Want to Read More This Year? This Reading Challenge Lets You Read One Book a Month

Many people say they want to read more but lack time. It’s an understandable sentiment as so many things take up our time: work, household chores, commuting, and binging new movies and series. We can, however, start our reading journey with a few adjustments to our free time (like putting down our phones and picking up a book).

If you’re an aspiring bookworm, try this challenge, where you only need to read one book per month. It’s an excellent way for people to get into the habit of reading without any pressure.

Fully Booked’s 2024 Reading Challenge is as straightforward as it is doable. It challenges aspiring bookworms to read one book a month following a prompt. This takes the guesswork out of what to read, and you can pick which book to get.

Here’s your guide to helping you become a bookworm this 2024:

January: Book from an author you haven’t read before

We all have our favorites, those authors who have consistently churned out great reads year after year. It’s like having a long-term client or relationship – you return repeatedly and are never disappointed. As much as this practice is safe, it’s not exciting. Take bold risks this January and discover a new author.

Have you read Mae Coyiuto and Chloe and the Kaishao Boys? This YA rom-com follows a Filipino-Chinese teenager whose father sets her up on one awkward kaishao (arranged date) after another, intent on finding her the perfect escort for her eighteenth birthday party before she leaves for the USA. Chloe must decide if following her dreams is worth everything — and everyone — she’ll leave behind.

(RELATED: I Enjoyed “Chloe and the Kaishao Boys” Even if I’m Not a Teen Chinoy)

February: Book about emotions and thoughts

While typically, February is when Cupid makes an extended cameo, the love month can be headlined by a different character: You. Devote this month to reading a book that allows you to find yourself, helps you learn to process your thoughts and feelings better, and lets you understand people in a deeper and more nuanced way. It beats getting struck by Cupid’s arrow any day.

Try Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking, which “explores an intensely personal yet universal experience: a portrait of a marriage–and a life, in good times and bad–that will speak to anyone who has ever loved a husband or wife or child.”

March: A book that has been adapted into screen

March, the Oscars awards season, is all about books and movie adaptations. Challenge yourself by reading a book, watching its screen adaptation, and comparing them. Will the movie match the scenes that played in your head? Find out.

One of the most talked-about movies these days in the film circuit is Poor Things, starring Emma Stone. The science fantasy black comedy focuses on Bella Baxter, “a young woman living in Victorian-era London who, after being crudely resurrected by a scientist following her death, runs off with a debauched lawyer to embark on an odyssey of self-discovery and sexual liberation.” Read the book by Alasdair Gray for a deeper dive into Bella’s journey.

For something local, try F.H. Batacan’s Smaller and Smaller Circles. It follows two Jesuit priests who attempt to solve the murders of young boys in Payatas. The book won the Carlos Palanca Grand Prize for the English Novel in 1999 and the National Book Award in 2002. In 2017, it was adapted into a film starring Nonie Buencamino and Sid Lucero.

April: Book of poetry

April is National Poetry Month and, coincidentally, the month of Venus, the goddess of love and rebirth of spring. While you may not experience spring in a typical Filipino summer month, you can always relish in the power of poetry that can rejuvenate your heart and soul. If you’ve always been a literary fiction reader, here’s your chance to discover poetry. Lang Leav is a popular option, but you may try other poets like Ocean Vuong, Louise Glück, and Rainer Maria Rilke.

May: Book with a fictional world or place

Come May, book a two-way ticket to imagined worlds and thought-provoking settings, whether you fancy a magical world or a made-up country. Make sure to check out Thea Guanzon’s The Hurricane Wars, which was named a New York Times bestseller in its first week and was included in many Best of 2023 lists. It’s set in a nation under siege by the ruthless Night Emperor under the Hurricane Wars. Talasyn is an orphan who found her family among the soldiers fighting for freedom. She also holds a deadly secret: light magic courses through her veins, a blazing power believed to have been wiped out years ago that can cut through the Night Empire’s shadows.

(RELATED: Here Are the Filipino Elements in the Fantasy New York Times Bestseller “The Hurricane Wars”)

June: Book with a first-person narrator

Whether it’s a thought-provoking memoir or a literary fictional novel that lets you sit in a character’s head, a first-person narrated book always makes for a compelling read. Also, since it’s the start of the year’s second half, we’re assuming stress levels are shooting up– it’s the perfect time to get out of your head and walk in another person’s shoes.

