Reading Challenges for 2022

Two of my biggest reading goals involve reading the unread books that have been sitting on my shelves for years, and reading more diversely. I’ve found one of the best ways to motivate me to achieve these goals is through reading challenges! I’m a mood-reader, so I won’t share defined TBRs for each challenge (since I know I’m going to drastically deviate from them), but I’ll share some potential books that could fit each challenge.

Goodreads Reading Challenge

As always, I’m challenging myself to read 50 books this year. Could I have increased this number based on last year’s reading? Probably, since I did manage to read 80 books in 2021. Will I increase my reading goal? Probably not, because I like the serotonin boost that I get from being told that I’m ahead of schedule.

Some 2022 releases that I’m planning to read for this include:

• When You Get the Chance by Emma Lord (January 4, 2022)
• Gallant by V.E. Schwab (March 1, 2022)
• Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li (April 5, 2022)
• Book Lovers by Emily Henry (May 3, 2022)
• I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston (May 3, 2022)

Beat the Backlist

Beat the Backlist is an annual reading challenge hosted by Austine Decker. This is my 4th year participating in this challenge, and I’ve found it to be good motivation to read some older books that I had been ignoring in favour of shiny, new releases.

The rules are simple:

1. The book must be published in the previous year or earlier (so anything published in 2021 or earlier counts)
2. You have to start and finish the book in 2022

Any genre and format can be included in this, along with re-reads. This year, I’m aiming to read 25 backlist titles, including:

• You’ve Reached Sam by Dustin Thao (pub: 2021; I need to read my e-ARC!)
• The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (pub: 2020)
• Verity by Colleen Hoover (pub: 2018)
• The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid (pub: 2017)
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (pub: 1869)

#ReadQueerToo2022 Reading Challenge

The #ReadQueerToo2022 Reading Challenge is hosted by Enthralled Bookworm. I came across it on StoryGraph and immediately had to join — it’s a fun mix of tropes that I love (fake dating! enemies to lovers!) and will challenge me to read more diversely, which should help me discover more new-to-me authors!

PopSugar Reading Challenge

The PopSugar Reading Challenge is one that I always plan to participate in, but never get around to actually doing. A StoryGraph user added this challenge on StoryGraph, so it should be easier for me to track which prompts I’ve completed — and some of these prompts are hard, so while I may not complete all 40 prompts, it should get me to read a bit outside of my comfort zone (which is namely YA/Romance/Fantasy published within the last 10 years).

What reading challenges are you participating in this year?