Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

Discovered this challenge in the middle of the year in 2017, so this will be my first year from the start, exciting! My goal this year is to read mostly books that's been dusting on my shelf, as I for some reason tend to chose library books over my own, leaving my own books sad and unread.

52 books is a bit too much for me in one year, so if I manage to complete 35 topics I will be happy :) I have divided the list in four to make it easier to edit.

Progress: 52/52
Books read: 50

✅ = Completed
➡️ = Currently reading
📚 = 1001 book
🎧 = Audiobook

The 2018 AtY List part 1

✅ 1. A book with the letters A, T & Y in the title:
📚 🎧 The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (25/6/18) ⭐️⭐️⭐️(⭐️)

✅ 2. A book from the first 10 books added to your TBR:
The Year of the Hare by Arto Paasilinna (25/10/18) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

✅ 3. A book from the 2017 GR Choice Awards:
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (4/2/18) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

✅ 4. Four books linked by the 4 elements: #1 Earth:
🎧 Land ingen har sett by Edvard Hoem (4/2/18) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

✅ 5. A book about or inspired by real events:
🎧 Liv andre har levd by Edvard Hoem (26/3/18) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

✅ 6. A book originally written in a language other than English (Danish):
🎧 Selfies by Jussi Adler-Olsen (24/4/18) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

✅ 7. A gothic novel:
📚🎧 The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (27/8/18) ⭐️⭐️⭐️(⭐️)

✅ 8. An "own voices" book:
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (30/3/18) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

✅ 9. A book with a body part in the title:
🎧 Rigels Øyne by Roy Jacobsen (øyne=eyes) (7/6/18) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

✅ 10. An author's debut book:
📚 Quicksand by Nella Larsen (28/2/18) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

✅ 11. A literary fiction:
📚 Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton (28/11/18) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

✅ 12. A book set in Africa or South America:
📚 Out of Africa by Karen Blixen/Isak Dinesen (29/1/18) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

✅ 13. A book with a plot centered around a secret:
📚 The Secret History by Donna Tartt (15/9/18)⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Covers in reading order:

The 2018 AtY List part 2

✅ 14. Four books linked by the four elements: Book #2 Fire:
🎧 Ildvitnet/(The Fire Witness) by Lars Kepler (15/7/18) ⭐⭐⭐(⭐)

✅ 15. A book with an unique format/writing structure:
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (14/8/18) ⭐⭐⭐⭐

✅ 16. A narrative nonfiction:
🎧 Going Solo by Roald Dahl (26/1/18) ⭐⭐⭐⭐

✅ 17. A book you expect to make you laugh:
🎧 Winnie the Pooh: A. A. Milne's Pooh Classics, Volume 1 by A.A. Milne (2/9/18) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

✅ 18. A book with a location in the title:
Islands Klokke/(Iceland's Bell) by Halldór Kiljan Laxness ⭐⭐⭐⭐

✅ 19. A book by a Grand master author:
🎧 Hallowe'en Party by Agatha Christie (1/5/18) ⭐⭐⭐

✅ 20. A book rated 5 stars by at least one of your friends:
📚 The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (6/6/18) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

✅ 21. A book written in first person perspective:
Med livet foran seg/(The Life Before Us) by Émile Ajar/Romain Gary (26/8/18) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

✅ 22. A book you have high expectations/hope for:
📚🎧 Fuglane/(The Birds) by Tarjei Vesaas (18/12/18) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

✅ 23. A medical or legal thriller:
The Rainmaker by John Grisham (1/11/18) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

✅ 24. A book with a map:
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis (30/12/18) ⭐️⭐️⭐️

✅ 25. A book with an antagonist/villain point of view:
📚 🎧 Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind (30/6/18) ⭐️⭐️⭐️

✅ 26. A book with a text only cover:
📚 🎧 The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes (31/8/18) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Covers in reading order:

