Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge discussion

I love this! I own quite a few that will fulfill this prompt! Island of the Aunts by Eva Ibbotson, The Bond: Three Young Men Learn to Forgive and Reconnect with Their Fathers by Sampson Davis, The Rules of Love & Grammar, and many more.

These are typically books I've purchased on a whim from a bargain/clearance shelf in a bookstore... Or from my favorite used bookstore where she keeps a very short shelf of books from which you can select one to take home free when you make a purchase! And this could be fulfilled easily with a library book...just pick one up and check it out! 👍

This one is too unique to each reader for a Listopia...

Island of the Aunts is a good one! I think I will pick a random book from the library for this one - sometimes I do that when I'm trying to do a spell-out for a reading challenge.

I'm going to do a book box book for this one. Just getting my box delivered and reading whatever's inside.

I once bought a book wrapped in brown paper with a few hints on it as to what it was about. Still haven't read it. Might fit here.

Knowing "nothing" about a book is basically impossible since you know at least the cover and title page information before starting the main part of the book. I will pick something from a section of the library I am predisposed to like and sample the first couple of pages. I will avoid reading the summary or back cover before and during reading it.

I am going to just go to the library or book store and find a book cover that looks good and grab it for this prompt lol.

This is Blind Date With A Book. My favorite local Indie bookstore has these and I love picking one out.

I chose The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. I know it's a classic, but besides that I know nothing.

I will probably scroll through the "available now" section on Libby and just pick one. Hopefully it's not really long

For this one I figure I'll scroll through my Kindle and pick a title at random XD I've downloaded so many freebie Kindle books over the past several years that I've forgotten what most of them are about and why I snagged them in the first place...

I wonder if we could do reverse Blind Date with a Book - a Book Matchmaker, if you will.

We could start a thread where people post the types of things they like, and volunteers could look at that (and perhaps the person's Read shelf to avoid repeats), and tell them what book to read.

That way you get something aligned to your tastes, but you're committing* to a book knowing literally nothing about it!

*unless you're like me and happy to chuck a book if you don't like it - then you can go again!

I'm going to repeat a past prompt: a book you choose off the shelf with your eyes closed Last time, I had my kids lead me to a shelf in the library. I didn't LOVE love the book, but it was good, and different than what I usually read, and it was a fun thing to do.

I'll probably go with a book I see mentioned a lot around here or somewhere else that I haven't looked into any farther than the title.

Kenya wrote: "For this one I figure I'll scroll through my Kindle and pick a title at random XD I've downloaded so many freebie Kindle books over the past several years that I've forgotten what most of them are ..."

This is what I'll do. I have all of those Amazon First Reads and I don't remember what most of them are about!

I think for this I'm going to have a few of my best friends recommend me one or two books and pick one at random. They have good taste and a good sense of my taste so I trust them!

My library is doing a really cute "blind date with a book". The books are wrapped with holiday wrapping paper, and are set up like a pine tree. They do have postcards on the outside with hints, but I'm closing my eyes, or picking one with great paper, and having the librarian pull off the postcard.

This prompt is pretty wide for me considering I add most books to my tbr based on the first sentence of the summary on Goodreads lol, but The Actual Star popped up when I was randomly generating some books to read and I've not even seen this mentioned before so I'll be using it for this prompt.

I just bought a mystery book off of Etsy. All I know is that it's historical fiction.

Marie wrote: "I will probably scroll through the "available now" section on Libby and just pick one. Hopefully it's not really long"

That's a good idea, I might do that too.

You know, we could all just post the titles of the most recent book we loved and then other people can select them at random, but commit to it with only knowing the title. That's pretty close.

Here's one you might know nothing about aside from the title: The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot

My sister has promised to bring me a random book from her own collection. I am fortunate to have two sisters who have excellent taste in books and would trust either of them to provide me with an interesting read.

I chose this one: Celia's Song . The only thing I know is that it's by an indigenous author.

I'm going to pick randomly from the oldest books in my Want To Read list, I have enough book there to not remember why I pick some of the oldest.

I just learned about this serial fiction setup that Amazon is experimenting with: Vella. You read a section, rate it, and can move on - but at some point you have to spend tokens Amazon gives you (500 free to start) to unlock new chapters.

Learned about it from someone in my trivia league who has written a story there. Knowing nothing more than that, I'm giving it a try - feel free to join me on this mysterious new reading adventure if you like: https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/s...

I started looking into LGBTQ+ nonfiction literature. I usually don't read in that genre but I figured why not.

I found a list on GR and some stood out:

Coming Out Under Fire: The History of Gay Men and Women in World War Two
Dear John, I Love Jane: Women Write About Leaving Men for Women
Queer: A Graphic History
David Bowie Made Me Gay: 100 Years of LGBT Music

I have a bunch of books on my TBR that I don't remember adding and remember nothing about, I'll probably pick one of those, since I probably checked the content and trigger warnings before I added it, so it should be something I would like?

