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This guide contains information about Penn Valley Library's Read Harder Challenge

2025 Read Harder Challenge

Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge is back to excite you with new ways to read outside the lines, read differently, and read more. We're excited to bring this challenge to the Penn Valley campus again in 2024, for the fourth year. There are 24 reading tasks designed to get you out of your reading comfort zone and expand your worldview. Read as much or as little as you'd like, and don't forget books can overlap on reading tasks!

Help us stay connected with you by signing up with this form. 

 

How to Participate

 

Download a List- Register here, then keep track of your reading using this PDF.

Read Amazing Books- We've created a list of books we have available at Penn Valley Library. There is a bit of everything- E-Books, E-Audio Books, PV Books, and PV Books on CD! This list will grow throughout the year, so be sure and check back from time to time.

Win Prizes- Read as much or as little as you'd like. Once you're finished, email your list to amy.fortner@mcckc.edu and you'll receive a prize! (Prizes are for Penn Valley participants only.)

The Tasks

  1. Read a 2025 release by a BIPOC author.
  2. Reread a childhood favorite book.
  3. Read a queer mystery.
  4. Read a book about obsession.
  5. Read a book about immigration or refugees.
  6. Read a standalone fantasy book.
  7. Read a book about a piece of media you love (a TV show, a movie, a band, etc).
  8. Read literary fiction by a BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and/or disabled author.
  9. Read a book based solely on its setting.
  10. Read a romance book that doesn’t have an illustrated cover.
  11. Read a work of weird horror.
  12. Read a staff pick from an indie bookstore. (Preferably, from your local indie bookstore.)
  13. Read a nonfiction book about nature or the environment.
  14. Read a comic in translation.
  15. Read a banned book and complete a task on Book Riot’s How to Fight Book Bans guides.
  16. Read a genre-blending book.
  17. Read a book about little-known history.
  18. Read a “cozy” book by a BIPOC author.
  19. Read a queernorm book.
  20. Read the first book in a completed young adult or middle grade duology.
  21. Read a book about a moral panic.
  22. Read a holiday romance that isn’t Christmas.
  23. Read a wordless comic.
  24. Pick a 2015 Read Harder Challenge task to complete.