Bob on Books 2026 Reading Challenge

As I thought about my reading challenges for this year, I wanted challenges that I would really do and enjoy at the same time. And I wanted challenges that would both enrich my reading and enrich my life. I also decided to cut the list down to five challenges. Some reading challenges (including some I’ve posted in the past) seem pretty daunting if you think of trying to accomplish all of them. I hope this one will seem doable, and at the same time take your reading in new directions that you like.

However, one thing you will notice is that there are no numerical goals. No page goals. No books read goals. In fact, you could read just five books and accomplish this challenge. Actually, you could read even less if you find a way to accomplish multiple challenges with the same books! But I hope you enjoy the reading in each challenge so much that you’ll read more books related to that challenge. And of course, your welcome to read all kinds of books unrelated to these challenges Keep it fun, not work!

Five Challenges

_____1. Read a “classic” work. I’ll keep the definition of classic simple: a work that has outlived its author. That means anything from Homer’s Iliad or Odyssey to a Lord Peter Wimsey mystery by Dorothy L. Sayers. I’m reading the six novels of Jane Austen.

_____2. Read an author new for you. It’s OK to look for an author in a genre you like–a mystery writer new to you, for example. I’ve read reviews of Thomas Pynchon’s books all my life but never read one. I got his latest for Christmas as well as an older book. We’ll see if I want to read more.

_____3. Re-read a book on your shelves that you’ve read. There must be some reason you kept it! Good books are like rivers. Just as you never step into the same river twice, so also a good book is not the same book the next time we read it. I have a one volume edition of the Chronicles of Narnia. I last read these over thirty years ago to my son when he was young.

_____4. Read a genre or subgenre of books new to you. We get into ruts of reading only certain kinds of books and we get to know that genre well, but other genres, not so much. You might need the help of a bookseller, librarian or other reading friends. In my case, I read a lot of serious books. So, I’d like to try some humor. Any suggestions?

_____5. Read up on a topic on which you’d like to be better informed or an interest you’d like to pursue. I took a watercolor class this fall and loved it. My artist spouse has a whole shelf of books on watercolor painting to help me build on what I learned. I want to both read and paint. And who knows, I might even review some of them.

Tell Me When You Finish

I’d love to hear from you if you decide to use this challenge and finish it. Let me know the books you read. And let me know if this was enjoyable and enriching for you. Not only that, I’d love to hear your suggestions for future reading challenges. Visit Bob on Books on Facebook and message me. Finally, look for something from me later this year about how my challenge went. Happy New Year 2026!

It’s that time of the year again! Time for the Bob on Books 2025 Reading Challenge. For those who know me, you know that my reading challenges are not about the number of books or pages read. You don’t need a spreadsheet or a book app to do this challenge. For this year, my reading challenge focuses around reading deeply. In an age of web browsing, surfing from hyperlink to hyperlink, and push notifications on your smartphone, much of our reading is hurried, distractive, and often so broken up that we lose an author’s train of thought or the plotline of a story. The challenges here focus on developing our ability to read with attentiveness, to truly enjoy the gift of a good book, allowing it deeply into our lives

A word on the challenge. There are no awards for completion. The way you complete each challenge is up to you. Sometimes, by completing one challenge, you may find you’ve completed another. And you are welcome to choose to do some challenges and not others. We’re adults here (although I think the challenges are suitable for children as well). The point is for all of us to grow in our capacity to engage with and enjoy the books we choose. So, here are the challenges.

Twelve Challenges

Read a book with all screens elsewhere. Many of us live with our phones/tablets/computers/TVs. Push notifications, texts, new emails are all distractions. Try reading one book away from all these, even for 30 minutes at a sitting. For this, don’t read a book on a device with a screen unless it is a dedicated e-reader with no other apps or notifications. The book I read:_____________________________________

Read a book wide awake. When we are tired we have a more difficult time absorbing what we read. Falling asleep mid-sentence makes following an argument or plot harder. Read something when you are most wakeful. Choose something that keeps your attention. Wasn’t that fun? (BTW, if you can’t read without dozing, you might need help getting more sleep–lack of sleep has all kinds of health impacts!). The book I read:______________________________________________

