My Challenge

Updated: 29 March 2024

2024 Challenge

Aiming to read at least 30 books in 2024. To diversify my reading and to challenge myself to read more widely, I have created a new bingo board to add some fun to the challenge.

Books read in 2024:
  1. Alba De Cespedes - Forbidden Notebook 
  2. Garry Disher - The Way it is Now
  3. Anne Enright - The Wren, The Wren
  4. Susan Hill - The Vows of Silence 
  5. Alan Kohler - The Great Divide (QE92)
  6. Paddy Manning - The Successor
  7. Coleson Whitehead -  Harlem Shuffle
  8. Charlotte Wood - Stone Yard Devotional
20th century
modern classic



19th century
classic



Pre-19th 
century classic 

Published 
in 2024

Published
in translation

*De Cespedes
Biography /
 Memoir

*Manning

Current Affairs


Poetry
collection



Short story
collection



Essay
collection



Written by
Nobel Laureate

Protagonist
is over 50

*Wood

Women's prize
longlister

*Enright
Booker prize
longlister

Debut 
novel

Book on the 
1001 list

Book from my
50/50 list
Book adapted
 for TV/Film
Banned
book

Book which
defies genre


Set at Sea


Retelling of 
another story


Set during 
wartime


Fiction based
on fact


Set in
the future

2023 Challenge

Aiming to read at least 30 books in 2023. To diversify my reading and to challenge myself to read more widely, I have created a new bingo board to add some fun to the challenge.

Books read in 2023:
  1. Jessica Au - Cold Enough for Snow
  2. Anne Bronte - Agnes Grey
  3. Charlotte Bronte - Jane Eyre
  4. Charlotte Bronte - Shirley
  5. Charlotte Bronte - The Professor
  6. Costanza Casati - Clytemnestra
  7. Eleanor Catton - Birnam Wood
  8. Garry Disher - Consolation
  9. Garry Disher - Peace
  10. Percival Everett - The Trees
  11. Anna Funder - Wifedom
  12. Robert Galbraith - The Running Grave
  13. Julia Gillard - Not Now, Not Ever
  14. Chris Hammer - The Tilt
  15. Chris Hammer - The Seven
  16. Sarah Holland-Batt - The Jaguar
  17. Shirley Jackson - Dark Tales
  18. Sophie Mackintosh - Cursed Bread
  19. Dervla McTiernan - The Ruin
  20. George Orwell - Nineteen Eighty-Four
  21. Ann Patchett - Tom Lake
  22. Sally Rooney - Normal People
  23. Jennifer Saint - Atalanta
  24. Margot Saville - The Teal Revolution
  25. Hayley Scrivener - Dirt Town
  26. Britney Spears - The Woman in Me
  27. Grace Tame - The Ninth Life of a Diamond Miner
  28. Miriam Toews - Women Talking
  29. Elizabeth Von Armin - Vera
  30. Winifred Watson - Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
  31. Colson Whitehead - The Nickel Boys
  32. Thorton Wilder - Our Town 
  33. John Williams - Stoner

20th century
modern classic

*Orwell
*Watson

Debut 
novel

*Scrivenor

First Nations
Author/Issues 
Poetry 
collection

*Holland-Batt
Biography
or memoir

*Tame
*Spears
19th century
classic

*Bronte

Retelling of 
another story

*Saint

Protagonist
is over 50

*Patchett

Short story
collection

*Jackson

Essay
collection

*Gillard

Pre-19th 
century classic

Novel in 
translation

LGBTQIA+
Author/Issues

Women's prize
longlister

*Mackintosh

Non-fiction
bestseller

*Spears

Book on the 
1001 list

*Watson


By a favourite
author

*Disher


Novella in 
November

*Au


Australian 
literary prize
longlister

Current 
affairs/politics

*Saville

Published 
in 2023
*Catton
*Funder

New to me
author
*Von Armin

Book in my
To Be Read pile

*Williams
*Whitehead

Booker prize
longlister

*Everett

Non-fiction
history





2022 Challenge
Aiming to read at least 30 books in 2022. To diversify my reading and to challenge myself to read more fiction, I have created a new bingo board to add some fun to the challenge.

