2025 Reading Challenge discussion
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2026 Yearly Challenge Suggestions And Poll
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Opposites Members have to choose to read one or the other of the matched pairs.
Spring v Fall/Autumn
Summer v Winter
Day V Night
Friend V Enemy
Love V Hate
Right V Wrong
Strength V Weakness
Rich V Poor
Sun V Moon
Snow V Fire
Christmas V New year
Romance V Horror/Thriller
A New Release V A secondhand book
Reality V Legend
I Love the TBR Jar Challenge. It is making me read books I already have at home before buying more. I will do it every year even if we don't have it here.
Have a Riddle Challenge where we have a load of riddles and we have to find 1 or more novels to match each riddle.1. What time is it when an elephant sits on a fence?
Answer: Time to fix the fence.
2. What gets wet while drying?
Answer: A towel.
3. What can go up a chimney down, but can’t go down a chimney up?
Answer: An umbrella.
4. What can you hold in your right hand, but never in your left hand?
Answer: Your left hand.
5. What can you catch, but not throw?
Answer: A cold.
6. What kind of band never plays music?
Answer: A rubber band.
7. What question can you never say yes to?
Answer: “Are you asleep?”
8. What has lots of eyes, but can’t see?
Answer: A potato.
9. What has one eye, but can’t see?
Answer: A needle.
10. What can travel all around the world without leaving its corner?
Answer: A stamp.
11. What two things can you never eat for breakfast?
Answer: Lunch and dinner.
12. What kind of room has no doors or windows?
Answer: A mushroom.
13. What do Alexander the Great and Winnie the Pooh have in common?
Answer: Their middle names.
14. Before Mount Everest was discovered, what was the highest mountain in the world?
Answer: Mount Everest, it just wasn’t discovered yet.
15. What is the end of everything?
Answer: The letter “G.”
16. What part of the chicken has the most feathers?
Answer: The outside.
17. What has a bottom at the top?
Answer: Your legs.
18. How far can you walk into the woods?
Answer: Halfway. After that, you’re walking out.
19. What is red and smells like blue paint?
Answer: Red paint.
21. Two in a corner, one in a room, zero in a house, but one in a shelter. What am I?
Answer: The letter “R.”
22. A plane crashed between the border of France and Belgium. Where were the survivors buried?
Answer: They weren’t. Survivors don’t need to be buried.
23. Poor people have it. Rich people need it. If you eat it you die. What is it?
Answer: Nothing.
24. What runs, but never walks. Murmurs, but never talks. Has a bed, but never sleeps. And has a mouth, but never eats?
Answer: A river.
25. Spelled forward, I’m what you do every day; spelled backward, I’m something you hate. What am I?
Answer: Live.
26. The person who makes it has no need for it; the person who buys it has no use for it. The person who uses it can neither see nor feel it. What is it?
Answer: A coffin.
27. You walk into a room that contains a match, a kerosene lamp, a candle and a fireplace. What would you light first?
Answer: The match.
28. No matter how little or how much you use me, you change me every month. What am I?
Answer: A calendar.
29. If your uncle’s sister is not your aunt, what relation is she to you?
30. What starts with a T, ends with a T, and has T in it?
Answer: A teapot.
31. The 22nd and 24th presidents of the United States of America had the same parents but were not brothers. How can this be possible
Answer: They were the same man: Grover Cleveland.
32. Sara has four daughters, and each of her daughters has a brother. How many children does Sara have?
Answer: Five, each daughter has the same brother.
33. Take one out and scratch my head, I am now black but once was red. What am I?
Answer: A match.
34. Two fathers and two sons are in a car, yet only three people are in the car. How?
Answer: They are grandfather, father and son.
35. Until I am measured, I am not known. Yet how you miss me when I have flown. What am I?
Answer: Time.
36: What begins with an “e” and only contains one letter?
Answer: An envelope.
37. What do you throw out when you want to use it but take in when you don’t want to use it?
Answer: An anchor.
38. A man goes out in heavy rain with nothing to protect him from it. His hair doesn’t get wet. How does he do that?
Answer: He’s bald.
39. What is so fragile that saying its name breaks it?
Answer: Silence.
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Ready for another challenge? Check out these short riddles that are sure to stump you.
40. What five-letter word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it?
Answer: Short.
41. What has to be broken before you can use it?
Answer: An egg.
42. What kind of coat is always wet when you put it on?
Answer: A coat of paint.
43. How many bananas can you eat if your stomach is empty?
Answer: Just one. After that, your stomach’s not empty anymore.
44. Which letter of the alphabet has the most water?
Answer: “C.”
45. What has 10 letters and starts with gas?
Answer: Automobile.
46. What goes up but never comes down?
Answer: Your age.
47. What tastes better than it smells?
Answer: Your tongue.
48. What can you break, even if you never pick it up or touch it?
Answer: A promise.
