In my travels across the internet, I have seen a number of different reading challenges to inspire you to achieve your reading goals for the year. Whether your goal is to read one book a year or one book a day, hopefully you will find a challenge on this list that will pique your interest. I would love to hear what your reading goals are for this year. How many books do you want to read? Are you following along with a specific challenge, or are you just seeing where the books take you? Be sure to comment and let me know!
Happy reading everyone!
Weekly (or near weekly) Challenges
The folks over at The 52 Book Club have released their annual book challenge with 52 separate reading prompts. Simply pick a prompt, then read away! You could do them in order, or go rogue and pick anywhere to start!
They even have a printable book log you can keep track of your progress that is available HERE
Brittany at Shelf Reflection has posted her 2026 book challenge that has 45 prompts that challenge you to select a book based on different aspects of the book contents, places that you found the recommendation, and others. She also has a checklist to keep you on track!
Be sure to also check out some of the past reading challenges that Shelf Reflections has! As of this post, there are 13 different challenges listed – including 2 for the young readers in your life!
*Challenge also available on Storygraph
Allison from Reading with Allison has issued a challenge with 52 interesting prompts such as: book that was a gift, you bought over 1 year ago, book featured in a subscription box, and more! Allison also offers digital downloads for trackers and the like – only “fee” is signing up for her newsletter! She also has an Etsy shop with other fun reading items!
Less than weekly, but more than monthly Challenges
The Santa Clara Library is hosting their “26 in 2026″ challenge. If you’re local to Santa Clara, California you can turn your tracker in for different library prizes. The challenge at the library is open to teens and adults, and you can find suggestions that fit the categories directly on their page.
Build Your Library’s 2026 challenge gives you 40 different prompts of books to read. Build Your Library is not just a site for reading, in fact it is primarily a “literature-based K-12 program infused with the teachings of Charlotte Mason”
I couldn’t resist adding in Build Your Library’s 2025 challenge because of its theme: Read Banned Books!
Monthly Challenges
Novelist has made their 2026 Reading Challenge a monthly challenge that encourages readers to “find what you love”. Each month is devoted to a different genre of writing and is meant to open new doors for readers who may not broaden their literary horizons past their preferred, tried-and-true genres.
The Novelist challenge is meant to be run through libraries, so there’s no specific tracker online.
12 Lives Challenge
I’m not sure the specific origin for this one, but #12livesbookchallenge is a trending hashtag I’ve seen while browsing on social media. Each month you would pick a biography, autobiography, or memoir to read. This was an exciting idea for me because I definitely have at least 12 autobiographies in my TBR pile!
