To the one person who told me they hated Ann-uary so much they didn't do the challenge at all: I can only apologise. You may need to use your wildcard very early on 😂
At the start of your video I kept thinking of "Ann" trivia, like learning from Maggie O'Farrell in Hamnet that Agnes was pronounced Ann. Agnes means lamb, so maybe Lamb by Christopher Moore (an excellent author I've never seen mentioned on BookTube), or Silence of the Lambs. Also, there might be books about fashion designers , actresses, or historical figures named Ann(e). Anne is the name of Mary (mother of Jesus)'s mother, so maybe there's some books with those characters? I can't imagine that someone hasn't written a feminist retelling or something? Or was that Olivia Coleman movie about Queen Anne based on a book?? Also Anne Boleyn. Anna and the King of Siam. Anne Frank. Pollyanna. Does (Kristin) Hannah count? Mariana Enriquez? So many possibilities to explore! 😃
Oh my gosh, thank you so much for emphasizing reading authors from marginalized communities for every prompt. That's one of my pet peeves about reading challenges - when they have one category for minoritized writers and communities, as if we shouldn't just include folks from all walks of life in our reading all the time. Love it, love this challenge!
I know right! Why wait for a special month? Read them now! Same goes for indie presses... I actually removed the 'Indie-cember' prompt I used last year for this reason. I want people to consider indie presses for every prompt ♥️
I had every intention of joining in the challenge this year but life got in the way. But your prompts are brilliant and I'm going to try extra hard to join in next year. Here's a little thank you for creating such a brilliant channel. This is a good excuse to end your book buying ban. Buy something on your TBR! x
Hi. The algorithm recommended this video and I thought I'd check it out. I enjoyed watching, so I went ahead and subscribed. This sounds like an interesting challenge. I'm definitely going to give it a go. I won't commit to reading marginalised authors because I want to read books from my shelf where possible, but I will certainly keep it in mind for any books I specifically purchase for the challenge. I will do a challenge specific tbr video, but I'm still a few weeks away from resuming filming, so I'll go ahead and tell you my Ann-uary read right here, which is a book from my tbr shelf called 'The Dead Won't Sleep' by Anna Smith. Despite the impression one might take from the title, this isn't a zombie book lol. It's the first in the Rosie Gilmour series, a thriller series revolving around an investigative journalist. I know nothing about it outside of the blurb on the back, but it was on the free table at a library sale, so I figured I might as well give it a read, but I haven't gotten around to it until now. Thanks for the push 🙂.
So glad to hear you stumbled on this and like the sound of the challenge! It's so much fun to see everyone choose their books for it, and the number of people shopping exclusively from their shelves to meet the prompts is incredible. Hope your Ann-uary pick is going well 🙏
Haha I think just removing no paragraph November has automatically made this set better for everyone, based on the comments 😂 Was so pleased to include Agatha for Alice ♥️
This is such a fun challenge and I’ve enjoyed hearing how people have been taking part, so I’m going to attempt it this year as the fomo has got to me! I’m also attempting to just read what I own, so this will make that really interesting as well. How to Say Babylon and Cloud Cuckoo Land are two of my favourite reads this year. Also loved The Poisonwood Bible. Glad you aren’t doing ‘no paragraph’ November as that would drive me insane. The Lincoln Highway is great. Love the Agatha All Along prompt - lovely tribute. I’m excited for all of the prompts but particularly the Ides of March as that is likely to be very random and I’m curious about what could come up for that! Great prompts, Ben!
Ahhhh I'm so pleased you fancy giving it a go Jack! And love the extra challenge of making it from your own shelves - hopefully plenty of flexibility to make that work ♥️ You are not alone in the anti-no-paragraph-November mindset. But I'm kinda enjoying the collective hatred of it 😂 A uniting force!
I loved Cloud Cuckoo Land but thought it would have been a brilliant trilogy instead of one long novel with tenuous connections. I still recommend it though! 😉
I like this challenge. In 2024 I shied away from challenges, goodreads and prize lists and reduced the number of utube videos I watched as my difficulties with FOMO were driving me mad. Although I’ve had a good reading year I’m now thinking a few prompts are in order. So I’ll give this a go as lots of freedom within each prompt. Thanks Ben 🤗
I can totally relate to wanting to disconnect a bit - sometimes there is so much going on that it's a bit overwhelming! Glad the freedom of these prompts make them interesting and accessible for you ♥️
I’m in!🙌🏻 My first time joining the challenge and I hope I can keep up🤞🏻 It’s been fun trying to come up with the books to fit your wonderful prompts…especially for March! Thank you for creating the challenge😊
You are so utterly brilliant Ben!! I really enjoyed participating and it has added an extra fun element in my reading diet. 😘❤️ Love that Agatha gets to be our hero - Alice would have loved that. ❤
Alice and Agatha coming along to save the day - I couldn't resist! Hope you enjoy doing this year's set of prompts... you beat me every single month in 2024, I was so impressed! 😂
I love this challenge because I can read it entirely from books already on my shelf that need to be ready! This is going to prompt me to read what I already have. I signed up for Story Graph just to participate. I hope you love The Poisonwood Bible. It's amazing!
I'm really enjoying this reading challenge so far - it's my first proper attempt beginning in January, and I'm combining it with reading what I already own and making full use of my local library. In January I've so far read two Ann Patchett novels - patron saint of liars and bel canto - which I loved. I may also read run this month also. I was wondering about February titles, as I don't plan to buy books for a while and am unsure of which books I own with fire on the cover, but then I remembered I had did you ever have a family!
Love that you've taken on the Ann-uary prompt with full gusto!!! Bel Canto and The Dutch House were contenders for me, but I'm going with Anne Enright's The Gathering in the end. And for February, Did You Ever Have a Family is really great! I must do a re-read one day.
Thanks for the shoutout! I have been waiting for these prompts to drop and I will definitely share my TBR. I appreciate all the time, care, and effort you put into your challenges and the nod to Alice is lovely. I hope everyone has a great reading year in 2025!
You’re so welcome - I so loved your video about your TBR for the challenge! Was so much fun to put together this set of prompts and I’m excited to get stuck into it again.
I am so excited to join these for next year and am signed up on Storygraph. I just counted the letters in the titles of several books in my TBR stacks and so far have found one with 15. Also need to mention that the great Anne Tyler has a new novel coming out in February for a late January prompt read. Love the wild card option and many options for the book I am ashamed not to have read yet. Such fun!!!
Glad you managed to find an Ides of March pick! I did go through quite a few, and many were just off by one 😅 Thank you for joining The Storygraph challenge! Can't believe that almost 200 people have joined already 🤯
Great prompts Ben, thanks! I’m going to do it by reading only books already on my shelves to help me with my TBR and the goal this year of buying less/reading less of the new released fiction.
Thank you Ben. I’ve been loving finding your channel recently and am definitely in…. I just made a video actually about this challenge on my channel you are tagged in everything and I’m looking forward to a reading year with you too. 😊
I will be subscribing!Oh, I really like the Read Good Challenge you have put together! I will try to do this! To tie in with my goal to read more from my shelves, I am going to pick books I already own. First up, your suggestion of Nuclear War, which I already have on my January TBR.
Fist time participating in your reading challenge and I'm quite excited about it. I will use this as an opportunity to read books from my shelves I've been meaning to read for a while and somehow never got around to, or give books I've dnf-ed in recent years (for reasons other than not getting along with the writing style, e.g. I was not in the right mood or frame of mind at the time) another shot. I've already made my picks and let the fun begin :).
Yay, glad you're excited for this one. So am I! A few people have mentioned reading for the challenge entirely from their own shelves, and I love that idea. Very happy for the challenge to help people cross off those books that have been lingering for too long 😅 Happy reading!
