This will be the year buffet ! siriusedward > Likes and Comments

Challenge

Copying from the main


Next Year's 2026 Buffet Menu:
Details See Messages 2-21

Challenge #1 - New & Old TBR
Challenge #2 - Members Choice
Challenge #3 - New Authors
Challenge #4 - Short Story
Challenge #5 - Decade/Century
Challenge #6 - Group Reads, Buddy Reads, Moderators Run Amok
Challenge #7 - Series Books – Start, Continue, Complete
Challenge #8 - Travel the World One Book at a Time
Challenge #9 – Rereading - Some do. Some don't.
Challenge #10 - Most Popular Goodreads Books Listed by Year
Challenge #11 - Future Classics
Challenge #12 - Fiction/Non-Fiction
Challenge #13 - Old and New Linked Categories
Challenge #14 - Genre Locked? Neglecting Your Favorite Author?
Challenge #15 - Award Winners
Challenge #16 - Terry's Book Chain
Challenge #17 - The Year You Were Born and 100 Years Earlier
Challenge #18 - A-Z Author
Challenge #19 - A-Z Title
Challenge #20 - No Challenge Here. A Place to List Your 2026 Impulse Reads

General/Helpful Challenge Information:
These challenges are personal. It is important that you enjoy your challenge/s; don't feel pressure to finish, this is for fun. Use your own creativity to make your challenge special. Select books that you truly have an interest in reading. It's your challenge your choices. Just stick to the basic challenge configuration.

Create your own separate thread to list the challenge/s you wish to participate in. If you plan on participating in several challenges, you will want to save/reserve several message/posts at the beginning of your thread to list each challenge you intend to try. Reserve messages 1-21 if you are going to try them all. Remember you can always delete the save posts if you don't need them.

To Create your challenge thread simply go to the top of this folder click on the title (Challenge Buffet). Then look to the right for the words (new topic), click that, a new screen will open. In the box (topic) type the name you wish to give your challenge. In the (comment) box list your books chosen for the challenge. Use the (add book/author) link so that others can link to your choices and learn more about the book you have selected.

Feel free to mark your finished books anyway you wish. After you have finished a book, you can strike it off your list. Directions are listed at the top of the comment box (some html is ok). You can list the date you finished or add the number of stars you though the book deserved.

Challenge #3 - Expand Your Horizon with New Authors

Seek out at least four (4) authors that you have never previously read, from any genre or era you want.

1.Rebecca
2.Song of Solomon
3.Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches
4.The Republic

Challenge #8 - Travel the World One Book at a Time
Select 5 books, by 5 different authors, from 5 different countries, other than your own.

Book Title - Author/Country - Book Setting
1. Beside the Ocean of Time Orkney Islands , Scotland
2. The Dragon at Noonday , Ireland
3.Death and the Dervish Sarajevo, Bosnia
4. Mornings in Jenin Jenin , Palestine.
5. The Bear and the Nightingale , Russia

May change , depending on what I read .

Example
1. The Violent Land - Jorge Amado/Brazil - Brazil

Challenge #9 - Re-reading? - Some do, Some don't

Some of us reread regularly, others reread rarely, if ever. We have all read books that we found fantastic. We finish the last page, set it aside and think someday I would like to read this again. Let us know the titles of five or more books you found worthy of rereading. This year’s challenge is, reread two of your selections.

Books I'd Love to Reread
1.Ficciones
2.Persuasion
3.
4.
5.

Read Again in 2026
1.
2.

Challenge #14 - Break Your Reading Rut
Part A-Are you Genre Locked?
Part B-Are you Neglecting a Favorite Author?
If the answer is yes, then this challenge is for you.

Part A - Are you stuck in a Genre Rut? Reading to many romance novels or God forbid to many classics? Break out of that rut by picking a couple of different genres, any two genres will do.

Challenge-pick and read one book from two different genres that are not your normal go too. Science Fiction, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Horror, Suspense, Young Adult, Nonfiction, Poetry, Plays, Romance, etc.

Genre Selected - Book Chosen
1. Historical fiction - The Dragon at Noonday
2. Mystery - Murder on the Orient Express

Part B - Who have you been neglecting the most? Has your favorite author slipped away from you because life is hectic or other books get in the way? Think about your favorite author or authors, who haven't you read in a while?

