23 Books to Read this 2023 (2023 Reading Challenge)

Hey bookworms, we are halfway through 2023 and I can’t believe we have just 4 more months for New Year 2024. Time is flying faster with each passing day and that reminds me of an important quote that is one of my favourites, "Today a reader, tomorrow a leader." – Margaret Fuller

For all the book enthusiasts out there, I know that reading is more than just a pastime; it's a lifelong journey. It’s such an integral part of our life that we can’t imagine it without reading books. But at times due to workload or other situations, we may end up in a reading slump. That’s when fun reading challenges can help us get back on track with our reading goals.

For those who haven’t started with their reading habit, challenges like this will help and motivate you in starting with other readers.

Today, I have covered you all in this 2023 reading challenge which I have taken up myself this year.

But before we begin, just think about your inspirations, role models, and the great minds on this planet. They all will have one thing in common, giving a lot of credit to their reading habit.

This seriously changes you as a person and, as an effect, changes your whole life for good.

So what are you waiting for? I am never going to stop until you guys pick up a book and start reading it, be it for the first time or coming out of a reading slump.

On that note, I have a secret for you. Don’t believe anyone who says, you don’t gain knowledge from reading a fiction book. You do gain knowledge plus a whole lot of other good things like Vocabulary, reading skills, life experiences, and so much more.

So whatever your liking, go ahead and pick a book and start reading it. It may be a fiction, non-fiction, children’s book, illustrated book, or anything.

When I initially started reading, I took up a challenge where we had to read 20 books in the year 2020. Guess how many I ended up reading that year?

A 100 books. Yes, I am not even kidding. I ended up reading ONE HUNDRED BOOKS in 2020, some small, medium and big novels, and I honestly want to bring that book dragon energy back into my life.

So, this time I challenged myself to read 23 books in the year 2023. We are already in our 8th month and I will share with you my progress and a short review of the books I have selected under these categories soon when I complete my challenge successfully.

Now let’s dive into the category, shall we?

Here we go, the list.

1. A Translated Book

2. A Book with over 500 Pages

3. A Book with a Number in Title

4. A Book with the Day/Night Word in the Title

5. Autobiography and/or Biography

6. A Humor book

7. A Non-Fiction Book

8. A Mental Health Book

9. A Book with a White Color Cover

10. A Book under 100 pages long

11. A Book featuring the LGBTQ community

12. A Book with a Pretty Cover

13. A Wartime Book

14. A Book with a Place Name in Title

15. A Time Travel Book

16. A Book by your Favorite Author

17. Epistolary

18. The Childhood Days Books

19. Illustrated Book

20. Any Sports Book

21. A Guilty Pleasure Book Written by Any Author

22. A Book with a Female Protagonist

23. A Book that’s already on your Bookshelf

24. A Book about health and wellness

25. A Book about Society/Nature/Science/Technology

I have given 2 extra categories in case you need to swap one with another one.

How to take up the challenge?

I hear you, let me explain. From the above list of categories, be open to search for any books and pick the one that excites you.

If you are interested in autobiographies/biographies more than the rest of the categories, go for that and start searching for books. I personally heavily rely on 3 things to do my research.

1. Google, Duh!

2. Amazon, like you couldn’t have guessed that one!

3. Booktubers and bookstagrammers. Whenever they share a review of a good book they have recently read, I make sure to either save it or make a note of it all. So I go back to my directory and pick a book from there or I simply choose options 1 and 2 to do my research.

Once I have selected the books, I will go ahead and get them and start reading that’s it. That’s all you need to do to participate in this challenge.

Here are the formats of books I prefer, I either buy books from

1. Amazon for the physical copy

2. Amazon Kindle E-Copy so I can read from my mobile or tab Kindle application

3. Physical Store to get a 2nd and 1st handbooks.

The Books I have Selected:

I know you would want to know the books I have selected personally for me so let me share my list with you.

You can choose to pick the same books or you can do a little research and pick the ones that you like.

Now, the important thing is don’t be in a hurry, just go for one book at a time. I know we just have a few more months left but if you start today and read one book a month, you still will end up finishing 4 books this year. And no matter what your mind says or what others say, that’s a lot. You can even choose to continue the challenge to next year.

The main purpose behind this challenge is not to finish 23 books but to get into the habit of reading. Trying out new and different genres which we have never tried before. And getting comfortable with learning a whole lot of new information every day following this new habit.

So here’s the list of books I have selected for myself under each category:

1. Translated - Brida

2. 500 Pages - Tools of Titans

3. Number in Title - The 1,000-Year-Old Boy

4. Day/Night in Title - The Midnight Library

5. Auto/Biography - Unfinished

6. Humour - And Then You’re Dead

7. Non-Fiction Book - How to Talk to Anyone

8. Mental Health - Mindset

9. White Color - The Almanack of Naval Ravikant

10. Under 100 Page - Believe in Yourself

11. LGBTQ - The Color Purple

12. Pretty Cover - And then there were none

13. Wartime - Man’s Search for Meaning

14. Place Name - Train to Pakistan

15. Time Travel - The Time Traveller’s Wife

16. Favourite Author’s Book - The Raavan

17. Epistolary - The Perks of Being a Wallflower

18. Childhood Days - Boy

19. Illustrated Book - Tooth and Nail, Fur and Scale

20. Sports Books/A long awaited read - Becoming

21. Guilty Pleasure - The Girl in Room 105

22. Female Protagonist - It Ends With Us

23. Bookshelf - When Love Came Calling

24. Health & Wellness - What your Doctor doesn't know about

25. Society/Nature/Sci&Tech - 21 Lessons for the 21st Century

I have finished reading a couple of books from different categories and so far, I am in love with this challenge as it excites me and allows me to experiment with new genres that I would not have tried otherwise.

Now all you have to do to participate in this challenge is just make a note of this list, pick a category and choose your book. Start reading and write back to me about how did you enjoy reading it and 2 lessons you learned from the book.

If you are participating in this challenge with me, then please go ahead and drop a comment saying, ‘YES! I am in!’ so I will know you are in 🙂

On that note, I am signing off this week!

See you soon, until then,

Take Care,

Abinaya