Hello, friends. 2026 has been such a year already that I’ve forgotten the fact that it’s time to head back to the Orilium Academy for ✨The Magical Readathon: Orilium Spring Equinox 2026!✨ We’re well into April already, but we’re going to roll with it.
If this is your first time hearing about the readathon, you can find out more via resources linked below, and you can watch G’s video below for the Spring 2026 announcement. Happy reading!
If you couldn’t tell that my year started off on a disorganized note, I guess this post might clue you in because yes, it’s the end of February, and yes, I’m just now posting my reading challenges. 😂 I usually have separate posts for the main challenges I’m joining because I also list out potential reads for each prompt, and I still might do that as follow-ups after this because I find them so helpful. But I digress.
I decided to stick to four main reading challenges this year, but then I also somehow joined three more on Storygraph to aid my backlist reading! Here’s what the list is looking like right now (titles in bold are my main ones):
Goodreads Reading Challenge (not featured in the image above from StoryGraph)
Year in Aeldia 2026
Devour Your TBR 2026
2026 TBR Tackle
2026 Easy Reading Challenge
Beat the Backlist 2026
Buzzword Reading Challenge 2026
Goodreads Reading Challenge
Of course, the one reading challenge that I always do without fail every year is the Goodreads Reading Challenge. I’ve set my goal to read 100 books in 2026. I think last year was the first time in years that I didn’t reach my goal, but it was also the first year since I can remember when I didn’t actually update my challenge for most of the year! Hopefully, I’ll get my ish together this year.
This image (left) was from earlier in the year and I’m excited to say that I’m now at 21 books completed (and 5 books ahead of schedule)! 🎉
Buzzword Reading Challenge
I might’ve struggled a bit with this challenge last year, but I’m hopeful for 2026! This is one of the only challenges that I do yearly and still really enjoy and I hope that Kayla keeps this challenge going.
There wasn’t anything publicly posted about the Year in Aeldia challenge for 2026, but I got the update that was apparently shared on the readathon’s Discord saying that people should just pick a different route this year.
With a massive map of paths to choose from, this was no issue and I’m excited that I have this one to look forward to. While you’re meant to take it one month at a time so the story unfolds slowly, I’ve gone ahead and chosen my path already because I need it like that, lol.
I made this graphic on Canva but you’re welcome to use the template if you like. Grab it here. (And I’d be super grateful if you kept my name as the credit, if you do use it!)
Beat the Backlist +25Bingo
I’m joining the Beat the Backlist Reading Challenge once again this year and although I didn’t complete all the squares in this 25-Bingo last year, I’m still gonna attempt it again this year! I was tempted to even go for the bigger Bingo board but I told myself to calm down, lol. If I complete this one in 2026, then maybe I’ll give the bigger one a go next year!
I don’t recall how I came across the other challenges that I joined on Storygraph, but they’ve all got prompts to motivate you to read your backlist titles and that sounded appealing to me. There aren’t any monthly goals, and you basically tick prompts off as you read, and it’s been fun. I’m not gonna be too serious with these challenges, but there’s no denying that it feels so good to be able to tick off a prompt and add another backlist title to the read pile! 🤭 I feel so accomplished every time I make an update, haha. The challenges are: Devour Your TBR 2026, 2026 TBR Tackle, and the 2026 Easy Reading Challenge.
The images below link to the challenges on Storygraph if they sound interesting or if you’re just looking for a low-key backlist reading challenge to join.
And that’s it for the reading challenges I’m joining in 2026! Are you also doing any of these challenges? How many are you participating in this year (if any)? Do you have challenges that you repeat every year no questions asked?
Hello, friends! Today I’m sharing my possibility pile for the The Life of a Showgirl Taylor Swift Inspired Reading Challenge. Isn’t that a mouthful?! 🤭 Anyway, we’re halfway through the month now, and I’m just posting about this for the first time, so I guess you can probably tell how well this is going, lol. I have been able to tick off two of the prompts, but I’m hoping to complete a few more soon!
This is a reading challenge created by four hosts @katscreations614 (Kristin), @bookish.ciara (Ciara), @wander.through.books (Ruby), and @challengecoven (Nicole) on Instagram. I believe it was created before the album came out, so some of the prompts don’t really match the song well, but I thought it’d be fun to do anyway! 😂
Okay, I’m not waffling on anymore! Let’s get straight to the prompts and bookish possibilities, but I’ll include a full list of the prompts at the end in case anyone wants to be a chaos monster with me and join halfway through the month! I’m marking the books that I’ll likely read with a ☀︎ symbol.
