Reading challenge ideas for the new year

Pick the kind of challenge

Most reading challenges fall into a few types:

• A number of books. Simple to count, but it quietly rewards short books and makes long ones feel like a setback.
• Time. Twenty minutes a day, every day. You control it fully, whatever you read.
• Variety. A list of prompts, such as “a book from another country”, that pushes you toward books you would not pick otherwise.

Variety challenges are the ones that change what you read, not only how much. If you want a number as well, the guide on how many books you can read in a year helps you choose a realistic one.

Ideas for a more varied year

Choose the prompts that make you curious and skip the rest:

• a classic you were supposed to read at school;
• a book from a country you have never visited;
• a book translated from a language you do not speak;
• a genre you never read;
• a book more than a hundred years old;
• a book under 200 pages, and one over 600;
• a book you loved, read again;
• a book a friend cannot stop talking about;
• non-fiction on a subject you know nothing about;
• a collection of poems or short stories;
• a book set where you live;
• a debut novel;
• a book someone else chooses for you;
• the book you gave up on last year.

Try a time challenge

If a list of prompts feels like too much, try a challenge measured in time:

• read for twenty minutes every day for a month;
• read every day for a week without your phone in the room;
• swap one evening of screens a week for a book.

Time challenges build the habit itself. The guide to building a daily reading habit explains how to choose a daily number you can keep.

Keep it small enough to finish

A challenge you abandon in March does less than a small one you finish. Twelve prompts for twelve months is plenty. Allow yourself to swap a prompt that turns out to be no fun, and to drop a book that does not work: the guide on when to stop reading a book is about exactly that. The point is to enjoy a wider range of books, not to tick boxes.

Keep track of it

A list on paper or in a notes app is enough: the prompt, the book you chose and the date you finished it.

Pagetime has no checklist for challenge prompts, but it helps with the rest. Put the books you plan for the year on the “Want to read” shelf, and mark the ones you are most set on as “Must-read”. Give each book a genre when you add it, and the library lets you filter by genre. For a time challenge, set a daily goal of 10 to 90 minutes and keep an eye on your streak; a streak freeze covers one missed day per calendar week. At the end of the year, the Year in review shows your reading time and the books you finished, and with a subscription also your top genres.

The free version holds up to 5 books and includes 20 page scans with text recognition in total. Deleting a note does not restore a used scan. Notes and the timer work offline without an account; sync is free after signing in. A subscription removes the book and scan limits and unlocks your full stats history, year in review and folder export. Pagetime is coming to iPhone and Android; you can leave your email below to hear when it is available. Until then, write down three prompts and pick the first book.

This independent guide is published by Pagetime and is not authorized, sponsored or endorsed by Apple Inc. or Google LLC.