49. Which month has 28 days?
Answer: All of them.
50. What has legs, but does not walk?
Answer: A chair.
51. What has many keys but can’t open a single lock?
Answer: A piano.
52. What runs around the whole yard without moving?
Answer: Fence.
53. What goes up and down but doesn’t move?
Answer: A staircase.
54. What is harder to catch the faster you run?
Answer: Your breath.
55. What flowers are kissable?
Answer: Tulips.
56. What has hands, but can’t clap?
Answer: A clock.
57. Which is heavier: a ton of bricks or a ton of feathers?
Answer: They weigh the same.
58. How much dirt is in a hole that’s 2 feet long by 3 feet wide?
Answer: None, it’s a hole.
59. You see me once in June, twice in November, and not at all in May. What am I?
Answer: The letter “E.”
60. What occurs once in a minute, twice in a moment, and never in 1,000 years?
Answer: The letter “M.”
61. The more of this there is, the less you see. What is it?
Answer: Darkness.
62. What has words, but never speaks?
Answer: A book.
63. What has a head and a tail but no body?
Answer: A coin.
64. I am weightless, but put me in a bucket, and I will make it lighter. What am I?
Answer: A hole.
65. How many letters are in the alphabet?
Answer: Eleven, “t-h-e-a-l-p-h-a-b-e-t.”
66. What’s at the end of the rainbow?
Answer: The letter “W.”
67. What kind of ship has two mates but no captain?
Answer: A relationship.
68. What has three feet but can’t walk?
Answer: A yardstick.
69. What has a heart that doesn’t beat?
Answer: An artichoke.
70. An electric train is going south at 200 mph. Which way is the smoke blowing?
Answer: There’s no smoke—it’s an electric train.
71. How many bricks does it take a complete a brick building?
Answer: One—the last one.
Ready to really stretch out your brain? These long riddles should do the trick!
Clever riddles for adults
72. What is the difference between a jeweler and a jailer?
Answer: A jeweler sells watches and a jailer watches cells.
73. I have cities, but no houses. I have mountains, but no trees. I have water, but no fish. What am I?
Answer: A map.
74. I have branches, but no fruit, trunk or leaves. What am I?
Answer: A bank.
75. What belongs to you, but everyone else uses it?
Answer: Your name.
76. If two’s company and three’s a crowd, what are four and five?
Answer: Nine.
77. What word in the dictionary is spelled incorrectly?
Answer: Incorrectly.
78. What word is pronounced the same if you take away four of its five letters?
Answer: Queue.
79. What can fill a room but takes up no space?
Answer: Light.
80. Forward, I am heavy; backward, I am not. What am I?
Answer: Ton.
81. What has a neck but has no head?
Answer: Guitar.
82. Jared’s father has three sons: Snap, Crackle and…?
Answer: Jared.
83. Where does today come before yesterday?
Answer: In the dictionary.
84. What building has the most stories?
Answer: The library.
85. What has many hearts but no other organs?
Answer: A deck of cards.
86. The cowboy rode into town on Friday. He stayed for five days and left on Friday. How?
Answer: The horse’s name is Friday.
87. What do you lose the moment you share it?
Answer: A secret.
88. What gets shorter as it gets older?
Answer: A candle.
89. What has many keys but can’t open any locks?
Answer: A piano.
90. What five-letter word typed in all capital letters can be read the same upside down?
Answer: SWIMS.
If you thought that one was tricky, try solving this riddle about someone’s mother having four sons.
Logic riddles for adults
91. What type of cheese is made backward?
Answer: Edam.
92. A bus driver goes the wrong way down a one-way street. He passes police officers, but they don’t stop him. Why?
Answer: He’s walking.
93. What grows when you feed it but dies when you water it?
Answer: A fire.
94. What is taken before you can get it?
Answer: A photo.
95. What do you bury when it’s alive and dig up when it’s dead?
Answer: A plant.
96. What’s full of holes but still holds water?
Answer: A sponge.
97. What’s always on the ground but is never dirty.
Answer: A shadow.
98. What gets smaller every time it takes a bath?
Answer: A bar of soap.
99. What do you buy to eat but never consume?
Answer: Flatware.
100. What can’t talk but will reply when spoken to?
Answer: An echo.
101. What has many teeth but cannot bite?
Answer: A comb.
I’d love to see a challenge incorporating dates!Perhaps ‘pick a random number 1-12 which will give you a corresponding month and then try and find and read books published in every date of that month’
Or ‘Read a book published in every decade’ or ‘Read a book published on the 1st and last day of each month’
How about a read your height challenge? The "height" of the book will be width from cover to cover on the 1st edition hardcover. So, for example, I'm 5 foot 3 inches tall (or well, short) so I read as many books as it takes to add up to my height based on the width of the books.
