Academic Reading Challenge Categories for 2026

Hello reading friends, 

I'm very behind on my 2025 reading, and not only for the reading challenge. At the moment, I'm trying to read every short book I can get my hands on, including Adania Shibli's powerful and disturbing Minor Detail

We're still finishing this year's challenge, but we are already looking toward next year. Fifteen challenge participants have nominated and voted on the categories for 2026, I think it will be a good year of reading.

 I want to make a couple of notes about some specific categories and the challenge in general here, since some of them are a little less straightforward than categories we've had before. I also decided to add some internationalization and earlier periodization as options to some categories to raise the degree of difficulty for those interested. I added a 19th category this year for "dealer's choice: book relevant to the US govt's ongoing murdering of people in boats and saber-rattling vs. Venezuela. 

  I had put several categories related to the ongoing "boat strikes" (murders of people in boats) and threats towards Venezuela into the nominations this year, and none of them made it into the final 17 categories, though individuals ranked a variety of them very high, including in the top five. I've never pulled something that I simply thought was important that didn't make it into the final list before and put it into the challenge, but I felt it was necessary this year. 

One goal behind this challenge is to read books that are relevant to current events. So in previous years, we've had categories to read books by writers who were punished for their support of Palestine and books about AI (2025), a book by a Palestinian author (2024);  books by Middle Eastern and North African authors (2022, 2018) Books about quarantine or lockdown (2021) and books about critical university studies (2019). In multiple years we've read books about fascism, anti-fascism and resistance to authoritarianism, labor unions; medicine; climate change and/or the environment; immigrants and/or refugees, militarism, colonialism, and revolutionary and counter-revolutionary politics, and books by indigenous authors and queer authors. 

We've never included a cateogry about Latin America and/or the Caribbean, though we have had many categories that could include that part of the world, such as books about colonialism, books by indigenous authors and refugees, and books about authoritarianism, or recently "books about borders and why they're bad." It seems like the time to be more intentional given what's happening in the Western hemisphere where most challenge participants live. This situation is likely to get worse over the coming year, and I think we should be educating ourselves about the broader context in whatever way makes sense to us.  Books in this special category 19 could include books about Venezuela, books about the US in Latin America and/or the Caribbean more generally; books about drug wars, international law, war crimes, and general crimes by nation states.

The challenge has also long encouraged reading books originally published in languages other than English, books written before the 20th century, and books by non-Western authors, whether as categories on their own, or through adding extra points to a category by adding those characteristics. So, it's your choice to read any graphic novel or illustrated book, but to increase your points, you could read one that was originally published in a language other than English. I added similar extra-point options to the book of collected essays and book about a song or musical composition.  

Another less straightforward category this year is "book about slavery or book that compares something to slavery."This began with a somewhat different phrasing as "slavery in any form (physical, economic, sexual, etc)." I talked to the person who nominated this category and we tried to come up with the best way to encourage people to read books about slavery as a somewhat broad cateogry without opening the door to books that used slavery as a way to describe something that just isn't slavery. It seemed to me in the end that including books that made comparisons to slavery without conflating other historical experiences with slavery would allow for books like Sarah Haley's No Mercy Here that consider the legacy or impact of slavery in later time periods, as well as books about slavery in any place or time (such as slavery in ancient Rome), but would not ecourage people to read books that make over-broad claims about some non-slavery experience actually being slavery. 

As always, when it's not specified in the category, any book in the challenge can be an academic book or special issue of an academic journal, and any book could be a novel, play or book of poetry

To join the reading challenge, just read a book in each one of the categories below. It can be any book you want that fits the description. I'll be posting a report on what I read for 2025 at some point in January. 

Who and What the Academic Reading Challenge is for: 

This is a challenge for academics who feel that their reading has become over-specialized and possibly joyless, who want to read more literature for pleasure, who want to broaden the way they approach their own research and teaching, who like to talk about reading with each other, who are interested in interdisciplinary reading, and who want to support their friends and colleagues by reading their books. You don’t have to be a professor to do the challenge. Maybe you graduated from school but you miss reading academic books. The challenge runs for a year and emphasizes reading across academic disciplines. If you are a professional academic or public intellectual outside the university, this challenge is meant to give you a structure for reading outside your area of specialization - including reading literature - and to provide a space to talk with others about the experience. If you are a general reader who likes reading serious works of non-fiction, this challenge is also for you. It's a structure that you can use to read works of the type that you might not have encountered since you were a student.

