Goodreads 2023 Reading Challenge: what is it, how can I sign up, and when does it begin?

The Goodreads 2023 Reading Challenge is already in full swing, with thousands of Goodreads users setting themselves reading targets for the next twelve months.

By singing up for the Goodreads 2023 Reading Challenge, users can track their reading progress across the year, and chart how many books they get through – and how many they need to read if they want to reach their eventual target.

Here’s everything you need to know about the Goodreads 2023 Reading Challenge.

What is it?

It’s pretty much exactly what it sounds like: people who use Goodreads, which is a website and an app you can use to track what you read across the year, are setting themselves challenges to get through a certain number of books in 2023.

Other than that, it’s all pretty casual – you can choose whatever number of books you’d like to read, everyone is working to different targets, there’s no big number you have to hit. If your target for the year is five books, it’s five books, and if your target for the year is 50 books, then it’s 50 books.

How can I sign up?

To take part in the 2023 Goodreads Challenge, you first have to sign up for a Goodreads account. That’s fairly intuitive – you can sign up with your email address, or via an existing account you might have with Facebook, Amazon, or Apple.

Once you’ve signed up for Goodreads and activated your account, if you follow this link, you’ll be presented with the option to enter how many books you’d like to read for the year. You can go back and change it later on, either because you decide fewer books might be more realistic, or if you’re feeling ambitious and want to increase your target.

Throughout the year, you can check back and see a little progress bar – it indicates how many books you’ve read across 2023 so far, and how many more you’ll have to read before the end of the year to meet your target.

How many people are taking part?

At time of writing – about 2pm on Sunday 1 January - 316,709 Goodreads Users have signed up to participate in the 2023 Goodreads Reading Challenge. Between them, they’ve pledged to read 15,429,737 books, which is an average of 50 books each.

How many people took part in the 2022 Goodreads Reading Challenge?

6,811,822 Goodreads users signed up to participate in the 2022 Reading Challenge, between them pledging to read a total of 336,777,522 books. That’s an average of 49 books per person.

What colour is the 2023 Goodreads Challenge?

The 2023 Goodreads Challenge is a light blue colour. The 2022 Goodreads Challenge was a shade of orange, which was controversial amongst some Goodreads users (insofar as these things can be controversial, it was a shade of orange some people didn’t like, we don’t want to overstate it particularly).

Do you have any book recommendations?

The Goodreads staff have curated a list of books that users can consult for inspiration. It includes titles like Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong, and I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy – you can read the full list, which runs to over 1400 books, right here.

Goodreads have also put together a list of free books you can find online; you might be interested in the Project Gutenberg online library, which collects free ebooks of out of copyright classic books.

Personally I quite liked Josh Ferris’ books Then We Came to the End and To Rise Again at a Decent Hour, if you were looking for more recommendations.