Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge discussion

Is there going to be one, and if yes, when will it be published?

I keep waiting for it to be announced-I want to get my holds in at the library!

Usually it is mid-December, though last year it was early

It was Dec 7 last year

Do they give any advance warning ?

Book Riot sent out an email today saying that it will come out on December 13th.

Dawn wrote: "Book Riot sent out an email today saying that it will come out on December 13th."

Yay!

Ah! Came in here to ask this very question. The past few challenges came out on December 7th.

Dawn wrote: "Book Riot sent out an email today saying that it will come out on December 13th."

Excellent. Thanks for the heads up. I was wondering too.

It's posted! https://ohayou.bookriot.com/read-hard...

Wahoo, thanks!

Oh I am loving the prompts for it. There will probably be a few that I skip, but overall most of them are pretty good.

Sophia, thanks for posting it.

I thought for sure they would have something related to artificial intelligence or climate change this year. I’m most interested in learning more about #17 Media literacy. Only one book comes to mind so far. I also like the indigenous, Bipoc authors, and translated books.

The 2024 list looks very similar to last year’s, but it seems that the prompts are trending younger every year. This one has a picture book, 2 middle grades, YA, and 2 manga/comic prompts. Plus a lot of easy genre fiction that I binged on when I was younger. I adore books about books, but most are not going to stretch anyone. Overall this year’s list doesn’t really fit my idea of “reading harder.”

I just realized that I am not in the target demographic for this website or this challenge. The clues are all there! Duh.

My read harder goals would include literary fiction, nonfiction, and topics or themes such as climate change, science, artificial intelligence. social commentary, culture, colonialism, migration, immigration, and ethical dilemmas. I also try to read books from all over the world, in every continent.

NancyJ wrote:

Overall this year’s list doesn’t really fit my idea of “reading harder.”

*****

My read harder goals would include literary fiction, nonfiction, and topics or themes such as climate change, science, artificial intelligence. social commentary, culture, colonialism, migration, immigration, and ethical dilemmas.

Yeah I was thinking the same thing and the ones you shared are more my demographic too.

I crossed out 9 of the 24. They're just not challenging enough and I won't go near middle grade or picture books. The others I was able to work in some nonfiction, but barely.

For #12, I changed it to any genre because I don't read horror, mystery, or romance.

I was able to include books I already own for the others, and I discovered three new books which I ordered and that was for these prompts:

#4.) History by BIPOC Author- Thinning Blood: A Memoir of Family, Myth, and Identity

#17.) Media Literacy- The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World

#24.)- Pick from previous challenge (for this one I chose '2020- Natural Disasters')- Quakeland: On the Road to America's Next Devastating Earthquake

Sophia wrote: "It's posted! https://ohayou.bookriot.com/read-hard..."

The link isn't working for me. Am I understanding correctly that the Read Harder Challenge is now a challenge you have to pay into?

Ariel wrote: "Sophia wrote: "It's posted! https://ohayou.bookriot.com/read-hard..."

The link isn't working for me. Am I understanding correctly that the Read Harder Challenge is now a challenge you have to..."

Not working for me either. And I've done regular google searches for every combination I can think of and am not finding anything for 2024. Did they remove it maybe?

same here link isn’t working

Strange, I can still open it.

Here is the list:

Read Harder 2024

1) Read a cozy fantasy book

2) Read a YA book by a trans author.

3) Read a middle grade horror novel.

4) Read a history book by a BIPOC author.

5) Read a sci-fi novella.

6) Read a middle grade book with an LGBTQIA main character.

7) Read an indie published collection of poetry by a BIPOC or queer author.

8) Read a book in translation from a country you’ve never visited.

9)Read a book recommended by a librarian.

10) Read a historical fiction book by an Indigenous author.

11)Read a picture book published in the last five years.

12) Read a genre book (SFF, horror, mystery, romance) by a disabled author.

13) Read a comic that has been banned.

14) Read a book by an author with an upcoming event (virtual or in person) and then attend the event.

15) Read a YA nonfiction book.

16) Read a book based solely on the title.

17) Read a book about media literacy.

18) Read a book about drag or queer artistry.

19) Read a romance with neurodivergent characters.

20) Read a book about books (fiction or nonfiction).

21) Read a book that went under the radar in 2023.

22) Read a manga or manhwa.

23) Read a “howdunit” or “whydunit” mystery.

24) Pick a challenge from any of the previous years’ challenges to repeat!

I don’t see anything about the 2024 prompts on their website. 🤔

Plus the link itself looks suspicious because book riot doesn’t start with ohayou?

Dawn wrote: "Book Riot sent out an email today saying that it will come out on December 13th."

Which email/newsletter was this in?

I saw it when they posted it, updated my reading journal, and now the link is gone. The title shows up if you google but clicking on it sends you to a blank page...no idea whats going on.

Personally, I think I'm out for good. I already didn't like most of the prompts for next year and the website now says you have to pay to play. That's made my decision easier.

Nicole wrote: "Plus the link itself looks suspicious because book riot doesn’t start with ohayou?"