And now, here are this year's categories, with points in parentheses

1. A book by a friend, colleague, former teacher or former student (10)

 2.A book about an island  (10)

3.A book that you last read as a student, or a book that had an influence on you in the past  (10)

4. A book about decolonization (20)

5. A collection of essays by or about an individual writer. Double points if the author is not from the US or the UK (10/20)

6. A collection of letters or an epistolary novel (20) 

7. An illustrated book (can be a graphic novel, memoir, or other graphic non-fiction book)  Double points if the work was originally written in a language other than English  (10/20)

8. A book about food seurity, food policy, or the political uses of food (anything from the history of food stamps to the use of hunger strikes) (20) 

9. A book about slavery or a book that compares something to slavery (10)

10. A historical novel or play (10)

11. A book about a part of the body or with a part of the body in the title (10)

12. A book about the last place you visited (can be a book about household interiors or a local neighborhood) (20)

13. A book whose publication was controversial or banned (10)  

14. A book by a first nations or indigenous author  (20)

15. A book about a song or musical composition. Double points if the composition or song is from earlier than 1950  (10/20)

Extra Credit:

16. Extra Credit: An academic book that won a major prize (20) 

17. Extra Extra Credit: A book about ghosts, poltergeists, seances, or something else supernatural. Double points for an academic book on this subject (10/20) 

18. Super-Duper Extra Credit:  A book about anarchism (10)

19. Dealer's Choice Extra Credit:  book relevant to the US govt's ongoing murdering of people in boats and saber-rattling vs. Venezuela* (20) 

 The Rules 

The challenge starts on January 1, 2026 at midnight and goes till Dec. 31, 2026. 

There are a total of 15 regular categories in the challenge, and four “extra credit” categories for over-achievers. 

 The academic books must be at least 175 pages long . 

Novels must be at least 200 pages long 

Books of poetry or special issues of journals must be at least 100 pp. long 

One book can be a children's or YA book. 

To decide whether a book is academic, look for something published by a university press, or check the acknowledgments for references to scholarly mentors and anonymous readers. 

 Any book on the list, except where specified otherwise, can be a novel, book of poetry, or a complete journal issue as long as it fits the general category 

Books can only count for one category, but you can switch them from one category to the other before you’re done if you like. (In other words, you cannot count a book by your friend who wrote a book about  for both  and the "by a friend" categories.) 

Only one book can be something you’ve read before 

Audiobooks are fine as long as they are unabridged and the print edition is at least 175 pages long. Books must be started no earlier than midnight 1/1/26 and finished no later midnight 12/31/2026

The Points: This isn't a competition, but some find this motivating, so if you're counting… 

In case you're wondering what makes some books worth 20 and some books worth 10 points, it's all about how difficult it might be to find and/or read books in that category.

Total possible points for 1-15 without any extra points: 200 

Total possible points w/4 extra-credit and bonus points for making categories harder: 300

Reading and Listening: King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard plus Adam Becker

 This isn't an experience of synchronicity, but I couldn't help thinking of King Gizz's excellent "There is no Planet B" while finishing up the chapter "Dumpster Fire Space Utopia" in Adam Becker's also excellent More Everything Forever

In this chapter, he quotes Martin Rees who argues "it's a dangerous delusion to to think that space offers an escape from Earth's problems. We've got to solve these problems here. Coping with climate change may seem daunting, but it's a doddle compared to terraforming Mars." 

Academic Reading Challenge 2025

Good morning to who ever is reading this blog. 

I'm a little late posting this year, but we are still doing the Academic Reading Challenge and the 2025 categories are here. If you want to be in on the choosing or discuss what you read for those categories, we have a Facebook group. If you're not on Facebook, but still want to participate, comment below and I'll get in touch with you. We have a spreadsheet too! 

