to read books about the strange, scary or unexplainable.
Supernatural is a challenge with a variety of prompts about the supernatural.

Quarterly Challenges
Build Your Own Hall of Fame: Audience Accolades is an open challenge to add award-winning books for various age groups to your literary museum.
A Lifetime of Reading has prompts which invite you to read award-winning books for children through adults, seeking different formats, continents, language, and more.

Yearly Challenges can help you reach your reading goals! We still have some time left in the year, and you may count any applicable books you read earlier in the year. Check out A Guide to the 2026 Yearly Challenges to learn more about our year-long challenges!

Do you have an idea for a challenge or would you like to learn about leading a challenge? Visit the Member Challenge Ideas thread. Most of our quarterly and monthly challenges grow from our members’ suggestions. We would love to hear your creative ideas!

TBR TWINS
Share a book with an online friend while knocking off a read from your TBR list!

If you’ve signed up for October, find your TBR Twin here. Please reach out to your twin and choose a book to read together!

You can also sign up for November TBR Twins here, and we'll pair you with someone to read a book with next month.

BUDDY READS
Let’s read some books together! Buddy reads are a great way to read and discuss a book together with fellow group members. Feel free to join any discussion, even if you didn’t sign up!

We are reading the following books:
Billy Summers
Crescent City #2: House of Sky and Breath
Elder Race #2: Engines of Reason
A Far-Flung Life
Into the Blue
Mary
Shadow and Bone #3: Ruin and Rising
The Witches of Cambridge

If you would like to join any, please follow the link and let your buddies know you will join the read! Would you like to suggest a future Buddy Read or join a future one? You can sign up on our current Buddy Reads - Sign Up thread.

Finally, welcome to all of our new members! We can't wait to get to know you. We encourage you to stop by the Start Here thread, which has useful information on how everything works within the group. And be sure to say hello in the Introduce Yourself thread. See you there!

Happy Reading, everyone!
Winter, SarahKat, TerryJane, Blagica, Theresa, JennH, Susan, and Marielle

Did this announcement get sent out to everyone and I got missed or is it not getting messaged to everyone anymore? (Not upset, just realizing I never got it and am wondering if I need to pay attention in the beginning of the month and look for it on the group page).

Thank you :)

Keri wrote: "Did this announcement get sent out to everyone and I got missed or is it not getting messaged to everyone anymore? (Not upset, just realizing I never got it and am wondering if I need to pay attent..."

We're so glad you brought this up to our attention, Keri. The way Goodreads is set up, we're able to send the monthly messages to all our members at once. However, we had some issues with sending out the message this month. It finally went through, but obviously from your post, not without problems. I will bring this back to the mods to discuss.

Keri wrote: "Did this announcement get sent out to everyone and I got missed or is it not getting messaged to everyone anymore? (Not upset, just realizing I never got it and am wondering if I need to pay attent..."

Hi Keri. Can you please double check your settings to ensure that nothing has changed and our group is marked for notifications?

Profile | Account settings | Account & Notifications

Under Notifications, click:
Choose which notifications you want to receive from Goodreads

Scroll down to Groups. Click the box under "Notify me on Goodreads about activity in my group:"
☑️ 2026 Reading Challenge

Thanks!

So I checked and everything looks to be marked correctly. I guess I'll wait and see for the next one what happens.

Keri wrote: "Thanks!

So I checked and everything looks to be marked correctly. I guess I'll wait and see for the next one what happens."

Keri, please be on the lookout for a group message in mid-October so that you may vote for the 2027 theme.

JennH wrote: "Keri, please be on the lookout for a group message in mid-October so that you may vote for the 2027 theme."

Good point! Keri, in case Goodreads does not deliver our mid-October message about voting for the 2027 theme, you can go directly to the Polls area to vote. That poll should be posted on or around Oct. 16.

Thank you! I did get that message so maybe it was jusr a fluke

I was able to vote on the theme by coming here, but the link in the PM I received gave me and odd message I've never seen before. In a red box I saw "Invalid type" and underneath a group of book covers.

Aha, I didn't notice I had two separate messages from you--the link in the second one worked, but I'd already come here :) I usually read PMs from the bottom up.

Keri wrote: "Thank you! I did get that message so maybe it was jusr a fluke"

We're so glad you received today's message about voting, Keri. We hope it was indeed a fluke.

Karin wrote: "I was able to vote on the theme by coming here, but the link in the PM I received gave me and odd message I've never seen before. In a red box I saw "Invalid type" and underneath a group of book co..."

Karin, we're glad you were able to vote on the theme by coming to our group page, and receive the message with the corrected link.

JennH wrote: "Karin wrote: "I was able to vote on the theme by coming here, but the link in the PM I received gave me and odd message I've never seen before. In a red box I saw "Invalid type" and underneath a gr..."

So was I :) The one I voted for is no longer one of the top two, but I'm also happy with the one in the lead. Every year is different for all of us, of course, but I have a harder time reading for some themes than others :)

That said, I still greatly enjoy this group even if I haven't been as active this year. It's partly things going on outside of my reading life, of course :)

Even if the quarterlies (related to the year's theme) don't suit your fancy, there may be monthly and yearly challenges that would work for you. 😊

You may changed your vote if you wish, up until the poll ends.

TerryJane wrote: "Even if the quarterlies (related to the year's theme) don't suit your fancy, there may be monthly and yearly challenges that would work for you. 😊

You may changed your vote if you wish, up until t..."

This year I did one yearly challenge I enjoyed and I've done a few of the challenges in various months and a couple of quarterly challenges. I have a lot going on IRL and am trying to keep things easy for me in my reading life to help balance things out :)

Next year will be a new year :)