To celebrate the halfway point of 2024, I sent out a survey to see how you all are doing so far on the Read Harder Challenge. I’ve already shared some of the results on how many books you all read on average, how many tasks you completed, and which tasks seemed the hardest and easiest to you. Now I want to share the new favorite books you all have read so far this year that you’re checking off tasks with!
But first, one of the questions in the survey was, “How is your reading year going so far?” That’s a broad question, and everyone had different answers with their own reasons, but I’ve broken them down roughly into very good, good, neutral, and bad. Here are the results. I’m happy to see that the vast majority of people are having a good to great reading year so far! I hope it gets even better in the second half.
I also asked for your feedback on the newsletter. Most of the feedback was about the paywalled content, and I want to give you a little peek behind the scenes to learn why the newsletter contains locked content. The truth is, digital media in 2024 looks a lot different than it did a year ago. Changes like AI recommendations in search engines or changes to social media algorithms have really turned the industry on its head. Being completely dependent on advertisers can also mean chasing page views, and that’s become even more unpredictable recently. This year’s Read Harder Challenge newsletter was an experiment. Our old model for doing this was no longer viable, so we wanted to try and see if we could fix that by turning our attention to paying subscribers. The newsletter is funded primarily by paying subscribers, which means there’s no middleman between our content and our audience: if enough of you like it so much that you’re willing to pay for it, we can keep it going, no matter how algorithms and advertising change. We’re very grateful to the paying subscribers who made this experiment a success: it opens up many new opportunities for us, including the ability to create content that puts quality and our values (like promoting diverse books) above the pursuit of page views.
I hope this gives you a little more insight into the structure of the newsletter. I welcome your feedback and we will discuss your suggestions in the future. I also received some comments about bugs with subscriptions, but this was an anonymous survey so I’m not sure who it was. Please email us (or reply to emails from Read Harder) so we can fix this for you!
And now the question that brought out the funniest and most interesting answers: “What is your favorite book you’ve read so far for the Read Harder Challenge 2024, and what task does it fulfill?” I especially liked that almost all of the books you mentioned were unique: only five titles were given as an answer by two people. I’ve listed those five titles below, but I’ll also gradually share more of your favorite books for each task – I almost listed them all here, but that would be a very long list, so I’m spreading them out!
Below is a graph of which tasks led you to your favorite read of the challenge so far. I like that almost every task was mentioned at least once! The most commonly mentioned tasks are #20: Read a book about books (fiction or nonfiction), #5: Read a science fiction novella, #8: Read a translated book from a country you’ve never been to, and #1: Read a cozy fantasy book.
Here are the five books that were mentioned by two different Read Harder Challengers as their new favorites this year, and what task(s) they completed.
Your favorite books so far in the Read Harder 2024 Challenge
Babel by RF Kuang
The two people who responded Babylon read it for various tasks. One was #9: Read a book recommended by a librarian, and one was #14: Read a book by an author who has an upcoming event (virtual or in-person), then attend the event. RF Kuang has an upcoming event in Edinburgh—along with Samantha Shannon—on August 14, so there’s still time if you’re nearby! This title is a Book Riot favorite. Rey Rowland called it one of the most thought-provoking fantasy books ever written: “One of the reasons I loved it Babylon That’s mainly because it’s so thought-provoking. It’s constantly about language and translation – and how they can be used as tools of oppression. It also raises an amazing question: is violence necessary to bring about change?”
Bookstores & Bonedust by Travis Baldree
Two people read this for Assignment #1: Read a cozy fantasy book, but I think you could also work it into Assignment #20: Read a book about books (fiction or nonfiction). This is a personal favorite of mine. After reading Legends & Lattes, I had a lot of hope and skepticism about this prequel—how could it recreate the magic of the first book, especially knowing how this one will end? In the end, though, I enjoyed it just as much. It’s such a cozy read, with lots of scenes set in a bookstore, as well as excerpts from various books the main character is reading. And look at that ridiculous little gryphet on the cover! His name is Potroast!!
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Are you surprised by these results? Let’s chat in the comments!
Check out all previous Read Harder posts from 2024 here.
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