Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

2018 AtY "Hard Mode" Challenge

I'm doing something a little different with my reject challenge in 2018, as I was finding it too easy to just slot books in. So I've chosen a sixteen prompt challenge (it was originally larger but there were too many duplicates with POPSUGAR/Book Riot and I was too lazy to pick replacements), but I chose prompts from the reject pile that felt the most challenging to me. I tried not to think too much about them, but just went with my initial gut reaction.

Completed Prompts - 15/16
A book in which the protagonist has an animal companion: The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling (5/1/18) ⭐⭐
A book related to the Olympics: Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption (14/2/18) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
A book written in 2nd person (the point of view is a "you"): The Night Circus Erin Morgenstern (28/2/18) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
A book that none of your GR friends have read/rated: Flour Water Salt Yeast: The Fundamentals of Artisan Bread and Pizza by Ken Forkish (4/3/18) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
A book by an indie author: George by Alex Gino (3/4/18) ⭐⭐
A book written by a TED speaker: American Gods by Neil Gaiman (14/6/18) ⭐⭐
A book with an epigraph: Moab Is My Washpot by Stephen Fry (29/6/18) ⭐⭐
A book set in or written by someone from a country or overseas territory with a population of less than one million: Angels & Demons by Dan Brown (6/7/18) ⭐⭐
A book with the theme of human vs. nature or human vs. their environment: Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer (10/7/18) ⭐
A book with a celestial body as a part of the title or as part of the author name: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (12/7/18) ⭐⭐⭐
A book with a 'made up' word in the title: The Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum (28/8/18) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
A military book: The Art of War by Sun Tzu (13/9/18) ⭐⭐⭐
A book about natural disasters: Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded by Simon Winchester (12/12/18) ⭐⭐⭐
A book set in the 22nd Century (2101-2202): We Are Legion - We Are Bob by Dennis E. Taylor (29/12/18) ⭐⭐⭐
A book from BookRiot's 100 Must-Read Latin American Books: Kiss of the Spider Woman by Manuel Puig (1/1/19) ⭐⭐

Covers


The List
🔜 A climate change fiction: The Drowned World by J.G. Ballard

❓ = potential candidate
🔜 = planned book
➜ = reading

POPSUGAR 2018 Reading Challenge

Completed Prompts - 33/50
A childhood classic you've never read: The Enchanted Wood by Enid Blyton (11/1/18) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
A book about mental health: Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things by Jenny Lawson (12/1/18) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
A book about time travel: The Time Machine by H.G. Wells (15/1/18) ⭐⭐
The next book in a series you've started: The Big Four by Agatha Christie (24/1/18) ⭐⭐
A book by an author of a different ethnicity to you: Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari (27/1/18) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
A book you meant to read in 2017 but didn't get to: The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle (3/2/18) ⭐⭐⭐
A book about a problem facing society today: Assholes: A Theory by Aaron James (10/3/18) ⭐
True crime: The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America (22/3/18) ⭐
A book with characters who are twins: Mythos: A Retelling of the Myths of Ancient Greece by Stephen Fry (7/4/18) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
A book with alliteration in the title: Black Beauty by Anna Sewell (8/4/18) ⭐⭐
A book with an animal in the title: The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle (13/4/18) ⭐⭐
A book with an LGBTQ+ protagonist: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz (16/4/18) ⭐⭐
A book made into a movie you've already seen: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling (25/4/18) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
A book about a villian or antihero: The Picture of Dorian Gray (19/6/18) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
A book with an ugly cover: The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle (26/6/18)
A book about death or grief: The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh (11/7/18) ⭐⭐⭐
A book from a celebrity bookclub: The End of the Affair by Graham Greene (13/7/18) ⭐⭐⭐
A book that's published in 2018: This Is Me: Loving the Person You Are Today by Chrissy Metz (22/7/18) ⭐⭐
A book by two authors: As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes & Joe Layden (23/8/18) ⭐⭐
A book you borrowed or that was given to you as a gift: Dog Man by Dav Pilkey (1/9/18) ⭐⭐⭐
A book with a time of day in the title: The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life: Before 8AM by Hal Elrod (13/9/18) ⭐
A book mentioned in another book: Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama (21/10/18) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
A book about feminism: Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali (2/11/18) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
A book that is also a stage play or musical: Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling (12/12/18) ⭐⭐
A book about or set on Halloween: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Vol. 1: The Crucible by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (13/12/18) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
A microhistory: Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach (15/12/18) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Your favourite prompt from the 2015, 2016 or 2017 POPSUGAR Reading Challenges: The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton (18/12/18) ⭐⭐
A book set on a different planet: 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke (18/12/18) ⭐⭐
A book with song lyrics in the title: Paddle Your Own Canoe: One Man's Fundamentals for Delicious Living by Nick Offerman (20/12/18) ⭐⭐
A book set at sea: The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen (21/12/18) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
A book by a local author: Voss by Patrick White (21/12/18) ⭐⭐
A book that involves a bookstore or library: 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff (23/12/18) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
A book with a weather element in the title: Storm Front by Jim Butcher (30/12/18) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
An allegory: The Little Prince (31/12/18) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Covers