Books read in 2022:
  1. Maxine Beneba Clarke - How Decent Folk Behave
  2. Graeme Macrae Burnet - Case Study
  3. Evan S Connell - Mrs Bridge
  4. Evan S Connell - Mr Bridge
  5. Miranda Cowley Heller - The Paper Palace
  6. Garry Disher - Bitter Wash Road
  7. Jennifer Down - Bodies of Light
  8. Jennifer Egan - The Candy House
  9. Robert Galbraith - The Ink Black Heart
  10. Kate Grenville (editor) - Elizabeth Macarthur's Letters
  11. Dave Grohl - The Storyteller
  12. Chris Hammer - Treasure and Dirt
  13. Jane Harper - Exiles
  14. Claire Keegan - Small Things Like These
  15. John Kotter and Holger Rathgeber - Our Iceberg is Melting
  16. Emily St John Mandel - Sea of Tranquility
  17. Meg Mason - Sorrow and Bliss
  18. Madeline Miller - The Song of Achilles
  19. Madeline Miller - Galatea
  20. Frank Moorhouse - Grand Days
  21. Tara Moss - The Ghosts of Paris
  22. Katharine Murphy - The Lone Wolf - Quarterly Essay
  23. Maggie O'Farrell - The Marriage Portrait
  24. Julie Otsuka - The Swimmers
  25. Taylor Jenkins Reid - The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
  26. Amy Remeikis - On Reckoning 
  27. Jennifer Saint - Ariadne
  28. Niki Savva - Bulldozed
  29. Zadie Smith - The Wife of Willesden 
  30. Matthew Spencer - Black River 
  31. Douglas Stuart - Young Mungo 


20th century
modern classic

*Connell

Retelling of 
another story

*Miller

Novel in 
translation

Poetry 
collection

*Beneba Clarke

Women's prize
longlister

*Mason

First Nations
Author/Issues

Essay
collection

New to me
author

*Disher

Biography
or memoir

*Grohl

Book on the 
1001 list

Debut 
novel

*Cowley Heller

19th century
classic

Published 
in 2022

*Stuart
By a favourite
author

*Egan

Non-fiction
bestseller

Short story
collection

Australian 
literary prize
longlister

*Down

Current 
affairs/politics

*Savva
Protagonist
is over 50

*Smith

LGBTIQ+
Author/Issues

*Reid

Pre-19th 
century classic
Non-fiction
history

*Grenville
Book in my
To Be Read pile

*Moorhouse
Booker prize
longlister

*Burnet
*Keegan
Novella in 
November

*Miller



2021 Challenge
I seem to consistently be able to read 30 books each year, but given the uncertainty this pandemic brings, I do not want to increase the volume. Instead I will continue to explore new authors, genres and subject matters. To diversify my reading and to challenge myself to read more fiction, I have created a new bingo board to add some fun to the challenge.

Books read in 2021:
  1. Pat Barker - The Silence of the Girls
  2. Pat Barker - The Women of Troy
  3. Susanna Clarke - Piranesi
  4. Tegan Bennett Daylight - The Details
  5. Kate Ellis - Sex, Lies and Question Time
  6. John Fowles - The Collector
  7. Tana French - The Searcher
  8. Helen Garner - How to End a Story (Diaries 1995-1998)
  9. Matt Haig - The Midnight Library
  10. Chris Hammer - Silver
  11. Chris Hammer - Trust
  12. Patricia Highsmith - Carol / The Price of Salt
  13. David Hill - The Forgotten Children
  14. Susan Hill - The Various Haunts of Men
  15. Susan Hill - The Pure in Heart
  16. Susan Hill - The Risk of Darkness
  17. Kazuo Ishiguro - Klara and the Sun
  18. Sean Kelly - The Game
  19. Hannah Kent - Devotion
  20. Sarah Krasnostein - The Believer
  21. Raven Leilani - Luster
  22. Emily Maguire - Love Objects
  23. Emily St John Mandel - The Glass Hotel
  24. Louise Milligan - Witness 
  25. Tara Moss - The War Widow
  26. Joyce Carol Oates - The (Other) You
  27. Edna O'Brien - August is a Wicked Month 
  28. Intan Paramaditha - The Wandering 
  29. Dolly Parton - Songteller
  30. Sarah Winman - Still Life
  31. Evie Wyld - The Bass Rock
B
I NGO
Set during
Wartime 