The 2018 AtY List part 3

✅ 27. A book about surviving a hardship:
📚 Sult/(Hunger) by Knut Hamsun (26/5/18) ⭐️⭐️⭐️(⭐️)

✅ 28. 4 books linked by the 4 elements: Book #3 Water
🎧 Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (7/10/18) ⭐️⭐️⭐️(⭐️)

✅ 29. A book with a "Clue" weapon on the cover (rope):
Kollektivt selvmord by Arto Paasilinna (17/3/18) ⭐️⭐️⭐️

✅ 30. A short book:
The Short Fiction of Nella Larsen by Nella Larsen (2/3/18) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

✅ 31. A book set in a country you'd like to visit but have never been to:
Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty (14/4/18) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

✅ 32. An alternate history book:
🎧 The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (18/2/18) ⭐️⭐️⭐️(⭐️)

✅ 33. A book connected (title, cover, content) to a word "born" in the same year as you: Based on the word Hijab
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (30/3/18) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

✅ 34. A suggestion from the AtY 2018 polls, that didn't win but was polarizing or a close-call (A book with a fruit or a vegetable in the title):
📚 Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson (18/3/18) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

✅ 35. A book featuring a murder:
🎧 The Nightmare/(Paganinikontrakten) by Lars Kepler (9/1/18) ⭐⭐

✅ 36. A book published in the last 3 years by an author you haven't read before:
Luridiumstyven by Bobbie Peers (26/12/18) ⭐⭐⭐

✅ 37. A Women's Prize for Fiction winner or nominee:
🎧 Flink pike/(Gone Girl) by Gillian Flynn (9/10/18) ⭐️⭐️⭐️

✅ 38. A science fiction book
The Road by Cormac McCarthy (8/7/18)⭐️⭐️⭐️

✅ 39. A book with a form of punctuation in the title:
Einstein's Cat by Tom Skinner (27/3/18) ⭐️⭐️

Covers in reading order:

The 2018 AtY List part 4

✅ 40. A book from Amazon's 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime list:
📚 Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh (30/4/18) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

✅ 41. A book by an author with the same first and last initials:
🎧 Jeg forbanner tidens elv/(I Curse the River of Time) by Per Petterson (29/9/19) ⭐️⭐️⭐️

✅ 42. A book that takes place on, in, or underwater:
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis (30/12/18) ⭐️⭐️⭐️

✅ 43. A book with a title that is a whole sentence:
📚 Frøken Smillas fornemmelse for snø by Peter Høeg (23/7/18) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

✅ 44. A ghost story:
Leo: A Ghost Story by Mac Barnett (30/12/18) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

✅ 45. A book that intimidates you:
📚 To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf (23/2/18) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

✅ 46. 4 books linked by the 4 elements: Book #4 Air:
🎧 Dagen skal komme med blå vind (vind=wind) by Levi Henriksen (22/5/18) ⭐️⭐️⭐️

✅ 47. A book where the main character (or author) is of a different ethnic origin than your own:
📚 Passing by Nella Larsen (31/1/18) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️(⭐️)

✅ 48. A book related to one of the 7 deadly sins:
🎧 Something Blue by Emily Giffin (5/4/18) ⭐️⭐️⭐️

✅ 49. A book from one of the Goodreads Best Books of the Month lists:
🎧 Jeg forbanner tidens elv/(I Curse the River of Time) by Per Petterson (On the list in August 2010) (29/9/19)⭐️⭐️⭐️

✅ 50. A book with a warm atmosphere:
🎧 Liebhaberne by Anne B. Ragde (centered around family) (20/1/18) ⭐️⭐️⭐️

✅ 51. An award-winning short story:
Vinternoveller/(Winter Stories) by Ingvild H. Rishøi (31/12/18) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

✅ 52. A book published in 2018:
🎧 Still Me by Jojo Moyes (17/11/18) ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Covers in reading order:

Ideas Part 1
* = book chosen

✅ 1. A book with the letters A, T & Y in the title
*📚 The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