It was a direct link to the pdf and it's not working for me either. Here is the information on the membership levels. You only have to pay to participate in the discussion boards on the site.

https://bookriot.com/membership-accou...

Maybe everyone complained about the prompts and they took it down to rework them?? One can hope...

Honestly, unless #14 gets drastically changed, I'm bowing out entirely next year. Not only do I not really have any interest in watching one, but most of them anymore cost money, even some of the online ones. Yeah, not happening. Also, not liking #7, because I don't like poetry at all, and I'm reeeeeeally not liking #11 because the idea of reading a picture book at the age of 40, when I have no children and no young relatives or even friends with kids that live close by, doesn't sound like something I'd even want to try... I could force myself into reading poetry, since I did it this year too, but those other two are big nopes.

Lol at the folks complaining about there being books and formats they wouldn't normally read. Isn't that the point? Stretch a little...

Thank you for posting the list. When I attempt to view it on the BookRiot website, I get an error message stating, "403 Forbidden." It appears as though BookRiot is locking the Read Harder challenge behind a "members-only" paywall. I clicked on the link to sign up at the level that's supposedly free, but it appears to just be a sign-up for the Read Harder newsletter. Even after that, the challenge still shows up for me as "403 Forbidden."

VampAmber wrote: "Honestly, unless #14 gets drastically changed, I'm bowing out entirely next year. Not only do I not really have any interest in watching one, but most of them anymore cost money, even some of the o..."

In my area, there are 4 events each year that are costly, with well known literary authors, and they are well advertised. But the local library branches sometimes have local authors - for free- but they’re not well advertised except within the branches.

There are other single-author events, readings I guess, that people have mentioned in some of my groups. I think many were free, but it might have been driven by Covid.

For me, the prompt that I find confusing is to read a book that "went under the radar in 2023." How do you determine that a book went "under the radar"? An absence of reviews? Very few Goodreads ratings? And to tie it specifically to 2023 : Does it need to be a book that was published in 2023? Does it need to have been overlooked for an award that was presented in 2023?

Cynthia wrote: "Thank you for posting the list. When I attempt to view it on the BookRiot website, I get an error message stating, "403 Forbidden." It appears as though BookRiot is locking the Read Harder challeng..."

It's not behind a paywall. Only the book club-y elements requirement payment.

They released an email last week saying the list would come out the 13th, I believe it was probably published by mistake on the 7th/8th (the usual date the lists were published in previous years) and then subsequently taken down so it could be published on the correct date with whatever else they are planning to launch with it.

Cynthia wrote: "For me, the prompt that I find confusing is to read a book that "went under the radar in 2023." How do you determine that a book went "under the radar"? An absence of reviews? Very few Goodreads ra..."
Typically, BookRiot.com does a blog post for each of the individual challenge points over the first few months of the year, so I'd likely wait for the explanation

Zach Fellows wrote Lol at the folks complaining about there being books and formats they wouldn't normally read. Isn't that the point?

Agree! the read harder challenge is about expanding your reading habits. discovering surprising books that may be in genres you don't typically pick or read.

VampAmber wrote unless #14 gets drastically changed, I'm bowing out entirely next year. Not only do I not really have any interest in watching one, but most of them anymore cost money, even some of the online ones.

If nothing else, the National Book Festival bt the LoC is steamed on you tube now. I watched most of it on BookTV/CSPAN 2 this year. There's always plenty of different genres to pick from.

Zach wrote: "Lol at the folks complaining about there being books and formats they wouldn't normally read. Isn't that the point? Stretch a little..."

So reading a children's picture book is challenging to you? :-D

Ketutar wrote: "Zach wrote: "Lol at the folks complaining about there being books and formats they wouldn't normally read. Isn't that the point? Stretch a little..."

So reading a children's picture book is challe..."

The idea isn't that the reading itself is supposed to be "challenging" in the sense of difficult. The point is to expand your reading horizons, read outside of the things you'd normally read, experience something new, and learn to appreciate other ways of reading. There are some phenomenal children's picture books out there.

Zach wrote: "Lol at the folks complaining about there being books and formats they wouldn't normally read. Isn't that the point? Stretch a little..."

Right? And everyone who is complaining seems to be forgetting that you don't actually have to participate. Like you can just ... opt out. And not spend energy complaining about something that people love, that hurts noone, and that aims to do something good by expanding horizons.

Daniel wrote: "Cynthia wrote: "For me, the prompt that I find confusing is to read a book that "went under the radar in 2023." How do you determine that a book went "under the radar"? An absence of reviews? Very ..."

I never saw any of their blogs, but I got a lot of very good book ideas from other members of this gr group. I’m really happy that I did it this year. It doesn’t seem like a good fit for me in 2024, but I might check back to hear other ideas.

Heather wrote: "Zach wrote: "Lol at the folks complaining about there being books and formats they wouldn't normally read. Isn't that the point? Stretch a little..."

Right? And everyone who is complaining seems t..."