➜ A book recommended by someone else taking the POPSUGAR Reading Challenge: East of Eden

A book involving a heist:
❓ The Final Empire
❓ The Great Train Robbery
❓ Six of Crows
Nordic noir:
❓ The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
❓ Smilla's Sense of Snow
❓ The Son
A novel based on a real person:
❓ 11/22/63
❓ The Alienist
❓ Girl with a Pearl Earring
❓ I, Claudius
A book set in a country that fascinates you:
🔜 A book by a female author who uses a male pseudonym: The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith
A book about or involving sport:
🔜 A book with your favourite colour in the title: Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
A past goodreads Choice Awards winner:
A book set in the decade you were born:
❓ All the President's Men
❓ Freaky Friday
❓ The Girl You Left Behind
❓ Go Ask Alice
A bestseller from the year you graduated highschool:
❓ All the Pretty Horses
❓ The English Patient
❓ The Secret History
❓ Snow Crash
A cyberpunk book:
A book that was being read by a stranger in a public place:
A book tied to your ancestry:
A book with a fruit or vegetable in the title:
❓ Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
A book by an author with the same first or last name as you:
❓ El Deafo
❓ Frozen Charlotte

❓ = potential candidate
🔜 = planned book
➜ = reading

Book Riot 2018 Read Harder Challenge

Completed Prompts - 18/24
A book of genre fiction in translation: Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne (3/1/18) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
A book with a cover you hate: A Room with a View by E.M. Forster (3/1/18) ⭐⭐⭐
A children’s classic published before 1980: The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton (30/1/18) ⭐⭐⭐
A comic written and illustrated by the same person: Adulthood Is a Myth by Sarah Andersen (2/2/18) ⭐⭐⭐
A book published posthumously: Persuasion by Jane Austen (14/2/18) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
A celebrity memoir: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling (19/2/18) ⭐
The first book in a new-to-you YA or middle grade series: The Worst Witch by Jill Murphy (2/3/18) ⭐⭐
A comic written or illustrated by a person of color: Scott Pilgrim, Volume 1: Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life by Bryan Lee O'Malley (7/3/18) ⭐⭐⭐
A book set in or about one of the five BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, or South Africa): The Leavers by Lisa Ko (20/4/18) ⭐⭐
A one-sitting book: Five Go Parenting by Bruno Vincent (4/7/18) ⭐⭐
A romance novel by or about a person of colour: Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez (10/8/18) ⭐⭐
A comic that isn’t published by Marvel, DC, or Image: Dog Man Unleashed by Dav Pilkey (2/9/18) ⭐⭐
A classic of genre fiction (i.e. mystery, sci fi/fantasy, romance): Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum (27/9/18) ⭐⭐⭐
An Oprah Book Club selection: Becoming by Michelle Obama (22/11/18)
A book of social science: The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell (16/12/18) ⭐⭐⭐
A book of colonial or postcolonial literature: Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen (22/12/18) ⭐⭐⭐
A book about nature: Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton (24/12/18) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
An essay anthology: How to Be Black by Baratunde R. Thurston (27/12/18) ⭐⭐

Covers


The List
A book of true crime:
❓ Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
❓ The Stranger Beside Me: Ted Bundy The Shocking Inside Story
🔜 A western: Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
A sci fi novel with a female protagonist by a female author:
❓ Dragonflight
A mystery by a person of color or LGBTQ+ author:
🔜 A book with a female protagonist over the age of 60: Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
🔜 An assigned book you hated (or never finished): The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

❓ = potential candidate
🔜 = planned book
➜ = reading

Lists, Lists, Lists

Book lists I'm working through, and what I've read for them in 2018.

📝 1001 Books Before You Die : 133/1316
Around the World in Eighty Days (3/1/18)
A Room with a View (3/1/18)
The Time Machine (15/1/18)
Candide (27/1/18)
Dracula (31/1/18)
Persuasion (14/2/18)
A Farewell to Arms (17/2/18)
The Hound of the Baskervilles (13/4/18)
The Count of Monte Cristo (28/5/18)
The Collector (31/5/18)
The House of the Spirits (9/6/18)
Wide Sargasso Sea (18/6/18)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (19/6/18)
The End of the Affair (13/7/18)
Love in the Time of Cholera (10/8/18)
Siddhartha (1/11/18)
The Turn of the Screw (10/11/18)
Ulysses (30/11/18)
2001: A Space Odyssey (18/12/18)
Voss (21/12/18)
Ethan Frome (30/12/18)

📝 Amazon's 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime : 62/100
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption (15/2/18)
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America (22/3/18)
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier (25/3/18)
Love in the Time of Cholera (10/8/18)
Bel Canto (18/9/18)
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (17/10/18)
Breath, Eyes, Memory (1/12/18)
Out of Africa (22/12/18)

