To help me fulfill my reading goal, I’ve decided to take POPSUGAR’s Reading Challenge! I figured it would give me some inspiration on the off chance I run out of books on my to-read list and help me get out of my comfort zones a little bit. Here are the prompts and the books I’ve chosen for them! Entries with a check mark have been completed as of March 16th.
Regular Prompts:
√ 1. A book that’s published in 2020: Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire (Review!)
√ 2. A book by a trans or nonbinary author: The Black Tides of Heaven by J.Y. Yang
√ 3. A book with a great first line: No Exit by Taylor Adams (“Screw you, Bing Crosby.”)
√ 4. A book about a book club: Angry Housewives Eating Bonbons by Lorna Landvik
√ 5. A book set in a city that has hosted the Olympics: The Test by Sylvain Neuvel (London 2012)
√ 6. A bildungsroman: Anathem by Neal Stephenson
√ 7. The first book you touch on a shelf with your eyes closed: The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau
√ 8. A book with an upside-down image on the cover: Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
√ 9. A book with a map: The Hobbit, or There and Back Again by J.R.R. Tolkien
√ 10. A book recommended by your favorite blog, vlog, podcast, or online book club: Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones (Get Booked)
√ 11. An anthology: Queers Destroy Science Fiction!: Lightspeed Magazine Special Issue; The Stories ed. Seanan McGuire
√ 12. A book that passes the Bechdel test: Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
√ 13. A book with the same title as a movie or TV show but is unrelated to it: Imaginary Friend by Stephen Chbosky (2012 TV movie)
√ 14. A book by an author with flora or fauna in their name: There There by Tommy Orange
√ 15. A book about or involving social media: Just for Clicks by Kara McDowell (Review!)
√ 16. A book that has a book on the cover: The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly by Stephanie Oakes
√ 17. A medical thriller: The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
√ 18. A book with a made-up language: Native Tongue by Suzette Haden Elgin
√ 19. A book set in a country beginning with “C”: The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu (China)
√ 20. A book you picked because the title caught your attention: The Whisper Man by Alex North
√ 21. A book published the month of your birthday: The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (November)
√ 22. A book about or by a woman in STEM: The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal
√ 23. A book that won an award in 2019: The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal (Hugo and Nebula Best Novel)
√ 24. A book on a subject you know nothing about: The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks (Neuropsychology)
√ 25. A book with only words on the cover, no images or graphics: Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
√ 26. A book with a pun in the title: 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami (The book takes place in 1984, and 9 is pronounced “kyuu” in Japanese.)
√ 27. A book featuring one of the seven deadly sins: The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
√ 28. A book with a robot, cyborg, or AI character: We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor
√ 29. A book with a bird on the cover: Johnathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach
√ 30. A fiction or nonfiction book about a world leader: A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
√ 31. A book with “gold,” “silver,” or “bronze” in the title: Gold Fame Citrus by Claire Vaye Watkins
√ 32. A book by a WOC: Binti by Nnedi Okorafor
√ 33. A book with at least a four-star rating on Goodreads: Evolution by Travis Bagwell
√ 34. A book you meant to read in 2019: Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
√ 35. A book with a three-word title: Good as Gone by Amy Gentry
√ 36. A book with a pink cover: One Day We’ll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter by Scaachi Koul
√ 37. A Western: Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey
√ 38. A book by or about a journalist: Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado-Pérez
[] 39. Read a banned book during Banned Books Week
√ 40. Your favorite prompt from a past POPSUGAR Reading Challenge: The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon (2019: Debut novel)
Advanced Prompts:
√ 1. A book written by an author in their 20s: Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan
√ 2. A book with “20” or “twenty” in the title: Babel: Around the World in Twenty Languages by Gaston Dorren
√ 3. A book with a character with a vision impairment or enhancement (a nod to 20/20 vision): Girl, Stolen by April Henry
√ 4. A book set in the 1920s: Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann
√ 5. A book set in Japan, host of the 2020 Olympics: The Box Man by Kōbō Abe
√ 6. A book by an author who has written more than 20 books: Ubik by Philip K. Dick
√ 7. A book with more than 20 letters in its title: I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez
√ 8. A book published in the 20th century: A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L’Engle
√ 9. A book from a series with more than 20 books: Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett
√ 10. A book with a main character in their 20s: An Anonymous Girl by Greer Hendrick
Since prompt 39 requires I read the book during Banned Books Week, I won’t be able to finish this challenge until the end of September. Therefore, I have decided to embark on the 2019 Reading Challenge while I wait!
Blind Bookworm 