Check out the 2023 Diversify Your Reading Challenge!
I know we’re all keen to get out of 2020 and start fresh, so here we go: the 2021 Diversify Your Reading Challenge! I had so much fun planning the 3rd year of the Diversify Your Reading Challenge and think that this will certainly be the best one yet. For 2021, we’ll be exploring 12 genres plus 4 bonus categories. Our goal is to diversify our reading more than ever, with a special emphasis on backlist books and diverse authors. I hope you’ll join me for #DYRC21!
It’s crazy to think that a random idea I had one evening is now in it’s third year, and it’s grown so much! We are now 350+ strong on the Diversify Your Reading Challenge Facebook group, with others joining on Instagram or on their own. So, if you’re looking to explore new genres or push yourself out of your reading comfort zone, I’d love to have you join us for this 2021 reading challenge!
2021 Diversify Your Reading Challenge
The 2021 Diversify Your Reading Challenge features 16 prompts: 12 genre prompts, and 4 bonus categories. We’ll be reading 1 genre per month, with an additional bonus read for each quarter. Here’s are our 2021 genres:
- January: Literary Fiction
- February: Memoir/Autobiography
- March: Historical Fiction
- April: Classics
- May: History & Biography
- June: Romance
- July: Contemporary Fiction
- August: Thriller
- September: Crime
- October: Science Fiction
- November: Non-Fiction
- December: Fantasy
Our quarterly bonus challenge is a great way to explore some new books, without an emphasis on genre:
- Q1 (Jan-Mar): Award Winner
- Q2 (April-Jun): Translated Text
- Q3 (Jul-Sep): Banned Book
- Q4 (Oct-Dec): 2021 Best Seller
Check out the 2023 Diversify Your Reading Challenge!
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Wait…so how does this reading challenge work?
If you’re new here, or looking for a refresher, I have some good news: the Diversify Your Reading Challenge is one of the more straightforward & flexible reading challenges out there.
The goal is to read at least one book from the selected genre each month. So, if you’re a Romance reader, you’ll break out of your comfort zone and get to experience 11 different genres. And if you read exclusively fiction, you’ll read at least 3 non-fiction books for a change. It’s a great way to experience new genres or mix up your reading a bit – and, of course, to discover new books and make new bookish friends!

What’s new in 2021?
As always, the current DYRC members have provided some incredible feedback to help make 2021 the best Diversify Your Reading Challenge year yet. Here’s a peek at some of the changes that we’re making in the group this year:
- Picking books in bulk. We’ll be voting on our group reads in bulk, three months at a time. This means that you’ll have longer to get the books from the library or source second hand copies. And you’ll always know the next book if you finish early and want to keep reading!
- In-group book discussions. Our book discussions have moved to our Facebook group, instead of holding them as separate events. This means that they’ll be super easy to find and, if you read a book later on in the year, you can continue to carry on the discussion. Because it’s always a good time to discuss books!
- Supporting local businesses. From time to time, I share affiliate links on this blog & my other channels. These were usually links to Amazon. While I find Amazon an incredibly affordable and convenient way for buying books, I am hoping to move away from Amazon in 2021. As a result, the links I share for DYRC21 will take you to bookshop.org, where you can nominate a local bookshop that you’d like to support with your purchase. I’ll also add all of our book club selections to my personal storefront, so you can find everything in one place! You can view my bookshop.org profiles here (US) and here (UK).
Check out the 2023 Diversify Your Reading Challenge!
Track your reading challenge progress with these Instagram templates:
DYRC Archive
2 comments
Do you have a printable version of the list please? I’m looking forward to joining.
Hi. I am not on Facebook, but I am interested in this challenge. Love the themes!
For January, I read _Clap_When_You_Land_ by Elizabeth Acevedo as my literary novel. I can’t stop thinking about the conflict that arose for the two main characters when they each learned their father has died in an airplane crash. In addition to grief, this novel addresses forgiveness and family bonds. It’s pretty powerful and was my first five star book for the month (of the six I have read so far).