📚 The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith

In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner

Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates

📚 The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick by Peter Handke

Generalen i sin labyrint by Gabriel García Márquez

Du skal elske lyset by Margaret Skjelbred

Alt lyset vi ikke ser by Anthony Doerr

Øya under havet by Isabel Allende

Alkymisten by Paulo Coelho

✅2. A book from the first 10 books added to your To Be Read list
That will be one from my physical shelves

✅ 3. A book from the 2017 Goodreads Choice Awards
*The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

✅ 4. 4 books linked by the 4 elements: Book #1 Earth (in title, cover, content, setting, author...)
*Land ingen har sett by Edvard Hoem

✅ 5. A book about or inspired by real events
*Liv andre har levd by Edvard Hoem

📚 Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson

📚 Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson

The Betrayal by Helen Dunmore

The Widower by Kluun

Land ingen har sett by Edvard Hoem

Mors og fars historie by Edvard Hoem

Heimlandet Barndom by Edvard Hoem

✅ 6. A book originally written in a language other than English

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

I Curse the River of Time by Per Petterson

📚 Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

*Selfies by Jussi Adler-Olsen

Englemakersken by Camilla Läckberg

📚 Obabakoak by Bernardo Atxaga

✅ 7. A gothic novel
*📚 The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

📚 Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

📚 Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

✅ 8. An "own voices" book
*The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

Skyggeferden by Sara Azmeh Rasmussen

The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter

✅ 9. A book with a body part in the title (heart, bones, teeth, skin, blood, etc)
*Rigels Øyne by Roy Jacobsen (Øyne = eyes)

📚 The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

Lyset bak øynene by Tommi Kinnunen

The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker

✅ 10. An author's debut book (their first book to be published)
*📚 Quicksand by Nella Larsen

📚 The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

📚 The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates

📚 Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh

📚 The Secret History by Donna Tartt

✅ 11. A literary fiction
📚 For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway

📚 The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

📚 The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

📚 The Secret History by Donna Tartt

📚 Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

📚 The Year of the Hare

*📚 Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

✅ 12. A book set in Africa or South America
* 📚 Out of Africa by Karen Blixen

📚 The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

📚 Jazz by Toni Morrison

✅ 13. A book with a plot centered around a secret (forbidden love, spies, secret societies, etc)
*📚 The Secret History by Donna Tartt

📚 Smiley's People by John le Carré

Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene

The Legacy by Katherine Webb

The Storm Sister by Lucinda Riley

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

✅ 14. 4 books linked by the 4 elements: Book #2 Fire
Heksen by Bergljot Hobæk Haff
My book has a big bonfire on the cover, illustrating the burning of witches back in time. This cover is not available at GR unfortunately.

*The Fire Witness by Lars Kepler

✅ 15. A book with an unique format/writing structure
*The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

✅ 16. A narrative nonfiction
*Going Solo by Roald Dahl

📚 Out of Africa by Karen Blixen

My Struggle: Book One by Karl Ove Knausgård

✅ 17. A book you expect to make you laugh
📚 The Year of the Hare by Arto Paasilinna

*Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne

18. A book with a location in the title
Night Train to Lisbon by Pascal Mercier

📚 Out of Africa by Karen Blixen

📚 Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

Winter in Madrid by C.J. Sansom

Det vokser et tre i Mostamägg by Britt Karin Larsen

The Painter of Shanghai by Jennifer Cody Epstein

📚 The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

*Iceland's Bell by Halldór Kiljan Laxness

✅ 19. A book nominated for the Edgar Award or by a Grand master author (books & authors)

Authors
*Hallowe'en Party by Agatha Christie

📚 Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

Books
📚 The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

1222 by Anne Holt

✅ 20. A book rated 5 stars by at least one of your friends
📚 The Godfather by Mario Puzo

