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The 40 Most Read Books of the 2023 Goodreads Reading Challenge (So Far)
Time once again, gentle readers, for our midyear check-in on the Goodreads Reading Challenge, in which readers push themselves by pledging to read a set number of books for the year. Lots of activity this time around! Six million participants and more than 250 million books pledged?! Crazy numbers!
We’ve collected below the most popular books completed so far in this year’s Reading Challenge. That is to say, the books that people are marking "read" as part of this year's Challenge.
There are a few clear takeaways here at the halfway point. As is typical, the list tends to favor a few Very Popular Authors, each of whom has multiple individual books clocking in. For instance, Colleen Hoover, Taylor Jenkins Reid, and Sarah J. Maas. Romance continues to be a popular genre in the Challenge, but you’ll find other specimens, too: domestic thrillers, inventive fantasy, giant octopi, this sort of thing. Not surprisingly, you’ll also find plenty of nominees and winners of past Goodreads Choice Awards.
Take a leisurely scroll through the images below, click through the cover images for more details, and feel free to add to your own Want to Read shelf.
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What are some of your favorite reads so far this year from your own 2023 Reading Challenge? Let us know in the comments!
Comments Showing 201-250 of 688 (688 new)
Well that's me not taking part. If the books are not boring they are books I wouldn't read if you paid me. This is one person's idea of books that must be read, it's not to my tastes and really contains only tried and tested authors especially where he/she could include multiple books in the author's range. I'll continue hunting for myself.
I've not read any if them, and none of them are on my TBR either
What are the 40 most read classics (aka good books) this year?
14/40 ✔️, 1 currently reading and 7 on my TBR 🤣
9 read. Agree with most about some of the books here... more like vacation or train journey reads. But those will be the popular books, won't it? I'm just happy people are still reading, y'know!
Paromita wrote: "9 read. Agree with most about some of the books here... more like vacation or train journey reads. But those will be the popular books, won't it? I'm just happy people are still reading, y'know!"Yh I guess but people read the Throne of Glass series!
Aelin wrote: "Where are my fav YA books?"They’re VIRAL IN SCHOOL
I've read 7 of 40 with a few on my TBR. My favourite read so far this year is Only Love Can Hurt Like This by Paige Toon!
TMW TMW TMW and Carrie Soto is Back are total winners!!!
People read for different reasons, and look for different things in books. I have only read one of these, and that was because it was one designated by my book club. I am very happy with my alternatives.
I’ve read 8 of these and have looked at quite a few as possibles. However, quite a few of them are unappealing if you are looking for something different that plays with genre or is out of the box. Some of these appear to be formulaic (which is so fine when you want to rely on a format). I doubt that I will read any of these listed beyond those I have already read as they simply don’t appeal.
I've been reading daily all year and not one of these books or authors is on my list. There are two that are familiar - the book by Prince Harry which I have no interest in at all and 'The Last Thing He Told Me.' which I happened to watch the series on Apple TV when I subscribed for a month. The series was very good.So what do I conclude from that fact? I guess I'm out of step. And actually, I'm thinking there's no point to paying attention to the most popular lists for me.
No judging, you do you. But I wish the recommendation algorithm weighted more towards how high or low you rate genres and tags rather than "people that liked this also liked..." because all these books have invariably ended up in my rec list and subsequently my ignore list.
I'm surprised The Last Thing He Told Me keeps popping back up. It was pretty meh to begin with and it came out last year.
8/36, Love on the Brain is in my want to read list now!
This entire website is about judging books. That means judging people's personal tastes in books as well.
Josh wrote: "Some great books on here for every reader!"Don't know about every reader, haha. But at least people are reading , so I'm happy :)
Jessica wrote: "I DNF'ed Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow at about 75 pages in... Didn't know where it was going and there wasn't ANYTHING happening imo... 😅😬" I feel you!! Im forcing myself to finish it but its not that good. I'm like 260 pages in but I still don't like it. That is the problem with Tik Tok recommended books. They hype books so much and then they aren't even that good.
Sara wrote: "Make sure it is marked as "exclusive"."GR also needs a thanks button beneath comments :)
Read 1/40, will probably stay that way too. DNF'd Spare before I bought it :-D
Julia wrote: "I swear to god, if there are no haters of The Silent Patient left, I'm dead."I hated it.
