Simply Angela : 2024 Reading Challenges

I wasn’t sure what reading challenges I wanted to do for 2024 but I decided I wanted to keep it simple this year with my public challenges. I decided to do the Agatha Christie Decades Challenge and the StoryGraph Onboarding Reading Challenge. There’s probably a few mini challenges I’ll join through the year but these are the only yearlong challenges I’ll be joining.

I tried, and failed, with the 23 books in 2023 challenge that I set for myself. I did pick up a few books from the ones I selected but I ended up DNFing the majority of those. While the challenge did help me clear my shelf, reading-wise it was a bit of a bust. My goal is still to clear off my TBR pile; I just need a more relaxed way to do it as I’m more of a mood reader.

2024 Agatha Christie The Decades Challenge

Host: Agatha Christie Estate

Goal: To read 12 Agatha Christie books from the themed decades.

Books Read

1920s

1930s

1940s-1950s

1950s-1960s

StoryGraph’s 2024 Onboarding Reading Challenge

Host: StoryGraph

Goal: Complete the 6 reading prompts before the end of 2024

1.Prompt: Read a book from the five-star section of one of your similar users.

Book Selected: Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer

2.Prompt: Read a StoryGraph recommendation from “Out of your comfort zone…”

Book Selected: Orkney by Amy Sackville

3.Prompt: Reading Challenge random number game. (pick a number from 1-12, go to reading challenges, open the category that corresponds to the number, select the challenge that catches your eye, read a book that would fit the prompt)

Random Generated Number: 2

Category: Tackle Your TBR

Challenge: Bibliophile’s Speakeasy hosted by karlsmariels

Challenge Prompt: Wine (a classic novel that you have been wanting to read for a while)

Book Selected: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

4. Prompt: Read a book from your To-Read Pile starting with the first letter of your name. (If you don’t have a book on your TBR beginning with the first letter of your name, go through the letters of your name until you find one. ‘A’ and ‘The’ don’t can’t.)

Name: Angela

Letter Used: E (apparently, I don’t have books added to StoryGraph that start with ‘A’, ‘N’, or ‘G’.

Book Selected: Every Vow You Break by Peter Swanson

5.Prompt: Read a book discovered via Buddy Reads or Readalongs page.

Book Selected: The Last Heir to Blackwood Library by Hester Fox

6.Prompt: Read a book from your Up-Next Suggestions.

Book Selected: Spells for Forgetting by Adrienne Young

Personal Reading Challenges

Finish The Series Personal Challenge—I’m in the middle of more than few that I need to finish. I also a few that I want to start. Here’s the list I want to tackle this year.

In Progress

-The Krewe of Hunters by Heather Graham—I made a decent dent in this series last year but I still have a chunk of the series left to read.

-Shadow Hollow by Juneau Black—I have three books left to finish.

-Outlander by Diana Gabaldon—I have more than a few books to read in this series.

-The Oxford Tearoom Mysteries by HY Hanna—I have three left to read in this series, maybe four because I’m not sure if I remember what happened in The Dough Must Go On (book 9).

-Half Moon Hollow by Molly Harper—somewhere along the line I missed reading A Witch’s Handbook to Kissing and Curses.

Want To Start

-All Souls by Deborah Harkness—I have the three books and the prequel (I also have the companion book but I’m not sure I’m going to get it) which I want to finish before the next book, The Black Bird Oracle, is out in July.

Discovery of Witches READ

All Souls

The Book of Life

-Dangerous Damsels by India Holton

-Belladonna Series by Adalyn Grace

Belladonna READ

Foxglove READ

Wisteria (not released yet)

-The Beautiful by Renée Ahdieh

The Beautiful

The Damned

The Righteous

The Ruined

I have a few challenges left in The Ultimate Reading Challenge book—I received this a few years ago, started it in 2024, and it’s still not finished. I’ve set a rule for myself that the books I read for this has to be solely for this challenge. While I could have combined them with other challenges I completed, I’ve held firm to my rule, which is why the challenge is still in progress. Here’s the five remaining prompts.

-Read a book that features an indigenous person

-Read a book about a person with a disability

-Re-read a classic you hated in high school

-Write a letter to someone that’s influenced your reading life

-Write a quote from a beloved book and display it in your house