Try Paul Kalanithi’s When Breath Becomes Air, “a profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir by a young neurosurgeon faced with a terminal cancer diagnosis who attempts to answer the question ‘What makes a life worth living?'”

July: Book with a cover you can’t resist

The rudimentary rule is to not judge a book by its cover, but how can you not when the designs are stunning? Great book covers can be colorful, minimalist, witty, or give you a sneak peek of the story. They’re part of the storytelling experience and, on their own, are great works of art. For July, pick a book with the most stunning and eye-catching cover.

Speaking of eye-catching, Sayaka Murata’s Life Ceremony is precisely that. In this collection of 12 stories, Murata “mixes an unusual cocktail of humor and horror to portray both the loners and outcasts as well as turning the norms and traditions of society on their head to better question them.”

August: Book published in the Philippines

Philippine publishing is as vibrant and dynamic as ever. In August, Buwan ng Wika, discover whipsmart Filipino books – from irresistible romances and historical thrillers to comic books and fantasy novels. Philippine publishing is brimming with compelling reads (and we’re anticipating more titles to be released this 2024).

Try Even Ducks Get Liver Cancer by Wilfredo Liangco, released by Milflores Publishing. The book is a collection of essays that are a “candid and hysterical account of the travails of becoming a doctor. Liangco, an oncologist, writes about the sleepless nights, late stipends, and life-and-death decisions in the context of the Philippine healthcare system.” You don’t need to be a doctor to appreciate it.

(RELATED: “Even Ducks Get Liver Cancer” Is a Collection of Hilarious Essays About Being a Doctor)

September: Book set before the Internet Age

For September, challenge yourself to unplug from social media and other devices. While at it, pick up a book set before the Internet Age. Yes, those prehistoric times of sending love letters via snail mail, or that begotten age when the land and the waters were pristine before rapid industrialization. Or anything in between the invention of the Internet. This is an exciting and challenging prompt for the millennials and Gen Zs.

We suggest required readings back in school, like Jose Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. There’s something special about re-reading a classic for pleasure.

October: Book translated from a foreign language

You can expand your reading horizons by picking up a translated title.  This prompt will expand your literary perspectives, as voices from different parts of the world are now within your reach. Pick up a translated work of fiction or poetry as you open your eyes to a bigger world.

Do you love K-pop and K-dramas? There are a lot of good Korean books translated into English, like You-Jeong Jeong’s The Good Son and Seven Years of Darkness. In The Good Son, Yu-jin wakes up to find his mother’s murdered body at his home, lying in a pool of blood at the bottom of the stairs. He can’t remember much about the night before; having suffered from seizures for most of his life, Yu-jin often has trouble with his memory. All he has is a faint impression of his mother calling his name. But was she calling for help? Or begging for her life?

In Seven Years of Darkness, a young girl is found dead in Seryong Lake, a reservoir in a remote South Korean village. Three men–Yongje, the girl’s father, and two security guards at the nearby dam, each of whom has something to hide about the night of her death–find themselves in an elaborate game of cat and mouse as they race to uncover what happened to her, without revealing their own closely guarded secrets.

November: Book set in the future

Have you ever imagined what life can be like in the future? See how the most talented speculative and science fiction authors conjure what tomorrow may bring. Whether bleak or hopeful, the near future is always enjoyable to visit.

The Hunger Games is a trilogy set in an unspecified future time in Panem, “a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.” It follows Katniss Everdeen, the tribute from District 12, who suddenly becomes a contender. But to win, she must start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

December: Book published in 2024

And as the year ends, what better way to wrap up a fruitful reading year than with a book published in 2024 that stood out for you? Try Shubnum Khan’s The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years, published this January. It follows a ruined mansion by the sea, the djinn that haunts it, and a curious girl who unearths the tragedy that happened there a hundred years before.

And so it begins, a brand new chapter brimming with beginnings, possibilities, opportunities, and, of course, books! Enjoy accepting and carrying out the Fully Booked 2024 Reading Challenge as you enrich your life, mind, and heart, one book at a time.

Browse Fully Booked’s 2024 Reading Challenge Page at fullybookedonline.com/reading-challenge-2024, and enjoy free shipping for a minimum purchase of P799 only.

For more bookish news, book recommendations, and author features, visit the Fully Booked Blog at fullybookedonline.com/blog/.

Disclaimer: Article used with permission from Fully Booked

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