2025 Reading Challenge discussion

Hi group members! We are having to tweak a couple of our threads for the year already. So, this thread is where we would like you to post future challenge ideas!

Here are our themes for 2013:

January: Best Books of 2012
February: Civil Rights/Love
March: Award Winners
April: National Poetry Month
May: Decades
June: Royalty
July: Classics
August: Festivals
September: Non-Fiction
October: Cozy Mysteries
November: Dusty
December: Anything Goes

Don't worry, as each month gets closer we will remind you of the themes.

Have fun and let those creative juices flow!! :)

Those that have submitted challenge ideas in the other thread...we still have them, so don't worry! You can find them in this folder! 2013:General Archives

This challenge is all about famous Royalty and Monarchs of the past. I am a history major and was asked to make a list of my ten favorite monarchs for a historiography class I am in. I adapted that list into this challenge. 10 monarchs, 10 books, 10 opportunities to learn about the past!

June’s Royalty Challenge


1. Suleimon I of the Ottoman Empire r. 1494-1566 was known for conquering much of the Middle East and for reforming the criminal, tax and education systems. Read a book that is set in the Middle East or includes taxes, education, or criminal delinquency as a major topic.

2. James I of England. r. 1603-1625 was a lover of literature and the fine arts. Read a book you deem a great work of literature. (Up for interpretation and based solely on your opinion!)

3. John III of Poland-Lithuania r. 1674-1696 was brilliant both militarily and politically. Read a book where war or politics is central to the plot.

4. Henry VIII of England r. 1509-1547. There are a plethora of books on this monarch and his six wives. Read a book of fiction or non-fiction that is based on his or his wives’ life OR read a book set in England.

5. Louis XIV of France r. 1643-1715 Louis built the palace of Versailles and was all about dancing, parties, and showing his wealth off. He even invented ballet. Read a book that involves a party OR has a main character that is wealthy.

6. Catherine the Great of Russia 1762-1796 was Russia’s longest ruling female. Read a book with a strong, independent heroine.

7. Queen Victoria of England 1837-1901 was Britain’s longest ruling monarch, who expanded English territory to take up a quarter of the world during her reign. The Victorian Era takes its’ name after her. Read a book set in the Victorian Era (1840-1910).

8. Isabella and Ferdinand of Castile and Aragon r. 1474-1504. The Spanish Inquisition ladies and gentlemen! Read a book where religion is closely related to the plot or is the main theme of the book.

9. Napoleon Bonaparte of France r. 1804-1814/15 came to rule after the French Revolution and created a French empire. He was either killed by cancer or by stomach poisoning (arsenic). Read a book in which characters revolt OR a death takes place under dubious circumstances.

10. Julius Caesar of Rome r. 60-44 BCE was a Roman consul who contributed to the fall of the Roman Republic. Numerous biographies were written about him, most notably one by Suetonius. Read a biography on any figure you are interested in.

Um, super love, Kelsi! That's PERFECT for June.

Thanks Kara, I need to fix the Napoleon one when I get to a computer. It should be Bonaparte!

Haha, no problem. It drives me NUTS that you can edit posts from the apps.

me too and it is really bugging me that I put the wrong person down even after editing it the first time.

Kelsi wrote: "This challenge is all about famous Royalty and Monarchs of the past. I am a history major and was asked to make a list of my ten favorite monarchs for a historiography class I am in. I adapted th..."

Love Kelsi! I was a History major as well! :) Our favorites list is quite similar.

We're looking for a fourth quarter challenge (it would run from October through December). If anyone has an idea, we would love to hear it.

How about Family Tree. Books can be about ones heritage, e.g., I'm Danish and Italian. Authors from either country/culture. Stories that take place in either of the respective countries or people from these cultures. Another example in my case could be books about Vikings or Romans, fiction or non-fiction and/or books about the migration/immigration of one's relatives and their offspring.

I was thinking of a FALL challenge. October-December 21 is the fall season. There could be options where the word "Fall" is in the title. A book published in a fall month. A book where fall colours (yellow, orange, red, brown) are on the cover. Where I live there is soooo much rain in the summer, so a cover with rain in the picture. A scary book to symbolize Halloween. A book that would symbolize Remembrance Day, such as a book about War or veterans.

Those are some ideas.

They both sound fun!

I liked last years challenge the revolved around the 3 holidays - Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. The focus last year was a Holiday Music Challenge, revolved around songs from the holidays. We could set it around Holiday Movies this year ...

Sharon wrote: "I liked last years challenge the revolved around the 3 holidays - Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. The focus last year was a Holiday Music Challenge, revolved around songs from the holidays...."

Great idea!

Love all of these! Thanks, guys.

Played around with "Endings" as a theme. End of a series, end of the world, end of the year, happy endings, best endings (referring to lists like "books with famous endings"), end of an era, etc.

Who doesn't love a spell out challenge? How about spell out fall weather. Spell out as many words as you want, or choose your own fall words to spell.

RAIN, WIND, FOG, DARK

Or spell out the holidays within that time period. Spell: Halloween, Thanksgiving, (Remembrance Day if your country celebrates it in Nov), Christmas or hanukkah or other Dec holiday, New Years Eve

Karina, I love that as a December monthly challenge, and Jodi, yours would make a great mini November challenge. :D

This is great--thank you, all!

I read a blog article about this genre, and it gave me an idea for a challenge (could be quarterly, monthly, whatever).

A Travel Lit challenge (not to be confused with Travel Guides):

Find and read at least one travel book per continent (so, at least 7). It must involve travel either to the continent, or within the continent. One could also pick a region in the world and try to read one travel book for each country or state in that region.

I have included a lengthy quote from wikipedia that explains the varieties and types of travel literature, just so we're clear I'm not suggesting we read Lonely Planet guides lol

"Travel literature is travel writing aspiring to literary value. Travel literature typically records the experiences of an author touring a place for the pleasure of travel. An individual work is sometimes called a travelogue or itinerary. Travel literature may be cross-cultural or transnational in focus, or may involve travel to different regions within the same country . . .

Literary travel writing also occurs when an author, famous in another field, travels and writes about his or her experiences. Examples of such writers are Samuel Johnson, Charles Dickens, Mary Wollstonecraft, Robert Louis Stevenson, Hilaire Belloc, D. H. Lawrence, Rebecca West and John Steinbeck.

Fictional travelogues make up a large proportion of travel literature. Although it may be desirable in some contexts to distinguish fictional from non-fictional works, such distinctions have proved notoriously difficult to make in practice, as in the famous instance of the travel writings of Marco Polo or John Mandeville. Many "fictional" works of travel literature are based on factual journeys – Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness and presumably, Homer's Odyssey (c. 8th century BCE) – while other works, though based on imaginary and even highly fantastic or satirical journeys – Dante's Divine Comedy, Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, Voltaire's Candide or Samuel Johnson's The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia – nevertheless contain factual elements.

Jack Kerouac's On the Road (1957) and The Dharma Bums (1958) are fictionalized accounts of his travels across the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s.

One contemporary example of a real life journey transformed into a work of fiction is travel writer Kira Salak's novel, The White Mary, which takes place in Papua New Guinea and the Congo and is largely based on her own experiences in those countries."