2025: Challenges Past

In 2025 I signed up for a few reading challenges. How'd I do? Some good, some partly good! I participated in some ongoing challenges that run over into next year, more about those in another post. 

The challenges specific to 2025 were are follows: 

More of a reading event than a challenge, Women in Translation Month in August was another great time. I read a bunch of titles, found some great books, and shared some reading lists and favourites from previous years. Definitely sticking with this one. 

Then there's the Literary Sewing Circle, a challenge I run, with two discrete rounds a year. There were two fun reads in 2025, and it will be returning in 2026. 

I signed up for a few challenges that I haven't participated in for a while. The first was the Japanese Literature Challenge hosted by Dolce Bellezza. It's been running for a long time and it is always fun to see what everyone else is reading. You only have to read one thing to participate, but in January I read and reviewed 2 titles, Mina's Matchbox by Yoko Ogawa, and There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job by Kikuko Tsumura.

Next was the TBR 25 in '25, hosted by Rose City Reader. I definitely have a giant TBR of my own books on my shelves, which is what this one is focused on. I had hoped to get to 25 but I got sidetracked by all the library books! I read only 7 books that had been on my shelves prior to January 1, 2025. A few others of my own that I bought in 2025 but those don't count toward this one either :) 

And the final challenge I signed up for in 2025 was the What's in a Name challenge, hosted by Carolina Book Nook. This is an old-school one but I haven't done it for years! My results were only halfway there though - I read 4/6 in the categories for this one. 

I had a lot of fun with these even if I didn't meet them all. If you're interested you can find all the titles read for all the challenges in my planning post from the end of 2024. 

I'll be sharing what I'm planning on joining in on for next year, in my next post.