⚜ Welcome to the ninth annual Newgrounds Reading Challenge ⚜

Where you can do YOUR part to slow the catastrophic literacy decline that will end civilization.

How it works:

1. Declare how many books you aim to read in 2025.
2. List the books you finish in here.
3. Get your progress logged in monthly updates.
4. Attain literary nirvana.

FAQ / guideline:

• Q: Do audiobooks, manga, comics etc. count? If you want, yes.
• To first-time participants: set a goal lower than you think you can achieve, trust me.
• Also join the NG Goodreads group. Or don't, I'm not your dad.

Past threads: ★ 2017 ★ | ♥ 2018 ♥ | ♜ 2019 ♜ | ♚ 2020 ♚ | ♣ 2021 ♣ | ♛ 2022 ♛ | ◈ 2023 I / II ◈ | ♝ 2024 ♝

I'm gonna stick with 30; just in case.

gonna shoot for 18

I’ll shoot for 12 books and see where we go from there.

I'll be go for 40. Want to go easy this time.

I'm going 6 again this year. I might get it this year, but if I don't it's fine

Gonna go for 12 myself!

Reporting for duty to prevent the apocalypse! I'll go with ONE STEP FURTHER; 25 books for 2025.

I'm going to shoot for 6 this year.

A far cry from the 30 I set and hit a couple years ago, but life's been busy and I just haven't found my groove for both mind and body balance routine.

Thanks @Jackho for setting up for 2025.

Good luck to everyone.

I didn't get 17 last year, and I know going for 20 is a mistake since I tend to read 500 page monsters, so let's go for 17 again since I have two books partially read already.

I missed my goal in 2024 so this year I'll shoot for 40.

Thanks for hosting for another year!!

I'm aiming for 6 again. I know I doubled it last time but I will be lucky if I have as good of a year again.

She's hydrated, unbothered, and realistic this year.

let's go for 8 this year hehe.

I saw the poast about asking users if they still want the challenge... let's gooooooo!!

so far I want to read "Kicking the Ladder", "Bald's Leechbook" and "How to Write History"

imma join da Goodreads group xD

Sign me up for 30, boss

I would like to join, as usal I want my goal to be 12 books.

I have also finished these books:

1. BioShock: Rapture, John Shirley, 432 pages

2. Elternabend, Sebastian Fitzek, 336 pages

3. Die App, Arno Strobel, 384 pages

Would you kindly join the Reading Challenge? To celebrate the New Year, reading a Bioshock book seems like a great fit. This details the beginning stages of Rapture, how it was built and its slow downfall, including the invention of plasmids. As a big fan of the series, I greatly enjoyed this and would recommend it to anyone who likes the series, especially the first one.

Elternabend:

Sascha Nebel gets caught trying to steal a car while being stuck between people demonstrating and a woman he doesn't know trying to smash his stolen car with a baseball bat. As options for fleeing are limited, they both somehow end up in a bus with parents that are on a way to a weekend trip that is also a parents evening. Luckily - or unluckily - for them, one of the students, Hector, has parents that never attented so they can assume their identities and as you would expect, a whole bunch of weird scenarios emerge from this.

Pretty good book. Compared to previous books from the author the humour here is solid. I was not fully sold on the balancing between humour and very serious themes but overally enjoyed the book.

Die App:

Hendrik and Linda are a happy couple and they plan to marry soon. They recently moved into a new house that is controlled by a smart App - the lights, the fridge, the doors, etc. One day, after Hendrik comes back from an emergengy surgery, Linda seems to be gone without a trace.

As the police believes that Linda just went on her own as there are no signs of breaking in, Hendrik investigates on his own and it seems that there is something fishy going on with the Home Smart App, as other people have went missing in the same way as Linda recently.

Good thriller. Not available in english.

My first book of the year I started last year.

1: Ahren by Torsten Weitze

This was originally written in German. It was our driving audiobook after Hogfather and we thought it was pretty good so we're continuing the series.

1: Charlotte's Web

It's very cute and comfy without ever becoming twee thanks to the emotional shifts. Only issue for me is I don't really care for Wilbur, I get Charlotte finds his naivety endearing but I just didn't find him likable.