Challenge-pick one or more favorite authors you have been mistreating by leaving them on your shelf for far too long. Pick up that book you have been meaning to read and READ IT!

Neglected Author - Book Chosen
1. Dickens - Hard Times
Other Neglected Authors - Book Chosen - Not a requirement
2.
3.

Challenge #20? No, Just a Place to List Your 2026 Impulse Reads

Use this thread any way you wish.

We encourage December pre-planning. Most people enjoy the planning, and all members benefit from members' plans by learning about books they may have been unaware of before December's buffet planning. The only buffet challenge that can't be pre-planned is Group Reads. They will occur throughout the year. The other issue is that life will get in the way of even the best laid plans. Unplanned books are going to come our way, and we are going to read them. That is one of the reasons these challenges are for fun, and there is no requirement to finish them.

Take me as an example. Last December, I sorted through 89 books to plan and create my buffet. Sixty-nine of these were books that I own, while the other 21 would have to be secured if I needed them. I only planned a few short stories reads and no group reads.

In addition to the books, I planned last December to read in 2025. I, on impulse, came across 26 novels and 108 short stories. None of these were planned or thought about last December.

Now you have a place to record them.

Challenge #12– Fiction/Non-Fiction

Using the below categories or a selection of your own pick two subjects of interest and read a fiction book and a non-fiction book about that subject. Total number of books for this challenge is four.

Categories
Space Exploration
War
Sea Travels/Adventures
Family
Exploration
Animals Life on Earth and Bird Boy
Historic Event Mornings in Jenin and In Search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story
Natural Disaster
Survival
Death
Civilization
Justice
Religion/Faith
Slavery
Politics
Royality

Example:
Sea Travels/Adventures
Fiction - The Sea Wolf
Non-Fiction - Two Years Before the Mast: A Sailor's Life at Sea

World War II - Europe: The Beginning of the End
Fiction - The Steel Wave
Non-Fiction - Normandy '44: D-Day and the Epic 77-Day Battle for France

Sounds super interesting.. so .. maybe

Challenge #16 Terry's Book Chain

This challenge comes from Terry. At first look it seems easy, on further thought it looks kind of difficult. One thing for sure is that it looks like a ton of fun. The idea is to start with a book you want to read, then take one word from that title, and find another book you want to read with that word in the title. Repeat the process until you have the total required to make your chain. The idea is to take yourself on a somewhat random journey through the year. Terry's example has 12 books needed to complete the challenge. Since overeating at the buffet can be a problem for some, for our challenge the total needed is 6 books.

Terry's Example:
1. The English Patient
2. The Silent Patient
3. These Silent Woods
4. A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
5. A Walk to Remember
6. Elephants Can Remember
7. The Elephant Whisperer
8. The Horse Whisperer
9. The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse
10. The Fox Wife
11. The Time Traveler's Wife
12. If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler

There is no restriction on book types, age, or genres. So as to not add undo pressure it seems fair to allow a "mulligan". If one of your selections turns out to be a dud and you DNF it, simply select another one that will fit your need. If the replacement proves to difficult by needing to match the top link to the next link, simply skip the DNF'ed book and move to the next link. If this happens, add an additional link to the bottom of the chain to keep a total of six.

Don't get bogged down with suffixes, wood, woods, wooden, woodland, etc. all work.

Thanks Bob for the work you do !

John Steinbeck East of Eden
Edith Wharton The Age of Innocence ???
Audre lorde Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches
Women, Race & Class Angela Y Davies
James Baldwin.
Toni Morrison Song of Solomon
Perfect Victims and the Politics of Appeal
Ghassan Kanafani: Selected Political Writings

Welcome to the Buffet! Your planning is off to a great start. I too really enjoyed Persuasion. I'm interested in the Orkney Islands, so I'm off to check out Beside the Ocean of Time (great title!). Happy reading. :)

siriusedward wrote: "Thanks Bob for the work you do !"

Your welcome, enjoy!!

Wobbley wrote: "Welcome to the Buffet! Your planning is off to a great start. I too really enjoyed Persuasion. I'm interested in the Orkney Islands, so I'm off to check out Beside the Ocean of Time (great title!)...."

Thank you and hope you have a great reading year too .

If you have to pick one Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon is a great one. Hope you enjoy it, and all of your reading!

Oh, do read The Age of Innocence. It is a wonderful novel.
Lots of good choices here!

Thanks Sara and Kathleen .. Happy Reading