Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge discussion

Does anyone know if there will a challenge for 2025? If so, any ideas about when to expect it?

Thank you

Karen wrote: "Yes, there will be two 2025 Challenges -- the Scavenger Hunt and a new Boxall Bingo. T..."

I know this feedback is given almost every year, but it would really be wonderful if the challenge details were announced earlier. Many people request books as holiday gifts or plan out their reading for the next few months. Would be great to have the challenge particulars sooner!

I agree! I remember the first couple years I did this challenge the prompts came out early December. I received an email on Monday talking about how the challenge will be posted next week but it also sounded like the prompts were finalized so I don’t know why it can’t be posted sooner.

Does anybody have any insider info on when we will see it 😭

I’ve signed up for a few other challenges already. Might be overcommitted.

I've been wondering the same thing. Looking at when the previous year's threads were started, it's usually announced before now.

It's out - over at the Book Riot website. Good list - I'll go for it.

It's out at https://bookriot.com/read-harder-2025.

Also, last year's list was shared on Dec 13, 2023, so today's release date is comparable to that. It wouldn't have made sense to release it on this year's Dec 13 (a Friday) or over the weekend.

Here's the list:
Read Harder 2025
Read a 2025 release by a BIPOC author.
Reread a childhood favorite book.
Read a queer mystery.
Read a book about obsession.
Read a book about immigration or refugees.
Read a standalone fantasy book.
Read a book about a piece of media you love (a TV show, a movie, a band, etc).
Read literary fiction by a BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and/or disabled author.
Read a book based solely on its setting.
Read a romance book that doesn’t have an illustrated cover.
Read a work of weird horror.
Read a staff pick from an indie bookstore. (Preferably, from your local indie bookstore.)
Read a nonfiction book about nature or the environment.
Read a comic in translation.
Read a banned book and complete a task on Book Riot’s How to Fight Book Bans guides.
Read a genre-blending book.
Read a book about little-known history.
Read a “cozy” book by a BIPOC author.
Read a queernorm book.
Read the first book in a completed young adult or middle grade duology.
Read a book about a moral panic.
Read a holiday romance that isn’t Christmas.
Read a wordless comic.
Pick a 2015 Read Harder Challenge task to complete.

Will they be updating and maintaining this group? My guess is that they want everyone to have to join the All Access thing on their site in order to get discussion and suggestions.

Oh I hope there is still a group/thread/room here in Goodreads. This has been my go to for managing my library and reading for many many years.

Stina wrote: "Will they be updating and maintaining this group? My guess is that they want everyone to have to join the All Access thing on their site in order to get discussion and suggestions."

That would be a shame... Although it's really not that expensive, I hate when a subscription takes something away from you, instead of adding value to what you already have. I had made it my December tradition to mark all the challenges and to look for books.

Rodrigo wrote: "Stina wrote: "Will they be updating and maintaining this group? My guess is that they want everyone to have to join the All Access thing on their site in order to get discussion and suggestions."

..."

Unfortunately, it doesn't have to be THAT expensive to be TOO expensive for people on a tight budget. Sigh.

I really hope they keep the Goodreads group going. I've gotten way more suggestions for great books from this group than from the "official" recommendations anyway. I always look forward to seeing what everyone posts here!

Someone created a subreddit for the Read Harder Challenge. https://www.reddit.com/r/BookRiotRead...

Also the New York Public Library posts book recs too.

Ginger wrote: "Rodrigo wrote: "Stina wrote: "Will they be updating and maintaining this group? My guess is that they want everyone to have to join the All Access thing on their site in order to get discussion and..."
Maybe someone can make a group...I think this is correct, usually they post the links here when the announcement is made so I'm not feeling hopeful about them maintaining this group :( (but hopefully am wrong!)

I know it's not the same, but you can see what other people have chosen for each category on the challenges set up on The Storygraph (which is a free app).

This is the main one
https://app.thestorygraph.com/reading...

This is open-ended in terms of time allowed to finish
https://app.thestorygraph.com/reading...

Stina wrote: "Will they be updating and maintaining this group? My guess is that they want everyone to have to join the All Access thing on their site in order to get discussion and suggestions."

Unless they change it for next year, you don't get any discussion threads with All Access (I got All Access after they locked their suggestion posts behind it), so there's hope there

Yeah, if Book Riot ditches us here on Goodreads, I hope somebody will step up and put together a new group for us. I'm guessing it'd have to be clearly marked as unofficial, but otherwise I don't think there's a rule preventing it. I know there is an unofficial group over on FB. I don't spend a lot of time on that site anymore because it's overrun with stuff I don't care about, but there are a few people and groups that keep me tethered over there for now.

I may give Storygraph another try. A few years ago I copied all my GR data over and wandered around there for a bit, but it didn't feel comfortable to me. But I've heard there have been a lot of changes since then.

I also plan to try Fable and see what that's like. Whatever the case, I'll stay active over here. I've been here since 2010 and have developed little tricks and workarounds to keep myself sane. I'm also an author, and while it's not directly that important to me, I like being able to use my librarian status here to help my more successful author friends (who really do depend on amazon sales) when their listings need fixing. So this will remain my home base.

morning all! Just learned about this group and am excited to read more books! ☺️ Would love to meet others and add to my TBR!

Looks like the 2025 discussion threads are being added! 🥳

Erika wrote: "Looks like the 2025 discussion threads are being added! 🥳"

ooh in this group? where?

The 2025 list was at least added: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I emailed them yesterday to the address listed on their Fb page. Yay! I started the Planning thread a few minutes ago.

Erika wrote: "Looks like the 2025 discussion threads are being added! 🥳"

Welp, this aged poorly.

Since it doesn't look like we are getting threads for each prompt (lame), does anyone have suggestions of where to looks for recommendations? Are the books in the Storygraph categories Howard shared decent? For a different, unrelated challenge I tried to use the storygraph categories the organizers linked but most of the books people added barely fit the prompts.

edit: lol I guess I was just impatient. Threads are up now 12-23