Read a book slowly. Some books can’t be read quickly but are worth reading. Works of religion and philosophy, history, some fiction and others are worth slowing down to read well. You might take notes or outline. Reading books with complex sentences aloud can help. The book I read: __________________________

Read a book of poetry. Read a collection from a poet you like or an anthology, if you are new to poetry. Poetry invites us to pay attention to words rather than let them flow over us. Take time to read and re-read. If you want, you can use this challenge to fulfill the previous one! The book of poetry I read: __________________________

Re-read a book that has been meaningful to you at some point in your life. Good books often grow as we do. We see things because of life experiences we did not ten, twenty, or more years ago. If you are ambitious, re-read one fiction and one non-fiction book. The book I read:______________________________

Read a book published before 1900. C.S. Lewis famously counselled that we ought to read one old book for every new one. People writing from another time often see things differently than we, for better or worse. Reflecting on that difference can be valuable. Unlike Lewis, I’m only suggest you read one old book for the year! This may be another one for which you accomplish several challenges. The old book I read:___________________________________

Choose an author you like and try to read as much of what they’ve written as you can. You could focus on this challenge for a month or all year. As we do we see recurring ideas or themes, notice writing styles, how their thought developed, etc. And isn’t it fun to become something of an “expert” on your favorite author? The author I read:____________________________________

Choose a subject to read up on. This can be anything from AI to zookeeping! The key is that it interests you. It can be fun to go deeper into something we find intriguing. A Google search or a conversation with your librarian or bookseller can get you started. Try to read several books if you can. The subject you chose:___________________________________________

Read one book “against the grain.” Choose one book you are pretty sure you will not agree with. Feel free to argue with the book in your head or in notes. But I would also suggest asking yourself how the writer reaches such different conclusions from you and what the appeal of this writer is for intended readers. The book I read:______________________________________

Read one book written by someone of a different generation than yours. If you are a Boomer, read a Gen Z writer or a Millennial. Each generation has to confront the human condition but does so in different ways. Might we learn from each other? The writer of a different generation I read:_______________________

Read a translated work. This is a good way to ensure reading works from a different cultural/ethnic perspective. Anything from Tolstoy to Murakami counts! The translated work I read:_______________________

Read a book to nourish your inner life. Regardless of what we believe, we need works to enrich our interior lives. In one sense, most books do that. You could choose a sacred text, a devotional work, or even a biography or memoir of someone you admire. The book I read:__________________________

I’ve been reading for sixty-five years. I don’t think I’ve exhausted what it means to be a good reader, one who reads deeply and attentively. I want to grow as that kind of reader this year. These challenges reflect the ways I hope to challenge myself toward that end. I hope you will use these challenges as you find them helpful. And remember, you are welcome to use the same book to meet more than one challenge! Have fun, and let me know how it goes.

I love this image because of the value of reading is its power to illumine our lives and our vision even in the darkest hours. As I look ahead to 2024, I anticipate politically contentious times and more global conflict and ecological challenges. I think of St. Augustine who drew upon his spirituality and his extensive reading to write The City of God as he watched the decay of the Roman Empire. Yes, sometimes, books offer a temporary escape, but we cannot escape our times. The best books offer us the vision, the imagination, the principles, that give us the wherewithal to meet our times. This reading challenge is not about numbers but about nourishing your soul and illumining your life. Feel free to embrace one challenge or all twelve. I offer twelve, one for each month, but take the time you need.

A Founding Document or Its Equivalent. Many Americans, for example, have never read the Constitution, nor the debates about the Constitution in the Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers. The founding document I will read is_____________.

A Book on the Country or Birthplace of My Ancestors. Where we are from shapes who we are and what we value yet we often have only scattered memories. Maybe it is simply learning about the town where our parents were born or the country reflected in our surname. The book I will read about my family origins is____________.

A Book by a Celebrated Author From that Country or Birthplace or Ethnic Background. What authors were your ancestors talking about? Literature is part of a cultural heritage. Knowing yours enriches your life. The book I will read is____________.

A Book by a Great Author of the Country in Which You Hold Your Citizenship. Literature is also part of our national heritage. They help us understand something of what it means to be part of this people. The book I will read is____________.

