Hello fellow bookworms 📚 It’s time for one of my favorite posts of the beginning year: announcing what Reading Challenges I’ll be joining in 2023! Just like Readathons, I adore Reading Challenges so much because they are fun (with cool features), boost my reading, and foster interaction with other readers. I’ll do another separate post to talk about the TBR for my own Reading challenge soon, the Out of Comfort Zone Reading Challenge 🥰
I’ve included some information about the 2023 Challenges I’m joining (please see the announcement posts I linked for further information). All images used were made by the Challenge Host(s) that I have linked!! ❤️
Quick 2022 Reading Challenge Checkin ✅
- I read 215 books out of my 65 book target for my Goodreads Reading Challenge
- I read 80 books for #TackleYourTBR, 50 (!) books more than in 2021 🥳 📚 32 were from my Physical and 48 from my Kindle TBR!
- I read 94 books for my own Out of Comfort Zone Challenge, earning the Adventurer Badge 💗
2023 Reading Challenge Index 📚
- Goodreads Reading Challenge
- General Bookish Goals
- #DevourYourTBR2023
- Project Backlist Reading Challenge
- Magical Readathon: Choose Your Own Adventure (Year in Aeldia)
Goodreads Reading Challenge 📖
This year my aim is to read 65 Books! This is literally my goal every year because it’s attainable for me and therefore stress free ❤ This goes well with my plans to not put too much pressure on my reading this year and just mood read and enjoy books! You can follow me on Goodreads if you’d like to see my progress throughout the year 🥰
I’m forever wishing for some green, but I like this more purple color as well! 💟
General Bookish Goals 💌
➽ Make smaller, more manageable TBRs. Once again the only person stressing myself out … is me. Usualy, I want to read all the books which leads to overambitious TBRs that tend to stress me out halfway through the month. I’m aiming for 6 book TBRs in 2023, as that’s a managable number for me and I can still read more if I’ve finished the books. Exceptions will be for Readathons like the Magical Readathon and ClearUrSht!
➽ Read the remaining unread physical books I bought in 2022. My goal was to read the physical books I buy within three months and there were only 3 books I didn’t get to! These will definitely be my top priority books to read for this year!
➽ Participate in no more than 1-2 Readathons per month. I usually go overboard with Readathons, but then can’t keep up with all of them. Therefore I’m limiting myself to a maximum of 2 Readathons per month, e.g. a month long and a shorter one Readathon is fine!
➽ Read more translated fiction. I’ve been more interested in branching out and checking out more books that have been translated. Most of these are Japanese fiction and Manga! I’m thinking of aiming for 5-10 books, which should be realistic.
➽ Read 1 nonfiction per month. As part of my Out of Comfort Zone Challenge, I’m aiming to read more nonfiction. My idea was to read 1 book per month, as that should be doable for me, as I don’t tend to read more than 12 nonfiction per year!
➽ Incorporate sequels into my TBR. I’m notoriously bad at keeping up with series and I definitely want to get better at that. I don’t have a set number of books or list of series I want to read, because usually it just adds pressure. Instead I’ll be taking care to prioritize and add sequels when making my TBR for the next month!
Read the remaining “12 in 12” book recommendations
- Soulswift (Megan Bannen) ➽ Kat @ lifeandotherdisasters
- Jade City (Fonda Lee) ➽ Ashley
- The Girl and the Ghost (Hanna Alkaf) ➽ Tasya @ theliteraryhuntress
- Blood Like Magic (Liselle Sambury) ➽ Maddie @ inkingandthinking
- Ninth House (Leigh Bardugo) ➽ Sandra
#DevourYourTBR 📚
This year I will be joining #DevourYourTBR again which is all about tackling your TBR using cool monthly challenges! I love the 2023 monthly themes, they are a mix of old and new themes! I found out last year that having a reading theme really helps me pick up books, as I don’t get struck with indecision about what books I should read. I feel like I can combine my mood-reading and TBR tendencies with this challenge 🥰 This is hosted by Destiny @ howlinglibraries & Kathy @ booksandmunches on Goodreads ❤
Monthly Themes (Text & Images by Destiny) 📚
Jumpstart January:
* leftover from 2022
Kick off the year with books already on your TBR! If you’ve never read it and you owned it (or had it on your TBR) prior to January 1, 2023, it counts for this challenge.
Fluffy February:
* new prompt!
February is all about the fluff and feel-good moments, so read some lighthearted reads: romance, humor, and all the comfy and cozy vibes!
Culture Cruise March:
* re-mixed prompt
Let’s go on a Culture Cruise and celebrate BIPOC authors and authors from countries other than your own!
April Showers:
* new prompt
Let’s read something refreshing: reach for a genre you don’t read often!
Mayday! Mayday!:
* new prompt
Mayday! Mayday! Read books with characters in trouble—whether the stakes are low (like a cute rom-com) or high (like an edge-of-your-seat thriller) is up to YOU.
Pride Parade June:
* leftover from 2022
This month is all about reading queer rep and queer voices!
Jumbo July:
* new prompt
I like big books and I cannot lie~ 🎵 Read books with 400 or more pages!
Accessibility August:
* re-mixed prompt
Focus on reading books written by and/or about neurodivergence (autism, ADHD, etc.), diverse bodies (disabilities, fat rep, and more), and mental health!
Sword & Shield September:
* new prompt
Get your swords ready, friends: September is all about fantasy books! From the epic high fantasy journeys all the way to the chill paranormal romance novellas, if it’s fantasy, it counts.
Ominous October:
* leftover from 2022
It’s spooky season, and it’s time to bust out the spooky reads! This month is all about horror, mystery/thrillers, and dark fantasy.