Winman
Retelling of 
another story*

Barker
 Novel in 
Translation*
Poetry 
Collection
Women's Prize 
Longlister

Clarke
Lesser known book 
by a Famous Author
Essay
Collection 

Bennett Daylight
Set in the
Future

Booker Prize 
Longlister

Ishiguro
About a non-Western 
world leader* 
Debut 
Novel*

Leilani
19th Century
Classic  
Published
in 2021 

Ellis
Biography 
or Memoir

Garner
Set in Space
or at Sea

Kent
Short Story
Collection

Oates
Australian Literary 
Prize Longlister


Paramaditha
Wyld
Current Affairs
/ Politics

Milligan 
Protagonist 
is over 50*
Coming of 
Age Story* 

Highsmith
Pre-19th Century 
Classic
First Novel
in a Series

Moss
Book on the 
1001 List


O'Brien
Fowles
Fiction Based
on a True Story
Written by a 
male author*

Hammer
Bingo rules: Books can only be used once, even if they fall into multiple categories. 
Bingo can be achieved horizontally, vertically or diagonally.
*New categories 2021



2020 Challenge
I plan to read 30 books this year, again with an emphasis on fiction.  To diversify my reading and to challenge myself to read more diverse fiction, I have created a new Bingo board to stretch myself into new areas and compel me to read wide and deep.

Books Read in 2020:
  1. Margaret Atwood - Dearly
  2. Sarah Bailey - The Dark Lake
  3. Julia Baird - Phosphorescence
  4. Joey Bui - Lucky Ticket
  5. Rachel Cusk - Outline
  6. Daphne Du Maurier - Jamaica Inn
  7. Kitty Flanagan - 488 Rules for Life
  8. Robert Galbraith - Troubled Blood
  9. Helen Garner - One Day I'll Remember This
  10. Amy Goldstein - Janesville: An American Story
  11. Kate Grenville - A Room Made of Leaves
  12. Jane Harper - The Survivors
  13. Patricia Highsmith - The Tremor of Forgery
  14. Patricia Highsmith - This Sweet Sickness
  15. Patricia Highsmith - The Two Faces of January
  16. Jess Hill - See What You Made Me Do
  17. Zora Neale Hurston - Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick
  18. Emily St John Mandel - Station Eleven
  19. Michelle McNamara - I'll Be Gone in the Dark
  20. Madeline Miller - Circe
  21. Ottessa Moshfegh - Death in her Hands
  22. Katharine Murphy - The End of Certainty (QE79)
  23. Maggie O'Farrell - Hamnet
  24. Mandy Ord - When One Person Dies The Whole World Is Over
  25. Josephine Rowe - Here Until August
  26. Kate Elizabeth Russell - My Dark Vanessa
  27. Curtis Sittenfeld - Rodham
  28. Muriel Spark - The Driver's Seat
  29. Lisa Taddeo - Three Women
  30. Edith Wharton - Bunner Sisters
  31. Charlotte Wood - The Weekend

BNGO
19th Century
Classic
First Novel
in a Series
Bailey
Lesser known Book 
by a Famous Author
Highsmith - Sickness
Features Strong 
Female Protagonist
Miller
Short Story
Collection
Bui
Essay
Collection
Pre-19th Century
Classic
Banned Book
Fiction Based
on a True Story
Hamnet
Australian Literary
Prize Longlister
Wood
Book on the
1001 List
Wharton 
Women's Prize 
Longlister
O'Farrell
20th Century
Classic
Du Maurier
Set in the
Future
Mandel
New York Times
Bestseller
Taddeo
Set in Space
or at Sea
Harper
Mystery or
Crime Novel
Highsmith - Forgery
Booker Prize
 Longlister
Published
in 2020
Hurston
Book with a 
colour in title
Current Affairs
/ Politics
Hill
Biography 
or Memoir
Ord
Set during
Wartime
Poetry 
Collection
Atwood
Adapted into a
Film/TV Show
Highsmith - January

Bingo rules: Books can only be used once, even if they fall into multiple categories. 
Bingo can be achieved horizontally, vertically or diagonally.

