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If there’s one thing I know about Read Harder Challengers (that’s what I call us), it’s that you all are Serious Readers. According to the 2024 survey, almost half of you read more than 100 books in a year, which is a staggering number. And many of you complete (or at least attempt) multiple reading challenges in a year: the Read Harder Challenge is just one of them. That’s why today, I have some recommendations that will allow you to knock out two different reading challenges’ tasks at once: Read Harder 2025 and Buzzwordathon 2025.
Buzzwordathon is a year-long reading challenge started by Kayla of BooksAndLala—one of my favorite BookTubers. Every year, she assigns a task for each month of the year that applies to book titles. For example, in 2025, January is “‘truth’ and ‘lies,’” which means you can read any book with the “truth” or “lies” in the title. This year, she also has the Buzzwordathon cover challenge. In that challenge, tasks have to do with book cover elements. For example, January’s is “pattern,” so any cover with a pattern is fair game.
You can learn more about the Buzzwordathon in the announcement video or by checking out the Storygraph pages for the Buzzword Reading Challenge 2025 and the Buzzword Cover Challenge 2025. Each task already has hundreds of eligible books listed there! The announcement video also has downloadable templates you can fill out.
While I know many of you could easily knock out the Read Harder Challenge and both Buzzwordathon challenges without any overlap, I’ve decided to recommend books that double up, simultaneously checking off Read Harder and Buzzwordathon tasks. Let’s get into the recommendations!
Isaac’s Song by Daniel Black (January 14, 2025)
Read Harder 2025, Task #1: Read a 2025 release by a BIPOC author.
Buzzword Reading Challenge 2025, July: Punctuation
You can tackle the first Read Harder task early in the year with this January release about a queer Black man growing up in 1980s Chicago whose hard-earned acceptance of himself is hit by two simultaneous crises: the AIDS epidemic and Rodney King’s attack.
Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
Read Harder 2025, Task #2: Reread a childhood favorite book.
Buzzword Reading Challenge 2025, December: Alliteration
Obviously, everyone has different childhood favorites, but this is one of mine, and I never regret rereading it. In fact, I wrote a whole post about why this is a feminist fairy tale about agency. I highly recommend listening to childhood favorites on audio: it’s a great way to experience the story a little differently!
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