Remember November:
* leftover from 2022
Remember November is all about reading books you didn’t get to from your previous 2023 TBRs. This might be something you had on a readathon TBR earlier in the year, or a book you were so excited to purchase but then it sat collecting dust on your shelf.
December Dash:
* new prompt
It’s the end of the year, and a lot of us are focused on two things: finishing our current reads, and completing those Goodreads challenges. December Dash is about short books (under 200 pages) and the last of our current reads so we can start 2024 off with a clean slate!
Project Backlist Reading Challenge 📖
Tackling my Owned TBR has been a priority for me these last two years, so I couldn’t resist joining Project Backlist! It’s a reading challenge hosted by Kal @ Reader Voracious and focuses on reading your Owned TBR. I love that it’s very laid back and that you can decide your own goals, so the challenge fits for you. I’ve been doing really well with tackling my owned books in 2022 and I want to keep up this momentum, as I’ve gotten more strict with my book buying habits.
My Goals 📖
Badge Goals
- Completionist: Reach an 80% read rate for your owned books
- Committed Reader: Read an owned book a week (or a month)
- ARCrastinator: Clear over ARC list
My Own Goals
- Read the physical books I buy within 3 months of purchase! This helps me only buy books that I genuinely want to read soon, so they don’t end up gathering dust on my shelves. This doesn’t apply to e-books as they don’t take up much space 😄
- Read the oldest books on my Physical TBR! I’ll not be able to read all of them, but I have 18 books that I purchased between 2016 and 2020, and the oldest one will have been on my TBR for 6 years 😭 Therefore, I hope to not only read the newer books on my TBR but also get to the oldies.
- Prioritize Kindle books I bought in 2020 & the first half of 2021! This isn’t as pressing as my physical TBR, as I only got my Kindle in 2020. However, I don’t want to forget the oldest books, especially as I have to scroll down all the way to get to them 😅
Magical Readathon: Choose Your Own Adventure (Year in Aeldia) 💫
The Magical Readathon is back with a yearly challenge! I love participating in the Readathon each April and August, but in 2023, there is an optional challenge for those looking for something extra. There’s an Adventure Board where you choose the direction you’re taking and have to read a book with the corresponding prompt. The idea is that your character is questing, so you can choose the option that fits them best, or what you’d like to read! There is one choice for every month, so you only need to read one book per month for the challenge. I’m very hyped and have already picked out my choices, though I won’t set a TBR for the entire year. I’ll choose what book to read on a monthly basis!
My Choices 💫
- January: Turn Left (Start a Series) … Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Fairies by Heather Fawcett 💫
Are you joining any of the challenges I mentioned? What other challenges are you participating in? What are your bookish goals? 📚
The Bookcheshire Cat 
Ohhh I didn’t know about the Magical Readathon one! I like the idea of just one book a month, choose your own adventure! I’ll definitely be “unofficially” participating in that one.
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I love the year-long Magical Readathon challenge, it’s so much fun, especially as you just have to choose one book per month 🥰 I hope we both have fun!
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This is my first time actually reading and paying attention to Devour Your TBR prompts and it looks really fun!
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Devour Your TBR is so much fun!! I really like their prompts and planning my TBR around them 🥰
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Good luck with all your goals. I love how you have prioritised making them manageable. So often it is easy to make the goals everything you want to achieve in life when it is a goal for a year 😂
I love all the readathon challenges you have, the magical readathon with choosing a book a month is so accessible and fun 😍 and I loved reading all the prompts for the devour your TBR challenge, they are soo good.
Happy Reading 💗 my shared goal with you is to read all/most my physical TBR, I only have 30 books now so I feel like it is attainable!
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Thank you!! Making them manageable is so important for me, otherwise I get soo overwhelmed 🙈
The Magical Readathon challenge is so much fun, especially as you only have to choose one book per month 💕 I love the Devour Your TBR prompts and centering my TBR around them!
Happy reading to you as well, we can do it!! 🥰
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I’m terrible with challenges and I’m always in awe of all those who do so many and do so well with them! I’m also doing Project Backlist Challenge this year and I’m focusing on reading 2-3 backlist books per month from my shelf and cleaning up this ARC list! I also had no idea about the year-long Magical Readathon challenge but I’m definitely going to be looking that up now (and how did I not know you were house of the arcane too?)! Good luck with all the challenges—you definitely got this! 😍
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Project Backlist Challenge is such a great challenge! I’m focusing on clearing off my owned physical and Kindle books, as well as reading some overdue ARCs 🥰 The Magical Readathon challenge was just announced and I love the idea!! (ohh yes, we’re guildmates!! 💜) Thank you! 💕
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good luck with all of these reading challenges, it is always so impressive to see you take on so many (though i hope taking on less this year will help reduce the reading stress you feel!) ❤ you've definitely inspired me to get better at reading my owned tbr! and i relate so much with being bad at continuing series—i should work harder at making them a priority but i fear that is going to be a problem for 2024 me lol
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Thank you, May! 💕 I loved focusing in reducing my TBR in past years, as some books have been on there way too long 🙈 Totally get that! I’m trying to pick out one sequel per month, but there are just too many series to catch up on … and I’m starting new ones as well 😂
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So many good challenges here and, as always, I’m so happy you’re going to be joining in the DYTBR themes! 🥰 I always love seeing your challenge goals and wrap-ups so much!
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I’ve discovered that I really like themed reading so Devour Your TBR is just perfect for me 🥰 Thank you so much! 💕
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So many amazing challenges here and I am always so impressed with your ability to juggle them all each year! Thanks for joining Project Backist & posting about it
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Thank you! I’m so excited to join Project Backlist, it’s exactly the challenge I need this year 💕
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