Great to see the challenge back. Didn't see coming that we don't get only new prompts, that's not like my brain usually rolls, but heyho there are so many books out there to choose from. Thank you, Ben, Happy Christmas and a wonderful new year!
It's been fun to think about the ones worth bringing back! But I was keen to get a mixture of old and new into the list. Merry Christmas and happy new year to you too!
Okay. Here we go! Firstly, yes I’d love a video suggesting only non-fiction or sth niche like that. And I love your setup/background btw! Very excited to see what I can come up with for these prompts. When you said reread for May I was honestly quietly going noooo, but it’s a challenge! Though I might just cheat and read by an author I’ve read before, but an interesting prompt for sure! And good luck to everyone 🕺
Yay, thank you! Glad you're liking the new set. Hopefully a good balance of old and new! I am also a bit averse to re-reads so it's going to be a challenge for me too, but I couldn't not use 'May-ja vu' 😂
@ I’ve actually since thought of two in the same series actually as I’ve got the third one that was just recently released, and I know it’ll be a good idea to reread the two bc I don’t remember too much tbh. Two things though - they are both over 500 pages, annnnd I’m a bit worried I won’t enjoy them as much as I did the first time around. But saying all this, I think I’ve actually decided to do it, haha. BUT I’m not committing to it, I’ll just say it’s an option! 😎🙌
If you haven't read "Say Anything," I definitely recommend. It is one of my favorites. This year I also read "Braiding Sweetgrass" by Robin Wall Kimmerer, and that is another nonfiction favorite.
This challenge looks amazing! I am going to try it. It is so good to see Safiya Sinclair and Jamaica Kincaid in the video. I have read those authors. Hey from the Caribbean!
Woohoo, glad to hear you're going to give it a go! Definitely want to give both of those books a go this year. And hello from a very jealous Brit - it's absolutely freezing here!!!
Very excited to see your 2025 challenge, and thanks for all your hard work putting this together with some fabulous prompts. Oh, love your kitchen - your home always looks very cosy.
Thanks so much! I'm really excited to get into the new set, and so happy that others are excited too. And thank you - the kitchen is probably our favourite space in the house!
These prompts are so fun, I’ll definitely keep this challenge in mind when choosing books next year. And to counter the naysayers - I’m pro paragraph-less books!!
I'm so excited for this challenge. They are broad enough to allow me to fit some of my 2025 TBR into and to add in some other reads in areas I wouldn't normally consider. I am always up for a back up Christie too (A lovely tribute for Alice). I love the idea to be able to clear some of the books festering away on my bookshelf and I was a little concerned about the march prompt. However, I went to my shelf like you suggested and started counting. I actually did a small 'whoop!' when I found The Lost Bookshop was 15 letters. hahaha! made my day.
Happy to hear you like the prompts! And a few people have committed to doing the challenge entirely from their shelves so you are not alone. I think that’s a great idea. And great find for the March prompt 🎉
I'm so excited for this challenge! And, someone already thoughtfully added some ideas to my November prompt! Very errrrr..... nice picks to, um, Someone, lol. Thank you 😂🤣😂
Glad to hear you're digging it! And yeah I think the prompt books is like a collective pool, which does make it funny when they're more personal ones 😅
Never done a reading challenge before but all these prompts look really interesting and should hopefully make me read more different books! Looking forward to following along with the challenge :)
That's *awesome* to hear! I do try my best to have fun with the prompts to keep it interesting... and of course cram in as many terrible puns 😂 Hope you enjoy it!
Awesome prompts Ben! As usual, you have put a lot of effort in selecting them. (And yay for No-comfort November!) Now I will have to try and find the books for the prompts which is definitely my most favourite part. Like spending time counting the characters of all the book titles in my TBR...😅 (Interestingly, there are more books with 14 characters than 15..!)
@Ellen_Mercy hopefully you found one! I finally found one from my physical TBR - To The Lighthouse. So surprised I found one, I counted it thrice to be sure..
I also found a lot on my shelf that were off by one (a mixture of 14 and 16). But it made it so much more exciting to finally find a few with 15 😅 Thank you for watching and very happy to hear you like the new set!
What an interesting selection of prompts. I did dreadfully at these this year (I haven’t done amazingly with mum and mine either hahaha) but will try and to be better in 2025, though I’ll be using my wild card for May-Ja Vu, though I looooooove the pun. The Narrow Road to the Deep North is soooooo good. Possibly my favourite Booker winner 😮
Thank you Simon, glad to hear they sound interesting! 🙏 May-ja vu is definitely my favourite pun. It does have a built-in get-out-of-jail-free card though - if you don't want to re-read a book, you can re-read an author you've read before. It's no fun being forced to do something you literally don't want to 😂 Excited to hear the Savidge Prompts for next year too!!!
So excited for this again. I’m only two books away from completing 2024, so probably won’t manage it, but I’m already excited for 2025’s prompts. I’ve taken inspiration from you here and come up with an entirely lgbtq list for 2025 🥰
Oooo I’m counting down to be able to watch this - exciting! I’ve been listening to ‘Glorious Exploits’. It’s incredible. I could listen to Ferdia Lennon reading for the rest of my days.
@@benreadsgood Haha. That would have been so funny to sneakily slip it into every prompt. After my giddy excitement for this vid, I had to factor in the 13 hour time difference & just watched it now. (sorry I didn't stay up into the middle of the night) Still giddy though! Bring on the 2025 reads.
“It’s really fun to go through your shelves and count the number of letters in the titles” Definitely makes for that ‘hoppin’ party of 250 book lovers 😆
@@benreadsgood 🤣Already an international party craze. I've been a bit of a party pooper with my easy math option though. 'Dance, Dance, Dance' by Murakami 3x5 = 15. Easy peasy! Time to hit the bar. 🍹
Your house looks gorgeous 🏡 I completed 10/12 this year! Yes, no paragraph November was one of the missing ones 😂 and embarrassingly, the reading shame forgiveness prompt! Love that you included Alice ❤️ I really like the prompts, well done. My bday month is still Ugtober 😂 this year I read Frankenstein for that one, and it was my worst book of the year 😂
10/12 is a great score! 👏 Can’t believe Frankenstein was your worst read of the year 😮 I am very glad Alice will be on hand to help us out with an Agatha throughout the year ♥️
@@benreadsgood yes me too 😊 Sorry if you like Frankenstein! I just found it very boring and unnecessarily long, with unlikeable characters. Maybe an unpopular opinion!!
So pleased you like the prompts! I have been faffing with them for so long and was excited to finally finalise and share them. I'm excited to get into it too!
I really like your challenge. I watched a few more being offered, but to me at least, yours is the most appealing. It is fun, it will be rewarding and it falls in neatly with my own reading goals.
Jen the Librarian pointed me here, this looks like a good challenge to me! My personal hard mode will be to pick books from my shelves, with library books added in for prompts I don't have. The first book will be The Secret Diaries of Anne Lister, which is both non fiction and gay so I could still go for one of the other hard modes as well. Thank you for creating this challenge!
Ahhh Jen is such a lovely human, and I'm so pleased you've found your way here. Love that people are tackling the challenge on hard mode - such a fun extra dimension to add a little constraint that suits your own reading tastes 🙌
A really great challenge. I will definitely give it a go. Only have read one Agatha Christie so even the wild card will be a bit of a challenge for me. Thanks for all the thinking that went into this. Will love hearing about the books people chose.
Thank you so much! Glad you like the prompts - I spend an inordinate amount of time trying to make it all feel fun and doable and fresh each month, and balancing the different types of prompts!
