Book genre wheel

Run a reading challenge

1. Turn on Remove the winner after each spin so you never get the same genre twice.
2. Spin once a month for a 12-book year, or every two weeks if you read faster.
3. Pick any book that fits the genre. A library or a friend’s shelf is the cheapest way to try a genre you are not sure about.
4. Give each book 50 pages. If it is not working, swap it for another book in the same genre rather than spinning again.

The Results tab records each genre with the date you spun it, so you can look back at the year’s reading.

For book clubs

• Rotate the choosing: spin the genre, then the host for that month picks the book within it. Everyone gets to choose, nobody controls the theme.
• Short months: keep Poetry, Short stories, A play and Essays for busy seasons, when a 500-page novel would sink the group.
• Pairings: spin twice and read one book of each, such as a memoir and a novel set in the same place.

Make it yours

If you never read one of these, leave it on: getting pushed outside your usual shelf is the point. If a genre is a hard no, remove it. You can also add narrower picks like “Book set in Africa”, “Debut novel” or “Book under 200 pages” to turn this into a full reading-challenge wheel.