Hey y’all! I’m super excited that this year I remembered to plan for the 20 Books of Summer challenge hosted by 746 Books *BEFORE* it actually starts on June 1st! Although that said — I probably won’t be reading much for the first few days due to prior plans, but still, at least I’ll know what I’ve got. 😂
The Challenge
The general idea is to choose 10, 15 or 20 books to read and review between June 1 and September 1.
Last year, I chose 15 book prompts instead of specific books, which allowed me some flexibility in what books I actually chose. I’m going to do the same this year because I really enjoyed that and I think it worked out pretty well. I’m still going to stick with 15 even though I’m sure that will end up being low, because this way I don’t build it into something that will pressure and stress me. Reading is FUN! 😁
If you want to join too, you can check out the signup post here at 745 Books or click the image below to get to the same page.
The list
My list of categories and an idea or two for books to fulfill it are below. The book choices may change a bit, but the categories shouldn’t! For my rules on this challenge, I’m also counting books that I DNF as long as I still write a review. The overall goal for me is to clear out shelf space, and if I try a book and don’t like it, that’s an answer too!
#1-3: What is this book again? x3 — A book that’s been on my shelves so long I forget what it’s about
Inland by Tea Obreeht
The Color of Air by Gail Tsukiyama
Snow by Orhan Pamuk
#4-5: A book I bought and haven’t read x2
Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yaros
#6: An Aardvark Book Club book
Liar, Dreamer, Thief by Maria Dong
The Perfect Ones by Nicole Hackett
#7: A Book of the Month Club book
As Long As The Lemon Trees Grow by Zoulfa Katouh
#8: A book over 500 pages
Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff
#9: A World of Warcraft book (because I’ve been craving it!)
War of the Ancients Archive by Richard A Knaak
#10: One of the furthest back added books on my TBR (in 10 oldest, ideally)
The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
#11: One of the most recently added books on my TBR (at time of writing)
Chasing Chaos by Jessica Alexander
#12: A book published during this challenge (June 1 – Sep 1)
If You Still Recognize Me by Cynthia So
#13: A memoir
How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair
#14: A book by an author I’ve enjoyed before
A Trial of Sorcerers by Elise Kova
#15: A book I really wanted to read, and yet still haven’t
The Wrath and the Dawn by Renée Ahdieh
Yo, I’ll be honest, writing out this list has gotten me super excited for some of these books and now I don’t want to wait until June 1st to start them. It’s entirely possible I’ll just read some of these now and finish them before this challenge even starts. xD Oh well, I have plenty of options!
If you’re signed up for the challenge too, add a link to your post in the comments so I can check out what books you’ve included for ideas of my own! 😊
Hey y’all! With the start of spring comes the end of the Kindle New Year Kindle Challenge! You can see all the achievements and badges for that here, and start preparing to move on to the new challenge: the Spring challenge! This new challenge runs from April 1, 2023 to June 31, 2023 with 15 possible achievements.
Below is a guide to the Kindle Spring Challenge for 2023. It’s following the same format as the previous challenges (you can see an FAQ here including links to past and current challenges). Prior to the reveal of the criteria for each mystery badge, the hint will be shown below. As the mystery achievements are revealed, I’ll update this page to show the criteria for each, and then the badge itself once the challenge is completed!
This one runs from April 1 to June 31, 2023. There are 15 possible achievements.
Days Read
Bronze Reader: read on any 15 days during the challenge
Silver Reader: read on any 40 days during the challenge
Gold Reader: read on any 75 days during the challenge
Books Completed
Bookish: read one book
Bookworm: read two books
Bibliophile: read three books
Streaks
Head Start: read one day
Perfect Week: read 7 days in a row (Sunday through Saturday)
Perfect Month: read every day for a calendar month (ex. every day in April)
Mystery:
Overachiever: Unlock this achievement when you complete 8 books between now and June 30. This would place you in the top 25% of readers!
