2024 Reading Challenges

I’m tracking my 2024 reading challenge progress here. I’m limiting myself to challenges that might push me a little out of my comfort zone or at least mix up my habitual reading patterns.

The challenge buttons and names link to to the signup/information posts at the challenge host’s website if you’d like to join me!

Reading Challenges I’m Hosting

Books in Translation Reading Challenge

Hosted here at Introverted Reader. I’m signing up at the Conversationalist level, 4-6 books. #2024booksintranslation

1. The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate—Discoveries from A Secret World by Peter Wohlleben, translated by Jane Billinghurst
2. Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, translated by Geoffrey Trousselot
3. Chicken with Plums by Marjane Satrapi, translated by Anjali Singh
4. Metamorphoses by Ovid, translated by Charles Martin
5. Anxious People by Fredrik Backman, translated by Neil Smith, read by Marin Ireland

Southern Literature Reading Challenge

Hosted here at Introverted Reader. I’m signing up at level four, 7+ books. #2024southernlit

1. The Indigo Girl by Natasha Boyd
2. The Secret, Book & Scone Society by Ellery Adams, read by Cris Dukehart
3. The Speckled Beauty: A Dog and His People by Rick Bragg
4. A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories by Flannery O’Connor, read by Marguerite Gavin
5. The Hush (Johnny Merrimon #2) by John Hart, read by Jeremy Bobb
6. Christmas Bliss (Weezie and BeBe Mysteries #4) by Mary Kay Andrews, read by Kathleen McInerney

Challenges I’m Participating In

2024 Nonfiction Reader Challenge

Hosted by Shelleyrae at Book’d Out. I’m joining at the Nonfiction Nosher level to read 12 books, one from each of 12 categories. #ReadNonFicChal | Instagram: @shelleyrae _bookdout | Mastodon: @shelleyrae@aus.social

• History Can We Talk About Israel?: A Guide for the Curious, Confused, and Conflicted by Daniel Sokatch, illustrated by Christopher Noxon
• Memoir/Biography The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, written and narrated by Issa Rae
• True Crime The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century by Kirk W. Johnson
• Science The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate—Discoveries from A Secret World by Peter Wohlleben, translated by Jane Billinghurst
• Health Patient Zero: A Curious History of the World’s Worst Diseases by Lydia Kang and Nate Pedersen
• Food Food: A Love Story by Jim Gaffigan
• Culture Unmentionable: The Victorian Lady’s Guide to Sex, Marriage, and Manners by Therese Oneill
• Transportation Fly Girls: How Five Daring Women Defied All Odds and Made Aviation History by Keith O’Brien
• The Future Ten Billion Tomorrows: How Science Fiction Technology Became Reality and Shapes the Future by Brian Clegg
• Pets The Speckled Beauty: A Dog and His People by Rick Bragg
• Architecture The Architecture of Happiness by Alain de Botton
• Published in 2024 Vision: A Memoir of Blindness and Justice by David S. Tatel

2024 Classics Reading Challenge

Hosted by Tea and Ink Society. I’ve done pretty well in the five-year long Classics Club challenge but I first signed up for Tea and Ink Society’s challenge to help steer my choices in 2022. I wasn’t completely successful but it definitely kept classics on my radar. I’m signing up again this year.

• January: A classic you’ve read before–The Borrowers (The Borrowers #1) by Mary Norton
• February: A Nordic or Scandinavian classic
• March: A novel with a place or house name in the title–Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell, read by Wanda McCaddon
• April: An epistolary novel
• May: An L. M. Montgomery novel or short story collection–Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery, read by Kate Burton
• June: A novel or short story collection from the American South–A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories by Flannery O’Connor, read by Marguerite Gavin
• July: A utopian or dystopian novel–Slaughterhouse-Five by Kirk Vonnegut, read by Ethan Hawke
• August: A children’s classic–The Borrowers by Mary Norton
• September: A pastoral novel
• October: A spooky classic or short story collection
• November: A classic recommended by a friend
• December: A Shakespeare play

2024 Key Word Reading Challenge

Hosted by Chapter Adventure (formerly girlxoxo). I did pretty well with this challenge in 2022 but I switched to their Monthly Motif challenge in 2023 and failed. I’m going to try this version again in 2024. Read a book each month with one (or more) of the key words in the title. #keywordreadingchallenge⁠

• January– Secret, Heaven, True, House, Come, Only, Know, Winter⁠—The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate—Discoveries from A Secret World by Peter Wohlleben, translated by Jane Billinghurst
• February– Heir, Night, Bride, Down, Women, Hand, Teach, Guest⁠—Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire
• March– Story, Hunt, Plot, City, You, Cry, Another, Paint⁠—A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear: The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town by Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling
• April– Darling, Funny, Familiar, Somewhere, List, Meet, Never, Word⁠—Fifty Words for Rain by Asha Lemmie, read by Robin Eller and Others
• May– Library, Dark, Drown, Ex, Iron, Done, Love, Stranger⁠—After Dark with Roxie Clark by Brooke Lauren Davis
• June– Ink, Fragile, Road, Summer, Breath, Every, Push, Sorry⁠—The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott by Kelly O’Connor McNees, read by Emily Janice Card
• July– Mine, Again, Honey, Paradise, Still, Club, Train, Legend⁠—Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
• August– School, Cut, Sky, Fate, Wing, Belong, Justice, Way⁠—Vision: A Memoir of Blindness and Justice by David S. Tatel
• September– Twice, World, Man, Quiet, Sweet, Hold, Shallow, Invisible⁠—The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland by Jim DeFede
• October– Vampire, Here, Mist, Death, One, Missing, Bite, Witch⁠—The Cold Vanish: Seeking the Missing in North America’s Wildlands by Jon Billman
• November– Spice, Life, Hello, Keep, Truly, Couple, Joy, Young⁠—Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert
• December– Snow, Season, Ice, Merry, White, Under, Mistletoe, Inn⁠

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