Reading Challenge Announcement - Fall/Winter 2026-2027
Hi everyone !! Sorry for the delay, but the Fall/Winter 2026-2027 reading challenge.
Technically, the challenge is from the 23th of September (the end of the previous challenge) to the 20th of March. Obviously since the announcement post is late, you can retroactively count books you've read since the end of the previous challenge, and if it's a bit short in the end I'll think about having the challenge last a little more.
For those who are new here (or simply didn’t know there was a reading challenge), first of all welcome !! 🥳 Our reading challenges are held twice a year, one through autumn/winter and the other through spring/summer. They're there to be a fun way to foster community and explore new books. The last one was our 2026 spring summer reading challenge and ended on the 23th of September. This is our fifth reading challenge !
Principle of the challenge
For those for did the previous reading challenges, there is no huge mechanical change.
The idea is that there are 3 cards with 9 squares each : A-Side, B-Side, and C-Side. For each card, the goal is to read one book for each square.
The base challenge is to fill the A-Side card. For each square, you can swap it out for its corresponding square on the B-Side card. At the end you will have filled a card with 9 books.
The harder challenge is to fill both the A-Side and the B-Side cards ! Since this mode leaves way less flexibility, you can also swap one prompt on each card for any prompt of a previous reading challenge. All previous reading challenges are accessible through the wiki.
The even harder challenge is to fill all three cards !! C-Side is a little bit more difficult, but mostly because that's a lot of books. You can also swap a prompt for a previous challenge prompt. ♻️
The idea with this is to have the challenge be adaptable depending on how much you normally read, and how much you wish to challenge yourself for these silly reddit challenges 😁.
The prompts
A-Side
🏰 Western European Author : Read a book from an author from the western part of Europe. This includes countries classified as Western Europe by the UN (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands and Switzerland), as well as countries from the western part of southern Europe (Italy, Malta, Portugal, Spain).
🏘️ Small Town : The story prominently takes place in a small town or village.
📔 500+ Pages : Read a book of more that 500 pages.
🧑💼 Public Worker : One of the main characters works for a public or governmental organization.
🧞 Inspired by Mythology : The story is influenced by mythology without being a retelling, for example it can borrow stories or creatures from myth and include them in the book's own world. Try to avoid Greek and Norse mythology for this one.
❄️ Winter Title : The title has references to winter times (cold, snow, winter...).
Mysterious Forest : The story features a mysterious or magical forest.
🧑🏾 Black MC : The main character is dark-skinned.
B-Side
🏔️ Eastern European Author : Read a book from an author from the eastern part of Europe. This includes countries classified as Eastern Europe by the UN (Belarus, Bulgaria, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, Republic of Moldavia, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovakia and Ukraine), as well as countries from the eastern part of southern Europe (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece, Serbia, Slovenia, North Macedonia, Montenegro). You may also include Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
🏙️ Big Town : The story prominently takes place in a big town or capital city.
📙 Standalone Novella : The book is between 17,500 and 40,000 words.
🤵 Private Worker : One of the main characters works for a private organization.
🧚 Retelling : The story is a retelling of a known myth or fairytale. Try to avoid Greek and Norse mythology for this one.
🍂 Fall Title : The title has references to fall times (autumn, fall, leaves...).
🏚️ Ruins : The story features the ruins of something. It can be a gothic castle, a derelict ship, the whole remnants of a city...
🌏 Asian MC : The main character is Asian. They can be of Asian descent in a book set in the real world, or in a setting analogous to real-world Asian countries.
C-Side
🌌 Scandinavian Author : Read a book from a Scandinavian author. Scandinavia includes Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland.
⛵ Ship : The story prominently takes place on a ship. This can be a naval ship or a space ship.
📚 Collection of short stories : Read an anthology or a collection of short stories.
🧑🔧 Craftsperson : One of the main characters is a craftsperson. They work for themselves and make things by hand.
🐉 Created Mythos : The mythology in the book is fully original and does not reference existing myths. There must be a decent amount of worldbuilding around the book's mythology for this.
☀️ Heat Title : The title has references to heat (sun, summer, scorched, hot...)
🚏 Liminal Place : The story features a liminal place, a transitional space or a space at the limit between spaces.
🌎 LATAM MC : The main character is Latino-American. They can be of Latino-American descent in a book set in the real world, or in a setting with cultures analogous to real-world Latino-American culture.
Rules / FAQ :
- Substitutions/Composite : If you are doing the base challenge, you may substitute any square from the A-Side with the corresponding one from the B-Side. If you are doing the harder or even harder challenge, you may substitute one square per card with a previous bingo prompt.
- Free Space : The middle square is a free square ! You can use whatever you want for this square.
- Special mode : Woman Power : You can do “woman power” mode and only choose books written by women.
- Series, repeating authors… : It’s up to you ! If you want to only read books by different authors you can add that rule for yourself, but we don’t want to “discourage” reading series or such, so it's not an official rule.
- Interpretation : In the same idea as the previous point, the prompts are flexible and open to interpretation.
- Genre : Please keep it SFF (sci-fi/fantasy/speculative fiction) !
- Female Gaze ?: There is no hard rule on that, especially since what's "female gaze-y" or not is very subjective. We trust our members to recommend books that fit this space, but please read what you will !
Posts planning :
There will be a general rec thread right at the beginning (one week from now), followed by a focused thread once a week, alternating between A-Side and B-Side squares. You will also be able to share your advancement and the books you've read in our Current Reads weekly posts.
Resources :
Feel free to use these however you want : change the pictures, the colors, anything, make it yours !
For those who are unfamiliar with Canva, it’s a (mostly) free graphic design web tool. The template link creates a copy of our Reading Challenge template when you click on it. To use it, you just have to copy pictures of the books your read to the template, and drag and drop them in the spaces inside the squares.
For the alternate versions of the squares :
If you want to have the other side’s alternate version, it becomes a little bit more complicated but basically you have to delete the elements of the square you’re replacing (the prompt name, the stars, the image space and the square background), and the alternate square will be hidden just behind all this ! For the harder and even harder modes, you're on your own sorry 🫡
- General Rec Thread
- Focus Threads :
- A-Side
- Western European Author
- Small Town
- 500+ Pages
- Public Worker
- Inspired by Mythology
- Winter Title
- Mysterious Forest
- Black MC
- B-Side
- Eastern European Author
- Big Town
- Novella
- Private Worker
- Retelling
- Fall Title
- Ruins
- Asian MC
- C-Side
- Scandinavian Author
- Ship
- Collection of short stories
- Crasftsperson
- Created mythos
- Heat Title
- Liminal Place
- LATAM MC
- A-Side