2024 Reading Challenge

Welcome to the 2024 Reading Challenge! We know many of these exist, but we still hope you’ll consider participating in ours. It is open to all ages, and we have designed the categories to be appropriate for young readers as well as adults.

We are going to make things easy for you: To qualify for the end-of-year prize drawing for goodies like THoB gift cards and free books, all you have to do is read as many books as the median* American, selecting based on the categories below. How many books is this, you ask? It’s FOUR! Just FOUR! For the over-achievers among us, you can get an extra entry for every multiple of four you read (they must be different categories)...so you can get up to three entries in the drawing if you read something from every category!

1. A book written or illustrated by a This House of Books co-op member
2. A book recommended by a Montana Bookstore Trail bookseller
3. A nonfiction graphic novel
4. A book with a title that starts with "T" or "H" or "O" or "B."
5. A book with “dragon” in the title (to celebrate the Year of the Dragon!)
6. A book by an author you'd like to invite to Thanksgiving dinner
7. A book that is set in or includes descriptions of/information about your favorite season
8. A title published in 1924 or 2024
9. A book that has been made into a movie or TV show that you have seen
10. A book by an author from a country you'd like to visit
11. A book that you have always thought you should read
12. A book that has been a High Plains Book Awards finalist or winner (in any year)

Some Suggestions

We will periodically offer some suggestions for various categories here, and each month we will be highlighting a different square in our newsletter. If you do not already get the newsletter and would like to, sign up via the form at the bottom of this page!

Here are a few of our favorites to get things started:

1. Book by an author you'd like to invite to Thanksgiving dinner: AP US History: Important American Documents (I Made Up) by Alexandra Petri
2. Book published in 1924 or 2024: When We Were Very Young by A. A. Milne
3. High Plains Book Awards winner: White Horse by Erika T. Wurth
4. Book with "dragon" in the title: The Knight and the Dragon by Tomie dePaola
5. Book that starts with "T": This House of Sky by Ivan Doig (obviously we have to recommend this one!)
6. Book that starts with "H": H is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald
7. Book that starts with "O": Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline
8. Book that starts with "B": Bad Cree by Jessica Johns
9. Book set in your favorite season (Winter): Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden
10. Book set in your favorite season (Summer): Summer Fun by Jeanne Thornton
11. Book set in your favorite season (Spring): Escargot and the Search for Spring by Dashka Slater (illustrated by Sydney Hanson)
12. Book set in your favorite season (Fall): The Autumn Ghost: How the Battle Against a Polio Epidemic Revolutionized Modern Medical Care by Hannah Wunsch

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* According to a study published by the Pew Research Center in 2016.
If the fact that we refer to median instead of average makes you yearn to learn more about math, we recommend the humorous Humble Pi: When Math Goes Wrong in the Real World by Matt Parker.