Voyager: Unlock this achievement when you read on World Book Day, April 23
Escapist: Unlock this achievement when you complete one of our can’t-miss picks for Sci-Fi and Fantasy (list here and linked in badge achievement)
Page to Screen: Unlock thisi achievement when you complete a book from our literary adaptation collection. (list here and linked in the badge achievement)
Weekender: Unlock this achievement when you read every day this weekend (June 2-4)
Hey y’all! With the end of 2022 comes the end of the Year-End Kindle Challenge! You can see all the achievements and badges for that here, and start preparing to move on to the new challenge: the New Year challenge! This new challenge runs from January 1, 2023 to March 31, 2023 with 15 possible achievements.
Below is a guide to the Kindle New Year Challenge for 2023. It’s following the same format as the previous challenges (you can see an FAQ here including links to past and current challenges). Prior to the reveal of the criteria for each mystery badge, the hint will be shown below. As the mystery achievements are revealed, I’ll update this page to show the criteria for each, and then the badge itself once the challenge is completed!
Hey y’all! With the end of September comes the end of the 2022 Summer Reading Challenge from Kindle. You can see all the achievements and badges for that here, and start preparing to move on to the new challenge: the Year End Challenge! This new challenge runs from October 1, 2022 to December 31, 2022 with 15 possible achievements.
Below is a guide to the Kindle Year End Challenge. It’s following the same format as the previous challenges (you can see an FAQ here including links to past and current challenges). Prior to the reveal of the criteria for each mystery badge, the hint will be shown below. As the mystery achievements are revealed, I’ll update this page to show the criteria for each, and then the badge itself once the challenge is completed!
Hey y’all! If you use Kindle, you might have seen last month that they had a Spring Challenge where you could get little badges shaped like bookmarks for different reading and book-related goals they set. I scoffed at the idea that it would get anyone to read more, and then proceeded to obsessively track and get every one of the achievements. You can see them all here. It also has some FAQs on the challenges overall, like what counts as reading and how to view badges from old challenges.
Clearly I’m going to keep that up, so I wanted to put together a new post for their Summer Challenge set! I’ll update these as they reveal the mystery badges and as I unlock the full badges.
This one runs from July 1st to September 30th, 2022.
Days Read
Bronze Reader: read on any 15 days during the challenge
Silver Reader: read on any 40 days during the challenge
Gold Reader: read on any 75 days during the challenge
Books Completed
Bookish: read one book
Bookworm: read two books
Bibliophile: read three books
Streaks
Head Start: read one day
Perfect Week: read 7 days in a row (Sunday through Saturday)
Perfect Month: read every day for a calendar month (ex. every day in August)
Mystery (all are now revealed!)
Around the Campfire: read a book from the Summer Reading list
Prime Day: read on July 12 or 13 during Amazon Prime days
Topshelf: Read an Editors’ Pick of an Amazon Original Story
Note that you can only access this list via the link in the achievement in the app, and will have to add any books to your wishlist or otherwise save them and then purchase them via browser since you can’t purchase via the app anymore. Asked customer service. They also couldn’t find a way to get this list in the browser. OY. Email seller-suggestions@amazon.com to tell them to change this for future achievements!!!
I’m A Fan: Sign up for updates from an author by following them
Quick Bites: Read a Kindle Vella story
Epic Ending: read any 3 days between Sep 17 and Sep 23
Hey y’all! In spring of 2022, I got a notification on my phone from the Kindle app that I had gained an achievement, which seemed very strange. Apparently Kindle has introduced achievements that vary by season. That first notification was for the Spring Challenge, and they’ve continued to do seasonal challenges since then with each covering a three month period.
There are usually about 15 achievements, with some being consistent across all challenges (number of days read, number of books read, etc) and each with it’s own set of Mystery Achievements that are revealed at set dates over the three-month challenge.
► Here are my original thoughts about the Kindle Achievements, back when they first started and I had no idea what they were! 🙂
There are three categories for the achievements: number of books finished on Kindle, number of days that you’ve read on Kindle, and a set of mystery ones that will show what the criteria for them are on a set schedule. The first reveal is on April 15th.
The badges when achieved are little bookmarks. I have no idea what happens with them once the time-frame has ended, but it seems like there might be a little collection to see.