Thank Ben, I only managed to read a couple of the prompts this year will try to read a few more next year. I enjoyed looking through my books but sometimes my mood made me read other things instead! 😂
Just a few is great! It's all really just to have a bit of fun, so if you get a few prompts worth of joy, that makes me happy! And I can totally relate to not wanting too much of a fixed set of things to read. That's partly why these are so flexible 😅
I am with the no paragraph November haters :) but I did complete the prompt and read Blindness by Jose Saramago which was incredibly good writing. There are scenes in that book that I will not forget and definitely not in a good way. Thanks for all the great new prompts and the ones you are bringing back are actually some of my favorites; especially "Ann-uary." 😊
Haha I don't think you're alone in your hatred. But I like to think that one is a bit like a bad Christmas cracker joke - it unites everyone against it! Ann-uary is great isn't it - I don't know what's not to like!
Thanks, Ben!🌷I love the prompts!😍📚I’ve started selecting books from my shelves and have joined your challenge on Storygraph. I’m very much of a mood reader though, so there’s a chance I won’t be reading them exactly according to your calendar, but in a slightly different order. That will certainly be the case with my rereading of Howard’s End by E.M. Forster (May prompt I’m going to read in April) which inspired On Beauty by Zadie Smith (April prompt I’ll be reading in May). For February I’ve chosen The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner. The cover of my Vintage edition is a symphony of red, yellow and black and it looks as if the letters of the title have been scorched, so I hope it’s an acceptable fit😉I could have actually used it also for the ugly-cover prompt, but I’m sure I’ll find something else😂
Any order is fine by me! No prompt police on duty, so whatever makes it most fun for you is good 😌 Fun picks though - I really need to read some E. M. Forster myself! Maurice is the one I really want to get a hold of.
It is pretty good, and they're improving it all the time! I do especially like the challenges features - much more sophisticated than the Goodreads one.
I find that I don't usually get on with reading challenges in general, but this one would a. Help me see what Storygraph is all about, and b. Get me to read books on my shelves, that I know I already have one for each prompt.
That's so lovely to hear. I'm so pleased people are able to participate in the challenge just with books from their shelves. So fun shopping your own collection for books to map to the prompts 🎉
Okay. Just shopped my shelves and make my stack of 12. Joined the StoryGraph group and will add any that are not already there. The most difficult (mainly because I wanted to read books I own and haven’t already read) was the Anne challenge and the Fire on the cover.
I looooove how on top of it you are!!! I haven't even made my own picks yet 😅 But to be fair I am a bit of a mood reader, so I just have some in mind and will likely make my choices month to month.
I have been hearing all year people mention their Read Good Challenge books. I love your prompts. I am so tempted but I suspect I may be already be overcommitted chiefly due to hosting Reading the Globe. Have fun!
Great list of prompts! It will be my first year joining and I can’t wait to puzzle it all together with my tbr and other challenges and no wonder I can’t get through all the books I want to read because I spend half my time puzzling books for prompts 😂 Oh well! Off to count the number of letters in the titles on my shelf!
Thank you so much, and thanks for joining the live chat! 🙌 To be honest I think half the fun (maybe even more than half...) is figuring out which books to read 😅
Loved all these prompts - thank you Ben. One thought about the rereading one is that you could do it in a different format eg audio (or even graphic novel retelling if one exists).
@@benreadsgood Thanks. 2026 maybe?! The idea only occurred to me because I currently have a copy of the recent graphic novel of Lord of the Flies waiting for me to collect from my local bookshop and I've already read the original book a couple of times. The idea of a different format might work for plays too: watching a good film or recording of the live production with the script in front of you or watching an adaptation of a book turned into a play or even an opera (Turn of the Screw?). Lots to experiment with there!
For the December brothers theme, a recommendation is The Sisters Brothers by Patrick Dewitt. It's a western so it would fit in with your desire to read more westerns after reading True Grit
I’m so excited for this reading challenge! Last year, I loved Ann-uary. There’s a really popular author who is from New Orleans, which isn’t far from where I live in Mississippi so she is very popular here. Her books are on everyone’s shelves. Too bad I didn’t choose any of her books to read. I just don’t like reading about Vampires. I’m very excited to try to find a book about brothers. Since there are not any bookstores in this tiny town, Amazon here I come! Have a Merry Christmas!
Is that Anne Rice? I'm not a massive reader of supernatural stuff, but I do actually want to read Interview with the Vampire! Glad you like the prompts, and a very merry Christmas to you too!
@@benreadsgood Anne Rice, yes that’s her. I actually have an autographed copy of one of her son’s books. He’s a good writers, but I heard that he’s not a nice person. I haven’t met him, so I can’t say if that’s just a rumor. My Aunt lives in New Orleans so that’s how I got the autographed book.
just found your channel while I was looking for stuff to add to my own custom reading bingo. and I have a controversial proposal: DNF-December. for the books on our shelves we bought long ago and whose time never quite comes for some reason, it's time to decide what to do. So my suggestion is to start the book and try to read it. And if it's a DNF, then you now know, and hopefully it'll find its way towards someone else that Christmas, either as a gift or as a donation.
Sounds like a fun idea! I have to admit I am a staunch non-DNFer, but I admire those willing to give up when things aren't jiving 😅 I do want to do a video where I try a chapter to decide what to ditch from my shelves, as I'm quickly running out of space! 👀 Thanks for being here!
@@benreadsgood and btw, even if you are a DNFer, this challenge would force you to finally reach for one of the books you've been avoiding, so I think it would work for everybody.
This looks great, thank you. Count me in! I'm going to try and do this challenge with the books I currently have on my shelves as I have soooo many unread... and going to try (v hard) not to buy any new books in 2025 😬 !!
The ultimate challenge: not buying any books! 🥲 I wish you the best of luck. I think it'll actually be quite fun to try and exclusively shop your shelves (or the library) for books that fit. Glad you're in!!
My added challenge is to try and do a fiction and non-fiction for most months (the translation one might be tricky for me to access). Thanks for putting it together for 2025
Love the added challenge! I think one of the NYT notable books was a translated non-fiction, so maybe worth checking out! And perhaps a memoir by someone in another country could be an easy way in. Thank you for watching!
@@benreadsgoodThanks for the NYT tip. I did think about memoirs after my original comment and I’m excited to see what I can find. Like others have said, it’s great that you highlight we can be enjoying the exceptional writing of marginalised people in all the challenges, not just one box.
On a semi-related note, I was so impressed by Enright's own narration on The Wren, The Wren. I love it when an author has a good reading voice, as they understand the characters so much better! Fire Exit is a good shout, but I may need to get my hands on the lovely US cover... 🔥 And any prompt suggestions that support other challenges are great!
I’ll give this challenge a go! For the bro- v ember I highly recommend Limberlost by Robbie Arnott, about a boy who builds a boat while waiting for his brothers to return home from World War Two.
You know I am still yet to read my first Robbie Arnott, but I really want to! I have The Rain Heron on my shelves and want to prioritise it, and I might even have Limberlost on my Kindle... the shame 😳
After assuming it was not going to happen - I just realised I actually can (retroactively) complete this Year's challenge if i squeeze in a short no-paragraph book.
I confess that I started out strong this year but then stumbled and crapped out round about November. Surely it was the prompt's fault!? This year I will triumph and I love the flexibility. Thanks for putting this together! PS Collected Works is also on my chunky books shame list.
It was absolutely the prompt's fault. No paragraph break November was the worst! I felt like I was being attacked. Of course, I don't even like it when authors skip dialogue marks. Give me all the proper grammar, please. 🤓 I look forward to seeing what books you choose for the challenge on your lovely channel. 🥰
@ArtemisFloof Thank you! I'm looking forward to making the selections. I already scoured my TBR and found out it had many, many books with 14 letters in the title, but I did find a winner.
