The Hardest and Easiest Tasks of the 2024 Read Harder Challenge
Since we’re more than halfway through the year, now is a great time to take a look around to see if we’re on track for our 2024 goals. If you’re reading this, chances are one of your reading goals for the year is completing the 2024 Read Harder Challenge! To check in with you all about how we’re all doing, I sent out a Read Harder Halfway Check-In Survey, and I wanted to share some of those results with you today. Of course, not everyone responded, so this isn’t necessarily representative, but it’s still fun information to take a look at!
First off, I asked how many books you’ve all read so far in 2024, whether or not they counted towards the Read Harder Challenge, and this is what you said.
Your answers ranged, but the most common answer was more than 100…at halfway through the year. It’s hard to overstate what a mindboggling result that is. Most people read about zero to two books in a year. Among serious readers, 50 a year is considered a worthy goal to aim for — that’s why it’s the default Goodreads challenge. So being at more than 100 books read at this point in the year puts you in a tiny minority of readers. I’m still trying to wrap my head around this result, honestly! You are elite readers.
Next up, I asked how many tasks you’ve finished so far. There are 24 tasks total, and the most frequent answer was 12 or 13, so it looks like we’re mostly on track! Congratulations to the handful of people who have already completed it. And for those of you who aren’t on track, there’s still plenty of time to catch up.
I also wanted to check which tasks you considered the easiest and the most difficult this year. There are some clear winners for easiest task: #11, Read a picture book published in the last five years, and #1, Read a cozy fantasy book. I’m glad we eased into the year with a task that didn’t cause too much trouble. Still, everyone experiences these tasks differently, because almost all of them were named by at least one person as the easiest. The only ones that weren’t categorized as the easiest task by anyone were #17: Read a book about media literacy, #18: Read a book about drag or queer artistry, and #21: Read a book that went under the radar in 2023.
There were also some clear favorites for the hardest tasks of the challenge this year, though most tasks were named by at least one person. The most frequently named tasks were #14: Read a book by an author with an upcoming event (virtual or in person) and then attend the event — which makes sense, since it’s the only task that requires more than just reading a book — as well as #7: Read an indie published collection of poetry by a BIPOC or queer author, and #17: Read a book about media literacy.
This is such a fascinating look into Read Harder Challengers’ reading lives. Next week, I’ll have more results for you, including some of your favorite books you’ve read for the challenge so far in 2024!
In case you’re curious, here are my answers to these halfway check-in questions, including the tasks that have been the most difficult for me to complete.
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Do any of these results surprise you? What did you answer for these questions? Let’s chat in the comments!
Check out all the previous 2024 Read Harder posts here.
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