The 2023 Once Upon a Book Club Reading Challenge

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Reading the same genre over and over again may be fun if it is your favorite. However, this can make it tedious to branch out. You may experience difficulty deciding where to start, especially if it’s a book outside your usual niche. There are just so many books out there. Luckily, there’s an easy fix to this—reading challenges.

For the past two years, my family and I have been participating in Once Upon a Book Club’s 40 Book Reading Challenge. The title is fairly self-explanatory but it is a book challenge created by the book subscription service, Once Upon a Book Club. It provides readers with 40 different prompts to complete throughout the year. My family and I subscribed to this service because it contains special gifts associated with specified page numbers. You will open the book on said page and the gift will be an item related to that page. It wasn’t until later that we discovered the reading challenge (in which you can get a book as a prize upon completion). The different prompts of the challenge made us think and read books we never would have thought of before and helped me to expand my reading horizons.

As of August, we have completed 28 prompts, and we are trying to complete about 3-4 books a month, deciding the prompts for the month by throwing darts at a list of them.

January:

1. A book that features emails, journal entries, or letters: “The Supernatural Enhancements” by Edgar Cantero
2. A book you picked up just for the cover: “Ledge” by Stacey McEwan
3. A book set where you live: “Murder at Thumb Butte” by James D. Best
4. A book with a character with the same name as one of your family members: “The Haunting of Brynn Wilder” by Wendy Webb

February:

1. The sequel to one of your favorite books: “Ruin” by John Gwynne
2. A book with a rabbit on the cover or in the title: “Rabbits” by Terry Miles
3. A book about or inspired by a real historical event: “Victory of Eagles” by Naomi Novik

March:

1. A book that includes a map: “The Poison Season” by Mara Rutherford
2. A book borrowed from the library: “Lost in the Moment and Found” by Seanan McGuire
3. A different book by an author you read in 2022: “Spring Break” by Katherine Applegate
4. A book about a found family: “The Buried and the Bound” by Rochelle Hassan

April:

1. A book published before you were born: “The Broken Sword” by Poul Anderson
2. An ebook or audiobook: “By Nightfall” by Michael Cunningham
3. A book that has a book on the cover: “The Book Eaters” by Sunyi Dean

May:

1. A book you started but never finished: “The Mad Ship” by Robin Hobb
2. A book with a non-human character: “The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents” by Terry Pratchett
3. A book set in multiple time periods: “The Peripheral” by William Gibson
4. A middle grade novel: “The Wee Free Men” by Terry Pratchett

June:

1. A book with a three-word title: “The Crane Husband” by Kelly Barnhill
2. A book with an alliterative title: “Sand, Surf, and Secrets” by Katherine Applegate
3. A book under 200 pages: “Rays, Romance, and Rivalry” by Katherine Applegate
4. A book that includes a wedding: “Her Sister’s Death” by K.L. Murphy

July:

1. A book set on a bus, train, or ship: “The Lost Ticket” by Freya Sampson
2. A graphic novel: “Demon in the Wood” by Leigh Bardugo
3. A book set in a school: “Stealing Infinity” by Alyson Noel

August:

1. A short story or essay collection: “Meet Me in the Future” by Kameron Hurley
2. A book with unique chapter titles: “My Sister, the Serial Killer” by Oyinkan Braithwaite
3. A book in your least favorite genre: “A Defense of Honor” by Kristi Ann Hunter

While some of these books were already on my TBR list like “Ruin” by John Gwynne, many of them were books I had never heard of and would have never read if not for this challenge. Books such as “The Supernatural Enhancements,” “Rabbits,” “The Crane Husband” and “Meet Me in the Future” all had such interesting concepts. “The Crane Husband” and “Rabbits” stick with me especially. “The Crane Husband” contains magical realism and is centered around this crane that ends up being an interesting metaphor for an abusive relationship. The main character is the daughter who is the only one who realizes something is wrong with the titular crane. It was a strange read but I am glad I was able to complete it. “Rabbits” was a fast-paced, enjoyable read about a game that goes too far. On a broad scale, it’s a scavenger-hunt style game that sometimes blurs the lines between games and reality. The puzzles were fun to read as well. Other books like “By Nightfall,” “Her Sister’s Death,” “Murder at Thumb Butte” and “The Lost Ticket” were more grounded in reality but they were outside my main genre (fantasy) and allowed me to appreciate different categories of books. I had never heard of these books before but they all expanded my reading repertoires in great ways. There were also books I didn’t personally enjoy like “The Broken Sword,” “Ledge” and “Stealing Infinity” but they still provided me with variety and I’m glad I read them. This challenge got me to read more and diversified my taste in reading. Taking on this challenge with my family also means we get to have book discussions, which helps keep our reading knowledge sharp while discovering books we would have never picked up before. Once Upon a Book Club’s reading challenge has been a great experience for all of us, and I can’t wait to do it again next year.