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Booklist Queen’s 2020 Reading Challenge

Reading Challenges

Looking for the ultimate Reading Challenge for 2020? Join me for the 2020 reading challenge and read a book a week with the Booklist Queen!

Want to up your reading game in 2020? Then I have the ultimate goal for you – The Booklist Queen 2020 Reading Challenge.

Join thousands of others as we read a book a week in 2020. That’s right, this 2020 Reading Challenge has 52 different categories to expand your reading selection.

Last year when I launched my 2019 Reading Challenge, I was amazed at the warm response. I thought I would be the only one crazy enough to want to do a 52 book challenge, but I was so wrong. I was swamped by people wanting to join in. That’s when I realized I had found my people.

Did they all finish? Amazingly, so many have. I have loved hearing what books my readers have picked to complete their reading challenges.

Yet many didn’t finish, and that’s completely okay. When I created my 2020 Reading Challenge, I wanted it to be a bit aspirational. I want to push my readers to read more – whether that’s 12 books a year or 52. I want you to get out of your reading rut and try new genres. 

Don’t like one of the categories in the 2020 Reading Challenge? Feel free to change it or skip it. Double count a book for multiple prompts. Do what you like to make my 2020 Reading Challenge your own.

As long as you have fun reading in 2020, I’ll be happy.

Enjoy!

 

Reading Challenge 2020

A Book A Week with The Booklist Queen

1. Book Becoming Movie in 2020
2. Goodreads Winner in 2019
3. Less Than 200 Pages
4. Published in 1920s
5. By an Author of Color
6. A Love Story
7. History Book
8. Title with Five or More Words
9. 2019 Bestseller
10. Clever Title
11. Short Story or Essay Collection
12. More Than 400 Pages
13. Makes You Laugh
14. Famous Author You’ve Never Read
15. Set in Asia
16. Reread a Childhood Favorite
17. Celebrity Memoir
18. New York Times #1 Bestseller
19. Based on a True Story
20. Genre You Don’t Usually Read
21. About a War
22. Bottom of Your To-Read List
23. A Beach Read
24. A Book Everyone Is Talking About
25. Recommended by a Family Member
26. From the 50 States Reading List
27. About a Controversial Topic
28. By an Indie Author
29. A Book About Sports
30. A Play
31. An Audiobook
32. The Next Book in a Series
33. Nonfiction Topic You Love
34. Middle Grade Fiction
35. Recommended by a Local Librarian
36. Debut Novel
37. A Book That Will Make You Smarter
38. A Modern Classic
39. A Book You Haven’t Read by an Author You Love
40. With a Color in the Title
41. Translated from Another Language
42. With a Hideous Cover
43. A Mystery
44. A Book About Politics
45. By a Local Author
46. With Two Authors
47. You Own But Haven’t Read
48. Reread a Favorite Book
49. 2020 New Release
50. A Book You Saw Someone Reading
51. Borrowed From a Friend
52. A Self-Improvement Book

 

Free Bookmark

Booklist Queen's 2020 Reading Challenge

 

PRINTABLE READING CHALLENGE

While the bookmark is great for Pinterest, it’s way too small to write in your book selections. I would know because I witnessed my husband try it last year.

That’s why this year exclusively for my newsletter subscribers, I’ve created an awesome printable handout for the 2020 Reading Challenge that has space for you to write on it. 

Not a subscriber yet? Just enter your email below to join the weekly newsletter. You’ll stay up to date on the reading challenge, my blog posts and provide exclusive content just for you. Every week I highlight one of the reading challenge prompts with book suggestions just for my favorite readers.

Booklist Queen 2020 reading challenge handout image

MONTHLY CHALLENGES

If the full 2020 reading challenge feels like to me, you can break it down into monthly segments. Feel free to do the Reading Challenge in order or skip around. If 52 books are too much, just take one of these monthly challenges and do it instead. That’s only 4 or 5 books to read in a year. 

Need a little more challenge but not ready for the full 2020 reading challenge? Just pick one category from each month. 

Personalize my 2020 Reading Challenge as much as you want. The goal is for you to read more and to have fun doing it!