The Fate of Ophelia — Retelling
The Earl That Got Away — Persuasion, James — Huck Finn, Blood of Hercules — Hercules, The Gilded Heiress — Anastasia, A Forgery of Fate — Beauty and the Beast
This was the first prompt I finished! This was definitely a strange little book that was a step outside my comfort zone with its eerie/chilling vibes. I really enjoyed it though 🙂
Father Figure — Strong male figure
I’m not gonna lie, friends. I had a really hard time coming up with any options but the first that popped into my mind was the book that I’ll be counting for this prompt. I’d love to know what you’d recommend for this!
It was also hard for me to come up with more options for this but these were the only ones I could think of (and one would be a re-read if I go for it, lol). I’d love to know what you’d recommend for this!
This merman fell hard, fast, and first! Sure, the “fated mates” trope came into play a little bit, but it was wonderful to see Arges be so absolutely taken by Mira (even despite being simultaneously disgusted by humans, lol)!
Wi$h Li$t — Got for free (gifted, ARC, library, borrowed)
I’m currently reading this ARC by Yardley. It’s an absolute hoot and romp in Hell and I’m enjoying it immensely! There are hints that this will possibly be an instalove romance, but I’m crossing all my fingers and toes that it’s not (or at least, that it’s more believable, lol).
Opalite — Makes you nervous or outside your comfort zone
Father Figure — Strong male figure
Eldest Daughter — First in the series
Ruin the Friendship — Featuring betrayal
Actually Romantic — “He falls first” romance
Wi$h Li$t — Got for free (gifted, ARC, library, borrowed)
Wood — Trees on the cover
CANCELLED! — Title with all uppercase
Honey — Yellow or gold cover
Life of A Showgirl — Two authors
And that’s it for my possibility pile for The Life of a Showgirl reading challenge! Are you also joining this challenge? What books would you recommend for some of these prompts? If you are joining, I hope you’re having fun!
Hello, friends. I can’t believe it’s already that time of year but we’re now getting ready for the ✨ 2025 Orilium Autumn Equinox! ✨
While I’ve loved participating in Orilium over the past several years, I have to admit that I haven’t been doing so well with since last year. Still, I’m excited to get back to it and I have high hopes that the 2025 Autumn Equinox will be smashing!
As someone who’s generally terrible at completing reading challenges, this is one challenge I join without hesitation every year because not only is it fun, but it’s also low-key, which means less pressure. This makes it easy for me to keep up as a notorious mood reader!
You may be thinking: another reading challenge, Dini?! Well, I too am shocked, dear readers because who do I think I am partaking in all these challenges? Something in the air in 2025 is telling me to do the challenges, so here I am: doing the challenges! 🤷🏻♀️ As a serial overthinker, I spent about 1.5 months hemming and hawing over whether or not to jump on the bandwagon with the 25 in 25 Reading Challenge. Last night, I finally decided that it was happening!
The Biggest Obstacle
The biggest obstacle was figuring out how to choose the books I would read for this challenge because I have an overwhelming number of unread backlist books on both physical and digital shelves. Then I remembered that random number generators exist and I have a numbered catalogue of my home library et voila! I had my method for choosing my reads. I’ve been wanting to tackle more of my physical books so I filtered my list of unread hardcovers and paperbacks and started generating numbers…
We’re back with another year of Adventures in Aeldia! This year-long reading challenge is part of the Orilium Magical Readathon created and hosted by the supremely talented G @Book Roast! I know we’re already halfway through February but this announcement did come out a bit late. I was originally going to “go with the flow” and not spoil the adventure for myself but I wanted to be a little more organized so… I’ve chosen my path! 😂 Before we get into the details, if you want to learn more about the adventure, check out G’s video below:
Happy Thursday, friends! I’m back with another reading challenge I hope to complete in 2025 and it’s the very popular Popsugar Reading Challenge. The first and last time I attempted this was in 2020 and I didn’t consider how difficult being a mood reader would make completing this challenge. To be fair, it was also a helluva year so it wasn’t surprising how miserably I “failed”. But now I’m back and attempting PS once again! Who knows how I’ll do this year but right now I’m feeling oddly hopeful about my participation in this challenge.
Happy Friday, friends! I’ve got a whole backlog of book posts that I’ve meant to get out sooner but haven’t got around to doing so expect several challenge-related blog posts in the upcoming blogging schedule!
First up is the ✨ Buzzword Reading Challenge! ✨ This year, to celebrate the 5th year of this challenge, Kayla@BooksandLala has given us two Buzzword Challenges! 👀 I’m sticking with the classic title/word challenge but if you love to read based on covers, you can check out her video below where she goes into more detail about it! What I love about this challenge is that there are very few rules and you can read when you want and how you want. As a mood reader, that flexibility is *chef’s kiss* amazing!
Since I’m posting this after September 1, the ✨2024 Orilium Autumn Equinox✨ has already begun and I’m excited to get back to it! It might be overambitious of me to still participate when I know just how busy this month will be but the FOMO is real and I don’t want to miss out on one of my favourite annual reading challenges!
dinipandareads 