The Old Man and the Sea
Ernest Hemingway
About 130 pages in most editions.
Books like The Old Man and the Sea2027 reading challenge
A reading challenge gives you a reason to pick up books you would not usually choose. This one has 24 prompts in four sections, and every prompt comes with a few book ideas.
Print this page for a checklist you can fill in by hand.
Length and age
A book under 200 pages
Pick a book that most print editions fit into fewer than 200 pages.
The Pearl
John Steinbeck
A novella of around 120 pages in most editions.
Convenience Store Woman
Sayaka Murata
Translated from Japanese by Ginny Tapley Takemori, at about 160 pages.
A book over 500 pages
Pick a book that most print editions stretch past 500 pages.
The Pillars of the Earth
Ken Follett
Set in 12th-century England, and well past 500 pages in most editions.
The Way of Kings
Brandon Sanderson
The first of the Stormlight Archive series, at about 1,000 pages.
A book first published before 1950
The first edition came out in 1949 or earlier, whichever edition you read.
Jane Eyre
Charlotte Brontë
First published in October 1847.
The Hound of the Baskervilles
Arthur Conan Doyle
A Sherlock Holmes case set on Dartmoor, serialized in 1901 and 1902.
Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Robert Louis Stevenson
An 1886 novella of about 130 pages in most editions.
A book published in 2020 or later
The book first came out in 2020 or in any year after it.
Project Hail Mary
Andy Weir
Published in 2021 and later adapted into a film.
Books like Project Hail MaryLessons in Chemistry
Bonnie Garmus
Published in April 2022 and set in 1960s Southern California.
Books like Lessons in ChemistrySmall Things Like These
Claire Keegan
A novella published in October 2021, at about 110 pages.
A debut novel
The first novel its author published.
The Night Circus
Erin Morgenstern
Erin Morgenstern's first novel, published in 2011.
Books like The Night CircusThe Secret History
Donna Tartt
Donna Tartt's first novel, published in 1992.
The Rosie Project
Graeme Simsion
Graeme Simsion's first novel, published in 2013.
A book with a one-word title
The whole title is a single word.
Piranesi
Susanna Clarke
Susanna Clarke's second novel, published in 2020.
Hamnet
Maggie O'Farrell
A 2020 novel about the grief of Shakespeare's family after their son died.
Places and voices
A book in translation
Written in another language and read here in its English translation.
The Memory Police
Yoko Ogawa
Translated from Japanese by Stephen Snyder, in 2019.
The Shadow of the Wind
Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Translated from Spanish by Lucia Graves, in 2004.
Chronicle of a Death Foretold
Gabriel García Márquez
Translated from Spanish by Gregory Rabassa.
A book by a Nobel Prize winner in Literature
The author won the Nobel Prize in Literature, for this book or for their work as a whole.
Of Mice and Men
John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1962.
Books like Of Mice and MenSong of Solomon
Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993.
Klara and the Sun
Kazuo Ishiguro
Kazuo Ishiguro won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2017.
A book set in Latin America
Most of the story takes place in Mexico or in a country of Central or South America.
Like Water for Chocolate
Laura Esquivel
Set on a ranch in northern Mexico during the Mexican Revolution.
The House of the Spirits
Isabel Allende
Set in a Latin American country the book never names.
Pedro Páramo
Juan Rulfo
Set in the ghost town of Comala, in Mexico.
A book set in Asia
Most of the story takes place in a country in Asia.
Pachinko
Min Jin Lee
Follows a Korean family who immigrates to Japan.
Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982
Cho Nam-joo
A novel about everyday sexism in South Korea, translated by Jamie Chang.
Siddhartha
Hermann Hesse
Set in India in the time of the Buddha.
A book set in the American South
The story takes place in a Southern state such as Alabama, Mississippi or North Carolina.
To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee
Set in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama, in the 1930s.
The Help
Kathryn Stockett
Set in Jackson, Mississippi, in the 1960s.
Where the Crawdads Sing
Delia Owens
Set in the marshes of coastal North Carolina.
Books like Where the Crawdads Sing
A memoir
A true account of part of the author's own life, told by the author.
Born a Crime
Trevor Noah
Stories from Trevor Noah's childhood in South Africa.
Educated
Tara Westover
Tara Westover's memoir of growing up in the mountains of Idaho.
Books like EducatedThe Glass Castle
Jeannette Walls
Jeannette Walls writes about her nomadic childhood.
Form and genre
A book that became a film or TV series
Any film or TV adaptation counts, whether you watch it before or after reading.
The Princess Bride
William Goldman
The 1987 film was directed by Rob Reiner.
Big Little Lies
Liane Moriarty
Adapted as an HBO series that began in 2017.
Station Eleven
Emily St. John Mandel
Adapted as an HBO Max series that premiered in December 2021.
A myth retold
A modern novel that retells an old myth or legend from a new point of view.
The Song of Achilles
Madeline Miller
Retells the Trojan War as told by Patroclus.
Books like The Song of AchillesThe Penelopiad
Margaret Atwood
Penelope looks back on the Odyssey in Margaret Atwood's retelling.
A book told in letters
A story told mostly through letters or other correspondence.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Written as letters and set in 1946.
Daddy-Long-Legs
Jean Webster
A 1912 novel told in a young woman's letters to a benefactor she has never met.
84, Charing Cross Road
Helene Hanff
Letters from a twenty-year correspondence between a writer and a London bookseller.
A children's book, read as an adult
A book written for young readers that you read now, as a grown-up.
Holes
Louis Sachar
Louis Sachar's novel from 1998, at about 240 pages.
The Secret Garden
Frances Hodgson Burnett
First published as a book in 1911.
Number the Stars
Lois Lowry
Set in Copenhagen in 1943, at about 150 pages in most editions.
A science fiction novel
A story shaped by science, technology or an imagined future.
The Left Hand of Darkness
Ursula K. Le Guin
Published in 1969 and set on an ice-covered planet.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Douglas Adams
Began as a BBC radio comedy in 1978.
A murder mystery
A story in which a death is the puzzle and the plot works out who is behind it.
And Then There Were None
Agatha Christie
Ten people on an isolated island off the coast of Devon, from 1939.
Murder on the Orient Express
Agatha Christie
A Hercule Poirot case on a train stopped by heavy snow, first published in 1934.
The Thursday Murder Club
Richard Osman
Four pensioners in a retirement village set out to solve a murder.
Moods and themes
A book set during World War II
The main events take place between 1939 and 1945.
The Nightingale
Kristin Hannah
Follows two sisters in France during the German occupation.
Code Name Verity
Elizabeth Wein
A friendship between a spy and a pilot, both young British women.
A book with a number in the title
Any number counts, written as a digit or as a word.
1984
George Orwell
Orwell's novel was first published in June 1949.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
Taylor Jenkins Reid
A 2017 novel about a fictional Old Hollywood star.
Books like The Seven Husbands of Evelyn HugoFour Thousand Weeks
Oliver Burkeman
A 2021 nonfiction book about time and a finite life.
A funny book
A book written to make you laugh, whether a novel, a memoir or essays.
Three Men in a Boat
Jerome K. Jerome
An 1889 comic novel about a two-week boating trip on the Thames.
Bossypants
Tina Fey
Tina Fey's comedy memoir.
Me Talk Pretty One Day
David Sedaris
David Sedaris's essays, including his move to France.
A book about books or bookstores
Books, reading or a bookstore play a leading part in the story.
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
Robin Sloan
A laid-off tech worker takes a job at a dusty bookstore full of secrets.
The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry
Gabrielle Zevin
Follows the owner of the only bookstore on Alice Island.
The Shadow of the Wind
Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Set in 1940s Barcelona, with a secret library of forgotten books.
A book about the outdoors
A book about walking, wild places or the natural world.
Wild
Cheryl Strayed
Cheryl Strayed's memoir of her 1995 hike on the Pacific Crest Trail.
A Walk in the Woods
Bill Bryson
Bill Bryson's account of trying to hike the Appalachian Trail.
Braiding Sweetgrass
Robin Wall Kimmerer
A 2013 book that weaves botany and Indigenous knowledge of plants.
A comfort read for the end of the year
A gentle, familiar-feeling book to close the year with.
The Hobbit
J.R.R. Tolkien
Bilbo Baggins leaves home on a quest; first published in 1937.
Books like The HobbitAnne of Green Gables
L.M. Montgomery
An orphan girl arrives on a farm in Avonlea, Prince Edward Island, in a 1908 novel.
Legends & Lattes
Travis Baldree
A 2022 fantasy about an orc swordswoman who dreams of opening a coffee shop.
How to use this challenge
Pick any prompt and any edition. Audiobooks and library copies count. One book fills one prompt, so you need 24 different books to finish. A short book is a fair way to catch up when the year gets busy, and a long one can wait for a holiday week.
A few ideas carry heavy themes, so check what a book contains before you start it. Code Name Verity and The Nightingale both describe the cruelty of war, and The Book Thief is narrated by Death and follows a girl in Nazi Germany. Choose another idea for that prompt if you want something lighter.
If none of the ideas for a prompt appeal to you, ask Bookworm for picks that suit your own taste.
Want picks of your own?
Tell Bookworm what you like and what you don't, and get a short list chosen for you.