Nick’s Chapter-a-Day Read-Along

“Savoring books, one chapter a day.”

They stare at us from bookshelves or they lurk in the back corners of our mind. We see their names on lists and we watch them in screen adaptations: Don Quixote. War and Peace. Les Misérables. David Copperfield. They are thick enough to stop a door and deep enough to drown in. They are some of the greatest stories ever told, and they continually beckon us. “Someday,” we tell ourselves, “someday I’m going to read that book. Someday when I have time. Someday when I am ready.”

Someday is here.

Welcome to Nick’s Chapter-a-Day Read-Along, an online community of global readers who read great literature together, one chapter each day.

So what exactly is a Chapter-a-Day Read-Along?

The basic concept of the Chapter-a-Day Read-Along is simple: each year in November or December, books are chosen whose chapters add up to 365. During the next year, you commit to reading a chapter a day of the selected books, following the daily schedule as much as you are able. One of the beautiful things about a chapter-a-day read-along is that if you miss a few days it’s relatively easy to catch up. Each chapter typically takes only about 10-15 minutes to read each day. Some participants join in only for some or even just one of the books in a particular year. That’s the chapter-a-day read-along in a nutshell.

One goal of the chapter-a-day read-along is to encourage you to read books you might not otherwise read because of a book’s length or age or supposed complexity. Reading a book in a chapter a day is great way to tackle an otherwise intimidating classic. Another goal is to encourage slowing down and savoring a book’s language and engaging more deeply with the words on the page, especially with a book you might have already read.

Another important element of the chapter-a-day read-along is the community. Reading with others can enhance the reading experience and motivate us to keep going. Each day on various social media services I post a quote from the current chapter and you’re invited to do the same. Prior to 2025 I would post these to my personal accounts using a unique hashtag, but for the 2025 read-along I went all-in and set up specific chapter-a-day read-along accounts. Now it’s super easy to get these daily quotes by following Chapter-a-Day Read-Along at any of the following services:

You are encouraged to share your own quotes, comments, and reactions on social media. We love hearing how the books you read are impacting you and making a difference in your life.

Someday is here, and I hope you consider reading along with us and sharing in the chapter-a-day experience.

Below is a brief history of the Chapter-a-Day Read-Along followed by an archive of past read-alongs.

History of the Chapter-a-Day Read-Along

There were two inspirations for the first chapter-a-day read-along. First, in 2017, I participated in Brona’s Hobbit/Lord of the Rings Read-along and really loved it, especially the slow pace of stretching Tolkien’s books out over seven months. Second, in March of 2017 I read Novel of the Century: The Extraordinary Adventure of Les Misérables by David Bellos. At the very beginning of that book, Bellos made a statement that blew me away::

…the fact is that Les Misérables is made of exactly 365 chapters. You can therefore read one chapter a day – most of them are quite short – and complete Hugo’s vast novel of love and revolution in the time that it takes planet Earth to complete its revolution around the sun.

So, since Les Misérables is one of my favorite novels, and since I taught it to eighth graders for over twenty years, I thought I would try hosting my own reading challenge, and the chapter-a-day read-along was born. It was so much fun that I wanted to do it again. In 2019 I selected four books whose chapters add up to 365; In 2020, we went back to just one book and read the only other book I know with exactly 365 chapters, War and Peace. We have read some great books over the years, and as long as people stay interested, we will keep reading great books together one chapter at a time.

Current Read-Along:

  • 2025 – TBA

Read-Along Archive: