Book Talk August Reading Challenge

Hello Book lovers!

Welcome to the August 2025 Edition of the Reading Challenge.

With Friendship Day coming up soon, we do have an additional component to the regular Reading Challenge.

However, like always, it’s optional.

Read on for the rules.

This month - to celebrate the theme of Friendship - we have added an exciting side challenge for you! If you sign up, you could win this amazing badge designed by none other than Shibani.

If you sign up for the Book Besties Challenge (yes you will need to sign up for this unlike the previous months where you could just jump in), you will be paired with another person in the Reading Challenge.

You will then Buddy Read 2 books during the month.

Each book will be suggested by one person.

Make sure you’re picking books that are easily available.

Keep in mind your Book Bestie’s triggers (if they have any) & offer 2-3 choices.

Your Book Bestie will be someone from another team (again, we will do our best to ensure this but it’s not guaranteed)

Once grouped, one of you will post your Buddy Reading thread, and you will continue to post your comments and reviews in the thread.

Participation must be evident from both Besties in order to receive the special badge - this includes offering choices and discussions on what books you will be picking for the month, and deciding the pace of reading.

Note that the pace does not have to match. For e.g.: One buddy may read ahead and finish the book, while the other may be slower, but the point is for both to finish reading the book during the month.

Note that DNF books will NOT BE counted! So make sure you pick wisely.

You can, however, both decide to DNF and pick a different book instead. All in all, 2 books must be completed by both buddies to receive the badge. You can indicate in your log which books you completed as part of the Book Besties challenge.

Books and FFs are both allowed but make sure they are at least 250 pages long.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask on the thread, otherwise go ahead and sign up answering the below Qs:

How many books will you read in August for the Reading Challenge?

Are you willing to sign on as Captain for your team?

Are you signing up for the Book Besties challenge?

tags: oh_nakhrewaali

Is it mandatory to sign up for the Reading Challenge to do a Buddy Read?

You don’t have to sign up for the Reading Challenge and can only do a Buddy Read, but do let us know when you sign up. In this case, you will receive only the Book Besties Badge.

I’m not good at pacing my reading and want to finish a book once I start it. Won’t that be a problem in Buddy reading?

Not at all! Like we mentioned, the pace of reading is entirely up to you and your Book Bestie. Just agree on what works best for each of you.

What if I’m not interested in reading anything my Book Bestie suggested?

You can ask for a different choice. But the point of Buddy Reading is to encourage you to read genres/ authors that you usually wouldn’t. Buddy Reading and sharing your thoughts with another person makes the experience enjoyable and helps you see a different perspective. However, if you have certain triggers, be upfront and talk to your Bestie to offer up a different choice.

What do you mean by ‘participation must be evident on the thread?’

Well, we want to see you actively posting your thoughts about the book(s) you are reading. Whether you post chapter-wise (as you read) or a review at the end, followed by quotes is entirely up to you. You can talk about what appealed to you, post discussion questions about points that intrigued you and share real life experiences you related to while reading. You can post a character analysis, or points to ponder - anything at all that will open up the discussion on the book.

What if I finish the book ahead of my bestie? Can I still post my thoughts?

You can, but mention that there are spoilers and give a warning at the start of the post. You can also mark it as a ‘mature post’ to avoid giving away key plot points before your bestie catches up. When you’re both done, you can chat about the book further. Discuss with your partner what works best for you as a team. Some may not mind spoilers and others might - so clear it with each other what you can post/ not post until you’re both finished with the book. It’s entirely your call.

What if I DNF the book and my bestie finishes it? Will it only count towards their badge and won’t count towards mine?

No. Neither of you will qualify. In order to receive the badge, both of you MUST finish 2 books - one suggested by each of you. If that does not happen, then you don’t get the badge. You can add the page logs to your Reading challenge logs though.

Buddy Read:

1. heavenlybliss

2. SoniRita

3. --Priyaa--

4. WildestDreams

5. Leenaaa

6. missFiesty_69

7. sambhavami

8. Minionite

9. Queen0fDarkness

10. minakrish

11. Ragazza_dolce

12. wallflowergirl

13. aryapdane

14. GumnaamHaiKoii

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Reading Challenge:

1. heavenlybliss (5-10)

2. Queen0fDarkness (1-5)

3. nutmeg7 (1-5)

4. SoniRita (1-5)

5. --Priyaa-- (1-5)

6. Gags05 (5-10)

7. ssttuuttii (1-5)

8. Leprechaun (1-5)

9. WildestDreams (11-20)

10. Leenaaa (1-5)

11. missFiesty_69 (11-20

12. Sambhavami (1-5)

13. So-So (1-5)

14. Minionite (1-5)

15. oh_nakhrewaali (5-10)

16. Moonstique (1-5)

17. Shooting-Star (1-5)

18. minakrish (5-10)

19. Amru4krish (1-5)

20. Ragazza_dolce (1-5)

21. wallflowergirl (1-5)

22. Bee222 (1-5)

23. Ramya_98 (1-5)

24.Srijeeta06 (1-5)

25. foreverlazy (5-10)

26. aryapdane (5-10)

27. GumnaamHaiKoii (5-10)

28. MoodyMango (1-5)

Log only the books you finish or DNF from Aug 1, 2025 to Aug 31, 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 e-books, 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! Read what you can, how much you can, when you can!

Sign me up for both!

5-10 books I'm willing to try this time.

Teams: (to be posted later once sign-ups are done)

To be posted by Team Captains as first post of their respective team threads in addition to including the link to the Excel sheet

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

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.

Tagging the regular readers/ participants--

Is book bestie buddy reader randomly assigned to us? That's what I understood so just confirming before signing up..😊

Gosh the months are flying by…. August already! 😆

Sign me up 🙋‍♀️ 1-5 books again 😅

Thanks

Tagging some more friends to join ---

Originally posted by: --Priyaa--

Is book bestie buddy reader randomly assigned to us? That's what I understood so just confirming before signing up..😊