Around the World Reading Challenge 2025: Expand Your Horizons and Read Globally

Ready for a new reading adventure? Join the Around the World Reading Challenge and travel the world in books to explore different countries and cultures in 2025!

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Do you ever feel like your reading habits have become too predictable? Maybe it’s time to take your book choices on an adventure. What could be better than letting your imagination travel to different parts of the world from the comfort of your home?

The Around the World Reading Challenge is designed to push you out of your comfort zone and expand your literary horizons. In 2025, join me as we explore books from around the world and dive into stories set in faraway places, broadening our understanding of different cultures and histories.

This challenge is perfect for book lovers looking to diversify their reading lists and gain global perspectives. Whether you’re interested in contemporary fiction, historical narratives, or memoirs, the Around the World Reading Challenge encourages you to read books from authors or set in countries other than the one you live in. Ready to start your global reading journey? Keep reading to learn how to get involved!

I have collected lots of books over the years with stories from all over the world and it’s really time I sat down and read/listened to them all. So I’m determined to do that for 2025 and I encourage you to join me. You can read along with me and join the Around the World Reading Challenge Facebook group so we can discuss what and where we’re reading!

Why You Should Join the Around the World Reading Challenge in 2025

The Around the World Reading Challenge isn’t just about reading books—it’s about gaining new perspectives and learning about the world through literature. Here’s why you should us:

• Cultural Exploration: Each book you read will give you a glimpse into a different culture, its traditions, and its way of life. Imagine traveling the world without leaving your home!
• Broaden Your Worldview: Reading authors from different countries allows you to see the world through various lenses—whether that’s understanding social issues, history, or diverse storytelling techniques.
• Discover New Authors: The challenge introduces you to writers you might not have heard of otherwise. From literary legends to emerging voices, you’ll discover fresh perspectives and new favorites.
• Escape Your Comfort Zone: Sometimes, we get stuck in reading the same genres or themes. The Around the World Reading Challenge helps you step outside your usual preferences and explore unfamiliar territories in literature.
• Grow as a Reader: The challenge encourages you to engage with books that deepen your understanding of global literature and broadening your reading horizons. It helps cultivate your empathy and compassion as you read about the experiences of others that contribute to who they are.

Around the World Reading Book Recommendations

My passion for reading started later in life as a way to cope with my Rheumatoid Arthritis. Because of my physical and medical limitations, I couldn’t actually travel the world as I hoped. So I turned to traveling the world in books in 2014 and I’ve done it every year since. I even have a bookshelf dedicated to my Around the World reading journey.

It’s fun to create your own reading challenges, and this is one I created for myself that I am very passionate about and love sharing it with you too! I never cease to wonder at the knowledge and compassion that can be gained from immersing ourselves in others’ experiences.

You can see all the 82 books I’ve read from 29 different countries so far on my journey around the world in books here. I marked my favorites for you!

I highly recommend trying audible or other audiobooks as hearing narrators that can speak the language definitely enhances the experience and makes you feel like you’re there.

Around the World Reading Challenge Journal

My husband has always had a passion for creating art and in 2024, he started Freed Dreams Publishing on Amazon to inspire creativity, imagination and unlocking your dreams with the journals he creates. We combined his passion for art with my passion for reading and journaling to create the Around the World Reading Challenge Journal that is available now! We designed it and Amazon prints and ships it to you! I’m so thrilled with how it turned out.

The front and back cover is so colorful and vibrant as you track the little paper planes symbolize your reading voyage around the globe!

The Around the World Reading Challenge Coloring Journal is a fun and relaxing way to document global literature by reading 100 books from different countries. With features like customizable cover pages, progress trackers, continent coloring pages, and 100 book review pages, this journal will help you stay motivated while documenting your literary journey.

I love that the black and white interior and outlined font in the headings gives you plenty of opportunity to use your favorite colored pencils to color in the page headings, star ratings, bookshelf and reading habit trackers to truly make your journal one of a kind and relax and reflect as you color. It’s the perfect companion for anyone looking to diversify their bookshelf and create a lasting keepsake of their reading adventures.

You can check out a super detailed post about all the features of the our journal or you can get it on amazon here: Around the World Reading Challenge Journal. We hope it encourages you on your global reading journey!

How to Sign Up for the Around the World Reading Challenge 2025

The challenge is simple and laid back. There are a few ways to join in the fun, do one, do them all, it’s up to you. I just love talking about great books so I’ve given you plenty of options on how to join in the fun! My goal is simply to encourage you to read more books from all over the world.

1. Leave a comment below telling me you’re in!
2. Sign up for my weeklyish reading newsletter and get challenge updates, what we’re reading, the free bingo boards I’ll be using throughout the year, and all the other bookish printables I offer for free.
3. Check out our Around the World Reading Challenge Journal to encourage you and track your global reading journey.
4. Join the free Around the World Reading Challenge Facebook group and/or aroundtheworldreadingchallenge workspace on Slack so we can chat about our reading adventures and have book club events.
5. Find me on instagram where I’ll be sharing my books, thoughts and reading journal pages.

More Around the World Reading Posts You Might Like

• The 35 Best Books Set on an Island
• Books Set in Different Countries I Want to Visit
• 11 Books About Ethiopia to Learn about Their Culture In Case You Never Get to Visit
• Shop My Shelves TBR Reading Challenge: Save Money and Rediscover the Books You Already Own

Can you tell? I’m sooo excited about dedicating 2025 to this around the world reading challenge so I can travel the world in books and shop my shelves that have so many adventures waiting for me! I hope you’ll join me so we can talk about the best stories from around the world!