📝 Amazon's 100 Young Adult Books to Read in a Lifetime : 46/103

📝 BBC's "You've Read 6" Challenge : 64/100
Dracula (31/1/18)
Persuasion (14/2/18)
The Count of Monte Cristo (28/5/18)
Love in the Time of Cholera (10/8/18)
Ulysses (30/11/18)

📝 BBC's "The Big Read" : 96/200
Dracula (31/1/18)
Persuasion (14/2/18)
Black Beauty (8/4/18)
The Hound of the Baskervilles (13/4/18)
The Count of Monte Cristo (28/5/18)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (19/6/18)
Love in the Time of Cholera (10/8/18)
Ulysses (30/11/18)

📝 Bloomsbury's 100 Must-Read Classic Novels : 34/100
Candide by Voltaire (27/1/18)
A Farewell to Arms (17/2/18)
The Count of Monte Cristo (28/5/18)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (19/6/18)
Ulysses (30/11/18)

📝 BookBub's 100 Classics to Read in a Lifetime : 68/100
A Room with a View (3/1/18)
The Good Earth (20/1/18)
Dracula (31/1/18)
The Count of Monte Cristo (28/5/18)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (19/6/18)
Love in the Time of Cholera (10/8/18)
Ulysses (30/11/18)
Ethan Frome (30/12/18)

📝 Book Riot's Zero to Well Read in 100 Books : 51/100
Candide (27/1/18)
The Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson (22/5/18)
Love in the Time of Cholera (10/8/18)
Ulysses (30/11/18)

📝 Flavorwire's 50 Books in Translation : 7/50
Candide (27/1/18)
The House of the Spirits (9/6/18)

📝 Goodreads' Top 100 Literary Novels of all Time : 32/100
Candide (27/1/18)
The Count of Monte Cristo (28/5/18)
Ulysses (30/11/18)

📝 The Guardian's Top 100 Novels Written in English : 40/100
The Count of Monte Cristo (28/5/18)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (19/6/18)
Ulysses (30/11/18)

📝 The Guardian's Top 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read : 125/1000
Around the World in Eighty Days (3/1/18)
A Room with a View (3/1/18)
The Time Machine (15/1/18)
Candide (27/1/18)
Dracula (31/1/18)
Persuasion (14/2/18)
A Farewell to Arms (17/2/18)
Black Beauty (8/4/18)
The Hound of the Baskervilles (13/4/18)
The Count of Monte Cristo (28/5/18)
A Wizard of Earthsea (11/6/18)
American Gods (14/6/18)
Wide Sargasso Sea (18/6/18)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (19/6/18)
The End of the Affair (13/7/18)
The Man in the High Castle (25/7/18)
Love in the Time of Cholera (10/8/18)
Ulysses (30/11/18)
Voss (21/12/18)

📝 Modern Library's 100 Best Novels : 27/100
A Room with a View (3/1/18)
A Farewell to Arms (17/2/18)
Wide Sargasso Sea (18/6/18)
Ulysses (30/11/18)

📝 Norwegian Book Club's Top 100 Works in World Literature : 24/100
Ulysses (30/11/18)
Othello (7/12/18)

📝 Penguin Classics "100 Classic Books You Must Read Before You Die." : 37/100
A Room with a View (3/1/18)
The Time Machine (15/1/18)
Dracula (31/1/18)
The Count of Monte Cristo (28/5/18)
Wide Sargasso Sea (18/6/18)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (19/6/18)
The Man in the High Castle (25/7/18)
The Turn of the Screw (10/11/18)

📝 Pulitzer Prize-Winners for Fiction/Novel : 16/90
The Good Earth (20/1/18)
The Goldfinch (23/3/18)
The Orphan Master's Son (5/12/18)

📝 Radcliffe's Rival 100 Best Novels : 37/100
A Room with a View (3/1/18)
A Farewell to Arms (17/2/18)
Wide Sargasso Sea (18/6/18)
Ulysses (30/11/18)
Ethan Frome (30/12/18)

📝 The Rory Gilmore Challenge : 101/333
A Room with a View (3/1/18)
Candide (27/1/18)
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America (22/3/18)
Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters (4/4/18)
The Count of Monte Cristo (28/5/18)
The House of the Spirits (9/6/18)
A Room of One's Own (25/8/18)
The Art of War (13/9/18)
Bel Canto (18/9/18)
Siddhartha (1/11/18)
Ulysses (30/11/18)
Othello (7/12/18)
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers (16/12/18)
Out of Africa (22/12/18)
Ethan Frome (30/12/18)

📝 Telegraph's 100 Novels Everyone Should Read : 37/100
The Hound of the Baskervilles (13/4/18)
Wide Sargasso Sea (18/6/18)
Ulysses (30/11/18)

📝 Time's All-Time 100 Novels : 31/100
Wide Sargasso Sea (18/6/18)

📝 Time's 100 Best Young-Adult Books of All Time : 36/100
A Wizard of Earthsea (11/6/18)

Multi-Year "Read Your Age" Challenge

I started this with a fresh slate in 2017. Hoping to finish this in 2018!

