9 Reading Challenges to Join in 2023

One of the tools I use to read so much each year is reading challenges. They help me tackle books I’ve long been putting off and also inspire me to diversify my reading (in terms of genre and also character diversity).

I thought I’d have one post that talks about all the challenges I’m participating in this year! I’ll briefly go over the purpose of each challenge and include a link to join the challenge on The StoryGraph. This platform allows readers to plan the books they want to read for each prompt of the challenge and helps you keep track of your progress.

Diversity Challenges

Diverse Reading BINGO ❃ Join on The StoryGraph
For the past two years, I’ve been participating in the Diversify Yo’ Bookshelf BINGO. However, that challenge has been discontinued, so I decided to come up with my own called Diverse Reading BINGO. The BINGO board includes prompts that range from genre (Sapphic Love Story) to time period (set in China during WWII) to main character descriptions (sex worker main character) to author descriptions (written by an Arab woman). This is a year-long challenge, and to successfully complete the challenge, you just need a “BINGO” (read six prompts to complete a row).

Diversity Across Genres Challenge ❃ Join on The StoryGraph
I recently came across this challenge run by Rebecca (@BooksOnAdventures) and Sam (@reading.and.roaming) on Instagram. The challenge uses a matrix to encourage people to read one general fiction, romance, thriller/horror, sci-fi/fantasy and non-fiction book each by a Black, Asian (API), MENA/Arab, Indigenous and Latine/x author. So, in total, you’d be reading 25 books. There’s also a bonus representation category, including a book by a disabled author, a book by a queer author, a translated book, a book by an immigrant author and a book with mental health representation. This is a year-long challenge, and to successfully complete it, you need to hit all 10 categories with at least 5 books.

Backlist Challenges

Beat the Backlist (or 52 Prompts in 52 Weeks) ❃ Join on The StoryGraph
My main goal in 2023 is to read all the books on my backlist (books I purchased pre-2023), which is a serious undertaking. Austine Decker’s Beat the Backlist challenge has encouraged me to prioritize the books on my backlist that I keep putting off. 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 (hence, my title for the challenge being 52 Prompts in 52 Weeks). The rules are simple: the books you read for the challenge must have been published in 2022 or earlier, you have to start and finish the book in 2023, and there’s a limit of one book per prompt. How to successfully complete the challenge is up to your discretion.

Year Long Challenges

StoryGraph Reads the World ❃ Join on The StoryGraph
The StoryGraph is hosting this challenge where readers visit 10 different countries throughout the year in the books they read. The rule is that the book chosen for each prompt (country) must be set in that country, and the book is preferably by an author who lives in that country or is part of that country’s diaspora. The countries chosen for 2023 are Argentina, Colombia, Cuba, Italy, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, South Africa, Syria, and Trinidad & Tobago.

#12BooksByAfricanWriters ❃ Join on The StoryGraph
Nokukhanya (@pretty_x_bookish) on Instagram is hosting this challenge. This challenge is to encourage people to read more books by African authors… and that’s the only rule: the 12 books must be by African authors.

A-Z Challenge ❃ Join on The StoryGraph
This challenge is pretty straightforward – to successfully complete it, you need to read one book whose title starts with each letter of the alphabet. To make it a bit more challenging, I try an avoid books that start with “the” or “a” (i.e. some would use The Queen of the Tearling for Q). Of course, books that start with “the” or “a” don’t count for letters T or A. My last rule is that re-reads do not count.

Monthly Challenges

TBR Knockout ❃ Join on The StoryGraph
This is my second 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.

Buzzword Reading Challenge ❃ Join on The StoryGraph
This is also my second 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.

Seasonal Challenges

BCB Spring BINGO ❃ Join on The StoryGraph
I use seasonal BINGOs to divide my reading journal monthly spreads into seasons. They’re another fun way to get me to read more books from my backlist. The BCB Spring BINGO is hosted by Hailey (@book.club.bitches) on Instagram and runs from March 1 to May 31, 2023. Some of the prompts are thematic (i.e. read a book with all the letters in S-P-R-I-N-G in it), while others are more straightforward (i.e. a book by an Australian author).