Last month I saw someone doing a The Life of a Showgirl readathon that looked so fun, but I wasn’t able to participate because I had so much going on. That then got me thinking that it would be fun to do a Taylor Swift Eras themed readathon and so the Taylor Swift Eras Readathon planning began!
The readathon will be taking place the entire month of December, the 1st – 31st, in honor of Taylor’s birthday on the 13th! There is a prompt for each album, as well as some bonus prompts that I thought would be fun. You can either read 1 book per prompt or try to double up on prompts, really, you can do whatever you would like!
I’ll mainly be hosting the readathon on my Bookstagram @readbycait, so be sure to follow along there and to use the hashtags #tserasreadathon #taylorerasreadathon to see what others are reading! I’ll have story templates that you can use to track your reading progress both highlighted on my Bookstagram, and in this post as well, so be sure to save those to use while you’re reading!
Alright, now that we’ve gone over the basics of the readathon, let’s talk about the prompts!
Debut, you will always be so special to me. I truly believe this is her most underrated album, and I will die on that hill as I sob over Cold as You. This album means the world to me, and I still remember the very first time I ever heard Tim McGraw. What a life changing moment.
The prompt for Debut is to read a debut novel. This can be a 2025 debut release, or a debut from an author that you’ve read from before but haven’t read their debut, a debut from previous years — whatever you want, as long as it is that author’s debut novel!
Some 2025 debuts that I have on my tbr are: The Princess Knight by Cait Jacobs, You Are Fatally Invited by Ande Pliego, Junie by Erin Crosby Eckstine, and Deep Cuts by Holly Brickley. I own both Junie and Deep Cuts, so I think that for this prompt I’ll be reading one of those!
Fearless is a truly timeless album to me, listening to Fifteen for the first time while being fifteen? unmatched, I’m telling you. Whenever I think of this album, I think about this part of the prologue, “To me, “Fearless” is not the absence of fear. It’s not being completely unafraid. To me, fearless is having fears. Fearless is having doubts. Lots of them. To me, fearless is living in spite of those things that scare you to death.”
With that in mind, the prompt for Fearless is to read a book that intimidates you. This could be a lot of things! A book that is outside of your comfort zone, a long book, a book that you’ve been putting off, or just any book that intimidates you in some way!
For this prompt, I’ll be reading The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo. You all know how much I love Les Misérables, and I’ve always loved the story of The Hunchback of Notre Dame thanks to the Disney film. I’ve been meaning to read it for years, I’ve just been putting it off for some unknown reason. I’ve got a stunning copy and I’m really excited to finally read it and knock it off of my tbr!
There are some albums that hold a lot of nostalgia for me, and Speak Now is absolutely one of them. It’s so beautiful and magical, and it’s one that I really hold close to my heart. I have such vivid memories of belting The Story of Us in the car on the way to rehearsals and Mean getting me through dealing with bullies and people who were trying to tear me down.
Since this album is all about magic and fairy tales, the prompt obviously had to be to read a book based on a fairy tale. There’s so many options for this one as there are so many fairy tale retellings out there, but some I’d recommend are Little Thieves by Margaret Owen, House of Salt and Sorrow by Erin A. Craig, and To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo.
I’ll be reading The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden for this one as I’ve been hearing such great things about it for years. I figured this would be the perfect time to check it out!
If there is one Taylor Swift related fact that you need to know about me, it is that Red is my ultimate favorite album of hers. Like, being obsessed with Red is basically part of my personality at this point. Not only does it have some of my all time favorite Taylor songs — All Too Well (both og and 10 minute version), Red, Starlight, Treacherous — the original version and Taylor’s Version came out during really transitional and difficult times in my life, and this album specifically helped me get through those things. This is an album that truly means so much to me and I’m forever thankful for its existence.
Red is an album full of changes, intense emotions and the general ups and downs of getting older, so the prompt for Red is to read a coming of age story. Some of my favorites that include coming of age storylines are Normal People by Sally Rooney, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott and Heartstopper by Alice Oseman. (also shout out to my Have a Nace Day girlies for helping me decide on this theme!)
I’m planning on reading Sisters In the Wind by Angeline Boulley for this prompt and I can’t wait. I love Angeline Boulley’s writing so much — Firekeeper’s Daughter is without a doubt one of the best YA books I have ever read — and I’m really looking forward to reading this book.
1989 is one of the greatest pop albums of all time, thank you for coming to my Ted Talk. 1989 delivered hit after hit after hit, Blank Space, Style, Out Of the Woods, Wildest Dreams, I mean honestly incredible. I think this is still my favorite of her pop albums (honestly it’s hard to decide though, it depends on my mood), and it is pop perfection!
