2024 Reading Challenges

I’m participating in 13 reading challenges in 2024 to help me tackle my reading goals (outside of my Goodreads goal to read 400 books). Most of these goals are helping me tackle my backlist (books I purchased pre-2024), expand the diversity of my reading, broaden the genres I read, and read longer books.

I’ve separated these challenges into three categories: challenges that are tailored to my reading habits, simple and easily customizable, and challenges hosted by other people. I’ll be updating this page monthly throughout the year to hold myself accountable.

Whether you do 12 books to read in 2024 or 5 books to read in 2024, this list is my “priority TBR” for 2024. I decided to stick with 24 books because I read quite a few books each year, and there are a lot of books that have been sitting on my shelf for years! So, it’s about time I read them.

Last year, I had 23 New Releases for 2023, and while I bought almost all of them, I only ended up reading half. So, for 2024, I decided to focus on 12 new releases with the goal of buying/borrowing them and promptly reading them!

Books Read

The Nightmare in Him by Suzanne Wright (Released on January 18th)
Ashes of You by Catherine Cowles (Released on February 6th)
Fangirl Down by Tessa Bailey (Released on February 13th)
When He Dares by Suzanne Wright (Released on March 8th)
Bride by Ali Hazelwood (Released on February 6th)
The Wickedness of a Highlander by Elisa Braden (Released on February 13th)
The Women by Kristin Hannah (Released February 6th)

Increasing the length of the books I read has been a goal of mine for the past three years! One challenge that really helped me was tracking all the books I read over 300 pages and aiming for a (reach) goal of 300 books. Last year, I read around 268 books over 300 pages, so I’m curious to see how close to 300 books I can get in 2024!

Books Read

January: 28 books were over 300 pages
February: 22 books were over 300 pages
March: 22 books were over 300 pages
April: 13 books were over 300 pages
May: 28 books were over 300 pages

This is another challenge that encourages me to read longer books! Also, I have so many hefty fantasy novels on my backlist, so this challenge is an extra push to get me to read them. While re-reads do count, this year, I’m hoping to achieve this goal excluding re-reads!

Books Read

When the Dead Come A Knockin’ by B.L. Brunnemer (re-read)
When She’s Common by Ruby Dixon (re-read)
Claim Me Forever by A.L. Jackson
All Rhodes Lead Here by Mariana Zapata (re-read)

Reading more nonfiction has been a goal of mine for the past few years, but it always seems to be out of reach. I take so long to read nonfiction compared to fiction that I struggle to even pick up a nonfiction book. I’m hoping that this year is the year since I have so many nonfiction books on my backlist.

Books Read

How to Think Like a Woman by Regan Penaluna
Valley of the Birdtail by Andrew Stobo Sniderman and Douglas Sanderson

I love the simplicity of this challenge! It’s another reading challenge that encourages readers to diversify the genres they read by helping them identify five genres they want to read more from. The idea is that you’ll read five books from one genre, four from another, and so on. This year, I’m looking to read five retellings, four books about historical figures, three classics, two books critiquing “It’s a Man’s World,” and one epistolary novel.

Books Read

FOUR historical figures
The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

Another simple challenge that’s a fun way to keep track of the book titles you read! I remember one year, I found it so hard to find a book starting with “J” that I wanted to read. One way that I make this a bit more of a challenge is not letting myself use books that start with articles (a/an or the) or are re-reads.

Books Read

Ashes of You by Catherine Cowles
Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll
Confessions of a Dangerous Lord by Elisa Braden
Dead to the World by Annabel Chase
Every Duke Has His Day by Suzanne Enoch
Fangirl Down by Tessa Bailey
Head Over Heels by Karla Sorensen
If You Give a Single Dad a Nanny by Ann Einerson
Killer Instinct by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Like Real People Do by E.L. Massey
None Shall Sleep by Ellie Marney
Ocean Echoes by Blake Black
Paved in Hate by Sonja Grey
Ripe by Sarah Rose Etter
Sinfully Tempted by Kathleen Ayers
Tall, Royal and Grumpy by Nylah Monroe
Until May by Aurora Rose Reynolds
Valley of the Birdtail by Andrew Stobo Sniderman and Douglas Sanderson
When She’s Common by Ruby Dixon
Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez

Like many others in 2024, tackling my backlist is a priority this year! And, back to help me is Austine Decker’s Beat the Backlist challenge. While there’s a condensed (24-prompt) version of the challenge, I decided to join the 52-prompt challenge in the hopes of reading at least one book from my backlist per week.