Who and What the Academic Reading Challenge is for: 

This is a challenge for academics who feel that their reading has become over-specialized and possibly joyless, who want to read more literature for pleasure, who want to broaden the way they approach their own research and teaching, who like to talk about reading with each other, who are interested in interdisciplinary reading, and who want to support their friends and colleagues by reading their books. You don’t have to be a professor to do the challenge. Maybe you graduated from school but you miss reading academic books. The challenge runs for a year and emphasizes reading across academic disciplines. If you are a professional academic or public intellectual outside the university, this challenge is meant to give you a structure for reading outside your area of specialization - including reading literature - and to provide a space to talk with others about the experience. If you are a general reader who likes reading serious works of non-fiction, this challenge is also for you. It's a structure that you can use to read works of the type that you might not have encountered since you were a student.

And now, here are this year's categories, with points in parentheses

1. A book by a friend, colleague, former teacher or former student (10)

 2.A book about resistance to dictatorships, authoritarian rule, etc (any discipline)  (10)

3.A book about borders (and why they're bad)  (20)

4. A memoir or novel by a refugee, child of refugees, immigrant or child of immigrants (in any country)  (10)

5. A book about medical care, medicine or healthcare policy (20)

6. A book with a provocative title and/or cover, double points if you read it in public (10/20)

7. A book about Reconstruction (in the US after the Civil War) and its overthrow  (20)

8.A biography of someone who isn’t famous  (20)

9. A book about a specific region within any country  (10)

10.A book by, or about a personal hero or heroes (double points if they fall outside of politics) (10/20)

11.A biography of an artist (broadly defined: visual artists; novelists; dancers; musicians)  (10)

12. A book about where you live now, or the place you consider your hometown. (10)

13. A novel that deals centrally with the natural world(10)

14.A book by an author who was fired or suspended from their job, denied an award, or disinvited from an awards event, or otherwise de-platformed or dishonored due to their support for Palestine.  (20)

15.A book about computers, AI or new media (YouTube, social media, etc)  (10)

Extra Credit:

16. Extra-Credit: A book about a country that's no longer there (20)

17. Extra Extra-Credit: A book about crime  (10)

18. Super-Duper Extra Credit: An academic book about games and/or gaming (either video or table-top) (20)

 The Rules 

The challenge starts on January 1, 2025 at midnight and goes till Dec. 31, 2025. 

There are a total of 15 regular categories in the challenge, and three “extra credit” categories for over-achievers. 

 The academic books must be at least 175 pages long . 

Novels must be at least 200 pages long 

Books of poetry or special issues of journals must be at least 100 pp. long 

One book can be a children's or YA book. 

To decide whether a book is academic, look for something published by a university press, or check the acknowledgments for references to scholarly mentors and anonymous readers. 

 Any book on the list, except where specified otherwise, can be a novel, book of poetry, or a complete journal issue as long as it fits the general category 

Books can only count for one category, but you can switch them from one category to the other before you’re done if you like. (In other words, you cannot count a book by your friend who wrote a book about  for both  and the "by a friend" categories.) 

Only one book can be something you’ve read before 

Audiobooks are fine as long as they are unabridged and the print edition is at least 175 pages long. Books must be started no earlier than midnight 1/1/25 and finished no later midnight 12/31/2025

The Points: This isn't a competition, but some find this motivating, so if you're counting… 

In case you're wondering what makes some books worth 20 and some books worth 10 points, it's all about how difficult it might be to find books in that category.

Total possible points for 1-15 without any extra points: 200 

Total possible points w/3 extra-credit: 250 

Total possible points w/ extra credit and extra points for 1-15: 270

2024 Reading Wrap-Up

 I had an OK year of reading this year, though I was pretty slow with some books - like Thomas Mann's Dr. Faustus, which took me forever! I wound up reducing my original reading goal on Goodreads from 103 to 100 and only got to 100 by reading a number of big comic books (sometimes called graphic novels, though two of these were non-fiction so wouldn't fit that description). 

I'll go ahead and link to my Goodreads Year in Books.

