Registration for Brighter Winter 2025 will open on November 29 and close on December 31.

Registering is important! It’s how we keep track of who is participating, send updates, and host bi-weekly giveaways to participants. You can join the program at any time, but you must register to be eligible for giveaways.

The Brighter Winter program runs during January and February 2025. We hope you’ll join us for both months of the program, but you are welcome to participate for just one if you prefer.

For Brighter Winter, we create 2 grids of 20 reading challenges each: one for January and one for February. You pick which challenges you’d like to complete each month!

On December 21 (the Winter Solstice!), all registered participants will receive a PDF that includes a reminder of the program rules, both the January and February reading challenge grids, and a handy sheet of explanations for each of the monthly challenges. You can print the challenge grid for each corresponding month and fill in the books you read as you go along.

When the program begins on January 1, you can begin reading!

Reading good books can help brighten the bleak winter months - and so can connecting with other readers!

This year, we are moving all Brighter Winter content over to Substack, a blog-like platform. You'll receive weekly posts to your inbox from Substack with bookish resources and inspiration, and have the opportunity for fun interaction with other participants in the comment section, via polls, etc.

In addition, the Brighter Winter Instagram @brighterwinter is a great place to “mingle” with other program participants, get reading inspiration, and share how you’re completing challenges yourself.

At the end of each month, we’ll email you a link where you can upload your name and completed grid, which will also count as your entry ticket for the grand prize giveaway.

Wait...what? A grand prize? Yes! While reading for the sake of reading is reward enough, we love to give you just a little more incentive to complete program challenges.

Here's how it works: for each month that you complete at least 7 challenges, you will receive an entry ticket to the giveaway, which will include a collection of lovely, literary-themed items (more details will be sent to participants throughout the program).