✔ 1976 Kiss of the Spider Woman (Manuel Puig) ⭐⭐
✔ 1977 On Photography (Susan Sontag) ⭐
1978 The World According to Garp, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, Requiem for a Dream, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
✔ 1979 Kindred (Octavia E. Butler) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
✔ 1980 The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (Douglas Adams) ⭐⭐
✔ 1981 George's Marvellous Medicine (Roald Dahl) ⭐⭐⭐
✔ 1982 The BFG (Roald Dahl) ⭐⭐⭐
✔ 1983 The Witches (Roald Dahl) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
1984 The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Neuromancer, The Wasp Factory
✔ 1985 book:Love in the Time of Cholera|9712] (Gabriel García Márquez) ⭐⭐
✔ 1986 Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History (Art Spiegelman) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
1987 Watchmen, A Brief History of Time, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, The Shell Seekers
✔ 1988 Oscar And Lucinda (Peter Carey) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
✔ 1989 Truckers: The First Book of the Nomes (Terry Pratchett) ⭐⭐⭐
✔ 1990 Jurassic Park (Michael Crichton) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
✔ 1991 Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began (Art Spiegelman) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
✔ 1992 The Heather Blazing (Colm Tóibín) ⭐⭐⭐
✔ 1993 Tomorrow, When the War Began (John Marsden) ⭐⭐
✔ 1994 Breath, Eyes, Memory (Edwidge Danticat) ⭐⭐⭐
1995 Assassin's Apprentice, The Reader, Naked in Death
✔ 1996 Neverwhere (Neil Gaiman) ⭐⭐⭐
✔ 1997 The Adventures of Captain Underpants (Dav Pilkey) ⭐⭐
✔ 1998 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (J.K. Rowling) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
✔ 1999 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (J.K. Rowling) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
✔ 2000 First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers (Loung Ung) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
✔ 2001 Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters (Mark Dunn) ⭐⭐
✔ 2002 Kafka on the Shore (Haruki Murakami) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
✔ 2003 The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini) ⭐⭐
✔ 2004 Scott Pilgrim, Volume 1: Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life (Bryan Lee O'Malley) ⭐⭐⭐
✔ 2005 Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything (Stephen D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner) ⭐
✔ 2006 The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream (Barack Obama) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
✔ 2007 The Perfect Scoop: Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, and Sweet Accompaniments (David Lebovitz) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
✔ 2008 Breath (Tim Winton) ⭐⭐⭐
✔ 2009 Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen (Christopher McDougall) ⭐⭐
✔ 2010 The Student Prince (FayJay) ⭐⭐
✔ 2011 A Monster Calls (Patrick Ness) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
✔ 2012 Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West (Blaine Harden) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
✔ 2013 Americanah (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie) ⭐⭐⭐
✔ 2014 The Girl with All the Gifts (M.R. Carey) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
✔ 2015 Fairest (Marissa Meyer) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
✔ 2016 When Breath Becomes Air (Paul Kalanithi) ⭐⭐
✔ 2017 The Bear and the Nightingale (Katherine Arden) ⭐

➜ = currently reading
✔ = finished

Read Around the World

Currently 52/207

Goal: To have read at least one book, play or short story either at least partically set in, or by an author from, every country around the globe. My initial goal is to just tick things off, however ideally I'd love to read something by an author from that country, set in that country, that teaches me something about that country. Pipe dream, I know, but it would be nice!

✔ 2018 Goal: To hit 40 countries! (Ok, hit this in January!!)
✔ 2018 Goal 2.0: To hit 45 countries! (Hit this in April!)
✔ 2018 Goal 3.0: To hit 50 countries! (1st December - yes!)

