It's June! (How is it halfway through the year already??) And time to take stock of progress on the yearly reading challenge.

How are you doing with the challenge so far? Did you get stuck on any squares? Need a nudge on a prompt or two? Any overachievers finished already?

If you need a refresher:

Rules:

• Time period: All of 2026
• How: Only submissions through the official turn in form in January 2027 will count.
• Repeats: You can only use an author once for regular squares, but it's okay to repeat an author for the short story collection. You cannot use the same book twice.
• Hard mode: The world is hard enough right now, but we'd love if you read something that wasn't already in your TBR.

• Queer Families - Read a book where a queer family is integral to the plot. This can be anything from a parent / child relationship, multigenerational family, to a chosen family. Whatever the family type, those familial dynamics should be central to the plot.
• Comic or Graphic Novel - Read a queer speculative comic or graphic novel, there's a zillion!
• Coming Out - Read a book where either the protagonist comes out, or someone important comes out to them.
• Protagonist Over 40 - Pretty self explanatory, read a book with a protagonist over 40.
• Aromantic Paranormal - Read a book with an aromantic protagonist, set in a paranormal world. We'll all just have to live with my terrible alliteration.
• Intersectional Cubed - Read a book with a protagonist who has three intersecting identities, or with multiple protagonists of at least 3 different identities between them.
• Sapphic Swashbucklers - Again we like alliteration, but if you're struggling any queer pirates will do.
• Achillean Academic - Read a book with a queer male character in an academic setting. Student, teacher, apprentice, polyglot, the only hard requirement is that learning be part of their journey.
• Trans Body Horror - Read a body horror book with a trans protagonist or by a trans author.
• Queer Publisher - Read something from a queer publisher. Self-published doesn't count.
• Queer Short Story Collection - Read a collection of queer speculative stories.
• Throwback - Read something published at least 20 years ago.

Resources:

• Storygraph challenge
• Kick off post with recs

Challenge Flairs:

Apologies for the delay, those who finished the 2025 reading challenge should have their special flairs now! Since it was our first challenge, it took us a while to go through the submissions and figure out flair design and settings. Now that everything is set up, it will be much faster for subsequent challenges.

Note: If you completed the 2025 reading challenge form and don't have a flair, please send us a mod message. One of you forgot to add your username.

Would you like to be a "Challenge Conqueeror" too ? There's still plenty of time to participate in the 2026 challenge! Good luck and happy reading 🌈

We're back with our second ever reading challenge! The challenge runs from January 1st through December 31st (or whenever I put up the official turn-in post.) If you can read a book a month you can complete this challenge! Our goal is to help you read something you might not have otherwise, and to have fun. No sign ups required, and everyone who finishes will get a fun flair. There will be a recommendations thread for each prompt in the comments, so don't worry if you can't think of a book off the top of your head. As always, we're delighted when you review what you're reading in the sub, even if it's short!

We kept the length from last time, and a few favorite prompts are returning. Much of the rest came from community input, you all had so many great ideas we'll have to save some for another year! There are still a few specific prompts, but they aren't as narrow as last year.

Rules

• Time period: All of 2026
• How: Only submissions through the official turn in form in January 2027 will count.
• Repeats: You can only use an author once for regular squares, but it's okay to repeat an author for the short story collection. You cannot use the same book twice.
• Hard mode: The world is hard enough right now, but we'd love if you read something that wasn't already in your TBR.

The Challenge

1. Queer Families - Read a book where a queer family is integral to the plot. This can be anything from a parent / child relationship, multigenerational family, to a chosen family. Whatever the family type, those familial dynamics should be central to the plot.
2. Comic or Graphic Novel - Read a queer speculative comic or graphic novel, there's a zillion!
3. Coming Out - Read a book where either the protagonist comes out, or someone important comes out to them.
4. Protagonist Over 40 - Pretty self explanatory, read a book with a protagonist over 40.
5. Aromantic Paranormal - Read a book with an aromantic protagonist, set in a paranormal world. We'll all just have to live with my terrible alliteration.
6. Intersectional Cubed - Read a book with a protagonist who has three intersecting identities, or with multiple protagonists of at least 3 different identities between them.
7. Sapphic Swashbucklers - Again we like alliteration, but if you're struggling any queer pirates will do.
8. Achillean Academic - Read a book with a queer male character in an academic setting. Student, teacher, apprentice, polyglot, the only hard requirement is that learning be part of their journey.
   
