The Hardest Reading Challenge I'll Ever Do

On needing a challenge, books changing my life, and what’s next for Macon Books (and me)

I am struggling so hard to read right now. It is my favorite thing in the world to do and I am simply unable to do it in a meaningful way. I cannot lock in, go deep, stay focused, lose myself, feel deeply - all the the best parts of reading for me. The world is filled with incredible stories and I am missing so many. It is breaking my heart, a bit. Also, it’s pissing me right the fuck off off. I hate that I have allowed myself to be consumed by what the right is doing to my country in exactly the way they want me to be. I hate that I am paralyzed and unable to look away in order to do meaningful things and make meaningful change. 

And I need it to change. Making meaningful things and meaningful change are more important now than they have ever been.

Enter Qwordy and the Hardest Reading Challenge You’ll Ever Do. 

I am a person who really enjoys Booktok/Booksagram/BookTube. I am an old school nerd and identify first and foremost as a reader. From the second I clicked on a Vlogbrothers video, these are the places on the internet where I have always found the most joy, hope, and, frankly, silliness of the kind that is delightful more than harrowing. They have been my digital home. A few days ago I started seeing a smattering of people across these platforms talking about Hardest Reading Challenge You’ll Ever Do 2 (HRCYED2) and how it was going to challenge them as a reader in a way they’d never been challenged before - and how it made them really excited to be reading every day.

My interest was piqued.

I dove in deep and felt, within just a couple minutes of the explainer video, that glorious rushing warmth of hope fill me. I love a challenge - especially one designed to be nigh upon impossible to finish - and I love the specific way this reading challenge pushes you. It is asking you to read more widely, more diversely, expand your comfort zone, and support indie/smallpress/self-published authors alongside traditionally published authors. It counts all books at any level as valid and just wants you to read widely, engage, and grow. All things I am passionate about and find to be hallmarks of my reading life when it feels good and healthy. This challenge felt, in ways increasingly rare in these dark times, like a hand out of the muck.

HRCYED is 25 reading prompts, each of them an individual challenge requiring the reading of multiple books. There are prompts like “by the hundreds” where you read a book between 100-199 pages, then 200-299, then 300-399, all the way to 700+ pages and “series stairway” where you read a stand along, then a duology, then a trilogy, and finally a four book series or any four books in a series and “around the world” where you have to read a book set on every continent. It had prompts that encourage you to read queer books, read books with disability representation, read books for each heritage month in the United States. It asks you to read in translation, explore adaptations, and literally read the rainbow. It has rules like books can only count for two prompts, you can’t count a reread until you’ve read 10 new to you books, and only books you completely finish count towards the prompts. There is a complex (and great) points system that allows you to buy things like rereads, tripling up, and shortening a prompt by one. 

This challenge is wholly unhinged in the best way. It’s an absolutely wild thing to attempt, but wild things have always been what have had the most impact to me and, I am starting to believe, to this world. 

So, starting today August 4, 2025, I am beginning the Qwordy’s Hardest Reading Challenge You’ll Ever Do 2. I’m a month late, and will go a month long. I want to experience an entire year of pushing myself in hopes it will make me a better reader, writer, thinker, and, above all, a better human. It’s a truly impossible task, one I honestly have no idea if I can complete, but I am going to give an earnest effort. And, in order to make it more fun (and keep me more accountable if we are being honest), I’m going to share this journey with y'all here at Macon Books.

I’ll be posting weekly reading updates, monthly check-ins, and quarterly updates and absolutely requesting so many recommendations. I’ll also be hosting two weekly reading/writing sprints to help get words in - in all the ways one gets words in. As I am, you know, working on finishing my next book and going right into the third. The first sprint will be on Tuesday from 6pm to 8pm CST. The second will be on Sunday from 8am to 10am CST. I’ll post the links to join the new weeks’ sprints in the weekly update and probably send out a reminder here and on Threads each week.

You can also join this discord I literally just created. I’ll be in there doing random sprints, chatting, commiserating, and will have all the sprint and other information easily available.

I cannot in good conscience recommend anyone join me in this challenge. Again, it is deeply wild, beautifully unhinged, and designed to be nigh upon impossible to complete. However, if you find yourself interested you can learn more on the HRCYED webpage, watch Qwordy’s explainer video, and even have most of your questions answered from this three hour long livestream with very helpful timestamps in the comments. If you decided to also dive in, let me know and we can start a support group (in life and in the discord).

This also means that I am very hopeful that I will be getting back to regularly releasing Ten Reasons, recommendation pieces, think pieces, and generally talking more and more about books, craft, and sapphic art and less about, you know, my mental health journey. Y’all have been so patient and kind as I was sick and as I have gotten well. I know I have not shown up here as the best version of myself. I want to change that - I am going to change that - one book at a time, as I have always been changed my whole life.

Happy reading, my friends,

Macon

THIS WEEK’S READING/WRITING SPRINTS:

TUESDAY SPRINTS: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85042428585?pwd=FCLNM7TWppkYbE2WAOhorpt0tb9Jav.1

SUNDAY SPRINTS: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86734019108?pwd=axpQwXrmDKIj6fyeoGtGJXvJfzwgQz.1