The 52 Book Club’s 2026 Reading Challenge

I have loved and completed The 52 Book Club Reading Challenge in 2024 and 2025 on the blog these last couple of years, and I see no reason to stop participating for 2026 too! I’m excited for these prompts and looking forward to seeing what books I end up reading for them.

The 52 Book Club’s annual reading challenge is made up of 52 unique prompts. The goal is to match one book to each prompt, for a total of fifty-two books over the course of the year. Prompts are related to everything from specific titles, to cover designs, authors, genres, settings, themes, characters, etc. (Think of it like a giant bookish scavenger hunt!) We encourage participants to try books outside of their regular reading comfort zones and push themselves to read more, read differently, and get creative with it!

Visit The 52 Book Club to find out more and join the challenge!

Below is the 52 Book Club’s list of prompts for 2026. These prompts are linked to Goodreads Lists of books that fit each prompt. I copy and pasted them from here, for easy access, and so I can link to each prompt with the books I finish.

The 2025 Goodreads Lists:

1. Set in an ancient civilization
2. Kangaroo word on the cover – The Heavens May Fall by Allen Eskens
3. Written without quotation marks
4. Has a dust jacket – The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
5. Featuring a conspiracy – The Will of the Many by James Islington
6. Title starts with the letter “O”
7. Title starts with the letter “P”
8. A three-syllable word in the title – The Guise of Another by Allen Eskens
9. Featuring a natural disaster
10. Spans a decade or more – The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
11. Requires suspension of disbelief
12. A genre-defining read
13. Bookface
14. Includes a character list – The Strength of the Few by James Islington
15. Subtitle with a comma
16. Deus Ex Machina
17. Author’s bio mentions their dog
18. Provokes strong emotion
19. A nosy neighbour character – The Good Sister by Sally Hepworth
20. Day of the week in the title
21. Written in the 1800s
22. Spotted in a TV series or movie
23. Grumpy sunshine trope
24. Uneven number of chapters
25. Includes a red herring – The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins
26. Title in a serif font
27. Two or more authors, one pseudonym
28. From a series at least eight books long
29. Set in the Arctic or Antarctic
30. Author related to another author
31. Author related to author in prompt 30
32. Publisher starting with the letter “B”
33. A standalone fantasy novel
34. Inspired by the top-grossing movie the year you were born
35. Character with a secret identity
36. Award-winning book from last year – Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green
37. Started on the 26th of the month
38. Domestic fiction
39. A book that cost you nothing
40. Author’s first and last name start with same letter – Cover Story by Mhairi McFarlane
41. A guide to…
42. Includes a handwritten interior font
43. A Goodreads recommendation for you
44. Literary Device: Personification – Strange Houses by Uketsu
45. Biographical fiction
46. Non-fiction about character in prompt 45
47. A diacritical mark on the cover – Dare to Lead by Brené Brown
48. Related to the word “Nemesis” – Better Than Revenge by Kasie West
49. From the 800s of the Dewey Decimal System
50. Set in a castle
51. Includes a map – Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King
52. Published in 2026