 It shows the results of my preliminary research on my "geek wars" book project - reading some classics in the field of fan studies, like Matt Hill's game-changing Fan Cultures which is one that I see cited in a lot of contemporary books, such as Benjamin Woo's Getting a Life: The Social Worlds of Geek Culture, which was a great place to start on a review of the recent scholarly literature.I also read Quinn Slobodian's excellent and very readable Crack-Up Capitalism: Market Radicals and the Dream of a World Without Democracy  as research on the right-wing of geekdom. Partly because I was prioritizing that project this year, I also decided to read as many of the Hugo finalists as possible before attending the Glasgow World Con in August. Hardly any of my choices did well this year. I had voted for the Saint of Bright Doors which I didn't actually finish, but which was so much better than the other novels simply based on character depth, writing at the sentence level and general concept that it was a very easy choice. For me, the rest of the challenge was deciding which of the several nominees were the worst, since I thought several of the nominated novels were actually bad. I did like Arkady Martine's novella Rose/House much better than her Hugo-winning novel, A Memory Called Empire, which for me, was a slog. 

Another influence on last year's reads was my participation in two book clubs through a local indie bookstore - one science fiction and one literary fiction. If I had managed to read them all, this would have been 24 of the books I read last year, though I wasn't able to particpate every month. I read 11 of the literary fiction club books, having missed the August book (The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden) because I was traveling at the time. For the SF book club, I missed more, reading 8 of the 12. Of the book club books I read this year, my favorite in science fiction were Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, most of which I read while hanging out at my mother-in-law's last summer, Samuel Delany's Nova, and Adrian Tchaikovsky's Children of Time. I had expected to really like Octavia Butler's Wild Seed because I usually like her books, but this one just wasn't my favorite. It felt repetitive in places and sometimes the main character's motivations were hard to understand. For that group, I started but did not finish Annalee Newitz's The Terraformers which I just didn't like and A. Lee Martinez's The Automatic Detective which I really did enjoy, but just didn't have time for, and 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson, which was probably just too long given the time I had to read it. I didn't even start Fire Upon the Deep because I was out of town for a conference.  In the lit fiction book club, the standouts were Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton; Marie-Helene Bertino's Beautyland; Louise Kennedy's Trespasses; and Bunny by Mona Awad - except for the ending, which I found really disappointing. 

I just barely managed to finish the academic reading challenge, partly by counting books I had read along the way without realizing they had fulfilled the categories. Of those books that I read intentionally for the challenge, the best were Regina Kunzel's In the Shadow of Diagnosis: Psychiatric Power and Queer Life (book about mental health/illness); Red Hot City: Housing Race and Exclusion in 21st Century Atlanta by Dan Immergluck (book about housing, homelessness, etc), which I think every person who lives in this city should read; Rebecca Godfrey's Under the Bridge: The True Story of the Murder of Reena Virk, a frightening page-turner, which I read for the category of a place I've visited for under a month, since I spent a couple of days visiting a friend in Victoria many years ago, and Rashid Khalidi's The Hundred Years War on Palestine (book by a Palestinian author). Others I read for the reading challenge were also really good, including the The Man Who Caught the Storm about storm-chaser Tim Samaras, who died tragically while tracking a massive tornado in Oklahoma (book about weather and/or weather prediction). Of course, I love Jane Austen I read  Northanger Abbey for the category "book written before 1900," and now because of reading her for the academic reading challenge year after year, I have read all but one of her completed novels. 

I read some other random books while doing things like flying on airplanes and riding trains. Of these, I really enjoyed Brendan Slocumb's The Violin Conspiracy, which had some predictable turns and clunky moments, but was still entertaining and interesting because of its representation of racial dynamics in the world of classical music. I finally read Percival Everett's sharp and hilarious Erasure prior to seeing American Fiction. I admit to being charmed by Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl, which was read sort of for fun and sort of for work. My major guilty pleasure-read this year was Riley Sager's Home Before Dark, which I read on the plane coming back from England. I liked pretty much all the graphic novels I read, but for a new series, I especially enjoyed Amy Chu's new take on Sheridan Le Fanu's classic, Carmilla.