January 2020 Reading ChallengeFebruary 2020 Reading ChallengeMarch 2020 Reading ChallengeApril 2020 Reading ChallengeMay 2020 Reading ChallengeJune 2020 Reading ChallengeJuly 2020 Reading ChallengeAugust 2020 Reading ChallengeSeptember 2020 Reading ChallengeOctober 2020 Reading ChallengeNovember 2020 Reading ChallengeDecember 2020 Reading Challenge
 

Read Along with Me

Be sure you don’t miss a thing. Sign up for my weekly newsletter. I’ll keep you up-to-date on the reading challenge, my blog posts and provide exclusive content just for you. Every week I highlight one of the reading challenge prompts with book suggestions just for my favorite readers. Plus, only subscribers get the printable version of my 2020 Reading Challenge with space to fill in your selections.

Have fun reading in 2020! Be sure to let me know what books you pick for the 2020 Reading Challenge.

Rachael

Related

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. YAY!!! I absolutely love most of the categories, although will be changing a couple “recommended by a local librarian” will become “recommended by my friend Katie the Librarian” and I’ll be swapping out “an audiobook” for “an ebook”. I tried Audiobooks this year thanks to your 2019 challenge, but they are just not for me. I am particularly liking the “hideous cover” prompt, as I do have the tendency to stay away from books with ugly covers. I am also excited about “a book about sports” My list of these is long, and I have been putting off a lot of them.
    So excited to join you again this year. Will be making a plan soonish and I’m excited to see what others will be reading along the way.

    • So glad you like it! Feel free to make as many substitutions as you want. An e-book would actually make a great prompt. I’ll have to remember that for next year!

    • I love your reading challenge! I’m having a lot of fun, picking out all the books. Currently reading, The Great Gatsby! A book published in the 20’s. I’ve changed a few. Borrowed from friend, I switched to free from Author. A few others. Middle grade fiction, to Amazon first reads. Thank you! Happy Reading!

      • I’m so glad you are making it your own! Feel free to modify it any which way you please. As long as you have fun reading, I’ll be satisfied.

    • Hi Rachel
      I am currently reading Eleanor Oliphant now and I really love that book. She reminds me of me. I was not mistreated but I am a title socially awkward. I am reading this book faster than I read any book

    • I started this challenge in March but I’m almost done! I like the idea of adding an e-book to the 2021 challenge. Hope you make a bookmark printable for next year. My book club friends would love it.

  2. Great list. I’ve been a part of the yearly reading challenge on Goodreads for a couple of years and will try your challenge in 2020.

    • I hope you enjoy it! I love setting my reading goals on Goodreads, but usually that’s just a number to read. That’s why I created the 2020 Reading Challenge – to increase the different types of books I read.

  3. I’m excited to start this! This seems like an attainable reading challenge while still ensuring 2020 will bring some diverse reads.

  4. In 2019, I did not start the challenge until May, and obviously I did not complete it. So in 2020 I intend to start on time.! I’ll probably change a few categories, but I already like most of them.

  6. I’m going to try to do at least one book per month. I don’t see “Makes you Laugh” on the monthly titles – did you miss that one or am I not seeing it?

  7. How do I get the printable handout list? I signed up for your newsletter and confirmed my email, but I haven’t received anything besides that first email with the confirmation link. I’ve checked all my folders, including the spam folder.

    • Good catch, Stina! I had messed up my email automation, so no one was getting my welcome series. I just sorted everything, so check your email now for an email or two from me. Thanks so much!

  8. I came across your reading challenge last year, but part way through the year. I really liked the look of it as I owned books that would work with many of the challenges. I can’t read a book a week, but love how the challenge helped with what book to read next. I did mix it up between my own books and getting some out at the library. Looking forward to the 2020 challenge!!

  9. I did the list this year, and I loved it! It was so great to motivate me to try books out of my norm. I have read so many books this year because of it, and I can’t wait to do next years!

  12. Thank you for creating this. I love it. I am so excited about starting the challenge. Is the monthly one also shareable or only the straight list?

  14. I’m excited to give this challenge a try! I think it will give me some more purposeful direction for my reading this year and will help me stretch a little bit. Thanks for putting it together!

  16. I did the Goodreads challenge last year and started it again this year, with a higher goal. 🙂 This challenge will give me different directions that I can pick from to read. I see a lot of options that are already in my TBR piles. Already able to check one off the list with the book I finished this morning.

  17. Hi – i just subscribed to your newsletter & you have awesome recommendations. Like you when I’m stressed I read & the covid-19 virus has me seriously stressed – & being a lover of historical fiction I’ve started to reread some of my all time favorites (&all longer than 400 pages) Reread & enjoyed as much as the first time “NEW YORK” by Ed Rutherfurd. And this morning started his “LONDON” – at over 1,000 pages it should keep me happy for awhile. Stay safe.