📚 Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

📚 Rebecca by Daphne du MaurierAlexandre Dumas

📚 The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yōko Ogawa

*📚 The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

✅ 21. A book written in first person perspective
📚 The Bluest Eye

The Goldfinch

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

📚 Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood

Søstrene Boleyn by Philippa Gregory

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

The Little Friend by Donna Tartt

📚 The Color Purple by Alice Walker

*Med livet foran seg by Émile Ajar

22. A book you have high expectations or hope for
📚 Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

📚 The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

📚 The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

Mors og fars historie by Edvard Hoem

The Betrayal by Helen Dunmore

*The Life Before Us

✅23. A medical or legal thriller
*The Rainmaker by John Grisham
Or one of the other Grisham books I have on my shelf

24. A book with a map
One of the Narnia stories

The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty

Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky

Mnem by Simon Stranger (not on my shelf)

✅ 25. A book with an antagonist/villain point of view
*📚 Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind

📚 Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

✅ 26. A book with a text only cover
Stekte grønne tomater på Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg

📚 On Beauty by Zadie Smith

📚 The Book of Illusions by Paul Auster

📚 The Godfather by Mario Puzo

Det nye vannet by Roy Jacobsen

Starter For Ten by David Nicholls

Min kamp 1 by Karl Ove Knausgård

*📚The Sense of an Ending

Ideas Part 2
* = book chosen

✅ 27. A book about surviving a hardship (war, famine, major disasters, serious illness, etc):
*📚 Hunger by Knut Hamsun

✅ 28. 4 books linked by the 4 elements: Book #3 Water
Jeg forbanner tidens elv by Per Petterson

📚 To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

Blackwater by Kerstin Ekman

*Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Norsk sokkel by Heidi Linde

The New Water by Roy Jacobsen

📚 Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

✅ 29. A book with a "Clue" weapon on the cover or title (lead pipe, revolver, rope, candlestick, dagger, wrench)
*Kollektivt selvmord by Arto Paasilinna

✅ 30. A short book
*The Short Fiction of Nella Larsen by Nella Larsen

📚 Quicksand by Nella Larsen

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Historien om Fru Berg by Ingvild H. Rishøi

Sankt Hans Fest by Alexander L. Kielland

Juleroser 2017

✅ 31. A book set in a country you'd like to visit but have never been to
*Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

📚 A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry

✅ 32. An alternate history book
*The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

33. A book connected (title, cover, content) to a word "born" in the same year as you

Based on the word hijab
Skyggeferden
The Complete Persepolis

✅ 34. A suggestion from the AtY 2018 polls, that didn't win but was polarizing or a close-call

Nobel prize winner
Authors:
Doris Lessing
Alice Munro
Toni Morrison
Ernest Hemingway
Knut Hamsun
Sigrid Undset
Orhan Pamuk

Fruit or vegetable in title
* 📚 Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
The Orange Girl by Jostein Gaarder

✅ 35. A book featuring a murder
*The Nightmare by Lars Kepler. Read in January

Mørketid by Jorun Thørring

Selfies by Jussi Adler-Olsen

The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz

Buried Angels by Camilla Läckberg

The Fire Witness by Lars Kepler

36. A book published in the last 3 years (2016, 2017, 2018) by an author you haven't read before
Sigh, not a good prompt for me, as I have mostly older books on my shelf. Only found Maestra where I hadn't read any by the author before, and it is really not tempting. Maybe a wildcard.

Update: Luckily, I got some Christmas presents that fit :)

Maestra by L.S. Hilton

Den dunkle dottera by Elena Ferrante (published in Norwegian in 2017)

Harpiks by Ane Riel (published in Norwegian in 2017)

✅ 37. A Women's Prize for Fiction winner or nominee
The Goldfinch

📚 On Beauty

The Little Friend

*Gone Girl

✅38. A science book or a science fiction book
The Martian by Andy Weir (not on my shelf)

📚 The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky

📚 Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

* The Road by Cormac McCarthy

✅ 39. A book with a form of punctuation in the title
Nu jävlar! by Heidi Linde

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to You in All the Confusion? by Johan Harstad