Haha I am enjoying in a small way all the anti-NoParaNovember comments 😂 I am pleased you managed to find a 15-character title though. So many I had were 14 or 16, but it added to the joy when I found one that fit.
Highly recommend The Poisonwood Bible Collected Works is on my TBR Wellness took me months to read. A lot of fuss about nothing. Blue cover … the new Olga T Unless is a great book ❤ Say Nothing on audio ☘️ Intermezzo for bros
Was it The Last White Man that sort of tarnished Mohsin Hamid for you? It was the first first of his books I read and I was so disappointed, I’m not sure I’ll read others. Three Fires by Denise Mina is breathtaking. I listened to the audiobook, fell hard in love, and then ordered the physical copy. What a piece of art. Audiobook is read so perfectly that I think it is absolutely the way to go. I don’t really respond well to prompts, reading lists, etc. I’m just so freaking stubborn. But I shall give it a try this year coming and perhaps try converting over to The StoryGraph again. January is a breeze. I’ve been waiting to listen to Nuclear War for a couple of months now. 1 down.
It was The Last White Man. I found the premise fascinating but the writing style frustrated me so much. So I need to find out if Exit West has the same style and I was just a different reader back when I read it... I adored Rizzio so I am very, very, very much looking forward to Three Fires. Glad to have your recommendation for it!
I just joined the challenge on Storygraph. However, I am stuck with all the prompts (not in a bad way) because I do not like the wildcard choice. I don't want to be a negative nelly so I'll leave it at that.
No need to use the wildcard to complete the challenge - it's just a back-up! There are loads of suggestions already added to the prompts, so for the non-personal ones you can always flip through the other users' books for inspiration 😊
I so enjoyed participating in the challenge this year and look forward to 2025 ESPECIALLY since NoParagrahVember has died a horrible, grisly, well-deserved death. (I'm assuming). I love the wildcard tip of the heart to Alice (and I also ❤️ Agatha Christie). Well done! Okay, off to count book title letters…
November is the only month I need comfort. It's dark and cold, and the Christmas lights aren’t up yet😢…However, I guess not everyone lives in the North 🙂
East of Eden would be great for brothers as well. Im still ashamed Ive not read The Bone People by Keri Hulme. As a New Zealander, it is sacrilegious to not have read the first Booker fron ourcountry.
Who removed my comment? Hmmm Anyways thanks Ben for these - I've created my list of 12 for these prompts and 9 of them were already on my TBR for next year. Happy for that!
Wasn't me, I promise! I think sometimes TH-cam anti-spam filtering gets it a bit wrong. So glad you were able to fit a load from your TBR into the prompts - great to have that added boost to read them!
Oh, no. Maybe I'll have to make November very uncomfortable by reading a "new adult" book? The writing and narration style of this genre usually gives me hives. I finished the 2024 challenge yesterday 🎉
@tarastreasure I'm not sure about any definition, but new adult books fall between the young adult and adult categories. In my experience, the only difference between young adult and new adult is that the characters are slightly older and that there's very explicit sexual content in the books called new adult.
I love these prompts and I’ve loved following along this year! Thank you for the time that goes into this. In the last couple of weeks I’ve read Intermezzo and brother. do. you. love. me. So I’ve completely aced Decem-bros a year early 😂. Will have to think of some different ones now…
To the one person who told me they hated Ann-uary so much they didn't do the challenge at all: I can only apologise. You may need to use your wildcard very early on 😂
😂
At the start of your video I kept thinking of "Ann" trivia, like learning from Maggie O'Farrell in Hamnet that Agnes was pronounced Ann. Agnes means lamb, so maybe Lamb by Christopher Moore (an excellent author I've never seen mentioned on BookTube), or Silence of the Lambs. Also, there might be books about fashion designers , actresses, or historical figures named Ann(e). Anne is the name of Mary (mother of Jesus)'s mother, so maybe there's some books with those characters? I can't imagine that someone hasn't written a feminist retelling or something? Or was that Olivia Coleman movie about Queen Anne based on a book?? Also Anne Boleyn. Anna and the King of Siam. Anne Frank. Pollyanna. Does (Kristin) Hannah count? Mariana Enriquez? So many possibilities to explore! 😃
I was already planning on reading Anna Karenina in January so I think I have Ann-uary sorted!
I've already had the misfortune of reading the worst "Ann" book that exists (Annie Bot), so in 2025 I'm looking forward to finding an "ANN" read.
@MsPixieD Thanks for mentioning Anna and the King of Siam! My mom gave me an old crumbling edition, and I've been dying to dig in.
Oh my gosh, thank you so much for emphasizing reading authors from marginalized communities for every prompt. That's one of my pet peeves about reading challenges - when they have one category for minoritized writers and communities, as if we shouldn't just include folks from all walks of life in our reading all the time. Love it, love this challenge!
I know right! Why wait for a special month? Read them now!
Same goes for indie presses... I actually removed the 'Indie-cember' prompt I used last year for this reason. I want people to consider indie presses for every prompt ♥️
@@benreadsgood Love it! I'm looking at my shelves for options now!!! 🥰
I had every intention of joining in the challenge this year but life got in the way. But your prompts are brilliant and I'm going to try extra hard to join in next year. Here's a little thank you for creating such a brilliant channel. This is a good excuse to end your book buying ban. Buy something on your TBR! x
Chloe you are far too kind, but thank you so much! Hope the Discoveries judging is going brilliantly, and that you have a wonderful Christmas ♥️
Hi. The algorithm recommended this video and I thought I'd check it out. I enjoyed watching, so I went ahead and subscribed.
This sounds like an interesting challenge. I'm definitely going to give it a go. I won't commit to reading marginalised authors because I want to read books from my shelf where possible, but I will certainly keep it in mind for any books I specifically purchase for the challenge.
I will do a challenge specific tbr video, but I'm still a few weeks away from resuming filming, so I'll go ahead and tell you my Ann-uary read right here, which is a book from my tbr shelf called 'The Dead Won't Sleep' by Anna Smith. Despite the impression one might take from the title, this isn't a zombie book lol. It's the first in the Rosie Gilmour series, a thriller series revolving around an investigative journalist. I know nothing about it outside of the blurb on the back, but it was on the free table at a library sale, so I figured I might as well give it a read, but I haven't gotten around to it until now. Thanks for the push 🙂.
So glad to hear you stumbled on this and like the sound of the challenge! It's so much fun to see everyone choose their books for it, and the number of people shopping exclusively from their shelves to meet the prompts is incredible. Hope your Ann-uary pick is going well 🙏
Love the new prompts!! Even better than last year.
Alice would be really delighted that people can just chuck in a Christie. Love that 🧡
Haha I think just removing no paragraph November has automatically made this set better for everyone, based on the comments 😂
Was so pleased to include Agatha for Alice ♥️
This is such a fun challenge and I’ve enjoyed hearing how people have been taking part, so I’m going to attempt it this year as the fomo has got to me! I’m also attempting to just read what I own, so this will make that really interesting as well. How to Say Babylon and Cloud Cuckoo Land are two of my favourite reads this year. Also loved The Poisonwood Bible. Glad you aren’t doing ‘no paragraph’ November as that would drive me insane. The Lincoln Highway is great. Love the Agatha All Along prompt - lovely tribute. I’m excited for all of the prompts but particularly the Ides of March as that is likely to be very random and I’m curious about what could come up for that! Great prompts, Ben!
Ahhhh I'm so pleased you fancy giving it a go Jack! And love the extra challenge of making it from your own shelves - hopefully plenty of flexibility to make that work ♥️
You are not alone in the anti-no-paragraph-November mindset. But I'm kinda enjoying the collective hatred of it 😂 A uniting force!
