65+ Fun Reading Challenges for Adults 2023

One of the best ways to motivate yourself to read “better” is with these fun reading challenges for adults, from a huge variety of themes bound to suit your needs.

A reading challenge is something you can do on your own or with others to meet your reading goals. Whether you want to read more, or differently, committing to a challenge can keep you going when life gets in the way. It can also help you decide what to read next.

When it comes to reading challenges for adults, I think it’s important to question what you are looking to get out of it at the end of the day: More pages? More diversity? A community of like-minded people?

It’s also important to PUSH yourself outside your comfort zone — it’s called a “challenge” for a reason!

Below are all the best reading challenges for adults you can join now (including The Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge I host for fans of Gilmore Girls!)

Keep reading to find one or more that works best for YOU!

Table of Contents

Fun Reading Challenges for Adults

What are some good reading challenges?

GoodReads
PopSugar
The StoryGraph
Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge
Summer Reading Challenge
Read Around the World Challenge
Harry Potter Reading Challenge

Below are more details about the most popular reading challenges for adults mentioned above to help you decide which one or ones is best for you:

GoodReads Reading Challenge

GoodReads is the prevailing social media platform of the book world. Their reading challenge is best for those who want to track how many books they are reading in a particular year, and exactly which books they read.

This is my fifth year participating in this reading challenge, and I find it so motivating and easy to track my reads throughout the year. And, at the end of the year, they provide you with an overview of different statistics like how many pages you read, your shortest book, your longest book, your most popular book, your average rating, and more.

PopSugar Reading Challenge

The pop culture website PopSugar also hosts a popular reading challenge each year. Use their printable checklist to complete up to 50 unique prompts and/or join their groups on Facebook and/or GoodReads to participate.

Get book recommendations for the POPSUGAR Reading Challenge.

The StoryGraph Reading Challenge

The StoryGraph is a new online-based reading tracker and quasi-social media platform similar to that of GoodReads. A lot of people like it because it gives you detailed statistics about your reading habits. It also has an entire section devoted to users’ reading challenges you can upload on your own or join. Search keywords or browse categories like genre, geography, books written by Own Voices authors, and so many more.

Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge

Here at The Literary Lifestyle, each year I host the popular Rory Gilmore Book Club Reading Challenge. Each month, we utilize a general prompt, like “a classic book” or “a book adaptation” and then readers choose pick or picks for the prompt from the full list of 500+ books mentioned on the Gilmore Girls.

We share our reads and book reviews on Instagram @TheRoryGilmoreBookClub, and it’s a great, very engaged group of bookish Gilmore Girls fans. Head on over there and follow us to join! I specifically created easy prompts for the first few months so latecomers can catch up in no time.

Summer Reading Challenge

Each year, when Summer rolls around, a lot of Summer Reading Challenges start popping up.

To read three seasonal books of your choice this Summer, join my Summer Reading Challenge.

Read Around the World Challenge / Global Reading Challenge

Or, you can challenge yourself to read books from across the globe to inspire diverse reading, education, and even wanderlust. I created a world reading challenge post to track my own reading across the many countries of the world and, I have got to say, even as an avid reader, it’s shocking how FEW countries about which I have yet to read even one book.

One thing that’s especially great about this kind of reading challenge is that you can perform it over any amount of time, and you can perform it along with other challenges too.

My particular global reading challenge contains a master list of countries you can download and fill in as you read books from various countries.

(Note: I also have a Read Across America challenge post that may interest you.)

Harry Potter Reading Challenge

If you’re new to the Harry Potter book list, now just may be the time to grab a boxed set of the Harry Potter books and commit to reading these tremendously popular novels by the end of December, a very momentous time at Hogwarts school for wizards.