This column, featuring information about reading challenges and their benefits appeared in the Dec. 22, 2025, edition of the Omaha World-Herald (NE). It is also available at Omaha.com (opens in a new tab).
At Omaha Public Library, reading challenges are a real springboard to exploration
Whether you’re a dedicated reader or someone who wants to incorporate more books into your life, reading challenges can serve as guideposts for anyone seeking direction in their literary journey or as jumping-off points for readers ready to venture into uncharted territories. They provide a structured framework that inspires exploration, making it easier to step beyond familiar genres and discover new stories, voices and perspectives.
Even the most devoted readers can find themselves stuck in a book rut, repeatedly reaching for the same genres or authors. That’s where reading challenges come in.
Broaden literary horizons, thematically
Reading widely can help foster empathy and global awareness, enriching your understanding. Every year, Omaha Public Library offers a reading challenge, opens a new window featuring 12 prompts to push readers outside their comfort zones. Take on one challenge each month or complete it on your own timeline. These include challenges like reading a book with a one-word title, a story set on a continent you want to visit or reading a book with a non-human main character. If you decide to participate in the library challenge for 2025, be sure to join the Reading Challenge Kick-off Party, opens a new window on Jan. 3 at the Benson Branch. You’ll be able to browse books that apply to the challenge and pick up your 2025 Reading Challenge notebook to track your progress. Find out more at omahalibrary.org, opens a new window.
Book Riot’s Read Harder Challenge, opens a new window is a popular one that includes 24 prompts to help diversify your reading. Highlights from the upcoming 2025 challenge include reading a comic in translation, reading a staff pick from your local indie bookstore and reading a nonfiction book about nature or the environment. NoveList, opens a new window — an online resource available at OPL that gives reading recommendations based on your favorite titles, authors, subjects and genres — just released its own 2025 challenge with a prompt for each month. In NoveList’s challenge, opens a new window, you’re invited to “tempt your tastebuds with a culinary read” or read a book set in the decade in which you were born.
While the best part of engaging in a reading challenge is discovering something new, you also get to make it your own. If it’s important to you to read a specific number of books each year, you can set that goal. If you want to read a unique book for every challenge prompt, you can, or you can decide to count the same book across multiple applicable prompts.
Tackle the classics with a serialized Substack
Some readers might set themselves a challenge to finally finish the book that was started and never finished, or revisit a book assigned in school with fresh eyes (and no obligations). A common goal is to read a seminal work or classic that launched a genre or greatly influenced the literary world. Diving into classic literature can be daunting, especially those books with dense language or hefty page counts. Enter: serialized Substack newsletters. These newsletters send you — in bite-sized pieces — the text of works in the public domain, breaking these stories into manageable portions delivered straight to your inbox.
For example, Dracula Daily, opens a new window runs from May through November each year, sending portions of the novel to subscribers on the dates that correspond to the events in the book. Pride and Prejudice, opens a new window, Frankenstein, opens a new window, and The Great Gatsby can be found in weekly and biweekly newsletter formats. Letters from Watson, opens a new window publishes a couple of times per week, sharing Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s works — featuring the renowned detective Sherlock Holmes — in chronological order of the cases in the Holmes universe, rather than in order of publication.
Connect through community
Many challenges thrive online, and social apps like Goodreads and StoryGraph host their own reading challenges. For example, StoryGraph’s Read the World Challenge, opens a new window prompts participants with 10 countries each year, with the goal of reading a book that is both set in the country and written by an author from the respective country. These platforms create vibrant spaces for readers to share recommendations, reviews and encouragement. The communal aspect adds accountability and makes reading feel like a collective celebration.
If you’d like to find community in person, join one of OPL’s many book clubs. Nearly every OPL branch has at least one book club, and the W. Clarke Swanson Branch is actually launching a new Reading Challenge Book Club, opens a new window in 2025. Each month, the club will read and discuss a book that fulfills a prompt from OPL’s annual reading challenge.
Ultimately, reading challenges are about more than ticking off boxes — they’re about growth and exploration. They encourage curiosity and remind us why we fell in love with reading in the first place. So, the next time you feel your literary routine needs a shake-up, dive into a reading challenge.
About Omaha Public Library
Omaha Public Library (OPL) strengthens our communities by connecting people with ideas, information, and innovative services, acting as an essential catalyst, collaborator, and connector. Learn about OPL's collections, facilities, services, programs and more at omahalibrary.org.
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