Newsletter 1

The 2016 Book Riot Read Harder Challenge

Rachel Manwill

Staff Writer

Rachel Manwill is an editor, writer, and professional nomad. Twice a year, she runs the #24in48 readathon, during which she does almost no reading. She's always looking for an excuse to recommend a book, whether you ask her for one or not. When she's not ranting about comma usage for her day job as a corporate editor, she's usually got an audiobook in her ears and a puppy in her lap. Blog: A Home Between Pages Twitter: @rachelmanwill

It’s December, which means it’s time for the 2016 Book Riot Read Harder Challenge! Last December, the Read Harder Challenge made its debut and the response from the Riot community was staggering. Turns out, you guys love a reading challenge as much as we do!

We were blown away by the enthusiasm and so many of you told us that Read Harder helped you to discover genres, authors, and titles you otherwise wouldn’t have picked up. We hope that this edition of the Challenge stretches your reading boundaries just as much as last year’s.

There are, once again, 24 tasks averaging out to two per month if you’re planning out your reading year. As I said last year, “We encourage you to push yourself, to take advantage of this challenge as a way to explore topics or formats or genres that you otherwise wouldn’t try. But this isn’t a test. No one is keeping score and there are no points to post. We like books because they allow us to see the world from a new perspective, and sometimes we all need help to even know which perspectives to try out. That’s what this is – a perspective shift – but one for which you’ll only be accountable to yourself.”

Need some help getting started? Our friends at the NYPL have an awesome list of recommendations.

The Read Harder group on Goodreads is also an excellent resource throughout the year for sharing your reading plans, discussing the tasks and finding new books to fit the challenge. Or check out a Read Harder Book Group in person! And check in all over social media with the hashtag #ReadHarder.

Click here to download and print a PDF of the task list.

We hope this challenge will not only help you read more, but Read Harder. (right click to magnify the image below)

ReadHarderChallenge2016_checklist (1)

And if you’re scrambling to finish up your 2015 Challenge tasks, don’t forget that you can take a picture of your completed list, email it to readharder@bookriot.com by Dec. 31st and get a 30% discount at the Book Riot store!