I did Book Riot’s Read Harder Challenge last year (okay, fine, and the first two months of this year), and I can’t recommend it enough. For me, it was a way to keep my adult brain at least intermittently online during our Planet Baby year, but it also pushed me out of my comfort zone and introduced me to a lot of stuff I might not have encountered otherwise.
You should try it (2018 tasks here).
There are plenty of normal ways to track your progress that don’t involve, say, personal blogging like it’s 2007 for a total of some 22,000 words, but here we are, if you have some time to kill and a high tolerance for lengthy tangents.
- Read a book about sports: My Losing Season by Pat Conroy
- Read a debut novel: American War by Omar El Akkad
- Read a book about books: The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Carlos Ruiz Zafón
- Read a book set in Central or South America, written by a Central or South American author: The War of the End of the World by Mario Vargas Llosa
- Read a book by an immigrant or with a central immigration narrative: My Cat Yugoslavia by Pajtim Statovci
- Read an all-ages comic: Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur Volume 1: BFF
- Read a book published between 1900 and 1950: Cane by Jean Toomer
- Read a travel memoir: An African in Greenland by Tété-Michel Kpomassie
- Read a book you’ve read before: Maus by Art Spiegelman
- Read a book that is set within 100 miles of your location: Lightning Bug by Donald Harington
- Read a book that is set more than 5000 miles from your location: Touching My Father’s Soul by Jamling Tenzing Norgay
- Read a fantasy novel: Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor
- Read a nonfiction book about technology: From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death by Caitlin Doughty
- Read a book about war: On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill on War and Society by Dave Grossman
- Read a YA or middle grade novel by an author who identifies as LGBTQ+: Lizard Radio by Pat Schmatz
- Read a book that has been banned or frequently challenged in your country: And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
- Read a classic by an author of color: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
- Read a superhero comic with a female lead: America Volume 1: The Life and Times of America Chavez
- Read a book in which a character of color goes on a spiritual journey: Medicine Walk by Richard Wagamese
- Read an LGBTQ+ romance novel: The Sublime and Spirited Voyage of Original Sin by Colette Moody
- Read a book published by a micropress: Beneath the Surface of Things by Kevin Wallis
- Read a collection of stories by a woman: A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin
- Read a collection of poetry in translation on a theme other than love: Victims of a Map: A Bilingual Anthology of Arabic Poetry
- Read a book wherein all point-of-view characters are people of color: Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones