Read with a dash of Pride: Reading Challenge June 2025 *TEAMS P.16

Hello Bookworms!

Welcome to the June 2025 edition of the Book Talk Reading Challenge!

As you all know, June is Pride month so we will be adding a Pride ka tadka to next month’s challenge!

Read on to know more!

For those of you who have participated before, you know the drill!

Sign-up on the thread telling us how many books you will be able to read in June. To make it easier, we have divided this into 5 categories:

1 to 5 books

6 to 10 books

11 to 20 books

20 to 35 books

More than 35 books (upto 50)

In addition, when you sign-up, please also tell us if you would be willing to be captain for your team.

As always there will be 3 teams (Pride themed).

All the captains need to do is post their team’s thread when the challenge starts, ensure all team members have reserved their log post & at the end of the challenge, post their team’s total & individual tallies.

I will be creating a Google sheet that I will share with you when the challenge begins, & everyone will need to add their page counts there as well, so that makes the Captain’s job a lot easier!

Only those who read a minimum of 200 pages will receive the participation (tiered) badge.

As always, books in any language, any genre are allowed provided they are chapter books. Graphic novels, comics etc that are heavy on illustrations and low on text aren’t allowed. Books must be a minimum of 60 pages to qualify. Plays are okay, but we aren’t including poetry at this juncture.

We will also allow FFs/ Online fiction of 18,000+ words OR 60 + pages. Shorter fics can be allowed provided they are logged as the same entry. For eg:

If you read 3 FFs that are 6000+ words / 20 pages each, you will log them as one entry of 18000/ 60 pages.

Please note: You can log a maximum of 5 fics in this manner. Which means if you are reading only 10 page (or shorter) fics, they won’t qualify. You will have to read one longer fic so that 5 fics will total to 60 pages.

ARC and beta-reading will also be included. However, reading or proofreading your own work will not count.

All book formats will count: Physical books, e-books, and Audiobooks.

Now for the Pride ka tadka!

Since it’s Pride Month, the theme for June will be Queer Fiction and we have an additional incentive for you in the form of this stunning badge designed by Shibani (oh_nakhrewaali) if you choose to participate in the Pride Prose Challenge.

All you need to do is log 500 pages (approx 2 books) that are LGBTQAI+ themed fiction.

These books can be included in your page logs for your team as well, so you stand to earn 2 badges should you participate in both the Pride Prose Challenge and the regular monthly Reading challenge!!

Note that this is not mandatory.

Your page counts will still be valid in the Reading Challenge if you don’t read any Pride Themed books. Just that you won’t receive the Pride Prose Badge.

If you don’t sign-up for the monthly reading challenge, you can still participate in the Pride Prose Challenge. No additional sign-up is required for this.

However, there will be an additional task for Pride Prose to win this coveted badge - you will need to review the Queer fiction you read and add a couple of quotes from these books in the thread I will be posting for the reviews. Note that only those who complete the required 500 pages will receive the Pride Prose Participant badge!

Log only the books you finish or DNF from June 1, 2025 to June 30, 2025.

Log books within 3 days of finishing / DNFing them. Please DO NOT log pages that you intend to read or page counts of books that are in your TBR. ONLY FINISHED PAGES SHOULD BE LOGGED!

Add the book title/ author/ format and page count to the post you have reserved in your team’s thread (which will be posted by your captain). You will edit this post as you keep reading. You will also be adding the same page counts in the Google sheet that will be shared in your team’s thread.

Wherever possible, please use Amazon’s page counts for logging pages. For ebooks and audiobooks, use Kindle page counts. For paperbacks and hardcovers, use paperback page counts. If you cannot find the book on Amazon, you can use other legitimate sources.

For online fiction, use word count divided by 300 to log pages.

If you DNF, or if you are continuing a book from May, log only the pages you’ve read. You can use percentage read (at the point of DNF) for ebooks, actual page numbers for paperbacks and for audiobooks, log pages based on number of hours read (40 pages per hour at normal speed)

You are responsible for tracking your own reading. Please keep an accurate log of the books you finish. We trust you to be honest. And while we understand the spirit of competitiveness, please also remember that the Reading Challenge is designed to motivate you to read more and beat your own personal counts, so you are competing with yourself!

Lastly, have fun! This is not meant to stress you out, or keep you awake at night or even push you to ignore real life responsibilities for the sake of bringing up your team’s total. Read what you can, how much you can, when you can! No judgment!

If you have any further queries about the Reading Challenge or the Pride Prose Challenge, feel free to ask on the thread and I’ll try to answer them in the FAQs below. But please do read the entire post and the FAQs first!

Go ahead and sign-up for yet another month of scintillating reading!

tags: oh_nakhrewaali

Do I need to sign-up separately for the Pride Prose challenge? Is it different?

No. There is no sign-up required for Pride Prose. If you are in the Reading Challenge, you can count your Queer fiction themed page logs as well. Just that for Pride Prose we ask that you post a review and a couple of quotes of the Pride themed books you’ve read this month.

Do I get a badge if I don’t read any Queer themed fiction this month?

Yes, if you are participating and have signed up for the June Reading Challenge, you will still receive a tiered participation badge (based on number of pages logged) if you log the minimum required 200 pages. But you will not receive the Pride Prose badge unless you log 500 pages of LGBTQ+ themed fiction AND write a review in the Pride Prose Reviews thread.

Are FFs and online fiction allowed for the Pride Prose Challenge?

Yes, they are, but the same conditions will apply as that for the regular Reading Challenge i.e. 60 pages minimum in one log.

Do I need to keep track of my Queer fiction separately? Can I add them in the same log as the Reading Challenge log?

As mentioned, whatever Queer themed fiction you read can be included in your reading challenge logs, just highlight them to indicate that it’s LGBTQ+ themed fiction and post your review in the Pride Prose Reviews Thread.

What if I missed the sign-up for the Reading Challenge and am not included in any team? Can I still participate in the Pride Prose Challenge or is it only for those who sign up for the Reading challenge?

You can absolutely participate at any time in the month of June for the Pride Prose Challenge irrespective of whether you’ve signed up for the Reading Challenge or not. As long as you post a review/ quotes for the books you read any time in June & and log your minimum required 500 LGBTQ+ themed pages by month end, you will receive the Pride Prose Participant badge.

Can I Buddy Read an LGBTQ+ themed book?

Absolutely! Feel free to partner up for a Buddy read or Read along with your team members/ fellow participants or even non-participants. Post your Buddy Read thread for the book of choice and tag me with the names of your reading buddies!

What do you mean by LGBTQ+ themed? Do they have to be only romances?

Nope. You can read any genre (including non-fiction) as long one or more of the characters are from the queer community or the book has a plot that explores queer-related themes. You will just need to highlight these in your review. If the Author is from the community, mention that too.

I’m not good at writing reviews. Will I still get a badge if I don’t post a long review?

The review does not have to be detailed or long. It can be just a couple of lines. Just mention what you liked, what you didn’t like, and highlight how it related to the theme of LGBTQ+ fiction. Post a couple of quotes from the book/ fic. That’s it.

What if I read more than 500 pages of LGBTQ+ fiction? Do I need to review them all?

500 pages is the minimum required to read & review in order to receive the Pride Prose Participant badge. You’re welcome to add reviews for more books, but it’s not a requirement. However you can highlight them in your Reading Challenge log and we will consider doing a separate tally of only LGBTQ+ page logs, and the highest logger could win a special siggy! (TBD)

1. Leprechaun [1-5]
2. SherdilNetaji [1-5]
3. Queen0fdarkness [1-5]
4. Clochette [6-10]
5. Heavenlybliss [1-5]
6. Rdigest [1-5]
7. ThaneofElsinore [6-10]
8. missFiesty_69 [11-20]
9. Minionite [6-10]
10. Shirsha [1-5]
11. oh_nakhrewaali [11-20]
12. aryapdane [1-5]
13. arya212002 [1-5]
14. Amru4krish [1-5]
15. foreverlazy [11-20]
16. Gags05 [1-5]
17. Exoticdisaster [6-10]
18. ssttuuttii [1-5]
19. DMGThings [1-5]
20. minakrish [1-5]
21. WildestDreams [11-20]
22. Apsvenky [1-5]
23. Sambhavami [1-5]
24. LizzynDarcy [11-20]
25. MoodyMango [1-5]
26. Srijeeta06 [1-5]
    
27. nutmeg7 [1-5]
28. tellyme [1-5]
29. Bee222 [1-5]
    
30. GumnaamHaiKoii [1-5]
31. Bluehue [1-5]
32. --Priyaa-- [1-5]
33. LizzieBennet [6-10]
34. So-so [1-5]
35. SoniRita [1-5]
36. LoveHopeMagic [1-5]

Tagging my usual bookworms! Aa jao!

June sign-ups are open!

Count me in! Same 1-5 books.

Thank you for the tag bro, sign me up please

Count me in 🙋‍♀️

1-5 books again for this month 📚

Lizzie, I'll continue with the audiobooks if that is okay...maybe again 6-10...thanks for tagging me

Originally posted by: LizzieBennet

Tagging my usual bookworms! Aa jao!

Is this telepathy or what? I was just wondering a few minutes ago whether you will post the sign up tomorrow.

Sign me up for the usual 1-5 books

And a question for you - if the Pride book we read has more than 500 pages, do we still need to read two? And what if we read two books which total less than 500 pages?