I waffled between two themes for this one, but ultimately the fact that one prompt would lead me to reading a book off my owned tbr made my choice 🤣 the prompt for this era is to read a book set in New York City. With this album opening with Welcome To New York and Taylor’s move to the city, this had to be the prompt for 1989! Some books set in New York that I loved when I read them are Tweet Cute by Emma Lord, One For My Enemy by Olivie Blake and The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo.
Most of the books that I own that are set in New York I’ve already read, but one of my owned tbr that I haven’t read yet is Passion Project by London Sperry. I won’t lie, I haven’t heard the greatest things about this one so I pushed it pretty far down on my priority list, but I am curious, and the audiobook is narrated by a beloved theatre performer of mine, Alex Finke, so maybe I’ll tandem read this one!
1…2…3 Let’s Go Bitch! The reputation era is upon us. Who else will never forget when Taylor completely wiped her Instagram? What an iconic moment. While reputation isn’t my favorite of Taylor’s albums, I do still love it and it has some songs that I find so iconic. Also, the reputation set on the Eras Tour was without a doubt one of my favorite moments of the show. The transition from Don’t Blame Me into Look What You Made Me Do? You don’t wanna know how many times I’ve listened to that…
This prompt was without a doubt the easiest one to decide. In my mind, there was only one prompt that would make sense for reputation and the album era. This album’s prompt is to read a book with an unlikeable female character. Some of my favorite books with unlikable female characters are A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson, Emma by Jane Austen, and Not Here to Be Liked by Michelle Quach.
Books with unlikeable female characters are some of my favorites; I love reading about an unlikeable female character. For this one, I’m thinking of reading A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G. Summers, or I may even try Bunny by Mona Awad, but the only Mona Awad I tried I DNF’d very early on, so we’ll see!
Okay, fun fact, Lover came out the night that I was flying back east for my best friend Helena’s wedding, so the Lover album always reminds me of that time of our lives and is very special to me because of it. I also will never forget hearing Cruel Summer for the first time in an airport and trying to control my face 🤣
It just makes sense that the prompt for the Lover album is to read a romance. You can read a novel, novella, short story collection, graphic novel — whatever you’d like as long as the genre is romance! Some romance novels that I love and recommend are Done and Dusted by Lyla Sage, Truly Madly Deeply by Alexandria Bellefleur, and Funny Story by Emily Henry, but I could give non-stop recs here!
Speaking on non-stop, it seems like my romance tbr is non-stop! Some romance books that I have on my physical tbr that I will be deciding between for this prompt are Sounds Like Love by Ashley Poston, Promise Me Sunshine by Cara Bastone, The Takeover by Cara Tanamachi, The Love of My Afterlife by Kristy Greenwood, Say You’ll Be Mine by Naina Kumar, and What Happens in Amsterdam by Rachel Lynn Solomon. What Happens in Amsterdam is on my 25 in 2025, so that is probably the one that will get read for this prompt, but I love having so many options!
Our first of the pandemic albums, folklore is truly such an incredible album. What a body of work it is, and I loved that Taylor was trying new things with this album. Waking up on July 23rd to Taylor being like “hey guess what! my next album will be out at midnight!” was such a wild experience and I loved it. folklore is definitely a top Taylor album for me, and has so many songs that I absolutely adore.
It felt pretty obvious for this one, but the prompt for folklore is to read a book based on folklore or mythology. I wanted to include mythology in this since lots of folklore and mythology are kind of tied together and have lots of similarities. Some books that I would recommend for this prompt are Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan, Bittersweet in the Hollow by Kate Pearsall and The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo.
For this prompt I’m going to be reading A Song to Drown Rivers by Ann Liang, which I am really excited about! I’ve had this book on my tbr for so long and it’s another book that’s on my 25 in 2025 list, so I can’t wait to read it.
I am an evermore girlie! Truthfully, I have a hard time ranking Taylor’s albums, but something that has never changed is that my top 2 albums are Red and evermore. For me, evermore is one of those albums that feels like a warm hug; it’s such a cathartic album for me, and this time of year especially I listen to it a lot to help me deal with the fact that it’s pitch black outside at 5:00 pm 🫠
I was absolutely inspired by willow and the evermore set at the Eras Tour. The prompt for evermore is to read a book set in/around the woods. There are lots of genres that you could go with for this one — fantasy, horror, romance, mystery/thriller, so many options! Some books I recommend are My Throat an Open Grave by Tori Bovalino, What Lies in the Woods by Kate Alice Marshall, and A Far Wilder Magic by Allison Saft.
