Editor’s Note: Apologies to those of you who may have received this twice, or who received another newsletter’s content instead. We had an email snafu on Wednesday (possibly related, Mercury is in Retrograde…).
It’s finally here: the 2024 Read Harder Challenge! Would you believe this is the TENTH YEAR of the Read Harder Challenge? Every year, we have fun cooking up the perfect tasks to get you out of your reading comfort zone, discovering your new favorite books. As always, there are 24 tasks: two for each month of the year.
You can approach this challenge any way you want: use one book to complete multiple tasks, or only assign each title once. Yes, audiobooks and comics count! Make this challenge your own. The important thing is that you branch out and pick up books you wouldn’t otherwise have tried.
This year’s tasks include all sorts of fun challenges, including some timely reading projects (we really need to collectively improve our media literacy skills), trending genres (cozy fantasy, anyone?), and tasks to diversify your reading in all sorts of ways.
Not sure where to get started? You’ll be receiving emails with recommendations for each task throughout the year! Free subscribers will get a couple book recommendations for each, while paid subscribers will get access to the whole list — plus more crowd-sourced in the comments! We’ll also be doing weekly progress check-ins for paid subscribers, where we can discuss what we’re reading, what we recommend for each challenge, and which tasks we need advice on how to complete. If you want to join the Read Harder community, you can subscribe for $6 a month or $60 for the year. Community features will go live in January.
Without further ado, here are the 24 tasks for the 2024 Read Harder Challenge! And if you want the downloadable PDF, you can grab that here.
- Read a cozy fantasy book.
- Read a YA book by a trans author.
- Read a middle grade horror novel.
- Read a history book by a BIPOC author.
- Read a sci-fi novella.
- Read a middle grade book with an LGBTQIA main character.
- Read an indie published collection of poetry by a BIPOC or queer author.
- Read a book in translation from a country you’ve never visited.
- Read a book recommended by a librarian.
- Read a historical fiction book by an Indigenous author.
- Read a picture book published in the last five years.
- Read a genre book (SFF, horror, mystery, romance) by a disabled author.
- Read a comic that has been banned.
- Read a book by an author with an upcoming event (virtual or in person) and then attend the event.
- Read a YA nonfiction book.
- Read a book based solely on the title.
- Read a book about media literacy.
- Read a book about drag or queer artistry.
- Read a romance with neurodivergent characters.
- Read a book about books (fiction or nonfiction).
- Read a book that went under the radar in 2023.
- Read a manga or manhwa.
- Read a howdunit or whydunit mystery.
- Pick a challenge from any of the previous years’ challenges to repeat!