Sign in with Facebook
Most Read of the 2021 Reading Challenge (So Far)
We all want to spend more time lost in the pages of great books. That's the idea behind our annual 2021 Goodreads Reading Challenge! It's simple: Every January readers set a goal of how many books they want to read that year, and we help them keep track of it. This year more than 4 million readers have joined the Challenge, pledging to read a total of 218 million books!
Now that we're halfway through the year, we thought it would be fun to see which books have been the most read of the 2021 Challenge. Below you'll find those books listed in order of popularity. Netflix adaptations certainly helped readers find books this year, with Bridgerton: The Duke and I, Shadow and Bone, Firefly Lane, and The Queen's Gambit all making the list after they were made into series on the streaming platform. We're also seeing the influence of BookTok, with recommendations from TikTok users prompting readers to pick up The Song of Achilles, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, and The House in the Cerulean Sea.
By the way: It's not too late to set a reading goal or even edit your current Challenge! Scroll over the covers to learn more about each book and get inspired to read more books this summer, and be sure to add the books that pique your interest to your Want to Read shelf!
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
#7
#8
#9
#10
#11
#12
#13
#14
#15
#16
#17
#18
#19
#20
#21
#22
#23
#24
#25
#26
#27
#28
#29
#30
#31
#32
#33
#34
#35
#36
#37
#38
#39
#40
#41
#42
#43
#44
#45
#46
#47
#48
#49
#50
#51
#52
#53
#54
#55
#56
What are some of your favorite reads so far this year from your 2021 Reading Challenge? Let us know in the comments!
Comments Showing 51-71 of 71 (71 new)
date
newest »
newest »
message 51:
by
Aditi
(new)
Jul 07, 2021 02:38PM
The Song of Achilles is a must-read from this list!! Also, The Silent Patient is an amazing read. The whole year looks incredible as far as the books are concerned 📚...
flag
Looking forward to re-reading 1984 and Animal Farm. I won't disclose how long it's been since I first read these classics in high school. I'll probably get so much more out of them now!
Vee wrote: "Still recovering from A Song of Achilles a year after Dancing"Hi Vee, you’re so right. I read ‘A Song of Achilles’ some years ago and I am still thinking of it. It’s a brilliant book.
Anna wrote: "Am I the only one who hasn’t read any of these books yet? 😬"I read Animal Farm about 40 years ago; does that count? Otherwise, I have not read any of them either.
Terrilyn wrote: "The Rose Code, the Last Bookshop in London"I LOVED The Rose Code!!
My favourite book so far is Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng.
My best read so far this year is Before We Were Yours and the Good Sister
Alicia wrote: "Vee wrote: "Still recovering from A Song of Achilles a year after reading it…"I read ASOA when it first came out and it’s still my #1 favorite book."
ADOA has been on my to-read list for a very long time. After your comment, I'll be reading it soon.
There are at least 2 books on my want-to-read list that I would have never placed there. How do I remove them?
ot The best books Ive read this year are the novels The Man Who Lived Underground by Richard Wright ( now. I know where Ralph Ellison got the idea for ending his novel); and The Last Report o The Miracle at Lost Horse Creek. By far the finest, most sizzling poetry is Tongo Eisen Martin's first book Someone's Already Dead, pbTlished in 2015 by Bootstrap Press of Oakland and Lowell mass and I am flabbergasted that the press did not keep the book in print after thre e printings since it is one of the five best books of poetry i've read in the last ten years along with Golan Haji's I Dont Know This Tree from another tiny press- Midsummer Night's Dream Press in theEast Coast ( either New York or New Jersey). These books , like Tyehimba Jess's Olio and Patrica Smith's Incendiary Art and Timothy Yu's 100 Cinese Silences are far ahead and superior to the from the usual highly touted poetry books ( rouns up the perenneials aka Gluck,Golds, oliver, Doty, Haas etc etc. What is noticeable is not on the whiteness but the ongoing lack of international presence, as if the world only exist between the neckbones of New York City and London. So it is amazing that a gem such as the Wild Fox of Yemen by Threa Almonsther, or the latest excoriation by Chilean Jewish Daniel Borzutzky, or the totally quirky and intricate Soft Sciences b the inimicable Franny Choi are not in the front of ever bookstore in the US. And that is not evean mentioningrite my two favorite GREAT READS, not simplly GOOD reads- anything by Korean master Hysoon Kim, author of eight books, and the queer Palestinian enrolled in some deep deep bioengineering course in harvardd, Birthright by George Abraham is an astonishing journey excavation into the ongoing and current crisis in Palestine/Israel. I will be writing that country's name this way from here until I leave this mortal coil which i fervently hope shall begin to unscrew itself from all the thousands of years of tyrants trying to F most of us. As my friend the Bard of Moberly missouri and one of the great American proletarian writers, editors and literary. troublemaker often advised to those especiall emerging after near drownings and mugginsin the critical theory/semiotic college cesspools; "NEVER LET THE BASTARDS GET YOU DOWN."
Early Morning Riser.The Cold Millions.
The Narrowboat Summer.
Motherland.
Miss Benson's Beetle.
This year so far I have read:The Last Kingdom - all 13 books, which were a joy!
The Winter King - fantastic book about King Arthur
Enemy of God - Book 2 in the King Arthur trilogy - brilliant!
Excalibur - Book 3 in the King Arthur trilogy - wonderful conclusion to the trilogy!
Fire from Heaven - stunning first book in the Alexander the Great trilogy
The Persian Boy - stunning - my favourite from the Alexander the Great trilogy
Funeral Games - last book in the Alexander trilogy, which was wonderful, much better than I had expected
And I am currently reading Gates of Fire, which is about the Battle of Thermopylae. I think this book may be the best historical fiction book I have ever read.
I would recommend any of these books to readers who love well-written historical fiction!
I am happy to see that none of the books that I have read this year are on this "Most Read in 2021" list. 😉📚
Along with some already in your list, I really enjoyed reading Hail Mary, Troubled Blood and The Paris Library.
"In Five Years" I did enjoy; loved the ending. Other favourites have been "The Key" by Kathryn Hughes and "How I Clawed my way to the Middle" by John Wood.
Nearly every title on this list is on my "read" or "to read" list. A wonderful selection of books.