I loved Cloud Cuckoo Land but thought it would have been a brilliant trilogy instead of one long novel with tenuous connections. I still recommend it though! 😉
I like this challenge. In 2024 I shied away from challenges, goodreads and prize lists and reduced the number of utube videos I watched as my difficulties with FOMO were driving me mad. Although I’ve had a good reading year I’m now thinking a few prompts are in order. So I’ll give this a go as lots of freedom within each prompt. Thanks Ben 🤗
I can totally relate to wanting to disconnect a bit - sometimes there is so much going on that it's a bit overwhelming! Glad the freedom of these prompts make them interesting and accessible for you ♥️
LOVE the sound of this challenge - just joined on storygraph and can't wait to plan out my reads :D
Yay, thanks for joining. Hope you find some reads you love through it!
This is a fantastic challenge. I joined and will use it to rea books that have been sitting on my shelves for way too long 😊
Woohoo, shopping your shelves for the challenge is an excellent way to do it 👏
I’m in!🙌🏻 My first time joining the challenge and I hope I can keep up🤞🏻 It’s been fun trying to come up with the books to fit your wonderful prompts…especially for March! Thank you for creating the challenge😊
Love to have you on board! And so pleased you like the prompts. The March one turned out to be so fun to find books for 😊
You are so utterly brilliant Ben!! I really enjoyed participating and it has added an extra fun element in my reading diet. 😘❤️ Love that Agatha gets to be our hero - Alice would have loved that. ❤
Alice and Agatha coming along to save the day - I couldn't resist! Hope you enjoy doing this year's set of prompts... you beat me every single month in 2024, I was so impressed! 😂
@ ❤️❤️❤️
I love this challenge because I can read it entirely from books already on my shelf that need to be ready! This is going to prompt me to read what I already have. I signed up for Story Graph just to participate. I hope you love The Poisonwood Bible. It's amazing!
That's great to hear! Always good to have an incentive to shop from your own shelves.
And I have high hopes for The Poisonwood Bible!
I'm really enjoying this reading challenge so far - it's my first proper attempt beginning in January, and I'm combining it with reading what I already own and making full use of my local library.
In January I've so far read two Ann Patchett novels - patron saint of liars and bel canto - which I loved. I may also read run this month also.
I was wondering about February titles, as I don't plan to buy books for a while and am unsure of which books I own with fire on the cover, but then I remembered I had did you ever have a family!
Love that you've taken on the Ann-uary prompt with full gusto!!! Bel Canto and The Dutch House were contenders for me, but I'm going with Anne Enright's The Gathering in the end.
And for February, Did You Ever Have a Family is really great! I must do a re-read one day.
Thanks for the shoutout! I have been waiting for these prompts to drop and I will definitely share my TBR. I appreciate all the time, care, and effort you put into your challenges and the nod to Alice is lovely. I hope everyone has a great reading year in 2025!
You’re so welcome - I so loved your video about your TBR for the challenge! Was so much fun to put together this set of prompts and I’m excited to get stuck into it again.
I am so excited to join these for next year and am signed up on Storygraph. I just counted the letters in the titles of several books in my TBR stacks and so far have found one with 15. Also need to mention that the great Anne Tyler has a new novel coming out in February for a late January prompt read. Love the wild card option and many options for the book I am ashamed not to have read yet. Such fun!!!
Glad you managed to find an Ides of March pick! I did go through quite a few, and many were just off by one 😅
Thank you for joining The Storygraph challenge! Can't believe that almost 200 people have joined already 🤯
I am definitely taking part this year so many great prompts. Thanks so much for putting this together Ben ❤
Yay, I'm so glad to hear that! Thanks for watching and joining in 🎉
This sounds so fun! I will be participating for the first time!
Yay, glad you're giving it a go! 🙌
Great prompts Ben, thanks! I’m going to do it by reading only books already on my shelves to help me with my TBR and the goal this year of buying less/reading less of the new released fiction.
That's a great extra layer on top of the challenge - a few people seem to be reading entirely from their own shelves, so you are not alone! 🎉
Thank you Ben. I’ve been loving finding your channel recently and am definitely in…. I just made a video actually about this challenge on my channel you are tagged in everything and I’m looking forward to a reading year with you too. 😊
Yay, thank you so much! Absolutely love that you’ve put together a reading list and I will check out your video soon ♥️
I will be subscribing!Oh, I really like the Read Good Challenge you have put together! I will try to do this! To tie in with my goal to read more from my shelves, I am going to pick books I already own. First up, your suggestion of Nuclear War, which I already have on my January TBR.
So pleased you like the challenge, and it's great to try and do it from your own shelves! Thanks for watching 😊
Fist time participating in your reading challenge and I'm quite excited about it. I will use this as an opportunity to read books from my shelves I've been meaning to read for a while and somehow never got around to, or give books I've dnf-ed in recent years (for reasons other than not getting along with the writing style, e.g. I was not in the right mood or frame of mind at the time) another shot. I've already made my picks and let the fun begin :).
Yay, glad you're excited for this one. So am I! A few people have mentioned reading for the challenge entirely from their own shelves, and I love that idea. Very happy for the challenge to help people cross off those books that have been lingering for too long 😅 Happy reading!
Great to see the challenge back. Didn't see coming that we don't get only new prompts, that's not like my brain usually rolls, but heyho there are so many books out there to choose from.
Thank you, Ben, Happy Christmas and a wonderful new year!
It's been fun to think about the ones worth bringing back! But I was keen to get a mixture of old and new into the list.
Merry Christmas and happy new year to you too!
Okay. Here we go! Firstly, yes I’d love a video suggesting only non-fiction or sth niche like that. And I love your setup/background btw!
Very excited to see what I can come up with for these prompts. When you said reread for May I was honestly quietly going noooo, but it’s a challenge! Though I might just cheat and read by an author I’ve read before, but an interesting prompt for sure! And good luck to everyone 🕺
Yay, thank you! Glad you're liking the new set. Hopefully a good balance of old and new! I am also a bit averse to re-reads so it's going to be a challenge for me too, but I couldn't not use 'May-ja vu' 😂
@ I’ve actually since thought of two in the same series actually as I’ve got the third one that was just recently released, and I know it’ll be a good idea to reread the two bc I don’t remember too much tbh. Two things though - they are both over 500 pages, annnnd I’m a bit worried I won’t enjoy them as much as I did the first time around. But saying all this, I think I’ve actually decided to do it, haha. BUT I’m not committing to it, I’ll just say it’s an option! 😎🙌
Cranking up the challenge level… love it!
If you haven't read "Say Anything," I definitely recommend. It is one of my favorites. This year I also read "Braiding Sweetgrass" by Robin Wall Kimmerer, and that is another nonfiction favorite.
Have you thought about using that month to take another crack at a book you soft DNF'd? It's what I'm considering for this one.
This challenge looks amazing! I am going to try it. It is so good to see Safiya Sinclair and Jamaica Kincaid in the video. I have read those authors. Hey from the Caribbean!
Woohoo, glad to hear you're going to give it a go! Definitely want to give both of those books a go this year.
And hello from a very jealous Brit - it's absolutely freezing here!!!
Very excited to see your 2025 challenge, and thanks for all your hard work putting this together with some fabulous prompts. Oh, love your kitchen - your home always looks very cosy.
Thanks so much! I'm really excited to get into the new set, and so happy that others are excited too. And thank you - the kitchen is probably our favourite space in the house!
These prompts are so fun, I’ll definitely keep this challenge in mind when choosing books next year. And to counter the naysayers - I’m pro paragraph-less books!!
