2025 Reading Challenges

It's that time for some new challenges and I am SO excited! Did I go overboard with the number of challenges I'm participating in this coming year? Of course I did 😆

In 2024 I significantly brought my reading goal down and, honestly, I loved it! It was very low pressure and at no point in the year was I scrambling to catch up. So I'm going to put my goal at 52 books again for 2025! I will most likely surpass this by quite a bit, but just in case, I set it at 52 because that's just one book a week so that should be easy to achieve.

The challenge: Read one book a week, 52 books in 52 weeks.
I haven't found an official challenge to sign up for this one, but I do want to do this challenge again!

The challenge: To read one book that has a title starting with every letter of the alphabet. You can drop the A’s and The’s from the book titles—The First Main Word Needs To Be The Letter You Are Counting, except for that pesky Q, X, and Z titles, then the word that starts with the challenge letter can be anywhere in the title.
I love this challenge! It is SO fun! I don't think I've ever completed this challenge, but I've gotten really close. Maybe this year? Lol.

The challenge: To read one book that has an author whose first name, middle, or last name starts with every letter of the alphabet.
And this one is similar to the previous one, except this one is for author names!

The challenge: To read books you have owned before January 1, 2025.
I haven't reached Mt. Vancouver in a couple of years... but maybe this will be the year! Lol. I got close-ish in 2024, so I'm gonna stick with 36 books again and hope for the best 😅
Level chosen: Mt. Vancouver — Read 36 books from your TBR pile.

The challenge: Read your Netgalley/Edelweiss books.
I did not do great in this challenge in 2024... I got close, but not close enough 😅 So I'm gonna stick with the same level and hopefully I'll be able to actually complete this challenge in 2025!
Level chosen: Bronze — 10 Netgalley/Edelweiss books.

The challenge: To read the last book in a series.
I always do a challenge to help me finish series, I just haven't fonund one to sign up for that I like yet 😅

The challenge: To read 25 different books that fit each of the 25 prompts on the book bingo.
This challenge is a book bingo! I really liked this one because the prompts don't feel as constricting as other challenges that have prompts. And as a mood reader, I need my prompts to be a little more open. Lol.

1. 2025 Release - Any book published in 2025. This can be a first publication, a self-published book that has a traditional release in 2025, or perhaps a book that is being translated into your language in 2025.
2. One Word Title - “A”, “An”, and “The” DO count as a word.
3. Involves Travel - This can be open to interpretation, and the travel doesn’t have to be the MAIN part of the story. It can be a road trip, traveling to another country, maybe even time travel!
4. Number in the title - For an additional challenge, don’t use “Volume X” as your number with a graphic novel or manga. (but not required)
   
5. Cover buy - A book that you picked up because you liked the cover, without knowing much about it. This can be either a book you actually bought or one that you just added to your TBR or picked up from a library.
6. Seasonal Book - Read a book that takes place in the current season. For example, read a summer camp thriller in the summer, read a witchy book around Halloween, or read a Christmas romance in December.
7. LGBTQ+ Representation - Read a book with main characters that are LGBTQ+ or written by an LGBTQ+ author.
8. Favorite author’s newest release - Read an anticipated new release from a favorite author! We all have so many favorite authors, so don’t stress about who your favorite author is!
9. Hyped Book - Read a book you have been seeing EVERYWHERE! Does every other video you watch have this book in it? All of TikTok talking about it? Do you have FOMO? Plug it in here!
10. Color of the Year - In the video, I mentioned Pantone and Goodreads, which are the popular colors that we talked about. But here is an article with a ton of other “colors of the year” that you could use. Pick one of them and find a book that has a substantial amount of it on the cover. (whatever that amount means for you)
11. POC Author - Read a book by an author of color.
12. Novella - Novellas are customarily under 200 pages, but use your best judgment here.
13. 5-Star Prediction - Read a book that you think will be 5 stars. Even if you don’t give it 5 stars at the end, you can still count it here. If you don’t like to do 5-star predictions, you can use this spot as a book you gave 5 stars.
14. “Comped” - A trend in publishing is to compare books to other popular books. You can complete this one of two ways: a) read a book that uses that language in its marketing or promotion, or b) find a book that is comped to a favorite or a 5 star book you read in 2024.
15. Friend Recommendation - This can come from an IRL friend, a booktuber that you watch, etc.
16. Over 400 pages - Read a big(ish) book! ;)
17. Special Edition - Read a book that has something special or extra to it. (i.e. different cover, sprayed edges, B&N exclusive editions, etc.)
18. Chapter Titles - Read a book that has something other than “chapter 1, chapter 2”, etc.
19. Debut Author - This prompt was designed to read a book from an author that only has one book published. However, if you want to go to an author’s backlist and read their debut, that would work too.
20. Mental Health Representation - Read a book that features some type of mental health representation. (i.e. anxiety, ADHD, Depression, PTSD, OCD, etc. This is not an exhaustive list. Use your best judgment)
21. Snake on the Cover - 2025 is the Chinese Year of the Snake. Read a book with a snake on the cover.
22. Self-Published - Read a book that was not published traditionally or from an indie publishing house. Use Goodreads if needed to double check if a book is self-published.
23. New-to-you Author - Read a book from an author you haven’t read before.
24. TBR Vet - This can be either the oldest (or one of the oldest) books on your TBR, or could be a book you’ve just had on your TBR for a long time.
25. From another challenge - Read a book that you have to read for another reading challenge or readathon in 2025.

The challenge: To read 12 different books (1 per month) that fit each of the 12 prompts.
One of my favorite types of challenges that I found in recent years is one where it's this sort of flow chart where the book you pick to read next is affected by the book you last read. And I am so happy that I found this one for 2025!

1. January- Choose a book with your favorite color on the cover.
2. February- A book from an author whose last name starts with the same letter as January’s author's last name.
3. March- Choose a book with a title that has half the number of letters from your February book.
4. April- Turn to page 100 of March’s book and find a word on the page. Your April book must have that word in the title.
5. May- Choose a book set in a different time period than your April book.
6. June- Choose a book that has the same number of pages as May’s book within 25 pages.
7. July- A book with the same color spine as June’s book.
8. August- A book from a different genre than your July book.
9. September- Choose a book that has a word in the title that was also in August’s book title.
10. October- A book with an author of the opposite gender as the author of September's book.
11. November- A title with the same number of words in it as October’s title.
12. December- Read a book in a different format than November's book.

The challenge: Enter and complete reading challenges.
And this one is always fun! With all the challenges I'm doing, I need another challenge to help me actually complete those challenges 😂
Level chosen: On the Roof — 6-10 Challenges (Entered & Completed)

1. Goodreads Reading Challenge
   
2. 52 Book in 52 Weeks Reading Challenge
3. Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge
4. Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge: Author Edition
5. Mount TBR Reading Challenge
6. Netgalley & Edelweiss Reading Challenge
7. Last Book in a Series Reading Challenge
8. 25 in 25 Reading Challenge
9. Go with the Flow Reading Challenge

And the last challenge is not a reading challenge, but a discussion challenge! The sign-up post hasn't gone up yet though so I'm reserving this spot for it! (I always keep track of all of my challenges on these posts so I update them periodically throughout the year.)

I think that's it (for now lol). Let me know what reading challenges you'll be joining in 2025!