📚Book Talk Forum September 2026 Reading Challenge: Wisdom & Mind📚

Hello Book Readers!

Welcome to the monthly Book Reading challenge

Joseph Addison compares reading to physical exercise, and Cicero famously suggests a room without books lacks a soul.

At some point in our lives, most of us have enjoyed reading books - whether comics, fiction, fan fiction or non fiction such as autobiographies and biographies. Sometimes life comes in the way, and we take a break.

Shall we get back into reading if you have some time to spare?

Rules

To participate in the regular reading challenge, sign up in this thread and tell us how many books you will be able to read in this month.

• 1 to 5 books
• 6 to 10 books
• 11 to 20 books
• 21 to 35 books
• 36 to 50 books

Only those who read a minimum of 200 pages will receive the participation badge. The other tiered badges will be awarded based on your page logs

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 not poetry.

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

For example: 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 fictions in this manner. Which means if you are reading only 10 page (or shorter) fictions, they won't qualify. You will have to read one longer fiction so that 5 fictions will total to 60 pages.

ARC (Advance Review Copy) 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.

How to log books

Log only the books you finish or DNF (did not finish) from Sept 1, 2026 to September 30, 2026. The logging will start and end at midnight in your time zone. The logging will officially stop when we lock the Book log thread.

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 (to be read) list. ONLY FINISHED PAGES SHOULD BE LOGGED!

Add the book details with the following information to the post you will be reserving in the Book Log thread which will be opened on the 1st of every month.

Title, Author, format of the book such as ebook, pdf, paper back, hard cover or audio book and page count. You will edit your post as you continue reading.

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 the previous month, log only the pages you've read in the current month. 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 cause burnout; it's meant to nurture the love of reading. Read what you can, how much you can, and when you can!

Please abide by IF's Code of Conduct and Forum Rules at all times!

Read away!

Tag and graphics credit: Leprechaun

Sign Up List

Reserving for Sign Ups for the month of September

Questions and Answers

Reserving for Questions and Answers for later.

Dear Book Readers

Book Talk Reading Challenge is back.

September 2026 reading challenge is up.

Sign up if you enjoy reading books.

Please read post one for more information and rules.

Dear Book Readers,

Book Talk Reading Challenge is back.

September 2026 challenge is up.

Sign up for the challenge if you love reading books.

Please read post one for more information and rules.

Thanks but no thanks. Nothing against you Raji, but this was a great challenge started by Lizzie and unfortunately with the way things were handled in November last year by Madz, I have no plans of joining this book challenge again unless Lizzie comes back and hosts it. She can always count on my return immediately.

Originally posted by: Savera84

Dear Book Readers

Book Talk Reading Challenge is back.

September 2026 reading challenge is up.

Sign up if you enjoy reading books.

Please read post one for more information and rules.

I will think about it and let you know Raji.

Dear Book Readers,

Book Talk Book Reading challenge is back.

If you enjoy reading books sign up for September 2026 book reading challenge.

Please read post one for details and rules.

A Note to All Members

What happened last year due to certain misunderstandings should not have happened, and there is a little value in carrying those grievances forward.

We are all grown-up adults, living our lives with dignity and mutual respect.

Differences of opinion are inevitable, but how we choose to handle them defines the spirit of our community.

We have two choices--- let bygones be bygones and move forward or respectfully ask questions and seek clarity.

For the sake of clarity, there is one point we would like to mention:

If two different parts of a competition are handled by two different DT members and one member wants to step away and hands over their part of responsibilities to someone else, the other member continues with their own responsibilities unless it was clearly stated that both were stepping away.

Whether it is an ambiguity or something else, we don't know. But, we sincerely hope this experience teaches us how to avoid such incidents in the future.

If you genuinely wish to return to reading and participate in the challenge, please do not let an unanswered question remain at the back of your mind.

Let us leave the past where it belongs, clear the air where necessary, and decide what matters more. The choice is ours.

We will be back with something exciting soon.

Have a wonderful day!

BT Development Team