Your Favorite (and Least Favorite) 2024 Read Harder Tasks

It’s time for the results of the Read Harder 2024 Wrap-Up Survey! I can’t tell how much I enjoy digging into these answers and seeing the charts for the results. Of course, not every Read Harder Challenger (that’s what I call us) filled out the survey, but it still gives some fun insights into what your experience with this year’s Read Harder Challenge has been like.

Let me start at the end with the general feedback. First, thank you so much for all your kind words. I’ve been having a great time writing the Read Harder newsletter all year, and I’m glad to know that so many of you are enjoying it and the challenge itself.

A few of you had some suggestions that we will be implementing next year! First off, several responses noted that the 2024 challenge had a lot of children’s and YA challenges, and I’ll be honest, you were right! In retrospect, five tasks to do with children’s and YA books was probably too much for one challenge, though we did love all of those tasks. I’ll reveal this about the 2025 Read Harder Challenge: only two are children’s/YA-focused. You also said you missed the other editors’ recommendations, and next year, it’ll be more than just me recommending books! You’ll be hearing from a bunch of us, each recommending some of our favorite tasks.

Another piece of feedback I heard was that it was hard to find the recommendation list for each task. For the 2025 challenge, I’ll be sure to link the recommendation lists to each task in the announcement post. Also, for those of you wanting recommendations at the beginning of the year, we’re doing a bonus for annual All Access members in 2025: you’ll get a list in January of three titles recommended for each task, with the full recommendations coming out as usual throughout the year.

Okay, now onto the pie charts! I’ll share your favorite books you read for the challenge in another post.

Did you complete all 24 of the 2024 Read Harder Challenge Tasks?

I’ve always been curious how many people who try the Read Harder Challenge complete it—or even intend to complete it. It turns out to be roughly a 50/50 split, at least this year: 46% said they haven’t finished and don’t think they will, 22.4% already completed it, and 31.6% haven’t yet, but plan to by the end of 2024. Many people mentioned that they discovered the challenge late in the year, but they plan to complete the 2025 challenge!

How many books total have you read in 2024?

When I got the results for the halfway check-in survey, I realized I had severely underestimated just how much some of you all read! So, this time I added more options over 100. 23% said they read 50 or fewer books. Thirty-one point six percent were between 51-100. Twenty-seven point six percent were between 100 and 200. Ten point three percent read 200-300 books this year, leaving 7.5% who read over 300. That is a staggeringly high average!

Now, let’s talk about two of the questions I find the most interesting: your favorite and least favorite tasks this year, complete with bar charts.

Content for All Access subscribers continues below.

Later this month, I’ll share your favorite books you read for the Read Harder Challenge this year. In a week, though, I’ll be back with something very exciting…The announcement of the 2025 Read Harder Challenge! I can hardly wait! Remember, annual All Access members will get an exclusive list of three books recommended for each of the tasks at the beginning of the year, so this is a great time to sign up. All Access members also get access to all the bonus content in every one of Book Riot’s dozens of newsletters.