Well I am glad there’s at least one person who liked the prompt 😂
I'm so excited for this challenge. They are broad enough to allow me to fit some of my 2025 TBR into and to add in some other reads in areas I wouldn't normally consider. I am always up for a back up Christie too (A lovely tribute for Alice).
I love the idea to be able to clear some of the books festering away on my bookshelf and I was a little concerned about the march prompt. However, I went to my shelf like you suggested and started counting. I actually did a small 'whoop!' when I found The Lost Bookshop was 15 letters. hahaha! made my day.
Happy to hear you like the prompts! And a few people have committed to doing the challenge entirely from their shelves so you are not alone. I think that’s a great idea.
And great find for the March prompt 🎉
I have been in a reading slump lately, but this challenge did get me to peruse by shelves & start matching up books & prompts - thanks!
That's awesome! Hope some of your picks manage to pull you out of the slump 🙏
gods help me, i have joined the challenge. i have never done a reading challenge, but i wanted to be part of the club 😋 (also, great prompt ideas!)
Yesssss Sophie, love to have you in on this!!! I'm so excited to get going with them!
I'm so excited for this challenge! And, someone already thoughtfully added some ideas to my November prompt! Very errrrr..... nice picks to, um, Someone, lol. Thank you 😂🤣😂
Glad to hear you're digging it! And yeah I think the prompt books is like a collective pool, which does make it funny when they're more personal ones 😅
@@benreadsgood goofball 🤪😂🤣
Never done a reading challenge before but all these prompts look really interesting and should hopefully make me read more different books! Looking forward to following along with the challenge :)
That's *awesome* to hear! I do try my best to have fun with the prompts to keep it interesting... and of course cram in as many terrible puns 😂 Hope you enjoy it!
Sounds great, I've never read an Agatha Christie so I'll definitely be tempted to use the wildcard!
I've only read one myself (And Then There Were None) so I'd love to tackle another one as well!
Awesome prompts Ben! As usual, you have put a lot of effort in selecting them.
(And yay for No-comfort November!) Now I will have to try and find the books for the prompts which is definitely my most favourite part.
Like spending time counting the characters of all the book titles in my TBR...😅 (Interestingly, there are more books with 14 characters than 15..!)
I had the same problem, 3 books with 14 letters none with 15!
@Ellen_Mercy hopefully you found one! I finally found one from my physical TBR - To The Lighthouse. So surprised I found one, I counted it thrice to be sure..
I also found a lot on my shelf that were off by one (a mixture of 14 and 16). But it made it so much more exciting to finally find a few with 15 😅
Thank you for watching and very happy to hear you like the new set!
What an interesting selection of prompts. I did dreadfully at these this year (I haven’t done amazingly with mum and mine either hahaha) but will try and to be better in 2025, though I’ll be using my wild card for May-Ja Vu, though I looooooove the pun. The Narrow Road to the Deep North is soooooo good. Possibly my favourite Booker winner 😮
Thank you Simon, glad to hear they sound interesting! 🙏
May-ja vu is definitely my favourite pun. It does have a built-in get-out-of-jail-free card though - if you don't want to re-read a book, you can re-read an author you've read before. It's no fun being forced to do something you literally don't want to 😂
Excited to hear the Savidge Prompts for next year too!!!
Happy reading
And to you! 😊
I have loved taking part this year and don't 6 keep up with challenges. Great prompts for next year. Let's go
Ahh that's nice to hear you've enjoyed it. Hopefully this next set will be just as fun - I'm buzzing to get into them!
These sound great prompts Ben! I’m in for the first time.
That's so great to hear! I'm so pleased you like the prompts ☺️
Love this year long challenge! I will try to take part 😊
The tribute for Alice is wonderful 💖
Ahhh it would be so fun if you joined! I was very glad to include a tribute to Alice - she would have wanted us to all be reading more Agatha ♥️
So excited for this again. I’m only two books away from completing 2024, so probably won’t manage it, but I’m already excited for 2025’s prompts.
I’ve taken inspiration from you here and come up with an entirely lgbtq list for 2025 🥰
Yesssss love this Jen - would love to know your picks for a full sweep of queer books 🌈
I’m sure I’m the millionth person to tell you so but The Poisonwood Bible is amazing 💕
You are actually only like the third person in the comments 😂 But I definitely believe you!!!
Oooo I’m counting down to be able to watch this - exciting! I’ve been listening to ‘Glorious Exploits’. It’s incredible. I could listen to Ferdia Lennon reading for the rest of my days.
It's so bloody good on audio, isn't it!!! The temptation to make every prompt 'Read Glorious Exploits' was real 😂
@@benreadsgood Haha. That would have been so funny to sneakily slip it into every prompt.
After my giddy excitement for this vid, I had to factor in the 13 hour time difference & just watched it now. (sorry I didn't stay up into the middle of the night) Still giddy though! Bring on the 2025 reads.
What a great group of prompts! Happy to hear you’re going to read more Barbara Kingsolver - She’s my fave 😊
I adored Demon so I have very high hopes that I'm going to love more of Kingsolver's work. The writing is just so good.
This is so much fun!! Best of luck with your challenge!!!
Thank you Abi! 🙌
All looks wonderful! I’m excited to get started!
Glad you like them! I'm excited too!!!
“It’s really fun to go through your shelves and count the number of letters in the titles” Definitely makes for that ‘hoppin’ party of 250 book lovers 😆
New party craze sweeping the nation! 😂
@@benreadsgood 🤣Already an international party craze.
I've been a bit of a party pooper with my easy math option though. 'Dance, Dance, Dance' by Murakami 3x5 = 15. Easy peasy! Time to hit the bar. 🍹
To be fair, that’s pretty genius!
@@benreadsgood 😊 Thanks
Fab! Can’t wait to get cracking!
Woohoo - I'm excited to get stuck in as well!
Your house looks gorgeous 🏡
I completed 10/12 this year! Yes, no paragraph November was one of the missing ones 😂 and embarrassingly, the reading shame forgiveness prompt!
Love that you included Alice ❤️
I really like the prompts, well done. My bday month is still Ugtober 😂 this year I read Frankenstein for that one, and it was my worst book of the year 😂
10/12 is a great score! 👏 Can’t believe Frankenstein was your worst read of the year 😮
I am very glad Alice will be on hand to help us out with an Agatha throughout the year ♥️
@@benreadsgood yes me too 😊
Sorry if you like Frankenstein! I just found it very boring and unnecessarily long, with unlikeable characters. Maybe an unpopular opinion!!
It wasn’t a favourite for me, but I did enjoy it. Lots of people absolutely love it though!
Really enjoyed this video. Lots of really good prompts so I'm excited to get started! Thanks Ben 🙂
So pleased you like the prompts! I have been faffing with them for so long and was excited to finally finalise and share them. I'm excited to get into it too!
I’m doing this!!
YESSSSSS 🙌
I really like your challenge. I watched a few more being offered, but to me at least, yours is the most appealing. It is fun, it will be rewarding and it falls in neatly with my own reading goals.
That's so nice to hear, thank you! I spent far too much time figuring out the prompts so I'm glad they work for you 🙌
Jen the Librarian pointed me here, this looks like a good challenge to me!
My personal hard mode will be to pick books from my shelves, with library books added in for prompts I don't have. The first book will be The Secret Diaries of Anne Lister, which is both non fiction and gay so I could still go for one of the other hard modes as well. Thank you for creating this challenge!
Ahhh Jen is such a lovely human, and I'm so pleased you've found your way here. Love that people are tackling the challenge on hard mode - such a fun extra dimension to add a little constraint that suits your own reading tastes 🙌
Who knew I had so many books on my shelves about brothers 🤷Thanks for the new prompts, so fun!
