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2023 Reading Challenges

Tobe Buffenbarger

2023 Reading Challenges

  • Goodreads Challenge

  • UnRead Shelf Project

  • Seasonal TBRS: Winter TBR, Spring TBR, Summer TBR, Fall TBR

  • Kid Read Alouds

  • BOTM Cleanout

  • 52 Book Club

  • Romanceopoly

  • COYER

  • Finishing the Series

  • Build Your Library (Arthur Focused)

GoodReads Challenge (200) - I’m sticking with my usual 200 books for this overall goal. Last year, I blew past that number and ended with 244, my second highest number ever. But I don’t necessarily want to read more books, I just want to keep my momentum up. 200 seems like a good number.

UnRead Shelf (50) - My fifth year participating in this particular challenge. I haven’t really done well in years past, but I do want to keep this on my radar. You can find more information about this challenge at The Unread Shelf. For 2023, my Top 10 to Read:

  1. The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry

  2. Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

  3. Wake, Siren by Nina MacLaughlin

  4. Lady Mechanika Vol. 7

  5. The Soulmate Equation by Christina Lauren

  6. Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth

  7. Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

  8. The Thousandth Floor by Katharine McGee

  9. The Beautiful and the Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald

  10. The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. by Neal Stephenson

Seasonal TBRs (25 x4) - Instead of strict monthly goals, I’m going to focus on seasonal goals. Unlike last year, I won’t be filling my lists with 25 specific titles, but instead use a bit of a goal framework. For example, winter’s list can include 5 Kindle books, 5 fantasy/scifi pics, 5 romances, and 5 nonfiction. I can go anywhere in those categories. This helps me diversify my genres and styles.

Kid Read Alouds (20) - Continuing with this challenge again this year. We have some great read aloud choices for the spring semester. And I’m sure that I’ll pick some great titles for the fall semester.

BOTM Cleanout (12) - I have so many BOTM books just hanging out my floor. I was excited to order every single one of them, but then they just started gathering dust. This year I want to reduce my pile by at least 12 books.

52 Book Club (52) - I am often tempted by big diverse prompt challenges, but I lot I have issues with the prompts. This one seems to be more in line with how I read. And I like the one book a week idea. So I’m going to attempt this one! You can find more information at The 52 Book Club.

Romanceopoly (39) - This challenge is going to be a big of a stretch. As I rediscovered my love of romance books, I thought I would give it a try. I haven’t decided if I want to move space by space through the board or roll dice to determine. More information at Romanceopoly.

COYER (Clean Out Your E-Reader) (20) - Goodness knows that I have too many books on my Kindle app. It’s time to start attempting to reduce that number. More information at Because Reading.

Finishing the Series (10) - I’m hoping to finish 10 series this year. I know of a few that have already been started, but I imagine that many many more will crop up as the year progresses. More information at Celebrity Readers.

  1. ACOTAR - I need to just read A Court of Silver Flames

  2. Jackaby - I need to read Ghostly Echoes and The Dire King.

Build Your Library (40) - BYL forms the basis for our homeschool curriculum and I just now learned that Emily makes a reading challenge every year. This challenge will be primarily for Arthur, but I imagine that I will be reading many of the books with him, so I added it to my page. Looking forward to a great year of reading with the kids. More information at Build Your Library.

I also decided to create my own spice meter for romance books. A 1-5 scale seemed too limiting for the types of books I read. So I expanded it to 8 levels with corresponding explanations. This year, I will be rating all of my romance books on this new scale.

My rating system:

  • 5 stars - loved it, will tell everyone (or almost everyone) to read it

  • 4 stars - liked it, would recommend to certain people

  • 3 stars - okay book, but maybe not something i would recommend, maybe not a book for me, but I see merit

  • 2 stars - disliked it

  • 1 star - finished the book, but hated it! will rant to anyone about why I hated this one