For this prompt I’m really dying to read Don’t Let the Forest In by C.G. Drews, but I also hope to be reading The God of the Woods by Liz Moore since it’s on my 25 in 2025 list, so I may read both in December and then whichever one I finish first I’ll count towards the prompt. I have been meaning to do a reread of A Far Wilder Magic as well, so who knows 🤣
As a girl who has always had a hard time sleeping, and tends to remember every awkward or unfortunate thing that has ever happened to me in the middle of the night, Midnights very much so speaks to me. I also love the aesthetics of the album and the visuals of the music videos (especially Lavender Haze), and Midnights Mayhem was such a fun way to announce the tracklist. Additionally, the Midnights set during Eras was one of my favorites — Midnight Rain was absolutely a highlight of the show for me.
The prompt for this one is really simple, this prompt is to stay up all night reading. This is a great one to double up on with another book, especially since I’m sure that throughout this readathon we’re all gonna find at least one book that we can’t put down!
Okay, to be totally honest, THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT is one of those albums where I’m obsessed with half of it and the other half I don’t listen to basically at all. However, the songs that hit for me absolutely hit, and of course, I do love a good Female Rage: The Musical moment.
For TTPD, I felt that the best prompt would be to read a poetry collection or a book with lyrical prose. I always want to read more poetry, so this prompt is definitely a little self indulgent 🤣 but I know not everyone loves poetry, so I wanted to include books with lyrical prose to give people more options. A poetry collection that I love and recommend (aside from Shakespeare of course) is Feel Your Way Through by Kelsea Ballerini, and some books with lyrical prose that I highly recommend are Alone With You in the Ether by Olivie Blake and The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar.
I’m really hoping to finally read Hope Is The Thing With Feathers, which is a poetry collection by Emily Dickinson that I bought a few years ago, and also The Works of Edgar Allen Poe if I’m feeling some more dark and twisty vibes.
And, baby, that’s show business for you! I have had The Life of a Showgirl playing very consistently since the album came out and almost always have at least one of the songs stuck in my head. I just have so much fun listening to this album, and it’s been brightening up some dark days ever since it was released.
For our final album prompt of the challenge, you should read a book about performers/the performing arts. Some books about performers/the performing arts that I love are For the Record by Emma Lord, Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid and If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio. You could also read a play for this prompt, I highly recommend John Proctor is the Villain by Kimberly Belflower, or you could read a musical script. You can also go non-fiction and read about one of your favorite performers or the making of a film/tv show that you love. Anything involving the entertainment industry is fair game!
I did a great job of knocking a bunch of my unread plays off my tbr during my 30 Plays in 30 Days reading challenge in June, but there were a few that I didn’t get to, so for this prompt I’m planning to read Cambodian Rock Band by Lauren Yee.
I also wanted to do some bonus prompts! These are all optional (I mean literally all of this is optional…) and I think are very fun prompts that you can mix and match with the main prompts. The bonus prompts are:
- A book named after a Taylor song or lyrics
- A book set in Pennsylvania
- A book with a cat on the cover
- A book mentioned in a Taylor song (or a retelling of a book mentioned in a Taylor song)
- Bake Taylor’s chai cookie recipe
- A book with blue/a shade of blue in the title
- Match a book to an album cover
- Listen to a Taylor playlist while reading
- Watch the Eras Tour Documentary
I always love when there are some extra prompts during a reading challenge, especially ones that aren’t involved with books themselves but still fit the theme. I’m especially excited about making the chai cookies since I’ve been meaning to do that for years, and for watching the Eras Tour Documentary!
As I mentioned previously, I’ll be hosting this readathon on my Bookstagram @readbycait ! I’ll be using the hashtags #tserasreadathon #taylorerasreadathon on any and all of my posts about the reading challenge, so be sure to use those hashtags and tag me so that I can see all of your posts and share them!
I’ll also be starting a DM group on Bookstagram so that we can add chat about what we’re reading, how the readalong is going for us, and chat about all things Taylor! If you’d like to join, just message me on my Bookstagram saying you’d like to be added to the group and I’ll add you.
Here I’m sharing the main Instagram story templates. In this I have a template with every album prompt, then templates split by Debut – reputation and Lover – The Life Of a Showgirl if you’d like to have a little more space, plus the template for the bonus prompts! On my Bookstagram I also have templates with a blank space (I had to 😉) where you can share what you’ll be reading, and a blank one with just the background that you can use to share updates, thoughts on the books you’re reading, or anything else related to the readathon. Did I need to make all of these story templates? No, but I sure did have a lot of fun making them!
I’ll have a highlight on my Bookstagram with all of the templates so that you can revisit and pull them whenever you’d like.
Wow! That’s a lot of information, I know, congratulations for making it this far!
I’m both very excited and very nervous since this is the first time that I’m ever hosting a readathon myself. Personally, I’m really looking forward to it, and have been spending a lot of time working on this so I’d love for you to participate and share it with anyone else that you think may be interested!
If you decide to participate and post about it either on your own blog or Instagram, please be sure to tag me as I want to see anything and everything that y’all share for the readathon!
See you next Era! 💜
YAY! I’ll participate as much as I can.