✔ Afghanistan: The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini) Author/Setting
Albania
✔ Algeria: The Stranger (Albert Camus) Author/Setting
Andorra
Angola
Antigua and Barbuda
Argentina
Armenia
Aruba
✔ Australia: Picnic at Hanging Rock (Joan Lindsay) Author/Setting
✔ Austria: Man's Search for Meaning (Viktor E. Frankl) Author
Azerbaijan: The Sheltering Sky (Paul Bowles)
Bahamas, The: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (Jules Verne)
Bahrain: Round the Bend (Nevil Shute)
Bangladesh:
Barbados
Belarus: Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin (Timothy Snyder)
Belgium
Belize
Benin
Bermuda
Bhutan
Bolivia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Botswana: The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (Alexander McCall Smith)
✔ Brazil: The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho) Author
Brunei
Bulgaria
Burkina Faso
Burundi
✔ Cambodia: First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers (Loung Ung) Author/Setting
Cameroon
✔ Canada: The Blind Assassin (Margaret Atwood) Author/Setting
Cape Verde
Central African Republic
Chad
✔ Chile: The House of the Spirits (Isabel Allende) Author/Setting
✔ China: The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck) Setting
✔ Colombia: The Accountant's Story: Inside the Violent World of the Medellín Cartel (Roberto Escobar Gaviria) Author/Setting
Comoros
Congo, Democratic Republic of the
✔ Costa Rica: Jurassic Park (Michael Crichton) Setting
Croatia: Girl at War (Sara Nović)
✔ Cuba: The Old Man and the Sea (Ernest Hemingway) Setting
Cyprus: Othello (William Shakespeare)
✔ Czech Republic: Landscapes of the Metropolis of Death: Reflections on Memory and Imagination by Otto Dov Kulka Author
✔ Denmark: Hamlet (William Shakespeare) Setting
Dijbouti
Dominica
Dominican Republic The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Junot Diaz)
East Timor
Ecuador: Galápagos (Kurt Vonnegut)
✔ Egypt: Antony and Cleopatra (William Shakespeare) Setting
El Salvador
✔ England: Great Expectations (Charles Dickens) Author/Setting
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea: Cutting for Stone (Abraham Verghese)
Estonia
Ethiopia
Faroe Islands
Fiji
Finland
✔ France: The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (Victor Hugo) Author/Setting
Gabon
Gambia: Roots: The Saga of an American Family (Alex Haley)
Georgia
✔ Germany: A Woman in Berlin: Eight Weeks in the Conquered City: A Diary (Marta Hillers) Author/Setting
Ghana: The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born (Ayi Kwei Armah)
✔ Greece: Oedipus Rex (Sophocles) Author/Setting
Greenland
Grenada
Guatemala
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Guyana
✔ Haiti: Breath, Eyes, Memory (Edwidge Danticat) Author/Setting
Honduras
Hungary
✔ Iceland: Burial Rites (Hannah Kent) Setting
✔ India: A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry) Author/Setting
✔ Indonesia: Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded (Simon Winchester) Setting
✔ Iran: The Complete Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi) Author/Setting
Iraq
✔ Ireland: The Heather Blazing (Colm Tóibín) Author/Setting
➜ Israel: A Tale of Love and Darkness (Amos Oz) Author/Setting
✔ Italy: If on a Winter's Night a Traveler (Italo Calvino) Author/Setting
Ivory Coast
✔ Jamaica: Live and Let Die (Ian Fleming) Setting
✔ Japan: Norwegian Wood (Haruki Murakami) Author/Setting
Jordan: Appointment with Death (Agatha Christie)
Kazakhstan
✔ Kenya: Out of Africa (Isak Dinesen) Setting
Kiribati
✔ Korea (North): Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West (Blaine Harden) Setting
Korea (South)
Kosovo
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
Laos
Latvia
Lebanon
Lesotho
Liberia: A Marker to Measure Drift (Alexander Maksik)
Libya
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macedonia
Madagascar
Malawi
Malaysia: A Town Like Alice (Nevil Shute)
Maldives
Mali
Malta
Marshall Islands
Mauritania
Mauritius
✔ Mexico: Under the Volcano (Malcolm Lowry) Setting
Micronesia: Island of the Sequined Love Nun (Christopher Moore)
Moldova
✔ Monaco: The House of Mirth (Edith Wharton) Setting
Mongolia: Ghostwritten (David Mitchell)
Montenegro
Morocco
Mozambique
Myanmar
Myanmar
Namibia
Nauru
Nepal
✔ Netherlands: The Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank) Author/Setting
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Niger
✔ Nigeria: Things Fall Apart (Chinua Achebe) Author/Setting
Niue
Northern Ireland
✔ Norway: A Doll's House (Henrik Ibsen) Author/Setting
Oman
✔ Pakistan: I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban (Malala Yousafzai) Author/Setting
Palau
Palestine
Panama
Papua New Guinea
Paraguay: Candide (Voltaire)
Peru: The Bridge of San Luis Rey (Thornton Wilder)
Phillipines
✔ Poland: The Complete Maus (Art Spiegelman) Setting
✔ Portugal: Candide by Voltaire Setting
Puerto Rico
Qatar
✔ Romania: Dracula by Bram Stoker Setting
✔ Russia: Dead Souls (Nikolai Gogol) Author/Setting
Rwanda: We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families (Philip Gourevitch)
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Samoa
San Marino
São Tomé and Príncipe
Saudi Arabia
✔ Scotland: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark Author/Setting
Senegal
Serbia
Seychelles
✔ Sierra Leone: A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier (Ishmael Beah) Author/Setting
Singapore
Slovakia
✔ Slovenia: Veronika Decides to Die (Paulo Coelho) Setting
Solomon Islands
✔ Somalia: Infidel (Ayaan Hirsi Ali) Author/Setting
✔ South Africa: Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood (Trevor Noah) Author/Setting
South Sudan
✔ Spain: The Shadow of the Wind (Carlos Ruiz Zafón) Author/Setting
Sri Lanka
Sudan
Suriname
Swaziland
Sweden
✔ Switzerland: Frankenstein (Mary Shelley) Setting
✔ Syria: Nujeen: One Girl's Incredible Journey from War-torn Syria in a Wheelchair (Nujeen Mustafa and Christina Lamb) Author/Setting
Taiwan
Tajikistan
✔ Tanzania: The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories (Ernest Hemingway) Setting
Tatarstan
Thailand
Tibet
Togo
Tonga
Trinidad and Tobago
Tunisia
Turkey
Turkmenistan
Tuvalu
Uganda
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
✔ United States: Of Mice and Men (John Steinbeck) Author/Setting
Uruguay
Uzbekistan
Vanuatu
✔ Vatican: Angels & Demons (Dan Brown) Setting
✔ Vietnam: The Quiet American (Graham Greene) Setting
Venezuala
Wales
Yemen
Zambia
Zimbabwe