Books Read

Retelling of a Classic: A Most Agreeable Murder by Julia Seales
Second Chances: The Second Chance Year by Melissa Wiesner
Good Vibes Only: Daughter of Sparta by Claire M. Andrews
Set in a Hotel, Mansion or Castle: The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
Blurbed by a Fave Author: The Prison Healer by Lynette Noni
Share the Love: Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez
Coauthored or Illustrated: Hidden by Night by Jada Storm and Emma Stark

This is my third year participating in BookTuber Kayla’s monthly reading challenge (see BooksAndLaLa on YouTube)! Kayla is interested in seeing the trends of words in book titles change every year; for instance, there aren’t that many recent books published with “secret” in the title (March’s prompt). The rule of the challenge is that each month, you have to read a book with the prompt word/theme in the title.

Books Read

“there” in the title: The Hobbit: or There and Back Again by J.R.R. Tolkien
Positive, happy words in the title: This Spells Love by Kate Robb
Character names in the title: N/A
Nature words in the title: N/A
“every” in the title: N/A
Repeating words in the title: TBD

This is also my third year participating in BookTuber Melanie’s monthly reading challenge (see Completely Melanie on YouTube). For each month, there are two prompts where you must read one book per prompt. The purpose of this challenge is to help you read the books you already own.

Books Read

meant to read last year: Young Bright Women by Jessica Knoll
part of a series I already started: The Nightmare in Him by Suzanne Wright
involves friendship: The First Ladies by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray
something sweet on the cover: The Second Chance Year by Melissa Wiesner
a debut novel: Alive and Wells by Bailey Hannah (read in April)
about starting over: The Last Love Note by Emma Grey
nature on the cover: The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
a dystopian novel: Ripe by Sarah Rose Etter (read in May)
a sci-fi: When She’s Common by Ruby Dixon (read in February)
has to do with the number four: The Justice of Kings by Richard Swan
an LGBTQIA+ book: Like Real People Do by E.L. Massey
an pansexual or asexual main character: TBD

I’m super excited to participate in this challenge hosted by The StoryGraph again this year! I’m always looking to broaden and diversify my reading, so the idea of visiting countries through books written by authors from those countries is the perfect challenge for me. This challenge is great if you also want to pick up more translated fiction!

Books Read

A book set in and written by an author from Ghana: Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

Speaking of diversifying your reading, this is a challenge I discovered in late 2023, and it encourages readers to read books by minority authors across a broad range of genres. The challenge, created by Rebecca (@BooksOnAdventures) and Sam (@reading.and.roaming), reveals how the publishing industry disproportionately publishes “serious fiction” (with hard-hitting themes) and shies away from publishing romances by BIPOC authors and featuring BIPOC characters.

This challenge is a new one for me! Since I’ve recently gotten into historical fiction, I thought it would be fun to track which decades I tend to gravitate toward. The challenge asks you to read books set between the 1880s and 2010s, typically with two decades allocated per month. However, I’m not really using this as a monthly challenge; I just want to see if I hit all the decades in 2024!

Books Read

Set in the 1930s: The Secret Book of Flora Lee by Patti Callahan Henry
Set in the 1970s: Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll
A book that spans multiple decades: The First Ladies by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray
Set in the 1960s: The Women by Kristin Hannah
Set in the 1880s and 1890s: TBD
Set in the 1900s and 1910s: TBD
Set in the 1920s: TBD
Set in the 1940s: TBD
Set in the 1950s: TBD
Set in the 1980s: TBD
Set in the 1990s: TBD
Set in the 2000s and 2010s: TBD