Sometime last year, my coworker Ashley and I were talking about books, and she introduced me to Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge.



The last time I did a reading challenge was probably when I was in middle school when the BookIt program existed at the public library. Did anyone else have BookIt? I was obsessed with earning the rewards for reading books in the summer. We ate a lot of those PizzaHut personal pan pizzas when I did BookIt.

Anyway, the idea behind the Book Riot challenge is to encourage you to read books outside of what you typically gravitate toward.

I started the book challenge in the spring when I learned about it, and was able to cross out several categories right away with books I'd already finished in 2018.

This is everything I read this year as part of the challenge. All the reviews of these books are on my Goodreads. Some I loved, some I hated. (I will never enjoy Pride and Prejudice no matter how hard I try). Some are books I would have read even without the challenge, but some definitely are not.

1. A book published posthumously -- I'll Be Gone in the Dark
2. A book of true crime -- American Fire: Love, Arson and Life in a Vanishing Land
3. A classic of genre fiction (i.e. mystery, sci fi/fantasy, romance) -- A Wrinkle in Time*
4. A comic written and drawn by the same person -- Pashimina*
5. A book set in or about one of the five BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, or South Africa) -- Lion: A Long Way Home
6. A book about nature -- The Great Alone
7. A western -- Vengeance Road*
8. A comic written or drawn by a person of color -- Pashmina
9. A book of colonial or postcolonial literature -- Pachinko
10. A romance novel by or about a person of color -- A Princess in Theory
11. A children’s classic published before 1980 -- A Wrinkle in Time
12. A celebrity memoir -- The Last Black Unicorn
13. An Oprah Book Club selection -- An American Marriage
14. A book of social science -- A False Report: A True Story of Rape in America
15. A one-sitting book -- Maybe Someday
16. The first book in a new-to-you YA or middle grade series -- Ruby Red*
17. A sci fi novel with a female protagonist by a female author -- A Wrinkle in Time
18. A comic that isn’t published by Marvel, DC, or Image -- Pashmina
19. A book of genre fiction in translation -- Ruby Red
20. A book with a cover you hate -- Vengeance Road
21.  A mystery by a person of color or LGBTQ+ author -- Tall Tail
22. An essay anthology -- Double Bind
23. A book with a female protagonist over the age of 60 -- Bloodstains with Bronte
24. An assigned book you hated (or never finished) -- Pride and Prejudice