TikTok Reading Challenges 2025: Complete Guide

Reading challenges transform solitary reading into community events. BookTok hosts dozens of challenges yearly—here are the best for 2025.

The Big Ones

52 Book Club

One book per week, 52 books per year. The classic. Join the r/52book subreddit for support.

PopSugar Reading Challenge

40 prompts ranging from "book with a map" to "book about a hobby." Great for genre exploration.

Book Riot Read Harder

24 diverse prompts pushing you outside comfort zones. "Book by an Indigenous author," "book in translation."

BookTok Specific

#BookTokMadeMe

Read viral recommendations, review honestly.

Trope Challenge

One book for each major trope: enemies-to-lovers, found family, only one bed, etc.

Building Your Challenge

Tips for success:

• Start realistic (12 books/year is fine!)
• Track progress (Goodreads, Storygraph, spreadsheet)
• Allow substitutions—flexibility prevents burnout
• Share progress—accountability helps

Sample Reading List

For "African Fantasy" prompt: RESONANCE

For "Slow Burn Romance": The Bridge Kingdom

For "Made You Cry": The Song of Achilles

Why Challenges Work

Reading challenges provide structure that helps some readers. Goals can motivate when internal drive falters. The gamification element appeals to competitive spirits. Community participation creates accountability and shared experience. For readers who struggle with consistency, challenges offer scaffolding that makes reading happen.

Challenges also push readers outside comfort zones. When a challenge requires a genre you never read, you discover new favorites. When it demands diversity, you encounter perspectives you would not have chosen. This expansion has value beyond any single book.

Choosing Your Challenge

Match challenge intensity to your life circumstances. Ambitious challenges motivate some readers and paralyze others. Start achievable. Build success before increasing difficulty. Failed challenges can discourage reading rather than encourage it. The point is to read more, not to feel bad about reading less.

Challenge Psychology

Reading challenges work through several psychological mechanisms. Goal-setting provides direction when motivation falters. Public commitment creates accountability. Community participation offers belonging. Gamification triggers reward-seeking behavior. Understanding these mechanisms helps you use challenges effectively rather than just following them.

The dark side exists too. Failed challenges can trigger shame spirals that reduce reading. Competitive readers may prioritize speed over depth. Some chase challenge completion while ignoring what they actually enjoy. Awareness of these pitfalls helps avoid them. Challenges should enhance reading, not replace it with checkbox completion.

Designing Your Own Challenge

The most effective challenge is one tailored to your goals. What do you want reading to do for you? Relaxation? Learning? Expansion? Design prompts that serve these purposes rather than adopting generic challenges that may not fit your life. A personal challenge you complete beats an impressive challenge you abandon.

The Challenge Phenomenon

Reading challenges gamify an already pleasurable activity. The structure they provide helps some readers discover books they'd never choose independently while building consistent reading habits. Others find challenges restrictive, preferring spontaneous book selection. Know yourself before committing.

TikTok reading challenges spread rapidly through the platform's algorithm. A creator proposes a challenge, viewers adopt and modify it, and suddenly millions of readers share a goal. This collective reading creates community around books in ways individual reading cannot.

Popular 2025 Challenges

The "Around the World" challenge asks readers to read books set in or by authors from different countries. Variations specify continents, regions, or number of countries. This challenge naturally diversifies reading lists and introduces readers to voices they might not otherwise encounter.

Trope-based challenges appeal to romance and fantasy readers. Reading a book for every popular trope—enemies to lovers, found family, fake dating—encourages genre exploration while building vocabulary for discussing books with fellow fans.

Creating Personal Challenges

The most effective challenges align with personal reading goals. Want to tackle your TBR? Create a challenge from books you already own. Want to diversify? Specify categories that push you beyond comfortable patterns. Want to go deeper? Challenge yourself to reread and annotate favorites.

Balance stretch goals with achievability. Challenges that feel impossible discourage rather than motivate. Start smaller than you think necessary—completing an "easy" challenge feels better than abandoning an ambitious one. You can always increase difficulty later.

Tracking Progress

Spreadsheets, apps, and journals all serve challenge tracking. Goodreads offers reading challenge features that automatically count progress. Notion templates designed for reading challenges circulate among BookTok users. Even simple checkbox lists work if you'll actually use them.

Visual tracking motivates many readers. Coloring in a bookshelf illustration, moving books between "to read" and "read" piles, or posting progress updates creates satisfying evidence of accomplishment. Find the tracking method that motivates rather than burdens you.

Community and Accountability

Sharing challenge progress creates accountability and connection. Hashtags gather participants for specific challenges, creating spaces to celebrate completions, commiserate over difficult books, and discover recommendations from fellow challengers.

Reading sprints add social dimensions to challenges. Timed sessions where participants read simultaneously, then report progress, create event-like experiences around solo reading. These sprints help participants make progress while building community.

When Challenges Don't Work

Not every reader thrives with challenges. Some find external structure inhibits reading pleasure. Others start enthusiastically but abandon challenges that feel like obligations. If challenges consistently stress rather than motivate you, honor that self-knowledge and read freely instead.

Failed challenges still teach. Which categories felt impossible? Which books did you force yourself to finish despite not enjoying them? These insights reveal reading preferences worth understanding, even if the challenge itself didn't succeed.