A Compilation of 2019 Reading Challenges

The beginning of the year always signals a lovely tumbling rollout of new yearly reading challenges. While I really enjoy the inspiring intention of these challenges I've never actually participated in completing one!! Shocked, I know. It's ok.

I do love looking at the prompts, and using them to expand my own yearly reading as I find it helpful to read with intention and at least some hopes of broadening my horizons during the year. I love reading for entertainment and escape but I find it is ultimately, for me, about learning more about the world around me and the people in it. If we only read books about or written by people who look like ourselves, we're really doing a disservice to the world and to ourselves. So, with that in mind, if you are a reader or like to set reading goals, or just want to think about expanding your reading life, here are the 2019 reading challenges that I think are worth a look:

From Book Riot: The 2019 Read Harder challenge! Intentionally set up to encourage more diverse reading, with 24 interesting prompts like, read a book of nonviolent true crime, read a book written in prison, and read a comic by an LGBTQIA creator.

From PopSugar: The 2019 PopSugar Reading Challenge! This is a very popular reading challenge that I've seen hashtags for frequently. The challenge is longer with 40 tasks including such prompts as, a book that takes place in a single day, a book by two female authors, and a book written by a musician (non-fiction or fiction). A pretty fun list, and the article in the link above actually has book suggestions for each prompt listed which is incredibly helpful if you want to peruse that.

From Modern Mrs. Darcy: The 2019 Modern Mrs. Darcy Reading Challenge is a pretty unique offering and her challenges have evolved and changed shape over the past few years. This year's challenge includes steps for improving your reading life, not just ticking boxes on a task list, which is a nice addition for readers to think about. There are only 10 items on the actual challenge so it is not very intimidating. Prompts include: a book in translation, three books by the same author, and a book published before you were born.

From the Reading Glasses podcast: The Reading Glasses 2019 Challenge! I'm particularly excited about this because I really enjoy the podcast and the friendship of the hosts. This challenge is also unique because it includes activities like, get a library card! It's a great combination of things to do and things to read and isn't too long.

Finally, from The Professional Book Nerds Podcast: The 2019 Reading Challenge is only 12 tasks so you could accomplish one per month. Includes things like, read a book with a cover you hate, listen to an audiobook of a memoir that is read by the author, and book set on a continent other than you own.

There are also a ton of fun ones on Instagram if you search for them. Perhaps a separate post for Instagram centered reading challenges would be fun to do. The book people on Instagram are incredibly fun and lovely. I recommend looking around that corner of social media if you want some immediate book reading friends.

Do you participate in reading challenges? Have any favorite prompts or challenges that aren't in this list? Let me know, I'd love to hear about them!