📚 The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

* Einstein's Cat by Tom Skinner

✅ 40. A book from Amazon's 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime list
📚 Out of Africa

📚 The Great Gatsby

Gone Girl

My Best Stories by Alice Munro

The Book Thief

📚 The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

📚 The Secret History

📚 Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez

*📚 Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh (UK list)

41. A book by an author with the same first and last initials

Authors
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Per Petterson
Fannie Flagg
Geir Gulliksen
Graham Greene
Knausgård, Karl Ove
Hanne-Vibeke Holst
Johan Jensen

Books
📚 The Great Gatsby
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion
Our Man in Havana
I Refuse
I Curse the River of Time
My Struggle: Book 1
Det virkelige liv
Historie om et ekteskap
Kråken

42. A book that takes place on, in, or underwater
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis

📚 Moby-Dick or, The Whale by Herman Melville

📚 The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (not on my shelf)

Skogsmatrosen by Jon Michelet

✅43. A book with a title that is a whole sentence
*📚 Smilla's Sense of Snow by Peter Høeg

44. A ghost story
📚 Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

✅ 45. A book that intimidates/ scares you
*📚 To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

📚 The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

📚 Moby-Dick or, The Whale by Herman Melville

📚 Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez

📚 Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

📚 Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

✅ 46. 4 books linked by the 4 elements: Book #4 Air
*Dagen skal komme med blå vind by Levi Henriksen (vind = wind)

✅ 47. A book where the main character (or author) is of a different ethnic origin, religion, or sexual identity than your own

Different ethnic origin
* 📚 Passing
📚 The House of the Spirits

Different sexual identity
Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx
📚 Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
📚 Written on the Body
1222
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
📚 The Talented Mr. Ripley

Different religion
The Complete Persepolis
Skyggeferden

✅ 48. A book related to one of the 7 deadly sins (pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, sloth)
📚 Lolita lust
📚 Moby-Dick or, The Whale wrath
📚 The Godfather wrath
📚 Madame Bovary lust/envy
📚 Anna Karenina lust/envy
* Something Blue greed/lust/envy

✅ 49. A book from one of the Goodreads Best Books of the Month lists
All the Light We Cannot See May 2014

*I Curse the River of Time August 2010

Gone Girl

✅ 50. A book with a warm atmosphere (centered on family, friendship, love or summer)
*Liebhaberne by Anne B. Ragde (centered around family). Read in January.

51. An award-winning short story or short story collection
*My Best Stories by Alice Munro

Brokeback Mountain

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

Historien om Fru Berg

✅ 52. A book published in 2018
*Still Me by Jojo Moyes

Ok, I think I am happy with my choices now, lots of good books to choose from. Now I just have to stick to my kind of loose plan;) Excited for the new year!

📚 🎧

I am like that too - reading library books instead of all the wonderful books sitting on my shelves, collecting dust! Good luck and have fun with the challenge! 📚📚📚

Hilde wrote: "📚" I go to the library more than everywhere else. I too decided to read my "shelf" books and the ones on Kindle. But I will not be able to stay away from the library. My Norwegian is a lot rusty, so I don't know what you are reading, but good luck.

Thank you, Pam and Ann :)
Glad to hear that there are more of us with dusty shelves.
Good luck to you too!

I finally finished, yay!!

I will come back and update later, but just wanted to mention that I made the finish line before we enter 2019.

Happy New Year! :)

Hilde wrote: "I finally finished, yay!!

I will come back and update later, but just wanted to mention that I made the finish line before we enter 2019.

Happy New Year! :)"


Well done! And Happy New Year.

Woo hoo!!! Nice job!!b

Congratulations Hilde!

Thank you, all 🤩

Congratulations, Hilde. And Happy New Year!

Anna wrote: "Congratulations, Hilde. And Happy New Year!"

Thank you, Anna. And Happy New Year to you too!:)

Finally updated my last books read, and ended the challenge with 50 books read. Very satisfied with that! Read a lot of good books in 2018, hope 2019 will be just as good :-)