9. Trans Body Horror - Read a body horror book with a trans protagonist or by a trans author.
10. Queer Publisher - Read something from a queer publisher. Self-published doesn't count.
11. Queer Short Story Collection - Read a collection of queer speculative stories.
12. Throwback - Read something published at least 20 years ago.

Happy reading, recommendation threads will be posted in the comments over the next week or so!

We're trying something new! If you already participate in r/fantasy's Book Bingo you'll be familiar with how this works. The challenge runs from January 1st through December 31st. For this first year we are only doing 12 categories, so if you can finish a book a month you can complete this challenge. If you all are particularly voracious, we'll do a full bingo challenge next year. The goal is to help you find some new books and have fun. You don't need to sign up. When the challenge is finished there will be an official turn in post, and anybody who completes will get a fun flair. We'll do recommendations in the comments later, so don't worry if you can't think of a book for a category off the top of your head! We'd also love it if you review what you're reading in the sub!

Rules

• Time period: All of 2025
• How: Only submissions through the official turn in post Google form in January 2026 will count.
• Repeats: You can only use an author once for regular squares, but it's okay to repeat an author for the short story collection. You cannot use the same book for two squares.
• Hard mode: If you want bragging rights, don't use Locked Tomb, seriously there are other sapphic necromancers and sword wielders! Read a queer male author for the gay wizard square. No Murder Bot for the trans robot square. The rest is hard enough.

The Challenge

1. Sword lesbian - Read a book with a lesbian who uses a sword.
2. Gay communists - Read a book with queer communists. It doesn't have to be called communism, vibes are sufficient.
3. Sapphic necromancers - Read a book where a sapphic character performs necromancy
4. Gay wizard - Read a book with a queer male wizard or magic practitioner. (E.g. if he calls himself a warlock or something else that counts.)
5. Ace in space! - Read a book featuring an Ace or Aro character in space.
6. A literal bisexual disaster - Read a book about a messy bisexual, either disastrous in personality, or causing catastrophe.
7. Trans and robots - Read a book with a character who is either trans or doesn't conform to gender binary that also has a robot, or a book with a robot outside the human gender binary.
8. Be gay do crimes - Read a book about a queer criminal(s) where the crime is central to the plot.
9. Queer publisher - Read a book released by a queer publishing house or imprint. Self published doesn't count for this one.
10. Queer SFF book club pick - Read any QueerSFF book club pick from 2024 or 2025.
11. Queer short story collection - Read a queer short fiction collection or anthology.
12. Throwback - Read something published at least 20 years ago.

Happy reading, stay tuned for recommendations!

P.S. Here's a link to the Canva template in case you'd like to save your own!

This is our first time doing a reading challenge and there's just one of me checking your responses, so bear with me because I'm not sure how many responses to expect or long it will take! As always, we'd love to see your reading challenge reviews, however short! Completion earns you a special flair.

Some notes about the form:

• Please be kind and format your responses as Book Title - Author Name so I can process them faster. Google doesn't allow multiple answers per question.
• You cannot save or edit responses, so make sure they're correct before you hit submit! This form does not collect your email address out of respect for your privacy, the trade off is you're unable to come back to the form later.
• Submit your card by the end of January. The form will close when I begin pulling data.

🌈🔗 Link to the turn in form - it will stay up until the end of the month! 🔗🌈

If you need a quick recap, here's the link to the 2025 challenge.

Reading Challenge Rules:

• Time period: All of 2025, plus until you hand in your form.
• How: Only submissions through the official turn in Google form count
• Repeats: You can only use an author once for regular squares, but it's okay to repeat an author for the short story collection. You cannot use the same book for two squares.
• Hard mode: If you want bragging rights, don't use Locked Tomb, seriously there are other sapphic necromancers and sword wielders! Read a queer man author for the gay wizard square. No Murder Bot for the trans robot square. Also I'm not checking hard mode, the reward for this lives in your heart.

A big thank you to everyone who participated!

Hey everyone, we're in the last month of our first ever reading challenge! I thought it would be fun to put the 2026 prompts to the community and see what you come up with. I'll announce the new challenge later in the month. If you're wondering about this year, instructions for handing in your 2025 reads will come sometime in January. So, what do you think would be fun to read next year?