Those bros were hidden in plain sight! Glad you like the new prompts 🙏
A really great challenge. I will definitely give it a go. Only have read one Agatha Christie so even the wild card will be a bit of a challenge for me. Thanks for all the thinking that went into this. Will love hearing about the books people chose.
Thank you so much! Glad you like the prompts - I spend an inordinate amount of time trying to make it all feel fun and doable and fresh each month, and balancing the different types of prompts!
I’m so excited for this!! 🤪🥳
ME TOO! 🎉
Thank Ben, I only managed to read a couple of the prompts this year will try to read a few more next year. I enjoyed looking through my books but sometimes my mood made me read other things instead! 😂
Just a few is great! It's all really just to have a bit of fun, so if you get a few prompts worth of joy, that makes me happy! And I can totally relate to not wanting too much of a fixed set of things to read. That's partly why these are so flexible 😅
Love the new background. Thanks for picking my Ides of March suggestion. I'm sure there were others.
Ahh that one was you! I didn’t know who was who in the responses but it was a great suggestion! Thanks for sharing it 🙌
I am with the no paragraph November haters :) but I did complete the prompt and read Blindness by Jose Saramago which was incredibly good writing. There are scenes in that book that I will not forget and definitely not in a good way. Thanks for all the great new prompts and the ones you are bringing back are actually some of my favorites; especially "Ann-uary." 😊
Haha I don't think you're alone in your hatred. But I like to think that one is a bit like a bad Christmas cracker joke - it unites everyone against it!
Ann-uary is great isn't it - I don't know what's not to like!
Love this challenge! Ive already got a reread and womens prize longlister on my personal book bingo - so 2 birds 1 stone it looks like!
That's great - love it when a plan comes together!
Thanks, Ben!🌷I love the prompts!😍📚I’ve started selecting books from my shelves and have joined your challenge on Storygraph. I’m very much of a mood reader though, so there’s a chance I won’t be reading them exactly according to your calendar, but in a slightly different order. That will certainly be the case with my rereading of Howard’s End by E.M. Forster (May prompt I’m going to read in April) which inspired On Beauty by Zadie Smith (April prompt I’ll be reading in May). For February I’ve chosen The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner. The cover of my Vintage edition is a symphony of red, yellow and black and it looks as if the letters of the title have been scorched, so I hope it’s an acceptable fit😉I could have actually used it also for the ugly-cover prompt, but I’m sure I’ll find something else😂
Any order is fine by me! No prompt police on duty, so whatever makes it most fun for you is good 😌
Fun picks though - I really need to read some E. M. Forster myself! Maurice is the one I really want to get a hold of.
@ Hi Ben! Maurice is a masterpiece!
That is great to know. One of my 2025 goals is more classics, so it'll have to go on the list!
I haven't got into storygraph as yet but maybe this is the encourgament I need...Happy Reading 😀
It is pretty good, and they're improving it all the time! I do especially like the challenges features - much more sophisticated than the Goodreads one.
I found you later in the year, so I didn't hear about the Read Good Challenge. Looking forward to it in 2025.
Woohoo, glad you're thinking about joining for this one. I'm so excited for it!
I find that I don't usually get on with reading challenges in general, but this one would a. Help me see what Storygraph is all about, and b. Get me to read books on my shelves, that I know I already have one for each prompt.
That's so lovely to hear. I'm so pleased people are able to participate in the challenge just with books from their shelves. So fun shopping your own collection for books to map to the prompts 🎉
Brilliant prompts! Love the bonus prompt 🥰
(For a moment, I thought it was Sapphic September so I'm putting in an early plea now for next year 😉)
I bet there are SO MANY Sapphic books with blue covers - double up!!!
This is How You Lose the Time War.
Great ideas, looking forward to doing this
Thanks so much - I'm really excited too!
Okay. Just shopped my shelves and make my stack of 12. Joined the StoryGraph group and will add any that are not already there.
The most difficult (mainly because I wanted to read books I own and haven’t already read) was the Anne challenge and the Fire on the cover.
I looooove how on top of it you are!!! I haven't even made my own picks yet 😅 But to be fair I am a bit of a mood reader, so I just have some in mind and will likely make my choices month to month.
@ That is probably more fun, month to month. Don’t be a list maker stick in the mud like me 😂😂
Whatever works for you is the right way, I say!
I have been hearing all year people mention their Read Good Challenge books. I love your prompts. I am so tempted but I suspect I may be already be overcommitted chiefly due to hosting Reading the Globe. Have fun!
Thanks Ros, and no worries at all. Hosting a challenge is definitely lots of work, so I totally get it! Hope you have fun with Reading the Globe!!!
I will go for february because January is almost finished so february is b. So the book I picked is Maeve Binchy Whitethorn woods
Great list of prompts! It will be my first year joining and I can’t wait to puzzle it all together with my tbr and other challenges and no wonder I can’t get through all the books I want to read because I spend half my time puzzling books for prompts 😂 Oh well! Off to count the number of letters in the titles on my shelf!
Thank you so much, and thanks for joining the live chat! 🙌
To be honest I think half the fun (maybe even more than half...) is figuring out which books to read 😅
@ Of course! Haha glad I’m not alone!
@@benreadsgood Question: Nominees for Women's prize for nonfiction count too, yes?
Yes absolutely! I may update the Storygraph to make that clear.
Loved all these prompts - thank you Ben.
One thought about the rereading one is that you could do it in a different format eg audio (or even graphic novel retelling if one exists).
That is *such* a fantastic idea - I wish I'd thought of it and been able to include it in the video!!!
@@benreadsgood Thanks. 2026 maybe?! The idea only occurred to me because I currently have a copy of the recent graphic novel of Lord of the Flies waiting for me to collect from my local bookshop and I've already read the original book a couple of times. The idea of a different format might work for plays too: watching a good film or recording of the live production with the script in front of you or watching an adaptation of a book turned into a play or even an opera (Turn of the Screw?). Lots to experiment with there!
Those sound great - love when people take very creative approaches to fulfilling the prompt ❤️
For the December brothers theme, a recommendation is The Sisters Brothers by Patrick Dewitt. It's a western so it would fit in with your desire to read more westerns after reading True Grit
Sounds like a perfect fit - great suggestion! 👏
Oh man a perfect Decembro read would be The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt!
Great choice! 👏
I’m so excited for this reading challenge! Last year, I loved Ann-uary. There’s a really popular author who is from New Orleans, which isn’t far from where I live in Mississippi so she is very popular here. Her books are on everyone’s shelves. Too bad I didn’t choose any of her books to read. I just don’t like reading about Vampires. I’m very excited to try to find a book about brothers. Since there are not any bookstores in this tiny town, Amazon here I come! Have a Merry Christmas!
Is that Anne Rice? I'm not a massive reader of supernatural stuff, but I do actually want to read Interview with the Vampire!
Glad you like the prompts, and a very merry Christmas to you too!
@@benreadsgood Anne Rice, yes that’s her. I actually have an autographed copy of one of her son’s books. He’s a good writers, but I heard that he’s not a nice person. I haven’t met him, so I can’t say if that’s just a rumor. My Aunt lives in New Orleans so that’s how I got the autographed book.
just found your channel while I was looking for stuff to add to my own custom reading bingo. and I have a controversial proposal: DNF-December. for the books on our shelves we bought long ago and whose time never quite comes for some reason, it's time to decide what to do. So my suggestion is to start the book and try to read it. And if it's a DNF, then you now know, and hopefully it'll find its way towards someone else that Christmas, either as a gift or as a donation.
Sounds like a fun idea! I have to admit I am a staunch non-DNFer, but I admire those willing to give up when things aren't jiving 😅 I do want to do a video where I try a chapter to decide what to ditch from my shelves, as I'm quickly running out of space! 👀
Thanks for being here!