I've read one. Have 3-4 on a someday list. Where are the smart books?
Amber wrote: "Y’all need to read some non fiction like damn. And step away from the Colleen Hoover." I totally agree, I love reading non fiction, it's m fave genre!
I do not read fiction and my two best books for 2023 are Timothy Egan's A Fever in the Heartland and Seventy Times Seven by Alex Mar.
Julia wrote: "Amber wrote: "Y’all need to read some non fiction like damn. And step away from the Colleen Hoover."100%"Another 100%
17/40. Yeah... You read one Colleen Hoover, you've read them all, so should I count the rest of them? Lol
None of the books are on my TBR list. Im not a great fan of romantic books which is probably why i haven't heard of these writers. I like thrillers and crime stories which i why i read a lot of David J Gatwood, G S Rhodes, Mark Edwards, Rachel McLean and of course J D Kirk. Ive also started reading K T Galloway.
Wouldn't the better thing to do is to recommend some other authors and books that people may like rather than just judgmentally making comments about what other people like to read? Sometimes I want something simple, sometimes I want something more challenging. And all the time...I don't care what people think about what I've read.
I have read 9 books on here, but a lot of them are on my TBR.
Jessica wrote: "I DNF'ed Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow at about 75 pages in... Didn't know where it was going and there wasn't ANYTHING happening imo... 😅😬"I finished it because I hate to DNF but it definitely didn't up to the hype for me.
"If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking."- Haruki Murakami (Norwegian Wood)
Aelin wrote: "The only books on the list I recognise are the SJM (Sarah J. Maas - one of my fav authors) books (ACOTAR series) WHICH I REALLY WANT TO READ but I agree there are so many great books/authors out th..."I love SJM! You absolutely have to read ACOTAR! I started with that this past fall and just finished Throne of Glass a few weeks ago, I think it's my favorite book series. Now onto Crescent City!
I've read 11 of these (LOVE ACOTAR series!!!) and a lot of these are on my TBR so I feel like more of these will be read in my future. Some I don't have marked as "read" but I know I DNF'd them. lol
Law wrote: "None of those books are on my TBR yet, but they do sound interesting, especially The Song of Achilles."i just read it and it was beautiful! If you haven't read her other book "circe" it's also a must!! Set me on a greek mythology inspired rabbit hole!
I've read three books on this list, but it was in previous years. I finally DNF'd Evelyn Hugo because I was so bored, and it was a struggle just to pick it up and read even one page. Things We Never Got Over and Things We Hide From the Light are two books that I literally just bought recently, so hopefully, I can get to those this year. Same goes for Icebreaker.
I like a balance between fiction for the escapism and nonfiction for the education and realism. I am on schedule to finish 50 books this year, yet some of my favorites so far would never make this list because they aren't novels.
Clearly I am outside the norm here - I don't read romance or Sarah Maas so I'm already at a disadvantage lolBut I've read a lot of good books - We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker is amazing.
Amber wrote: "Y’all need to read some non fiction like damn. And step away from the Colleen Hoover."agree! I don't get it
vivienne wrote: "this list is abysmal? do ppl not get tired of reading the same shit over n over again? how are 90% of the most read books this horrible."totally agree and absolutely no diversity in this list.
This list isn't nearly diverse enough for a reader such as myself. Definitely has all the popular reads for my college students, but not for me. I've literally removed 2 Colleen Hoover books from my TBR because I'm not at all interested in them.
Does anyone else have the sinking feeling that since Amazon’s take over of Goodreads that it targets female readers with quick flip “thriller” reads, that have gaping plot holes, that are abominable, reprint-rinse-repeat style books? And that the majority of what is suggested for reading in this vein being over 90% written by female authors? There are three male authors on this list, one being the Prince, leaving Matt Haig’s book, which like Doerr’s “All the Light…” will most likely stay on bestseller charts for years to come, and Michaelides whose book is in the same vein as other rinse repeats…I’m at a loss…maybe it’s that men don’t read as much anymore…
Yes, like, please come up with something else :-) I am so sick of always seeing/hearing about CoHo. There are so many other amazing authors out there, but for some reason they aren't so hyped. Please hype up someone else, haha