Scan barcode
01 Jan 2024—31 Dec 2024
Overview
Welcome! Here are the UPDATED guidelines for 2024. Please take a moment to read them.
This is YOUR challenge. It's not about winning but challenging yourself. With that being said, be thoughtful about the books you include.
Books must be started on or after January 1, 2024 to count. The list will not be released until December 31st 2023.
You must commit to regularly updating your google sheet. If you no longer wish to participate let us know so we can remove you.
Participating in and/or initiating discussions is part of the challenge; occasional conversations allow us to exchange reactions to books and get ideas about books to add to our personal challenge.
The threshold to be included in the 2025 challenge is 75% completion of the challenge and active participation in posts.
If our group has not gotten too large, a member who successfully completes the challenge (100% completion and active participant in discussions) may request to invite a new member into the 2026 challenge. (If we have grown too large, we'll choose by lottery who can invite new members.) You are responsible for covering the guidelines with potential new members and making sure that they commit before recommending them into the group.
You are free to move books around from one category to another but you may not use one book to complete more than one category (example, Memoir written by an LGBTQ author can be entered as EITHER a memoir OR as a book written by an LGBTQ author, but not both.
Unless specifically stated you are free to read books from any genre (fiction, poetry, non-fiction, memoirs, etc.) but consider that this is a challenge and not a competition so the end result should be that you have challenged yourself.
Unless the category specifically calls for it, the book should be new (to you).
Please rank the books you read with one to five stars, so other members can get a quick sense of your reactions to books.
Have fun and stay active!
2016: Jessica, Paula and Julie start the Inner Sanctum Reading Challenge. I'm 90% sure we used categories from a well-known popular reading challenge.
2017 - current: As the end draws near, returning members vote on categories suggested during the year. Of 100 categories, the top 50 from weighted votes are selected. Ok, so maybe that took us a little while to develop.
2019: Jessica loses her battle with cancer.
COVID years: Reading collectively keeps us sane.
Sept 12, 2023: One of our members, Emily Drabinski, then-President of the ALA gets interviewed by The Ezra Klein Show's Tressie McMillan Cottom, who calls us the "most aggressive sounding book club"
2024: Readers, mount up!
2024 Inner Sanctum Reading Challenge
15 participants (295 books)
STARTS: 01 Jan 2024ENDS: 31 Dec 2024
Overview
Welcome! Here are the UPDATED guidelines for 2024. Please take a moment to read them.
This is YOUR challenge. It's not about winning but challenging yourself. With that being said, be thoughtful about the books you include.
Books must be started on or after January 1, 2024 to count. The list will not be released until December 31st 2023.
You must commit to regularly updating your google sheet. If you no longer wish to participate let us know so we can remove you.
Participating in and/or initiating discussions is part of the challenge; occasional conversations allow us to exchange reactions to books and get ideas about books to add to our personal challenge.
The threshold to be included in the 2025 challenge is 75% completion of the challenge and active participation in posts.
If our group has not gotten too large, a member who successfully completes the challenge (100% completion and active participant in discussions) may request to invite a new member into the 2026 challenge. (If we have grown too large, we'll choose by lottery who can invite new members.) You are responsible for covering the guidelines with potential new members and making sure that they commit before recommending them into the group.
You are free to move books around from one category to another but you may not use one book to complete more than one category (example, Memoir written by an LGBTQ author can be entered as EITHER a memoir OR as a book written by an LGBTQ author, but not both.
Unless specifically stated you are free to read books from any genre (fiction, poetry, non-fiction, memoirs, etc.) but consider that this is a challenge and not a competition so the end result should be that you have challenged yourself.
Unless the category specifically calls for it, the book should be new (to you).
Please rank the books you read with one to five stars, so other members can get a quick sense of your reactions to books.
Have fun and stay active!
2016: Jessica, Paula and Julie start the Inner Sanctum Reading Challenge. I'm 90% sure we used categories from a well-known popular reading challenge.
2017 - current: As the end draws near, returning members vote on categories suggested during the year. Of 100 categories, the top 50 from weighted votes are selected. Ok, so maybe that took us a little while to develop.
2019: Jessica loses her battle with cancer.
COVID years: Reading collectively keeps us sane.
Sept 12, 2023: One of our members, Emily Drabinski, then-President of the ALA gets interviewed by The Ezra Klein Show's Tressie McMillan Cottom, who calls us the "most aggressive sounding book club"
2024: Readers, mount up!