This is the most important time to give feedback, comments or complaints. There might still be time for them to make adjustments. Complaints are helpful to organizers. If people stopped participating in my project, I would sure want to know why. Detailed comments are valuable. Companies often pay consultants to get information that people have been sharing already. Whatever happens, it will be a fun challenge for some.

I'm almost certainly going to do the new list (although I still have a few categories from 2022 and 2023, and one from 2021 still to complete!).
I think my observation would be that there are an increasing number of middle grade, YA and picture book categories.
While I take the point that these are taking us out of our comfort zone, I'm not sure I'm drawing much out of them (other than ticking boxes).
Read Harder to me is about challenge; emotionally, spiritually or intellectually. I would personally prefer to have more non-fiction categories, but that's just me.

I'll roll with whatever Book Riot throws at us and have fun doing so.

Howard wrote: "I think my observation would be that there are an increasing number of middle grade, YA and picture book categories."

This is what struck me about this year's list -- 5 out of the 24 prompts are for younger audiences, and as a whole, I feel like the quality of the prompts has gone down from past years.

Just a reminder the challenge as stated by Book Riot isn't about pushing more "challenging" topics or themes, but the the challenge is designed to "invite readers to explore settings, characters, formats, genres, and perspectives that might be outside of their reading norms". <-- Taken right from their yearly posts. I also think part of their aim is to encourage less thinking that X genre is easy, or X format isn't worthy of my time because of its intended audience age. It's also to broaden the range of author backgrounds that are being picked up and read.

It sounds like middle grade, YA, and even picture books fall into this 'outside the norm' category for a number of people here. This is probably why they've included multiple prompts in those categories this year. That format is still being published year after year and likely has a number of interesting books and authors that could be appealing to a wider swathe of the reading public if they would give them a chance. Drawing attention to those authors and those books has to be part of the rationale here for including those prompts. If nothing else a prompt like that can be a quick and easy way to get you to read something you wouldn't of otherwise touched and then you can move on and read something else or participate in a different challenge that is tailored to your specific genres and interests.

Zach wrote: "Just a reminder the challenge as stated by Book Riot isn't about pushing more "challenging" topics or themes, but the the challenge is designed to "invite readers to explore settings, characters, f..."

That's fine.
I have really enjoyed reading some of the books aimed at younger readers in previous years, but I just feel that the balance might be a bit off this time around. The current list for next year has seven entries for younger readers, picture books, comics and manga. That feels like too many to me.
Obviously everyone has their own reasons for doing these challenges and everyone will get something different out of the list. I also appreciate Book Riot's effort to expand the genres of books we read.
I'm not sure where I'm going with this, other than the list just doesn't sing to me in the same way as some of the previous ones have done.

There are lots of comics and manga aimed at adults! For those concerned about those being 'younger' genres, I encourage you to use this opportunity to find an adult orientated read in those forms. :)

There's not just lots and lots of comics/manga/manhwa aimed at adults, there are lots of ones that deal with the challenging subjects that a lot of folks here are looking for. Stuff addressing racism, gender, climate change, the Holocaust, history, etc.

That’s all very true (although availability is not always great here in the UK). All I’m saying is that the balance doesn’t feel quite as good this time. Just a personal preference.

Just checking back in for updates! I saw the original post and made my book journal templates and everything and then noticed it disappeared but I since discovered the email that referenced it would officially be out today? So I guess what I saw was not supposed to be public yet? Hoping if anyone sees the official release today they'll post it since I'm not sure if what I saw was the final copy.

Is upgrading to paid worth it? I’m disappointed there is now a charge. Love the free Goodreads posts.

Is upgrading to paid worth it? I’m disappointed there is now a charge. I love this free Goodreads group.

VampAmber wrote: "Honestly, unless #14 gets drastically changed, I'm bowing out entirely next year. Not only do I not really have any interest in watching one, but most of them anymore cost money, even some of the o..."

I found free author talks - even some virtual ones - through my public library. Give that a shot.

VampAmber wrote: "Honestly, unless #14 gets drastically changed, I'm bowing out entirely next year. Not only do I not really have any interest in watching one, but most of them anymore cost money, even some of the o..."

To the multiple people who've pointed out different free ways to attend or watch an event for number 14, thank you and I appreciate the thought, but my ADHD makes them incredibly difficult for me to focus that long, especially when I'm at home surrounded by plenty of things that can distract me from what's going on in the Livestream. My adding that a lot of them cost money was only to point out how it might be difficult for other people.

As for the rest of the list, now that it's up for real this time, I'm again seeing that over half of the items are stuff I've been doing on my own for years, if not decades, and I'm personally leaning away from officially competing next year. I might try a few of the difficult for me tasks (like #17, since I'm not sure if I've ever read a book specifically about media literacy), but like has been mentioned before, there are very few challenges for me in this list. Plus, if I'm not trying to complete the challenge, I don't have to read the stuff I actively dislike (my apologies to everybody that likes poetry, but I absolutely loathe reading it, even in audiobook format).

But, as also mentioned, those are my personal choices, and to each their own. I wish all participating the best of luck, and those of us unofficially participating the best of luck as well.

I'll probably do some of the prompts.