A Story of Courage. It could be fiction or non-fiction. Courage takes all kinds of forms from courage in battle to the courage to stand for a principle to the courage to put oneself at risk to save another. All of us wonder how we will meet such challenges. Stories give us models to inspire and show the way. The story of courage I will read is__________

A Book on the Other. A step toward tyranny is to incite fear or hatred of the other and to portray them as less than fully human. Find a book on an “other” for you, one that acquaints you with their country, or culture, that portrays the riches of their humanity. Perhaps you have one friend from that culture who could suggest something for you to read that you could discuss. The book on the “other” I will read is____________.

Start a New (For You) Series. Louise Penny’s Gamache series got me through the pandemic. The principled police inspector and his love for his wife and children made me want to become a better version of myself, if not another Gamache. Great series draw you into the lives of their characters and help us return to our own lives with fresh perspective. The series I will begin this year is____________.

A Story of Resilience. People have sometimes faced formidable challenges and prevailed because they refused to give up. Read one of their stories and consider what challenge you face where you will not give up. The story of resilience I will read is____________.

A Book that has been Challenged or Banned. Do you know that 60 percent of the books challenged or banned in the US reflected the work of just eleven people? Here is one list of books banned in 2023 that includes Charlotte’s Web, The Diary of Anne Frank, and The Grapes of Wrath. It is concerning that small minorities are exercising such power without broader attention. Reading such books helps us understand better what is being banned, stand with banned authors, and refused to allow this to continue unchallenged. The banned or challenged book I will read is____________.

A Book on an Issue that Touches or Could Touch your Community. Is there something that keeps turning up in the local news or even in the “back fence” conversations? Is there one issue on which you could become an informed citizen and mobilize others. We focus so much on national issues and fail to work on local challenges. In my community, the issue is a housing shortage and institutional buyers making it increasingly difficult for first-time home buyers to get into a home, a key to wealth accumulation. The issue I will become better informed about is__________.

A Book that Deepens Your Appreciation of Beauty. This could be a book of poetry, an art book, a gloriously illustrated children’s book, a piece of beautiful science or nature writing, a book on music appreciation–whatever. To fight for beauty and resist the banal, we have to know and love beauty. The beautiful book I will read is____________.

A Book That Deepens Your Inner World. There are great books on spirituality in every religious tradition as well as works on deepening our inner lives written from non-religious perspectives. The pandemic challenged the development of our inner worlds as we faced isolation, loss, and our own mortality. How might we build on the lessons of that time? The book I will read to deepen my inner world is____________.

You might already have some of these books in your personal library or TBR stack. Some topics may interest you but you have no idea where to begin. Your bookseller or librarian can be a great help to you. I apologize to those who were looking for more “fun” fare. I do hope those who use this challenge will find much they enjoy as well as much that is illuminating. Great books often do both for us. I do believe we may face difficult times ahead (though I dearly hope I’m wrong!). This passage from the Lord of the Rings always reminds me of what we can and cannot control in such times

” ‘I wish it need not have happened in my time,’ said Frodo.

‘So do I, said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.’ ”

J. R. R. Tolkien

I hope this reading challenge helps fit you for whatever the times bring, to have the sense that you have both read and lived well in your time. Read well, my friends.

Often, reading challenges seemed to be framed by how many books one reads. Now I have nothing against reading many books. But I read what I want to read. One of the things I want is to broaden my horizons when I read. I know I can’t read or know everything but that still doesn’t keep me from trying! So that’s my philosophy when it comes to reading challenges. It’s not about how many books we read but to delight in and have our lives enriched by the books we read. If it’s just amusement I want, I can turn to a screen. I read books to engage my imagination and open my eyes to the world around me. There are twelve challenges here. One for each month. They are my challenges but you are welcome to join me in one, some, or all. Maybe you will use this as a model to write your own challenge, I’d love to hear about it!

