Hi everyone !!

This is the announcement post for our 2026 spring-summer reading challenge that will begin on the 21^(th) of March ; and end on the 23^(th) of September.

For those who are new here (or simply didn’t know there was a reading challenge), first of all welcome !! 🥳 Our reading challenges are held twice a year, one through autumn/winter and the other through spring/summer. They're there to be a fun way to foster community and explore new books. The last one was our 2025-2026 fall-winter reading challenge and ended yesterday. This is our fourth reading challenge !

Principle of the challenge

This is the same idea as the last challenge, but a bit smaller, to see if it works better. If it's too small, I'll consider having a bonus C-side.

For now, the idea is that there are two sides : A-side and B-side, each has 9 squares that answer each other between the two sides, and the goal is to read one book for each square.

The challenge is pretty adaptable, you can :

- Only do "A-Side"

- Only do "B-Side"

- Do both

- Do a mismatch of both Sides

Why this system ?

The idea is to have a easy/no-pressure challenge, and something more for people who want a bigger challenge !

A-Side

🛋️ Comfort Read : Read a book that's comforting to you ! Can be a nostalgic reread, your favorite author, or a feel-good genre.

🗡️ Assassin : Read a book with an assassin main character.

1️⃣ First in a series : Read a book that's the first in a series of books.

🌱 Hopeful : Read a book that describes a positive/utopian system.

👭 Female friendship : Read a book that highlights friendships between female characters.

🧒 Coming-of-Age: Read a coming-of-age stories. Coming-of-age is a sub-genre where a character has to grow and progress as they face adversity.

🌏 Oceanian author : Read a book from an Oceanian author.

🤸‍♀️ All-female cast : Read a book where all the main characters are women.

B-Side

😲 Discovery : Read a book from an author you don't know, or in a genre that's new for you.

🧑‍⚕️ Healer : Read a book with a healer-type main character. Can be a magic healer, a doctor...

📕 Last in a series : Read the last published book in a series.

🏚️ Dying Earth : Read a book from the "dying earth" sub-genre : a subcategory of science fantasy or science fiction which takes place on a dying Earth, or at the end of time.

🤼 Siblings : Read a book focusing on or featuring a siblings relationship.

👨‍👦 Parent: Read a book featuring a main character that's a parent.

🌍 African Author : Read a book from an African Author.

🧍 Non-Binary MC : Read a book featuring a non-binary main character.

Rules / FAQ :

• Substitutions/Composite : If you are doing the A-Side challenge, you may substitute any square with the corresponding one from the B-Side. 
• Free Space : The middle square is a free square ! You can use whatever you want for this square.
• Special mode : Woman Power : You can do “woman power” mode and only choose books written by women.
• Series, repeating authors… : It’s up to you ! If you want to only read books by different authors you can add that rule for yourself, but we don’t want to “discourage” reading series or such, so it's not an official rule.
• Interpretation : In the same idea as the previous point, the prompts are flexible and open to interpretation.
• Genre : Please keep it SFF (sci-fi/fantasy/speculative fiction) !
• Female Gaze ?: There is no hard rule on that, especially since what's "female gaze-y" or not is very subjective. We trust our members to recommend books that fit this space, but please read what you will !

Posts planning : 

There will be a general rec thread right at the beginning (one week from now), followed by a focused thread once a week, alternating between A-Side and B-Side squares. You will also be able to share your advancement and the books you've read in our Current Reads weekly posts.

Resources :

• Canva Template Card (TBA)

Feel free to use these however you want : change the pictures, the colors, anything, make it yours !

For those who are unfamiliar with Canva, it’s a (mostly) free graphic design web tool. The template link creates a copy of our Reading Challenge template when you click on it. To use it, you just have to copy pictures of the books your read to the template, and drag and drop them in the spaces inside the squares.

If you want to have the other side’s alternate version, it becomes a little bit more complicated but basically you have to delete the elements of the square you’re replacing (the prompt name, the stars, the image space and the square background), and the alternate square will be hidden just behind all this !

• General Rec Thread (TBA)
• Focus Threads :
  • TBA

Challenge presentation image