I've had an annual reading goal of 75 books for the last six years but at the beginning of 2025 I decided to set my goal at 65 books. The plan was to free up valuable reading time to focus on larger books and it worked! I achieved my goal, read some chunky books and enjoyed The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, the longest book I've ever read coming in at 1,276 pages.
This year I'm participating in my first ever slow read and I'm going to be tackling the Wolf Hall trilogy by Hilary Mantel. It contains approximately 2,000+ pages so I'm reducing my annual reading goal (again) to 60 books this year in order to accommodate the series. Here are the three reading challenges I'm participating in during 2026.
Wolf Crawl 2026
Wolf Crawl is a year long slow read challenge hosted by Simon Haisell from Footnotes and Tangents to read the Wolf Hall trilogy by Hilary Mantel. The series is about the life of Thomas Cromwell and the reign of Henry VIII and comprises Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies and The Mirror and the Light.
A slow read is a deliberate, community-focused method of reading a book at a gentle pace. Guided by Simon, there is a reading schedule to follow each week and readers can also explore the weekly supplemental materials (artworks, further history etc.) or discuss the book with readers around the world.
This is my first time subscribing on Substack but given the additional resources and discussion on offer, I think it's going to be worth it. If you'd like to join me I can gift one month of paid subscriber benefits to Footnotes and Tangents for 5 Carpe Librum readers so feel free to email me or leave a comment below if you're interested.
If you want to read the trilogy with me, here's the schedule:
5 January 2026: Wolf Hall (17 weeks)
4 May 2026: Bring Up the Bodies (12 weeks)
27 July 2026: The Mirror and the Light (23 weeks)
1. History
2. Memoir/Biography
3. True Crime
4. Science
5. Health
6. Food
7. Humour
8. South East Asia
9. Lost or found
10. Television
11. Subculture
12. Published in 2026
This year I'm participating in my first ever slow read and I'm going to be tackling the Wolf Hall trilogy by Hilary Mantel. It contains approximately 2,000+ pages so I'm reducing my annual reading goal (again) to 60 books this year in order to accommodate the series. Here are the three reading challenges I'm participating in during 2026.
Wolf Crawl 2026
Wolf Crawl is a year long slow read challenge hosted by Simon Haisell from Footnotes and Tangents to read the Wolf Hall trilogy by Hilary Mantel. The series is about the life of Thomas Cromwell and the reign of Henry VIII and comprises Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies and The Mirror and the Light.A slow read is a deliberate, community-focused method of reading a book at a gentle pace. Guided by Simon, there is a reading schedule to follow each week and readers can also explore the weekly supplemental materials (artworks, further history etc.) or discuss the book with readers around the world.
This is my first time subscribing on Substack but given the additional resources and discussion on offer, I think it's going to be worth it. If you'd like to join me I can gift one month of paid subscriber benefits to Footnotes and Tangents for 5 Carpe Librum readers so feel free to email me or leave a comment below if you're interested.
If you want to read the trilogy with me, here's the schedule:
5 January 2026: Wolf Hall (17 weeks)
4 May 2026: Bring Up the Bodies (12 weeks)
27 July 2026: The Mirror and the Light (23 weeks)
Non Fiction Reader Challenge 2026
Hosted by fellow Aussie book blogger Shelleyrae at Book'd Out, I'm signing up to complete the Nonfiction Nibbler level of the challenge. For this, I'll need to read and review 6 books from any 6 of the categories listed below.1. History
2. Memoir/Biography
3. True Crime
4. Science
5. Health
6. Food
7. Humour
8. South East Asia
9. Lost or found
10. Television
11. Subculture
12. Published in 2026
Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2026
Hosted by Marg at The Intrepid Reader, I'm signing up to complete the Medieval Reader level again this year and will need to read and review 15 historical fiction books in order to successfully complete the challenge.Historical fiction remains my favourite genre and last year I read 17 historical fiction novels and two of them made my Top 5 Books of 2025 list so here's to another great year of reading.
Are you challenging yourself in 2026? I'd love to know if you have any reading goals or if you're participating in any reading challenges this year. You can track my progress throughout the year over on the Challenges 2026 page.
Carpe Librum!
