The 52 Book Club’s 2023 Reading Challenge

Want to take your reading to the next level? The 52 Book Club is back for its sixth annual challenge, and we’ve got fifty-two new prompts for 2023. This is the perfect place to expand your reading, connect with fellow book lovers, and have a lot of fun! We’re so glad you’re here and can’t wait to see what you come up with for this new year!

What is the challenge?

The 52 Book Club’s annual reading challenge is made up of 52 unique prompts. (You may have heard it described as 52 books in 52 weeks.) The goal is to match one book to each prompt. This means that participants will read a total of fifty-two books throughout the year. We encourage participants to try new authors or genres, push themselves to read more, read differently, and get creative with it!

How does it work?

  1. Follow The 52 Book Club on social media. You can find us on Facebook, Goodreads or Storygraph, and Instagram.
  1. Using the list below, match one book to each of the 52 prompts. (52 books total.) Get as creative as you like with interpreting the prompts!
  1. When January 1, 2023 rolls around, start reading!
  1. Once you’ve finished one of the prompts, check it off the list and share your read! The Facebook group is our most popular spot for posting your recent 52 Book Club reads. When sharing on other social media sites like Instagram or Twitter, don’t forget to use the hashtag #the52bookclub2023 and #the52bookclub. This helps us find everyone!
  1. How often you share is up to you! You can share after every read, share all of your reads at the end of the month, or even just at the end of the year! Some participants chose to track their reads privately and simply follow along in the groups to find amazing recommendations. How you decide to participate is up to you. We’re just glad you’re here!

Other helpful reminders:

  • You can complete the list in any order. You can also interpret the prompts as creatively as you like, using any format of reading, and any author or genre that you feel fits the prompt. Want to make your challenge more difficult? Check out these suggestions for increasing your 2023 challenge difficulty.
  • Remember that the challenge doesn’t officially begin until January 1, 2023! (We just release it early so you have time to plan and invite friends!) Have more questions? Check out our FAQs.

Ready to see what 2023 holds in store? Here’s our new challenge:

Sharing the challenge? Don’t forget to use the hashtags #the52bookclub or #the52bookclub2023

Invite your friends and family members to join in. It’s okay if you can’t read 52 books in a year. All are welcome!


2023 Challenge Downloads

Want to download a copy of the challenge for yourself? Check out these free printables! In addition to a PDF and JPEG version of the challenge, we also have a 2023 Reading Logbook (a simple way to track your 2023 challenge reads), a 2023 post template (perfect for sharing on social media) and a Word document copy of the prompts (easy for those creating their own way to track and log prompts!) And, new this year is another template for sharing all 52 Book Covers! You can grab them all here:

Love bullet journaling? Looking for a different way to track your 2023 reads? Check out our 2023 prompt stickers, available for purchase through our official 2023 sticker partner, PlanItWithStickers. These vibrant and colorful stickers are perfect for medium and large-sized journals and can be shipped internationally. Grab a copy for yourself, here!

Other Resources for 2023:

Need help planning your 2023 challenge? We’ve created some resources to help you out!

Our 2023 Reading Challenge Guide is the perfect place to start. This guide walks through EACH of the 52 prompts and explains what they mean. It also contains creative interpretations, ideas to get you started, and links to our Goodreads lists.

Want a quicker way to access the Goodreads lists? We’ve also compiled a master list of all 52 Goodreads lists for this challenge. Click the buttons below to access both of these amazing resources!

So, what do you think? Which prompts immediately jump out at you? Are there any that feel daunting or intimidating? (Don’t forget, you can get as creative as you’d like when interpreting the prompts. Be sure to read through our rules or FAQs for more tips on that!)