Author You Like. Have you ever read something that you really liked and found yourself hunting down everything the author wrote? This past year I caught up with all of Louise Penny’s books in the Gamache series and discovered and loved the works of Willa Cather. The author I read: _______________

Books You’ve Been Given. I know as readers, we don’t always like others to give us books, because they may not be ones we’d choose. That’s true of the books my son buys me. But I often find myself surprised and glad I read his gifts. If nothing else, at least try. Don’t feel obliged to finish. It’s just a nice way to acknowledge the gift, and you might be surprised as I have been. The gift books I read are: ________________

A Regional and/or New Author. It’s not always easy for new or local authors to break onto the national literary seen. I discovered that is how Colleen Hoover became such a phenomenon. Her readers spread the word. Your local bookstore, especially if it is an indie bookstore, is a good place to start. You might even have a chance to hear the author do a book presentation. The regional or new author I read is: _______________

A Bookstore or Librarian Recommendation. This can be either in-person, in a newsletter, or even the cool, hand-written recommendations you will find in some bookstores. A bookstore owner turned me on to James Lee Burke, for example. Don’t feel obliged to read something you don’t think you’d find interesting. Read something that piques your interest! The recommended book I read is: __________________

A Book You Disagree With. Most of us like to be agreed with. But I find books I disagree with stretch me the most. They help me understand how others can think differently. They force me to think about their arguments against what I think and examine my own understanding and reasoning. Rarely at this juncture of life will such a book make me change my mind in a wholesale way. But I may consider if there is a better way to think that incorporates the strength of what the author proposes. The book I disagreed with that I read is: _______________

A “Just For Fun” Book. After reading a book you disagree with, read a book that is just good fun to read. This can be a page-turning thriller, a mystery, a romance novel, a children’s story, or even a “how to” book–as long as it’s fun. This may be the book you take to the beach or the summer cottage or that “airport read.” My “just for fun” book is: ________________

A Biography of Someone You Admire. Is there someone currently living or who has lived in the past that you admire? Reading their biography, especially if well-researched, often sheds light on the sources of the traits we admire–how they were formed and used. We also usually learn of their flaws but even this can encourage us. There is hope for us as well as we try to emulate the qualities we admire. The biography I read: _______________

A Book Written Before 1000 CE. There is a lot of great literature that was written before 1000 CE. Here is a list from Goodreads that is only a small sampling. Allusions from these works fill much of our more recent literature. And the great thing is that there are free or inexpensive versions of many of these works, including many from online sources. The pre-1000 CE book I read is: _______________

A Book Award Winner. Usually in the fall, a number of book award winners are announced. I’m always surprised by how many I’ve never heard of. While I happen to like the books I’ve chosen to read, a number of people thought those award winners worth reading. Some awards include winners in multiple genres and some focus on specific genres. Here’s a list of some of the major awards. My suggestion and personal goal is to pick one, but you are welcome to be more ambitious! My Book Award Winner is: ________________

A Book of Poetry. I came across this quote from poet Thomas Gray today: “Poetry is thoughts that breathe, and words that burn.” In reviewing my 2022 reading, I discovered I’d only read one work of poetry out of over 200 books. Poetry awakens me to the power and skillful use of words. The book of poetry I read is: ________________

A Book in the Arts. I have often spoke of my love of books being about a love of the good, the true, and the beautiful. Without attention to the arts, we end up with a dreary, uninspired, banal society. Choose a book on music, dance, visual art, spoken word, drama, landscape architecture–you name it. It could be a book on technique, on the work of a particular artist, or a biography of an artist. The book in the arts I read is: _______________

A Book on Ultimate Questions. The pandemic has faced us with profound questions, questions that are perennial questions of human life: why are we here? is there a God? what happens when we die? There are many more. They are questions that disturb us because they make us examine how we live our lives. Books can help us explore how others have wrestled with these questions, whether they are sacred texts like thBible or the Qur’an, or works of philosophy, or the wealth of religious (including atheist) literature through history. Since “the unexamined life is not worth living” the book I read on ultimate questions is: _______________

Most of these lend themselves to doing one a month. Reading a number of works by an author you love might be a year long project. You will note that I’ve not recommended any particular authors or books. That’s where you get to make this your own. And if you take up one or some or all of the challenges here, I’d love to have you stop by and leave a comment of what you read and how that went for you. And sometime in 2023, I’ll give you an update on how it is going for me!