  18. I’m enjoying this challenge. Since I’m doing several other reading challenges, I’m just picking one category for each month for this one to make it more doable for me. I would love some more recommendations for New York Times #1 Bestseller. I’ve either read the ones you suggested in your last email or tried them and didn’t care for them (tried so hard to like Where the Crawdads Sing but it just didn’t capture my interest!)

    Anyone? Thanks!

    • Try: American Dirt, Crazy Rich Asians, The Girl on the Train, Me Before You, The Martian, All the Light We Cannot See, The Goldfinch, Educated, The Splendid and the Vile, Three Women, Hillbilly Elegy, When Breath Becomes Air, Unbroken, The Wright Brothers, American Sniper.

      • Thanks Rachael! I forgot I was reading a celebrity memoir for May so I didn’t end up needing a NYT bestseller but I appreciate the list! I’ve read The Girl on the Train, Me Before You, All the Light We Cannot See, The Goldfinch, Educated, loved all of those (well mixed feelings on The Goldfinch ha ha). A few of your recommendations were DNFs for me but I will add the other ones to my TBR list. Thanks again!

  19. Since I asked for suggestions I thought I’d also share what I’ve read so far for this challenge!
    January – Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs by Caitlin Doughty (Goodreads Winner in 2019) – fairly interesting

    February – The Things We Wish Were True by Mary Beth Mayhew Whalen (title with 5 or more words) 5 stars

    March – Be Frank With Me by Julia Claiborne Johnson (clever title) LOVED!
    When Life Gives You Pears – Gaffigan (makes you laugh) – Very funny

    April – Seventeenth Summer – Daly (re-read childhood favorite) – Loved this as a young teen and enjoyed it again

    May – The Only Pirate at the Party – Lindsey Stirling (celebrity memoir) MEH

  20. I discovered your amazing blog last year… I did not make it in time for completing 2019’s Reading Challange, but have enthusiastically hopped on the train this year 🙂
    Sadly I am probably not going to manage all 52 entries, but I will try to collect at least 26.
    Thank you for creating this cozy and informative corner for us book mice, as well as for your awesome suggestions (e.g. The Lost City of Z for a “History Book” prompt => would have never read it if it wasn’t for you, and turned out to be one of my the most engrossing and unexptected reads of 2020!)

  21. I just learned about your blog and this challenge today. Can I still join in, even if we’re halfway through August already? Your challenge sounds super fun!

    Glad to have found your blog via Bookshelf Journeys

    Susan

    • Of course you can! Feel free to try to rush through all 52 categories, or pick and choose just some of them. I just want you to have tons of fun with it.

  22. Hi! I’ve been working on the challenge (although not in order) and I’m a bit stumped on the Indie author and a book about a controversial topic. Could you give some suggestions? Thanks!

  23. I read “Still Alice” for my indie book, as Lisa Genova had to self publish the book initially, although it’s since become a best-seller. Otherwise, there are heaps of entertaining “cosy mysteries” on Kindle that are self-published.
    My book on a controversial topic probably won’t work for you, as I’m Australian (I’m assuming that most people in this challenge are US-based), and I read “Dark Emu” by Bruce Pascoe, which challenges the accepted history about the level of agricultural, land and water management and complexity of building that existed amongst indigenous Australians pre-European colonisation. It’s stirred up a fair bit of debate in Australia. Another apparently controversial book I read and rated highly this year was Therese Ann Fowler’s “A Good Neighborhood”. The reviews on Goodreads certainly reveal that it’s controversial as far as readers are concerned!

    • Yes, I’m finalizing my categories right now! The new list should be out next month. If you want to join, just signup for my newsletter!

  25. I was intrigued by your 2020 book challenge and have 10 left to finish up the year. It’s been super fun, thanks for the interesting challenge. Last year, I read 61 books which was an all time high. This year I’ve read 82, which astounds me that I’ve read so much, although, a fair amount were audio.
    Love your book reviews! I really appreciate your reasons and explanations in your reviews and star ratings. Thanks and I look forward to your future reviews.

  26. Thank you for this great list of prompts! I joined late, but had so much fun filling all the prompts with books. I still have 10 books to go, but it’s only end of October. Will you have a challenge in 2021 as well?