2026 Reading Challenge

 

Hello, readers! It's that time of year! A new challenge is ready and waiting to be completed. Or, for me, it's ready and waiting for me to burn through the free spaces. Tress informed me while we were working on this today that 2027 will be our tenth year doing this challenge. To that I say:

No, seriously. I swear we just did the five-year challenge. I have lost all sense of time. Anyway, as always, the Linzthebookworm/Logophile reading challenge is five reading challenges wrapped in a trench coat to form a mega challenge and get into the movie at one ticket price.... wait, what? Don't mind me, I'm in a weird mood right now.

How does it work? However, you want it to. You can select a tier and just read the books associated with it. You can pick the prompts you want to read. You can read in order. You can complete one level or all of them. Whatever works best for you. Tress likes to plot all of her books out as soon as we write these challenges and awards herself with a t-shirt if she's a good nerd. I go at it with reckless abandon, like I do everything in my life. Will this be the year I finally complete it? Probably not. The important part about this challenge is that you're reading and you're getting out of your comfort zone (or trying to at least). 

Tress put together a handy PDF, which can be found here: PDF List, and will also list it on Story Graph. You can also follow Tress's progress on her blog: https://songstress7.wordpress.com/. You can find all previous challenges, updates, and even a post about how we developed the challenge here.

And now the 2026 Reading Challenge! 

Level 1: Book of the Month Club

1 Read a book that is under 250 pages long

2 Read a book that you got for free

3 Read a book by Darcy Coates

4 Read a book with a dark cover

5 Read the first book in a series that you've wanted to start

6 Read a book that was either given to you or recommended by someone who means a lot to you

7 Read an author's debut novel

8 A book with a title that starts with the letter B

9 Read an Urban Fantasy novel

10 Read a book that takes place in a small town

11 A book that's been made into a movie or TV show

12 Free Space - Pick any book!

Level 2: Casual Reader Club

13 A book in a series you've yet to finish (the most recent/next book)

14 Read a book with exactly four words in the title

15 Read a book by an author named Mary, Maria, Marie, or a variant

16 Read a book with an animal on the cover

17 Read a book involving a Cryptid (Bigfoot, Mothman, Chupacabra, etc.)

18 Read a book recommended by the Chicago Public Library website https://www.chipublib.org/

19 Read a genre you haven't read before

20 Read a book by an author who's been really popular in the past 5 years

21 Read a book that was published in 1996 (30 years ago)

22 A book with a pastel cover

23 Read a book with a title that follows the pattern A/The _____ of _____ and _____"

24 Free Space - Pick any book!

Level 3: Dedicated Reader Club

25 Read Book 1 of a Quartet

26 Read Book 2 of a Quartet

27 Read Book 3 of a Quartet

28 Read Book 4 of a Quartet

29 A book by an author with a color in their name

30 A book you picked out because of the cover

31 A book with "sound" or "silence" in the title

32 A book that involves a robot or AI

33 Read a book by an author that's new to you

34 A book with a weapon on the cover

35 Read a book with the word "man" or "boy" in the title

36 Free Space - Pick any book!

Level 4: Speed Reader Club

37 A book on a banned book list

38 Read a book that was published through a crowdfunding campaign

39 read a book by an author that uses initials as part of their name

40 Read a book over 600 pages OR listen to an audiobook over 18 hours

41 Read a book with a title that includes an ampersand

42 A book where the main character is a criminal

43 Read a book that has a crown on the cover

44 Read a book about a historical woman (or group of women)

45 Read a book by an author whose first name starts with the letter 'D.'

46 Read a book with a four-letter word in the title

47 Read a Space Opera

48 Free Space - Pick any book!

Level 5: Overachiever Club

49 Read a book by an author from a place you have been

50 read a book on this list https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/the-read-down/fiction-coming-soon/

51 A book with "angel" or "demon" in the title

52 Read a book with a sisterhood or brotherhood trope

53 Read a book about unlikely allies

54 Read a book published when you were 9 years old

55 Read a book that includes a character who is a photographer

56 Read a book involving a sacred object

57 A book published by one of the Independent Publishers Caucus https://www.indiepubs.org/member-presses

58 A book with numbers on the cover

59 The Great Beatles Category - read a book about The Beatles *or* a book with the same title as one of their songs  https://www.beatlesbible.com/songs/

60 Free Space - Pick any book!

As always, let us know if you're participating here or on StoryGraph. We love getting comments about the challenge or suggestions. If you have a prompt that's your favorite, let us know! Perhaps for the 10th challenge, we'll feature some fan favorites!