I dedicate this post to help me keep track of the 2023 reading challenges I joined. Below is the official list of what is ongoing and what I plan to join as the year progresses. My aim is to stick to fairly broad reading challenges that facilitate my long-term goal of reading more from my backlist. Please feel free to take a peek and see if any of these interest you and, if so, obviously join in. The more, the merrier!

Nonfiction Reader Challenge

Shelleyrae at Book’d Out is the host of this reading challenge. The ultimate goal of this reading challenge is to encourage readers to incorporate more nonfiction into their reading repertoire. To join, create a blog post stating your commitment to participate in this challenge. More details are located here, including a sign up link, how to link your review, and the challenge tiers.

Project Backlist

Kal at Reader Voracious is the host of the Project Backlist challenge. The singular, overarching goal of this challenge is to tackle your TBR. In my case, I decided to apply this to my physical backlist TBR. My Goodreads TBR is out of control since I use it mostly to bookmark books that look interesting. (I don’t realistically expect to get to all of them.) To assist me with this effort I downloaded and filled out Kal’s Ultimate Book Blogger/Reader Spreadsheet Template. It contains a tab where you can input all of the books you own. I opted to only add my physical books since digital books don’t take up space.

TBR Tackle Challenge

Ashlee at Books Are 42 cohosts this challenge with from.TBR.to.READ, theartsy_bookworm88, and hplreads. As the name suggests, the goal is to read books you already own to “tackle” your TBR list. It started on Instagram, but the hosts’ goal for 2023 is to move away from Instagram and expand to other platforms like Twitter, Goodreads, and Storygraph. Each month the challenge hosts post five prompts to help you decide what to choose from your TBR. I opted to participate via Storygraph. I thought this would be pretty easy to do since it aligns really well with the Project Backlist challenge above. The February TBR Tackle Challenge announcement is here.

Trope-ical Readathon

Jenny at JenJenReviews hosts Trope-ical Readathon. Last year there were two rounds. The next round starts on March 1. Participants can read anything they want and pages read contribute points to your team (1 point per page). Completion of a Common Challenge earns your team 50 points. Common Challenges are trope prompts; there is also an alternative prompt for each trope. Completion of a Team Challenge or Team Book earns your team 100 and 150 points, respectively. Trope-ical Readathon is less of a challenge and more of a competition. But its categories and ways to participate are so broad that I’m treating it more like a challenge.

On My Radar

There are several other challenges and/or bookish events I have my eye on. The first two I categorize more as bookish community events.

• Wyrd and Wonder occurs in May and celebrates all things in the fantasy genre.
• SciFi Month takes place during November and, clearly, focuses on all things science fiction-related.
• Annemieke at A Dance With Books organized a SFF Title Challenge in which I might participate. I have no idea if I’ll get bingo, but it looks like fun to try!

Did you join any 2023 reading challenges this year? If so, please share which 2023 reading challenges you decided to participate in. I’m always excited to know more about what’s going on in the reading community!