➜ = currently reading
✔ = finished

Overlapping Challenges

These are challenges that I might like to join in on, but the books can overlap with other challenges.

Back to the Classics
✔ 1. A 19th century classic: The Time Machine by H.G. Wells (15/1/18)
✔ 2. A 20th century classic: A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway (17/2/18)
✔ 3. A classic by a woman author: The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck (20/1/18)
✔ 4. A classic in translation: Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne (3/1/18)
✔ 5. A children's classic: The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling (5/1/18)
✔ 6. A classic crime story, fiction or non-fiction: The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle (3/2/18)
✔ 7. A classic travel or journey narrative, fiction or non-fiction: 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke (18/12/18)
✔ 8. A classic with a single-word title: Dracula by Bram Stoker (31/1/18)
✔ 9. A classic with a colour in the title: The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas (29/3/18)
✔ 10. A classic by an author that's new to you: A Room with a View by E.M. Forster (3/1/18)
✔ 11. A classic that scares you: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (28/5/18)
✔ 12. Re-read a favorite classic: The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (31/12/18)

Monthly Motif Reading Challenge
✔ January (Diversify Your Reading): We Are Never Meeting In Real Life by Samantha Irby (10/1/18)
✔ February (One Word): Persuasion by Jane Austen (14/2/18)
✔ March (Travel the World): The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (23/3/18)
April (Read Locally):
✔ May (Book to Screen): The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (28/5/18)
✔ June (Crack the Case): Body of Evidence by Patricia Cornwell (10/6/18)
✔ July (Vacation Reads): Angels & Demons by Dan Brown (6/7/18)
✔ August (Award Winners): Columbine by Dave Cullen (30/8/18)
✔ September (Don't Turn Out the Light): I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara (8/10/18)
✔ October (New or Old): The Turn of the Screw by Henry James (10/11/18)
✔ November (Family): Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat (7/12/18)
✔ December (Wrapping it Up): The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle (14/12/18)

Wacky Challenges
A link to my ongoing & always increasing Wacky Challenges list.

So of these 26 prompts, are any ones that you voted as bottom choices? I guess what I'm really asking is did you look at it strictly as picking the 26 hardest for you, or did you pick topics that will be hard but you still like them? Do you know what I mean? I'm interested in your process for selecting these prompts.

I didn't vote this year, and I didn't even follow the voting so the completed list was a complete surprise to me, as was the rejects list. To make my hard-mode list, I pasted the reject list from the thread into a spreadsheet, went through it, and highlighted the ones that immediately made me screw up my nose. There were a handful more than the final list, but once I decided on 26 as my magic number, I filtered out the ones that seemed easier than the others. There are really none here that I like at all.

I wanted to make it challenging for me in particular, and I definitely did that! For example, I don't read much in the way of indie authors, and I don't think I've read a single Latin-American book in my life - even the prompt for Africa/South America in our big list, my mind immediately went Africa.

Even now, a couple of days later, I look at the list and think "OMG, what am I doing to myself?!" ... masochistic tendencies, I suppose. ;)

Can't wait to see what you come up with.

If you want to fit a Ness' book in your challenge, The Knife of Never Letting Go has an animal companion. The 1st book is a bit weak, but quick and I still enjoyed it.

The Fifth Season has a 2nd person point of view, but maybe it's too much fantasy for you (it's a solid read anyway).

That second person point of view will I think be one of the hardest - thanks for the suggestion, I'll need it!

Wow, that is totally brave of you. I love it.

I might even go one step further and only read books that aren't already on my TBR, to really make me dig. But then again ...

