Welcome to the ThriftBooks Reading Challenge

Set your reading goal, track your reads, and earn ReadingRewards along the way

A New Year is a Perfect Excuse to Turn the Page

ThriftBooks has long been a favorite (Amazon alternative) place for purchasing used and new books. All of us here at ThriftBooks are dedicated to providing booklovers with the widest selection of books, at affordable prices, supported by our industry-leading loyalty program, ReadingRewards, where your purchases earn unlimited FREE BOOK Rewards. 

Today we are thrilled to welcome you to the 2026 ThriftBooks Reading Challenge, enabling ThriftBooks to also be the place where you can track your reading—set a goal, mark what you’ve read, and be rewarded for your progress throughout the year! 

Whether you’re the kind of reader who devours a book a week, or someone who’s been meaning to read just one more than last year, the ThriftBooks Reading Challenge is for you.  We are here to share inspirational reads, celebrate mini-milestones, and provide surprise and delights throughout it all! 

This isn’t about pressure or perfection. It’s about relishing the joy of reading. 

Why Join the ThriftBooks Reading Challenge?

Reading challenges work because they turn good intentions into something tangible. Setting a goal—whether it’s 5 books or 50—gives your reading life a little structure, a little motivation, and a lot of satisfaction. 

With the ThriftBooks Reading Challenge, you can: 

• Set a reading goal that fits your life, either by number of books or number of pages, or both! 

• Track what you’ve already read AND easily purchase books, all on one site 

• Earn ReadingRewards points, redeemable for Free Books! 

• Enjoy badges and rewards from mini-challenges and milestones   

How to Join the ThriftBooks Reading Challenge

It is super simple to participate in the 2026 ThriftBooks Reading Challenge: 

First, Set your Reading Goal

You can set a book goal, a pages goal, or both. Set your goal at thriftbooks.com/my-challenges. We will track your progress at on this page as the year progresses. 

Next, Find Inspired Reads!   

• Browse our monthly themes, mini-challenges, and other reading inspiration throughout the year. 

• Shop our over 19 million titles as you normally do on ThriftBooks.com 

• Visit your recommendations page for your personalized suggested reads.  You can access this page at any time from the account drop down menu in the top right hand of the page 

Purchase books as you normally do, ordo or start adding them to My Lists to organize future reads in a virtual (and shareable!) TBR list to keep your momentum! 

Finally, Mark your Progress 

When you finish a book, mark it as “Already Read It” to have it officially count towards your Reading Challenge progress. 

NOTE: You do not have to have purchased the book from ThriftBooks to mark it as read.

Any book you have read, whether purchased from ThriftBooks or not, can be marked as “read” and count towards your Reading Challenge goal.  

• Search for your book on thriftbooks.com and click the result to go to that book’s page 

• Check the “Already Read it” box on the book’s page (lower right-hand side on larger screens, or beneath the add-to-cart button on mobile/app) 

• Rate the book with a Thumbs up or Thumbs Down so that we know what you like 

• Go to your Already Read it page and set the completion date 

• All books completed in 2026 will count towards your 2026 goal! 

View your finished books at any time on your Already Read it page. 

View your Reading Challenge progress at any time on your Reading Challenge page. 

More Features Coming Soon!  

The entire ThriftBooks team has been hard at work building these new features and we have much more to come in the weeks ahead! For early access to upcoming new releases, monthly themes and mini-challenges, the opportunity to earn badges and free book rewards, and exclusive swag, be sure to opt in to email and SMS messages. 

Together, let’s make 2026 your most-read, most-fun, most-celebrated book year yet!  Ready…Set…READ! 

Read more by Barbara Hagen