Also I find it funny how I started thinking that maybe Fern was imagining the animals' talking and then the book acknowledged that like a chapter later.

Trying to do 25 books this year. Yeehaw.

I'll shoot for 15 this year.

I'm going for 4 books!

I'm gonna read 8 hehe

Let's swing for 15 this year!

I'd like to sign up for 7 books this time, since I finished 7 last time. Hopefully I'll finish more, given that I have a head start on the books I didn't finish last year.

Done reading these books:

4. Nachttod (The Night Singer), Johanna Mo, 496 pages

5. Der Unbesiegbare (The Invincible), Stanislaw Lem, 227 pages

6. Die Apollo-Morde (The Apollo Murders), Chris Hadfield, 640 pages

Nachttod:

Hanna Duncker has decided to return to Öland, Sweden, the place where she grew up. She left that place sixteen years ago, when her father comimtted a brutal murder. Now, she is working for the police herself and soon after her arrival, a teenager is found beaten up and stabbed to death.

Finding the trace of the murderer is tricky, as plenty of people hold secrets and some also still hold a grudge against Hanna, see her as merely the daughter of a murderer and are not willing to cooperate and some might go even beyond that.

Good book. The case itself is solid but I really liked the atmosphere. There are four additional books in this series, I'll read those as well.

The Invincible:

The Invincible is a remarkable spaceship, almost one of its kind - barring the Kondor, which got lost on the planet Regis III. The crew feels confident that they can find the ship and conquer the planet - but this planet holds threats that are unimaginable.

Good classic. Put that on my reading list after seeing the video game based on it coming out recently.

The Apollo Murders:

1973: A new moon mission, Apollo 18, is in its planning stages. But not only the US but also the Sowjet Union is planning a mission to the moon. Flight director Kaziemiras Zemeckis has to try his best to hold the NASA crew together and stay ahead of the Sowjet Unions mission, even more so when it seems more and more likely that one of the NASA crew members was involved with murder.

Solid book, sounded more interesting than it turned out but nicely researched book otherwise.

First book finished of 2025:

1. The Urth of the New Sun - Gene Wolfe

I don’t want to go too much into it, and don’t know if I could if I wanted to, but I just did not enjoy almost any of this book. I love The Book of the New Sun, but this one just didn’t connect with me and became a slog. I liked some of the additions to the lore, but just was not along for the ride with Severian on this one.

Hi I am a first timer who is so boomer that I accidentally created a whole new topic trying to respond to this thread.

Anyway I'm gonna aim for 5 books dis year, feel free to recommend books :)

We'd be able to give better recommendations if you tell us what kind of stories you like.

Some of my favourites are:

(I'd reccomend reading the blurb or something on these; I don't think my own outlines are very good)

Suttree - Cormac McCarthy

A man lives in exile on a houseboat on the Tennessee River, his social circle consists of criminals, the homeless, and other assorted vagrants. Easily has the best prose out of the 4 I've outlined, but the narrative is sorta meandering.

The Crying of Lot 49 - Thomas Pynchon

The protagonist (and by extension the reader) unravels a bizarre conspiracy, meeting strange characters along the way. It's only about 140 pages, I was so engrossed by it I read it in just 2 sittings.

The Catcher in The Rye - J.D. Salinger

The story of a teenager forced to grow up too fast and the angst he harbors for the world around him.

Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace

In the indeterminate future, an experimental film director makes a movie so engrossing that anyone who sees it literally cannot look away.

The amount of creative ideas in this book is insane, and it's also funny as hell, but it is very long and somewhat bloated and meandering at times, which I didn't mind but it is a common criticism.

I like any book that is not academic like Math or whatever (I'm not tryna say there is a zero percent chance I can get into books involving academic subjects but it has to be accessible and not boring). I have already read Catcher in the rye, it was awesome. Thanks for the other recs. :P

Im gonna keep it low in case something comes up. 8 is my favorite number, so that’s a good enough starting point. If i reach that pretty quick, 11 is the next

2. The Sailor on the Seas of Fate - Book two of the Elric saga - Michael Moorcock

Hell yeah. Already on book three.