Some suggestions for your masochistic list:
Made up words in the title: Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Orphans: Cider House Rules by John Irving
Epigraph: Coraline by Neil Gaiman
Literary Western: True Grit by Charles Portis (there are also a bunch of good Cormac McCarthy options)
Book title that is also a song title : Did you know that there are 64 books that have the same name as Beatles' tunes? (I am a Beatles fan but I can't say whether the books are good or not!)

So there are quite a few duplicates from my ATY Hard Mode challenge and Popsugar ... gah.

A book dealing with loss and grief
A book which shares its title with a song
A book with characters who are twins
A cyberpunk book

I think I might just cut those out from my ATY, and maybe two more, and make it a twenty prompt challenge. I think I'd like to go back to using a book for only one of these challenges, and I don't want to take on too much!

Yeah, I did the same thing. I had the grief/loss, twins, feminism, sports & microhistory on my personal ATY. Instead of trying to read separate books for both challenges (which is what I did this year with my personal ATY & the Popsugar), I've decided to cut these out of my personal ATY for next year. This decision is totally based on the fact that there are only 2 months left this year & I have 33 books to finish between my 3 challenges. Wow, this was the first time I added up what I have left, and that's pretty depressing.

Oh no! But you've read a TON this year, so don't let it get you down too much. You still rock!

I just have to ask, Jody and Katie, how many books did each of you challenge yourselves to read?

Thanks Jody! I'm going to try to focus on ATY and PopSugar, with my personal ATY challenge as the lowest priority.

Tammy, I chose to do ATY, PopSugar and a personal challenge this year with no overlap between the the. It's around 130 books. My GR goal for the year was 150, and I've read 156 so far. A lot have been side reads that haven't fit into any of my challenges.

Wow, great challenge Jody! I also did find it too easy to fill in side-reads this year in my top rejects and general rejects challenge, but I'm not sure I'm up for something this hardcore ;)

For the book from a country with less than a million inhabitants, you can go with Iceland. I have only read Burial Rites, but have several on my TBR (The Blue Fox, Independent People, The Little Book of the Icelanders, Where the Shadows Lie).

For the TED speaker book, I'm going to start The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are for a book club, I can check in later with my thoughts if you're interested.

Sophie wrote: "Wow, great challenge Jody! I also did find it too easy to fill in side-reads this year in my top rejects and general rejects challenge, but I'm not sure I'm up for something this hardcore ;)

For t..."


The Brene Brown book is decent but I feel like you kind of have to stop at one with her. If you've read one, you've kind of read them all...They're repetitive and no new ideas really presented. The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are was the first book I read last year.

Tammy, I aimed for 75 this year, and I’ve just hit 80, so I’m happy! Next year, I’m aiming more for pages read as I’ve found I tend to avoid doorstops as they keep my numbers down, and I don’t want to do that. The Count of Monte Cristo is calling to me!

Let me know what that book is like, Sophie. I read one of hers this year (a friend forced it on me) and I wasn’t the hugest fan - she uses a lot of (I suspect self-created) buzzwords and phrases, and something about her just rubs me the wrong way.

I'm happy with my side-challenge progress so far - nine books spread over the three challenges read in January.

Your plans and challenges makes me want to take on all of the plans and challenges...

Do eeeeeeeet!

I think the key for me is that I don't expect to complete them all. I like to mood read, and since I'm reading AtY in order this year, having lots of other challenges means that I can usually slot a book in somewhere so I don't feel like it's wasted. Which is ridiculous, I know, but it's hard to break out of the challenge mindset!

Jody wrote: "Do eeeeeeeet!

I think the key for me is that I don't expect to complete them all. I like to mood read, and since I'm reading AtY in order this year, having lots of other challenges means that I ca..."

No I totally feel you! Instead of always trying to read books that fit the prompts, you can choose books you want to read and figure out how to make them work later. Do you have a Goodreads goal? How many books are you trying to read this year?

I have a Goodreads goal, my usual 75 book goal for the year, but I'm more focused on a page-based goal this year as I want to read some big ones - The Count of Monte Cristo and (ugh!) Ulysses, and I find that a book number goal tends to steer me away from the doorstops as I'm constantly trying to get my book total up. In practice though, it's a difficult mindset to break. 😐

Q1 Round-Up

I'm pretty happy with my progress in my other challenges so far - I'm bopping along nicely and nobody seems to be being left behind so far. My lists are suffering a bit though - I've been reading too much non-fiction. 😂

Jody wrote: "
Q1 Round-Up


I'm pretty happy with my progress in my other challenges so far - I'm bopping along nicely and nobody seems to be being left behind so far. My lists are suffering a bit though - I'..."

I'm surprised at how much nonfiction I've read and how much is on my TBR this year. I've never been a nonfiction reader (I'll grab a memoir here or there, but I never really seek it out), so this is a big change for me!

But you're right... reading nonfiction doesn't give me the satisfaction of checking off the lists haha!

Jody wrote: "I have a Goodreads goal, my usual 75 book goal for the year, but I'm more focused on a page-based goal this year as I want to read some big ones - The Count of Monte Cristo and (ugh!) [..."

