Let's Talk Bookish; Reading Challenges: Do we love them or hate them?

It's Friday yet again, which means it's probably time for another Let's Talk Bookish post courtesy of Book Nook Bits and Dinipanda Reads. The theme of the week is reading challenges - do we love them or hate them?

Here's the further prompts for today's discussion.

What do you think of reading challenges—do they motivate you, or do they feel restrictive and end up making reading feel like a chore? Are there any challenges you participate in yearly? What reading challenges are you joining in 2025?

I'm one of those who actually enjoy reading challenges and think they can be a lot of fun. That said, I think it's important that if someone wants to participate in one, they need to find one that they find interesting and with prompts/levels they can accomplish without it being too much of a hassle, even for a challenge. For instance, I know there's Bible reading challenges out there, but that's a challenge I just couldn't do as I'm not a Christian and/or a Bible reading person (no offense against Christians or religious people in general of course). Reading should be a joy after all, and not a chore, so if a reading challenge feels like a royal pain in the arse, it's not the right one.

Although this blog mainly focuses on paranormal and horror, I do participate in various reading challenges this year just for fun and these are Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge, Historical Fiction Reading Challenge, Non-Fiction Reader Challenge, and I Read Horror Year-Round Challenge. It's only the books I read for the latter challenge that I'll review on this blog, but I sometimes post about books for the other challenges on my Instagram if anyone wants to check that one out.