{"id":1803,"date":"2026-01-30T11:21:46","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T11:21:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bookinfluencers.com\/blog\/?p=1803"},"modified":"2026-01-30T11:21:49","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T11:21:49","slug":"decades-reading-challenge-best-books-by-decade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bookinfluencers.com\/blog\/decades-reading-challenge-best-books-by-decade\/","title":{"rendered":"The Decades Reading Challenge: Explore the Best Books from the Last 100 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What Is the Decades Reading Challenge?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Back in December we shared a blog post<\/a> with ideas of bookish challenges that weren’t numerical. One of these was The Decades Reading Challenge<\/strong>. This is a fun way to explore the best-selling and most influential books from each decade over the last 100 years. By reading one book from every decade, you can see how history, politics, and social movements shaped literature. You may be thinking that you have no interest in old books or classics, but in fact some of the books that are 100 years old, you’ve probably already read. In this blog post I include a selection of books that were best sellers in their decade of release, as well a bit of context on the time. Books often reflect the needs of the people due to the politics and movements of that period. Are you going to try the Decades Reading Challenge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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2010-2019: Social Justice, YA Fantasy, and Thrillers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The 2010’s is a decade that will be remembered for austerity and social justice. There was a global stock market crash in 2008, so going into this decade we were still dealing with the fall out of this. Then we have the social justice movements including #MeToo in 2017 and Black Lives Matter from 2013 onwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bookish themes that were popular in this decade included the rise of psychological thrillers and romance, both of which are genre’s to escape into. There was also a louder call for diversity in literature, particularly after the social justice movements. This decade also saw the rise of YA fantasy and dystopia. I think this is another method of escape, and also a way to make sense of the world we live in, as in fantastical worlds you can tackle the issues of the day. As social media became more prevalent, we saw more young people take an interest in global politics, and their literature reflects this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Best Sellers of the Decade<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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