How many 2025 Read Harder Challenge tasks have you completed so far?
This is the question that didn’t follow a pattern in its responses: some of you are already done the challenge, some haven’t started, and most of you are somewhere in the middle. If you squint, it is a rough bell curve, and considering we’re only halfway through the year, that’s promising!
I’d love to hear from you in the comments: do you plan to get through all 24 tasks, or do you pick and choose?
Which task was or will be the most challenging for you to complete?
I have to say, I was very surprised by the most common answer to this question: task #23, which is “Read a wordless comic.” These definitely don’t take a long time to get through, so I’d love to hear from those who answered this way: was it that it was hard to find these, or was there some other reason this was the most difficult?
The next most common tasks named were #13: “Read a nonfiction book about nature or the environment”; #11: “Read a work of weird horror”; and #10: “Read a romance book that doesn’t have an illustrated cover.” From the answers given, it looks like this was mostly because they covered genres you don’t usually read.
It’s worth noting that almost every task was the hardest for someone, though. The only tasks that weren’t mentioned at all were #2: “Reread a childhood favorite book” and #24: “Pick a 2015 Read Harder Challenge task to complete.”
Which task was or will be the easiest for you to complete?
This question had the clearest pattern in responses: the vast majority of you thought task #1, “Read a 2025 release by a BIPOC author”, and task #2, “Reread a childhood favorite book” were the easiest. It was nice to see that so many of you already had a bunch of new books by BIPOC authors on your most anticipated lists. I also saw a few people say they liked the excuse to go back to a childhood favorite. It can be hard to give ourselves permission to reread, but it can be a really valuable experience.
Like the previous question, almost every task was the easiest for someone—even the ones that were the most common responses for the previous question. The only tasks no one thought were the easiest were #5: “Read a book about immigration or refugees” (some people said it hit too close to home right now), #20: “Read the first book in a completed young adult or middle grade duology”; and #22: “Read a holiday romance that isn’t Christmas.”