I find myself going away from the long books. They used to never give me pause, but now I look at them and all I can think is that the authors lack editing skills and are driven by ego. It isn't that I won't read them, but seriously, do you ever finish one and go, "yep...that was just the right length."

We need to find a non-fiction list or two to tick off, Emily!

Tammy, I hear you! I think Stephen King is one of worst culprits. I read my first book by him in years (actually decades ...) last year and it was so ridiculously bloated, and completely unnecessarily. I get why some of the classics are so long (getting paid by the word), but now? No thanks.

The Guardian
Modern Library
Time Magazine
QuikLit (From the last 20 Years)
BuzzFeed

Some to choose from! I only THOUGHT I was doing well with nonfiction recently...

Funny you should mention King. My husband is reading the uncut version of the Stand (which was only released years after he became famous). Now I read it over 30 some years ago in the edited format and loved it, but when I tried to read his original uncut "masterpiece" I couldn't make it through. My husband has been saying that entire sections could have been done away with.

I'm more forgiving of classics, just because folks didn't have TV and authors like Dickens would put their work out in pieces. What else were they going to do for entertainment? Churn butter, shoe a horse?

I think 250 - 350 is the sweet spot for a book...at least if I'm doing the reading.

Nonfiction lists!!! This is a total game changer.

Ooh, LISTS!! I can't wait to check those out. 😁

Tammy - the uncut version of The Stand is exactly the book I read last year. It was just terrible, and I'm completely put off reading anything by him ever again. I like books around that length too, come to think of it!

Emily wrote: "The Guardian
Modern Library
Time Magazine
QuikLit (From the last 20 Years)
BuzzFeed

Some to choose from! I only THOUGHT I was doing well with nonfiction recently..."
Just for my amusement I looked at the list provided by the Guardian. While I've used a few of the books - Thesaurus, Dictionary, Bible - I don't think there is one book on the list that I have read cover to cover. Plus, to add insult to injury, I just gave away my Elizabeth David cookbooks. Oh dear! :)

I've only looked at The Guardian's list so far, but am a little perturbed by its inclusion of Waiting for Godot. Does non-fiction not mean what I think it means?? 😂

Jody wrote: "I've only looked at The Guardian's list so far, but am a little perturbed by its inclusion of Waiting for Godot. Does non-fiction not mean what I think it means?? 😂"

The comments on The Guardian article are PRICELESS. Maybe we should throw that list out? 🙃 bahaha. It's a shame that that is the first list that pops up when you google "Best Nonfiction Books".

I’m going to have to take a look!! I’m also not sure I’d include poetry, and I definitely would not include the Bible!

I think maybe the issue with poetry and plays is that they are shelved as nonfiction in libraries. But I definitely wouldn't put it as nonfiction on a list. When I saw the dictionary & thesaurus on the list, I was like, well there goes trying to read everything on this list...

That is interesting to know, about the shelving. I'm currently listening to Mythos: A Retelling of the Myths of Ancient Greece, and found it odd that it's classed here as non-fiction.

Jody wrote: "That is interesting to know, about the shelving. I'm currently listening to Mythos: A Retelling of the Myths of Ancient Greece, and found it odd that it's classed here as non-fiction."

Myths and fairytales are classified outside of general fiction in the Dewey Decimal system, as is all religious texts and plays. So I guesssss that makes sense? But outside of the library classification system, you are generally fiction (made up stuff) and nonfiction (not made up stuff). It's a bit misleading for the Guardian article to classify by Dewey Decimal instead of the commonly accepted terms.

I could count a lot more titles that I've read when I use the TIME list - also a lot more titles that interested me. Maybe I'll just take that list and add ones from the other lists - all a little mumbo-jumbo.

Lizzy wrote: "I could count a lot more titles that I've read when I use the TIME list - also a lot more titles that interested me. Maybe I'll just take that list and add ones from the other lists - all a little ..."

I'm much more interested in the more recent lists from QwikLit and Buzzfeed than I am from the classics, but that's also who I am as a person. I'd love to see your list when you put it together Lizzy!

Sure Emily... as soon as I put it together.

I have been reading a lot of nonfiction lately as well, but few are on those lists. Mainly because I like my nonfiction new - latest research and ideas. There are exceptions, of course, like autobiographies, but I find that nonfiction stands the test of time lot less than fiction.

Edit: I have not read much of the two newer lists, either. I guess it is not newness, but topic. My reads are mostly science and history, with memoirs and social topics thrown in. Not much of them on the list.

My reading around the world goal has gone pretty well this year! My initial goal was to hit 40 countries by the end of the year, and I just hit #50 with Haiti.

That’s really cool. Congrats! I think I should try this. See what countries I have read anything from. I think it won’t be too good. :(

It was really interesting (but also embarrassing) to see where I’d read from. There’s a definite narrow bias inherent in my reading for sure.