Read What You Own Challenge 2025: The Shelf-Care Edition

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42 participants (226 books)

01 Jan 2025—31 Dec 2025

Overview

Is your bookshelf starting to resemble a  Jenga tower, teetering with unread books? Do you have novels that have been in your possession longer than some houseplants you’ve managed to keep alive? It’s time to give those books the attention they’ve been silently yearning for.

Challenge Overview:
• Duration: January 1 – December 31, 2025
• Objective: Read 12 books from your personal collection that were owned before January 1, 2025. Yes, those ones you’ve been “meaning to get to.”

• Flexibility: Any genre, any length, any format. If it’s been collecting dust in your domain, it qualifies.

• Community: Share your progress and connect with fellow participants using the hashtag #ShelfCare2025.

Happy reading!

Challenge Books

All books added
A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century by Barbara W. Tuchman

A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century

Barbara W. Tuchman

28 hours, 38 minutes • audio • 1978

nonfiction history challenging informative slow-paced
Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Children of Ruin

Children of Time #2

Adrian Tchaikovsky

15 hours, 25 minutes • audio • 2019

fiction science fiction adventurous challenging reflective slow-paced
Empire in Black and Gold by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Empire in Black and Gold

Shadows of the Apt #1

Adrian Tchaikovsky

23 hours, 4 minutes • audio • 2008

fiction fantasy adventurous challenging mysterious slow-paced
Weavers, Scribes, and Kings: A New History of the Ancient Near East by Amanda H. Podany

Weavers, Scribes, and Kings: A New History of the Ancient Near East

Amanda H. Podany

18 hours, 26 minutes • audio • 2022 user-added

nonfiction biography history adventurous challenging informative medium-paced
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption

Laura Hillenbrand

13 hours, 57 minutes • audio • 2010

nonfiction biography history adventurous hopeful inspiring medium-paced
Rome and Persia: The Seven Hundred Year Rivalry by Adrian Goldsworthy

Rome and Persia: The Seven Hundred Year Rivalry

Adrian Goldsworthy

20 hours, 25 minutes • audio • 2023 user-added

nonfiction history informative medium-paced
Le Morte D'Arthur by Thomas Malory

Le Morte D'Arthur

Thomas Malory

15 hours, 8 minutes • audio • 2010

fiction classics fantasy historical adventurous medium-paced
The Anglo-Saxons: A History of the Beginnings of England by Marc Morris

The Anglo-Saxons: A History of the Beginnings of England

Marc Morris

13 hours, 19 minutes • audio • 2020

nonfiction history adventurous medium-paced
Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon

Remnant Population

Elizabeth Moon

12 hours, 18 minutes • audio • 1996

fiction science fiction adventurous hopeful reflective medium-paced
The Dead Drink First by Dale Maharidge

The Dead Drink First

Dale Maharidge

3 hours, 31 minutes • audio • 2019

nonfiction biography history emotional slow-paced