@@benreadsgood ooooh, yes! that sounds both fun and terrifying! DO ET! 🤣🤣
@@benreadsgood and btw, even if you are a DNFer, this challenge would force you to finally reach for one of the books you've been avoiding, so I think it would work for everybody.
perfect! 10/10, no notes!!
Woohoo thank you Amelia 🎉
This looks great, thank you. Count me in! I'm going to try and do this challenge with the books I currently have on my shelves as I have soooo many unread... and going to try (v hard) not to buy any new books in 2025 😬 !!
The ultimate challenge: not buying any books! 🥲 I wish you the best of luck. I think it'll actually be quite fun to try and exclusively shop your shelves (or the library) for books that fit. Glad you're in!!
I'm doing the same @drhannahshort 🙌🏻
@benreadsgood Thanks :) Looking forward to it!
@ameliareads589Oh, great! Best of luck, too 🙌
@@drhannahshort I am doing the same thing, and it's been fun trying to fit the books into the prompts (without cheating as much as possible...)
The Poisonwood bible is on many peoples best EVER list. it is on mine
Hopefully I will be able to add it to mine! Nothing better than falling in love with a great book.
My added challenge is to try and do a fiction and non-fiction for most months (the translation one might be tricky for me to access). Thanks for putting it together for 2025
Love the added challenge! I think one of the NYT notable books was a translated non-fiction, so maybe worth checking out! And perhaps a memoir by someone in another country could be an easy way in.
Thank you for watching!
@@benreadsgoodThanks for the NYT tip. I did think about memoirs after my original comment and I’m excited to see what I can find.
Like others have said, it’s great that you highlight we can be enjoying the exceptional writing of marginalised people in all the challenges, not just one box.
The Years , The Gathering are both great on audio.
Fire Exit for February?
March is the #irishreadathon. I’ll think of a book to cover the prompt?
On a semi-related note, I was so impressed by Enright's own narration on The Wren, The Wren. I love it when an author has a good reading voice, as they understand the characters so much better!
Fire Exit is a good shout, but I may need to get my hands on the lovely US cover... 🔥
And any prompt suggestions that support other challenges are great!
I’ll give this challenge a go! For the bro- v ember I highly recommend Limberlost by Robbie Arnott, about a boy who builds a boat while waiting for his brothers to return home from World War Two.
You know I am still yet to read my first Robbie Arnott, but I really want to! I have The Rain Heron on my shelves and want to prioritise it, and I might even have Limberlost on my Kindle... the shame 😳
@ i have Rain Heron too but haven’t read it - this year!
Say Nothing is amazing!!!!
Maybe I won’t be able to wait until November for that one 😂
I will go through my books and find a book with ann or anne in author
After assuming it was not going to happen - I just realised I actually can (retroactively) complete this Year's challenge if i squeeze in a short no-paragraph book.
I believe in you!!! 💪
I confess that I started out strong this year but then stumbled and crapped out round about November. Surely it was the prompt's fault!?
This year I will triumph and I love the flexibility. Thanks for putting this together!
PS Collected Works is also on my chunky books shame list.
It was absolutely the prompt's fault. No paragraph break November was the worst! I felt like I was being attacked. Of course, I don't even like it when authors skip dialogue marks. Give me all the proper grammar, please. 🤓 I look forward to seeing what books you choose for the challenge on your lovely channel. 🥰
@ArtemisFloof Thank you! I'm looking forward to making the selections. I already scoured my TBR and found out it had many, many books with 14 letters in the title, but I did find a winner.
Haha I am enjoying in a small way all the anti-NoParaNovember comments 😂
I am pleased you managed to find a 15-character title though. So many I had were 14 or 16, but it added to the joy when I found one that fit.
Highly recommend The Poisonwood Bible
Collected Works is on my TBR
Wellness took me months to read. A lot of fuss about nothing.
Blue cover … the new Olga T
Unless is a great book ❤
Say Nothing on audio ☘️
Intermezzo for bros
Thanks for sharing!
Was it The Last White Man that sort of tarnished Mohsin Hamid for you? It was the first first of his books I read and I was so disappointed, I’m not sure I’ll read others.
Three Fires by Denise Mina is breathtaking. I listened to the audiobook, fell hard in love, and then ordered the physical copy. What a piece of art. Audiobook is read so perfectly that I think it is absolutely the way to go.
I don’t really respond well to prompts, reading lists, etc. I’m just so freaking stubborn. But I shall give it a try this year coming and perhaps try converting over to The StoryGraph again. January is a breeze. I’ve been waiting to listen to Nuclear War for a couple of months now. 1 down.
It was The Last White Man. I found the premise fascinating but the writing style frustrated me so much. So I need to find out if Exit West has the same style and I was just a different reader back when I read it...
I adored Rizzio so I am very, very, very much looking forward to Three Fires. Glad to have your recommendation for it!
I just joined the challenge on Storygraph. However, I am stuck with all the prompts (not in a bad way) because I do not like the wildcard choice. I don't want to be a negative nelly so I'll leave it at that.
No need to use the wildcard to complete the challenge - it's just a back-up! There are loads of suggestions already added to the prompts, so for the non-personal ones you can always flip through the other users' books for inspiration 😊
I so enjoyed participating in the challenge this year and look forward to 2025 ESPECIALLY since NoParagrahVember has died a horrible, grisly, well-deserved death. (I'm assuming). I love the wildcard tip of the heart to Alice (and I also ❤️ Agatha Christie). Well done! Okay, off to count book title letters…
The vitriol for no paragraph November 😂😂😂
But I am glad to hear you like this set, and I was very glad to include a tribute to Alice ♥️
Join me in! Love your channel 🎉
Thank you so much! ☺️
Have I spent a disproportionate amount of the evening (including making hubby do tea) matching potential books to prompts?
Sounds like a stonking good evening to me!!!
What background is this 👀
Just gotta mix it up a bit sometimes 😅 My usual spot is a swivel round to the left of here.
November is the only month I need comfort. It's dark and cold, and the Christmas lights aren’t up yet😢…However, I guess not everyone lives in the North 🙂
You can still read something warm and cozy! It just needs to be outside your comfort zone. Maybe something thematic? 👀
East of Eden would be great for brothers as well. Im still ashamed Ive not read The Bone People by Keri Hulme. As a New Zealander, it is sacrilegious to not have read the first Booker fron ourcountry.
One of my other reading goals for 2025 is to read more Booker winners, and The Bone People is one I am very keen to get to. Need to read it!
Who removed my comment? Hmmm
Anyways thanks Ben for these - I've created my list of 12 for these prompts and 9 of them were already on my TBR for next year. Happy for that!
Wasn't me, I promise! I think sometimes TH-cam anti-spam filtering gets it a bit wrong.
So glad you were able to fit a load from your TBR into the prompts - great to have that added boost to read them!
Oh, no. Maybe I'll have to make November very uncomfortable by reading a "new adult" book? The writing and narration style of this genre usually gives me hives.
I finished the 2024 challenge yesterday 🎉
Congrats on the full set for 2024! 👏
What is a new adult book? 😬 Never heard of it.
@tarastreasure I'm not sure about any definition, but new adult books fall between the young adult and adult categories. In my experience, the only difference between young adult and new adult is that the characters are slightly older and that there's very explicit sexual content in the books called new adult.
@@GuroFlemmen oh, I get it now. I know what books you are talking about.
I love these prompts and I’ve loved following along this year! Thank you for the time that goes into this. In the last couple of weeks I’ve read Intermezzo and brother. do. you. love. me. So I’ve completely aced Decem-bros a year early 😂. Will have to think of some different ones now…
So glad you like them! And you are so ahead of the curve on Decem-bros... have you been spying in my notes? 😂