2019 Challenge
This year I plan to stretch myself to read 30 books with an emphasis on fiction!  To diversify my reading and to challenge myself to read more diverse fiction, I have created a new Bingo board to stretch myself into new areas.

Books Read in 2019:
  1. Margaret Atwood - The Testaments
  2. Belinda Bauer - Snap
  3. Brian Bilston - Diary of a Somebody
  4. Oyinkan Braithwaite - My Sister, the Serial Killer
  5. Jim Broadbent and Dix - Dull Margaret
  6. Michael Caine - Blowing the Bloody Doors Off
  7. Annabel Crabb - Men at Work
  8. George Eliot - Silas Marner
  9. Nora Ephron - Heartburn
  10. Helen Garner - Yellow Notebook
  11. Mark Haddon - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
  12. Patricia Highsmith - Deep Water
  13. Clive James - Injury Time
  14. Tayari Jones - An American Marriage
  15. John Lanchester - The Wall
  16. Vicki Laveau-Harvie - The Erratics
  17. Michael Lewis - The Fifth Risk
  18. Kate Lilley - Ladylike
  19. Ian McEwan - The Children Act
  20. Heather Morris - The Tattooist of Auschwitz
  21. Emily Nussbaum - I Like to Watch
  22. Michelle Obama - Becoming
  23. Philip Pullman - La Belle Sauvage
  24. John Purcell - The Girl on the Page
  25. Heather Rose - Bruny
  26. Niki Savva - Plots and Prayers
  27. Gillian Triggs - Speaking Up
  28. Tara Westover - Educated
  29. Meg Wolitzer - The Wife

BNGO
19th Century
Classic

Eliot
First Novel
in a Series

Pullman
Adapted into a
Film/TV Show

McEwan
Australian Literary
 Prize Longlister

Laveau-Harvie
Short Story
Collection
Essay
Collection
Set in Space
or at Sea
Pre-19th Century
Classic
Fiction Based
on a True Story

Ephron
Morris
Current Affairs
/ Politics

Lewis
Crabb
Book on the
1001 List  

Haddon
Banned Book
Features Strong 
Female Protagonist

Rose
Braithwaite
Set in the
Future

Atwood
New York Times
Bestseller

Obama
 Spin-off from 
a Classic
Mystery or
Crime Novel

Highsmith

Bauer
Booker Prize
 Longlister

Lanchester
Atwood
Published
in 2019

Savva
20th Century
Classic
Legal Thriller
Biography 
or Memoir

Caine

Westover
Triggs
Set during
Wartime

Morris
Poetry 
Collection

James
Book with a 
colour in title

Garner

Bingo rules: Books can only be used once, even if they fall into multiple categories. 
Bingo can be achieved horizontally, vertically or diagonally.


2018 Challenge
This year I plan to stretch myself to read 30 books. Over the past few years I have read at least two a month, so I will need to pick up the pace a bit to reach my goal. I will update my progress here as I go.

See the results of my 2018 in reading.

Books Read in 2018:
  1. Julia Baird - Victoria: The Queen
  2. Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik - Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg
  3. Lee Child - Killing Floor
  4. Agatha Christie - The Murder on the Links
  5. Richard Dennis - Dead Right (Quarterly Essay 70)
  6. Nick Drnaso - Sabrina
  7. Neil Gaiman - The Graveyard Book
  8. Robert Galbraith - Lethal White
  9. Helen Garner - The Spare Room
  10. Helen Garner - Stories
  11. Mohsin Hamid - Exit West
  12. Chris Hammer - Scrublands
  13. Jane Harper - The Lost Man
  14. Chloe Hooper - The Arsonist
  15. Samantha Irby - We Are Never Meeting in Real Life
  16. Rupi Kaur - The Sun and Her Flowers
  17. Sarah Kranostein - The Trauma Cleaner
  18. Bri Lee - Eggshell Skull
  19. Rick Morton - One Hundred Years of Dirt
  20. George Saunders - Lincoln in the Bardo
  21. Rebecca Solnit - Men Explain Things To Me
  22. Julian Stodd - The Social Leadership Handbook
  23. Laura Tingle - Follow the Leader (Quarterly Essay 71)
  24. Bob Woodward - Fear: Trump in the White House

To diversify my reading and to have a bit of fun, I made the following Bingo board with the view to expanding my reading horizons. I wonder how many times I can get Bingo before the year is out.