Charley wrote: "This is a tough one but I’d like to put my vote towards ‘Wheel of Feels’"Hi, Charley. In the first post, Look for the following sentence.
"To vote in the 2026 Yearly Challenges poll from October 1st to Oct 15th, click here."
I believe the link to vote, from the first post, is more visible now. The link is the word "here." Thank you for your input.
Alan wrote: "TBR Jar for me please"Hello, Alan. Did you click on the link in message 1?
The link is where you can place your vote. Look for the following sentence, from message 1.
To vote in the 2026 Yearly Challenges poll from October 1st to Oct 15th, click here.
Once there, look for the words CLICK HERE.
The following link will take you to message 1, if you would rather go that route.
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Carolyn wrote: "Have a Riddle Challenge where we have a load of riddles and we have to find 1 or more novels to match each riddle.1. What time is it when an elephant sits on a fence?
Answer: Time to fix the fence..."
Love this! I'll 'borrow' your idea and work on it in my member's corner :-D
Carolyn wrote: "I Love the TBR Jar Challenge. It is making me read books I already have at home before buying more. I will do it every year even if we don't have it here."Hi Carolyn.
Did you use the link from message 1, to vote for your choice?
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
You can click on the link provided in message 1, to place your vote.
Look for "CLICK HERE."
I would like to suggest one of the monthly challenges from this year to become a yearly challenge next year:SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING BOOKS
This was so much fun.
Shari wrote: "I would like to suggest one of the monthly challenges from this year to become a yearly challenge next year:SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING BOOKS
This was so much fun."
Yes! Loved this one. It would be a great yearly challenge.
Theresa wrote: "Carolyn wrote: "I Love the TBR Jar Challenge. It is making me read books I already have at home before buying more. I will do it every year even if we don't have it here."Hi Carolyn.
Did you use..."
Hi yes I did. I put this up before the poll was opened
Not sure if it suitable for this group as it is a challenge created by someone else, or if it’s not too big but it would be fun to have a year long challenge/ topic for those who are doing or want to start doing the HRCYED - the Hardest Reading Challenge You’ll Ever Do. Here’s the official website: https://hrcyed.my.canva.site/It’s a very big challenge made up of many different challenges, and it’s made to kind of be impossible to reach (I haven’t counted them all, but I think there’s more than hundred prompts). I’m currently slowly working my way through it, but if we had a space in this group, I’d love to start again in January and have some buddies to discuss the prompts, books and progress with. 😊
LinaVer wrote: "Not sure if it suitable for this group as it is a challenge created by someone else, or if it’s not too big but it would be fun to have a year long challenge/ topic for those who are doing..."LinaVer, I think HRCYED is well beyond the scope of our yearly challenges, plus it runs from July to June, while our yearlies run from January to December. 🤔
That said, if you would like to have a discussion space with other Reading Challenge group members, you could start a topic in the Blogs/Vlogs, Events & Challenges folder. You and others could track the challenge elsewhere, but your thread would be a suitable spot for talking about prompts and books for the HRCYED challenge.
TerryJane wrote: "LinaVer wrote: "Not sure if it suitable for this group as it is a challenge created by someone else, or if it’s not too big but it would be fun to have a year long challenge/ topic for those who ar..."Yes, already when I was writing that comment I thought it might be too big.
If I start a topic but there are no people reacting/doing the challenge, is it going to be possible to delete the topic? I don’t want to spam the group, haha. 😅
LinaVer wrote: "TerryJane wrote: "LinaVer wrote: "Not sure if it suitable for this group as it is a challenge created by someone else, or if it’s not too big but it would be fun to have a year long challenge/ topi..."yes, Message on of the mods and we can.
Duration: October 1 to October 15, 2025
The five most active yearly challenges of 2025 will automatically return in 2026. These returning challenges are:
1. Let’s Turn Pages
2. I Spy
3. A-Z Book Challenge
4. Serial Reader
5. Bibliopoly
We will also bring back five member favorites from the remaining ten yearly challenges listed below. Please vote for one that you'd like to see return. If you are unfamiliar with this year's challenges, please review this Guide to the 2025 Yearly Challenges .The remaining 10 yearly challenge choices are:
- Clear The Shelves
- TBR Jar
- Magical Mystery Tour
- Bookworms Take Shelfies
- Popsugar
- Wheel Of Feels
- Genre Bingo
- Shelf Awareness
- Opposites Attract
- 20 Questions
To vote in the 2026 Yearly Challenges poll from October 1st to Oct 15th, CLICK HERE.
Please feel free to suggest ideas for additional yearly challenges for 2026 in the comments below. These can be challenges that you've enjoyed in the past, monthly or quarterly ones you'd like to see expanded into yearlies, or brand new challenge suggestions.
Again, the poll opens on October 1st PDT and closes on October 15th, but you may comment in this thread with your new challenge ideas any time.
We can’t wait to see what you come up with!