I don’t think this would motivate me to read more, but it’s a fun little way to see what my reading habits are with a visual! What do you think? Are you hoping to collect some of these new little badges for digital reading?
FAQ about Kindle Achievements
How to access
So far, it looks like this is only accessible in the kindle app or on their newer e-readers with a home page setup. My Kindle Fire tablet has them, as well as the app on my phone, but nowhere on the Amazon or Kindle websites are they shown yet.
Unfortunately, this is also still only available in the US for some reason. International friends who want to participate, share your methods for tracking in the comments and feel free to use the challenge guides to collect your badges!
Mystery Badge Reveals
Mystery Badges are hidden at the start of each seasonal challenge set. They have dates assigned for when the title and criteria to achieve the badge is listed. Prior to the reveal, there is a question mark mask layer over the badge image, so you can slightly see what’s underneath.
The first mystery achievement was revealed on April 15, 2022, and it was for a Scholar badge that requires finishing a nonfiction title. I’m not totally sure how they judge the criteria for each book, but it probably links to the book’s Amazon page and details on it. The achievement has a list of recommendations for titles that would work.
Another mystery achievement was revealed in April for World Book Day, tying in to the free books Amazon gave away for that week. If you read a kindle book on April 23, 2022, it gave the Voyager badge.
Mystery badges can have a range of criteria, from reading a certain genre to performing some action unique to Kindle books (ex. Kindle Vella, following an author, etc)
What counts as “Reading” on a day?
I haven’t found an exact amount of pages or time that you need to do in order to qualify the day as having read something. I’ve read for as few as 5 minutes and as few as 4 pages and had those both still count. It seems like as long as it’s a few minutes and/or a couple page flips, it will count it for the day!
If you read on a different kindle device, it will sync up your progress when it’s connected to the internet and you’ll get retroactive credit. However, I have seen some people comment that it doesn’t always work correctly for them, so I’d recommend syncing up as soon as possible if you really want to get credit and using newer devices or ones that are connected to the internet when possible.
Leveling up badges
Some badges stack, like the Perfect Week and Perfect Month badges where you read every day for that time. When you achieve it again, it adds a little multiplier sticker in the corner. These also keep track of your days so you know where you’re at. Missing one day in April was super annoying to see on that tracker the rest of the month. xD The Reading Insights streak calendar can help with tracking this as well if you’re unsure where you missed a day.
Seeing the other badges
After a challenge ends, the badges you received can be seen in a expandable panel at the bottom of the Reading Insights section of the app.
In addition to the badges for reading a certain number of books, there appear to be 2 badges related to a specific genre or list of book. This challenge has one for reading sci-fi / fantasy and one for reading a book from the 2021 Best Books list of Amazon (linked on the badge in the app). And yes… these dang achievements absolutely did push me to read a book that I had posted about a while ago since it was on this list and I wanted the badge. xD I’m a sucker. ….But it was a good book!!
The badges that I had (apparently??) achieved in January are listed in a little section below the current challenge to view. If there were any others I didn’t get, those are no longer shown. I had no idea these even existed until April so maybe they were backdated? If anyone else has others listed, comment below because I’d love to hear it!
Bronze Reader: read at least 7 days in January
Series Starter: started reading a series title in January
Quitter’s Day: read on January 19th, the day most people quit their New Year resolution
Finisher: finish a book in January
The 2022 Spring Challenge’s Unlocked Badges
Bronze Reader: Read 15 Days during the challenge (non-consecutive)
Silver Reader: Read 40 Days during the challenge (non-consecutive)
Gold Reader: Read 75 Days during the challenge (non-consecutive)
Perfect Week: Read every day for a calendar week (Monday – Sunday)
Bookish: read one book
Bookworm: read two books
Bibliophile: read three books
Final Frontier: read a Science Fiction or Fantasy book
Scholar: read a Nonfiction title
Voyager: read on World Book Day (April 23, 2022)
Great Escape: Read a Fiction title
I’m A Fan: follow an author’s page on Amazon
Perfect Month: Read every day for a calendar month (ex every day in June)
My Book Joy 