Read It, Watch It Challenge
A 2025 Bonus Challenge!
Have you read the book? Now, let’s watch the movie!
Our “Read It, Watch It” is an optional, bonus challenge connected to the prompts you’re already reading for our 2025 challenge. We’ve assigned a prompt for each quarter of 2025. Match a book to that prompt and then watch the movie or TV adaptation of that book. This is a great way to see how others interpreted or visualized the same story and to see where it did or didn’t line up with your imagination.
Now the real question is, which did you like better? Book? Or movie?
How it works:
1) Our “Read It, Watch It” challenge has four prompts to be completed (read and watched) during a specific quarter of the year. This year’s prompts are:
January – March: In the public domain
April – June: A fairy tale retelling
July – September: A character with red hair
October – December: More than a million copies sold
2) For each of the four prompts, pick a book that matches the prompt but ALSO has a movie and/or TV adaptation. Keep in mind that it does not have to be a direct adaptation of the book, so feel free to get creative!
3) During the corresponding months, read it, watch it, and discuss! Join the Facebook group and watch for specific discussion threads related to our Read It, Watch It challenge!
4) Looking for ideas? Keep reading, or check out our 2025 Read It, Watch It Challenge on Storygraph here!
Downloads:
You can download the Read It, Watch It challenge graphics here. For the shareable graphic, download the jpeg and then use a photo editing app (like Canva) to add book covers. Feel free to share in our Facebook group, or on other social sites, tagging @the52bookclub or using the #the52bookclub2025.
Need some help with the prompts? Here are a few ideas to get you started:
In the public domain:
Public domain means that a book is no longer copyrighted and exclusive intellectual property rights no longer exist for that work. Because of this, anyone can legally use or reference those works. Any book published in the US before 1929 will be in the public domain. For this prompt, choose a book that is in the public domain that also has a movie or TV adaptation.
Remember that the movie does not have to be a direct adaptation of the book. (For example: You may read the book Pride and Prejudice, and then choose to watch the 1940 film version of Pride and Prejudice, a contemporary retelling of the original like Bridget Jones’ Diary, or the 2016 movie, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.) It is up to you whether you want a direct adaptation, or a movie or TV series that is inspired by the book but has taken a more creative interpretation.
Examples: The Great Gatsby, The Count of Monte Cristo, Sherlock Holmes, The Wizard of Oz, The Secret Garden
A fairy tale retelling:
A retelling of a fairy tale is when you take a classic fairy tale (of any origin) and put a new spin on it. These stories may be told in a different genre or with a new twist. Retellings often resonate with modern readers in new ways as authors incorporate current themes, new settings, diverse characters, etc. The fairy tale retelling may keep the original story structure and plot throughout, or it may be barely recognizable from the original by the end.
The retelling may be told from the perspective of a secondary or minor character, villain, introduce a brand-new character, etc. It may also combine multiple fairy tales into one new story.
For this Read It, Watch It challenge, you may choose a book and a movie that are both based on the same fairy tale but approach the story in completely different ways. (For example: You may decide to read the book Cinder and then watch any Cinderella retelling, like A Cinderella Story or Ever After, rather than a direct adaptation of the book. Alternatively, you may decide on a direct adaptation of a fairy tale retelling, ie: Ella Enchanted (book) and Ella Enchanted (movie.))
Examples: The Shadow Queen, Beyond Ivy Walls, Wendy Darling, Cinder, Spinning Silver, Wicked
A character with red hair:
This character-based prompt is for any character with red hair (natural or dyed.) They may be the main character or a secondary character. As a non-fiction option, you may also choose a memoir or biography about a historical or modern-day individual with red hair.
The movie or film version may be a direct retelling of the book, or it may take more creative license. You may also choose to watch a version in which the director did not stay true to the original character description, and cast an actor without red hair for that character.
As a creative twist, you may choose a film or TV adaptation in which the character is cast with red hair, even though they don’t have red hair in the book.
Examples: Anne of Green Gables, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Pippi Longstocking, The Lady Elizabeth, Outlander, The Little Mermaid
More than a million copies sold:
For this prompt, we’re looking for books that have more than a million copies sold worldwide. It could have sold over a million copies in one specific country or across multiple countries or regions. It could have hit “one million copies sold” at any point after being released, and it does not have to be within a specific timeframe.
Alternatively, you could also choose an author who has sold more than a million copies of their books in total. (Multiple books combined to equal one million sold, rather than one specific book.)
For this Read It, Watch It challenge, just the book or the author has to have sold more than a million copies. The movie or TV adaptation does not have to have hit any specific box office or viewership numbers.
Examples: Any book by Agatha Christie, James Patterson’s Alex Cross series, The Pelican Brief, The Godfather, Pride and Prejudice, Gone Girl, The Color Purple, The Hunger Games, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe
Questions and tips:
- I already have a book picked for one of these prompts but it doesn’t have a movie adaptation! What do I do?
This challenge is an optional bonus challenge and there is no pressure to complete any or all of it. If you’ve already read a book without a movie or TV adaptation for one of these prompts, you’re welcome to simply skip that prompt on this Read It, Watch It challenge.
Alternatively, you could also decide to complete that prompt twice — once for the regular 2025 challenge, and once more for this Read It, Watch It challenge.
- Does the movie have to be a direct adaptation of the book?
No. As always, feel free to get creative with this bonus challenge. For example, you could choose to read Pride and Prejudice for the prompt “In the Public Domain.” You could then watch a direct adaptation of the book, or choose a looser interpretation such as Bridget Jones’s Diary or Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
As always, it is up to you how flexible you’d like to be with your interpretation of each prompt.
- Does a TV series count for this challenge? Absolutely!
- Is this challenge on Storygraph? Yes! You can find it by clicking here!
Need ideas for some of these prompts? Check out our Goodreads Lists for book ideas, or read through our 2025 Challenge Guide for some ideas on how to interpret the prompts!