BNGO
Adapted into a
Film/TV Show

(Agatha Christie)
Biography 
or Memoir

(Notorious RBG)
(Victoria: The Queen)
(Trauma Cleaner)
New York Times
Bestseller

(Robert Galbraith)
Booker Prize
Shortlister

(Exit West)
Poetry
Collection

(Rupi Kaur)
Current Affairs
/ Politics

(Bob Woodward)
Set in Space
or at Sea
Pre-20th Century
Classic
Fiction Based
on a True Story
New-To-Me
Author


(Samantha Irby)
Short Story
Collection

(Heen Garner)
Published
in 2018

(Chris Hammer)
(Chloe Hooper)
Free Choice

(Helen Garner)
Set in the
Future
First Novel
in a Series

(Lee Child)
Written by a
Nobel Laureate

Mystery or
Crime Novel

(Jane Harper)
Stella Prize
Shortlister
Banned Book
20th Century
Classic
Set during
Wartime

(Saunders)
New-To-Me
Genre
Lesser-known Book
by a Famous Author
Essay Collection

(Rebecca Solnit)


Book on the
1001 List
Bingo rules: Books can only be used once, even if they fall into multiple categories. 
Bingo can be achieved horizontally, vertically or diagonally.


2017 Challenge
In 2017 I planned to read 24 books - two a month. I exceeded this target by completing 26 titles:
  1. Angela Carter - The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories
  2. Agatha Christie - The Mysterious Affair at Styles
  3. Hillary Rodham Clinton - What Happened
  4. Ta-Nehisi Coates - Between the World and Me
  5. Mark Colvin - Light and Shadow: Memoirs of a Spy's Son
  6. Alan Cumming - Not My Father's Son
  7. Daphne Du Maurier - My Cousin Rachel
  8. Carol Dweck - Mindset
  9. Carrie Fisher - The Princess Diarist
  10. Richard Flanagan - Notes on an Exodus
  11. Gillian Flynn - Dark Places
  12. Jane Harper - The Dry 
  13. Jane Harper - Force of Nature
  14. Clive James - Collected Poems
  15. Rupi Kaur - Milk and Honey
  16. Hannah Kent - The Good People
  17. Benjamin Law - Moral Panic 101
  18. David Marr - The White Queen
  19. Ian McGuire - The North Water
  20. Penelope Mortimer - The Pumpkin Eater
  21. Heather Rose - The Museum of Modern Love
  22. JK Rowling - Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
  23. Mark Tedeschi - Murder at Myall Creek
  24. JD Vance - Hillbilly Elegy
  25. Sonya Voumard - The Media and the Massacre
  26. Lindy West - Shrill


2016 Challenge
This year I planned to read 24 books - two a month. Got pretty close to my goal with 22 titles read. Here's my 2016 in reading:
  1. James Brown - Firing Line
  2. Graeme Macrae Burnet - His Bloody Project
  3. Tegan Bennett Daylight - Six Bedrooms
  4. Joan Didion - The Year of Magical Thinking
  5. Fleur Ferris - Risk
  6. Clementine Ford - Fight Like a Girl
  7. Anna Funder - The Girl with the Dogs
  8. Robert Galbraith (JK Rowling) - Career of Evil
  9. Helen Garner - Everywhere I Look
  10. Stan Grant - The Australian Dream
  11. Helen Macdonald - H is for Hawk
  12. Emily Maguire - An Isolated Incident
  13. George Megalogenis - Balancing Act
  14. Nigel Paine - The Learning Challenge
  15. JK Rowling - Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
  16. Niki Savva - The Road to Ruin
  17. Gloria Steinem - My Life on the Road
  18. Kate Tempest - Brand New Ancients
  19. Laura Tingle - Political Amnesia
  20. Don Watson - Enemy Within
  21. Jeanette Winterson - Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
  22. Charlotte Wood - The Natural Way of Things