Looking for something new to read or ready to step out of your comfort zone with your reading selections? Summer reading season is a great time to visit Book Riot’s “Read Harder Challenge 2021.”
What is the Read Harder Challenge? Every year, Book Riot publishes a list of 24 reading tasks for readers who want to expand their reading habits and challenge themselves. However, these aren’t just any tasks. There are 24 specifications on genres, authors, and tropes of books that are usually not super mainstream. For example, this year some of the challenges are to “Read a realistic YA book not set in the U.S., UK, or Canada” and “Read an own voices book about disability.”
Reading List
While the list is usually geared towards an adult audience, teens can easily participate in the challenges too! For more information and the detailed list of challenges, as well as book recommendations, visit Book Riot’s Read Harder Challenge 2021 page. And of course, you can get all the books (and audiobooks) you will need for the challenge through the Library!
- Read a book you’ve been intimidated to read
- Read a nonfiction book about anti-racism
- Read a non-European novel in translation
- Read an LGBTQ+ history book
- Read a genre novel by an Indigenous, First Nations, or Native American author
- Read a fanfic
- Read a fat-positive romance
- Read a romance by a trans or nonbinary author
- Read a middle grade mystery
- Read an SFF anthology edited by a person of color
- Read a food memoir by an author of color
- Read a work of investigative nonfiction by an author of color
- Read a book with a cover you don’t like
- Read a realistic YA book not set in the U.S., UK, or Canada
- Read a memoir by a Latinx author
- Read an own voices book about disability
- Read an own voices YA book with a Black main character that isn’t about Black pain
- Read a book by/about a non-Western world leader
- Read a historical fiction with a POC or LGBTQ+ protagonist
- Read a book of nature poems
- Read a children’s book that centers a disabled character but not their disability
- Read a book set in the Midwest
- Read a book that demystifies a common mental illness
- Read a book featuring a beloved pet where the pet doesn’t die
Use this fillable PDF to track your progress.