I'm going with I, Robot for this one. I bought it forever ago because it's classic sci-fi, but that's literally all I know about it.

I'm going to read a book I got in a box last year that I never heard of and still don't remember what it is about. Tiger by Polly Clark.

It will also fill the prompt for a book with 'tiger' in the title! Love a double dip as I don't want all my reads to be for a challenge.

I just borrowed a book from our local library, because it was wrapped in the prettiest paper. I'll open it on December 25th, then I'll read it on January 1st.
I have absolutely no idea what it is :)

I typed in 'blind date with a book' on etsy and ordered one. All I know about it is that it's historical fiction. It even came wrapped in brown paper.

Denise Cameron wrote: "You know, we could all just post the titles of the most recent book we loved and then other people can select them at random, but commit to it with only knowing the title. That's pretty close."

This is a neat idea! tbh this is a pretty out-of-comfort-zone prompt for me because these days I never read books without consulting Goodreads reviews.

I'm going to post some books that I really enjoyed, and not super well-known so that others might go in blind:
The Library at Mount Char
Archivist Wasp
Your Favorite Band Cannot Save You
On a Sunbeam - available online at https://www.onasunbeam.com/ so you can read it without even seeing the Goodreads synopsis!

Drakeryn wrote: "Denise Cameron wrote: "You know, we could all just post the titles of the most recent book we loved and then other people can select them at random, but commit to it with only knowing the title. Th..."

Thanks for playing along! I will choose one of your books.

Denise Cameron wrote: "You know, we could all just post the titles of the most recent book we loved and then other people can select them at random, but commit to it with only knowing the title. That's pretty close. "

Great idea!

My 5-star books/stories/comics from 2021 (with the more widely known removed):

A Dead Djinn in Cairo
You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories About Racism
The Ten Thousand Doors of January
The Black Stone Statue
The Fisherman
Sass & Sorcery
A Study in Emerald
Stephen King's N.


Megan wrote: "I typed in 'blind date with a book' on etsy and ordered one. All I know about it is that it's historical fiction. It even came wrapped in brown paper."

This is brilliant! So cool that someone offers that on Etsy!

Picking from my goodreads shelf of books with covers that drew me in. Sorted it by rating and then went down the list and picked a few whose plot I don't recall anything about.

These are the ones I added to my plan:

I received A Feast of Weeds: A Literary Guide to Foraging and Cooking Wild Edible Plants by Luigi Ballerini from a friend for Christmas, so may go with that.

Christine wrote: "Denise Cameron wrote: "You know, we could all just post the titles of the most recent book we loved and then other people can select them at random, but commit to it with only knowing the title. Th..."

If anyone is interested here is the exact shop I used:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/10933257...

For this prompt, I’m going to read, The Snoring Bird: My Family's Journey Through a Century of Biology by Bernd Heinrich. I know what the book is about but I know nothing about the topic, so I’m really going in blind.

thx for the blind date book suggestions, I've ordered one from etsy.

I picked midnight library by Matt haig. I literally know nothing about it except one of the characters names is Nora

Emma wrote: "thx for the blind date book suggestions, I've ordered one from etsy."

This sounds cool. I bookmarked the etsy site so I can check it out later.

My sister and I are going to start with this prompt! I'm going to go to the library tomorrow, choose a random aisle, and then pick a book off the shelf without looking. If I know anything about it, I'll put it back; if not I'll take it home and read it! My sister is going to go to a local indie bookstore whose owners she knows and ask them to pick a book for her randomly.

I gave this prompt to my daughter to fill for me. Not only does she know what I like, but she is book lover and a librarian. She gave me "The Chicken Sisters" by KJ Dell'Antonia. I'm looking forward to starting it.

Sarah wrote: "My sister and I are going to start with this prompt! I'm going to go to the library tomorrow, choose a random aisle, and then pick a book off the shelf without looking. If I know anything about it,..."

Update: I went to the library today and used a randomizer to choose which row of shelves (in the fiction section), how far in the row, and what specific shelf on the unit to pull from, and then picked one with my eyes closed. I got Blackout by Connie Willis! Never heard of the title or author before.

Sarah wrote: "My sister is going to go to a local indie bookstore whose owners she knows and ask them to pick a book for her randomly"

Sounds great on both.

I know the owner of my local indie bookstore as well and he's always giving me great recommendations. He actually recommended me this book about a city in Texas that he figured I would like: Educating the Enemy: Teaching Nazis and Mexicans in the Cold War Borderlands . So I've chosen this one for the topic.

I’ve decided to read City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert

My mom kept telling me I’d like it so I added to my tbr shelf and never looked into it at all.

Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover
Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire
Looking for Alaska by John Green
No Place Like Oz by Danielle Paige
Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice
Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
The Lady in the Lake by Raymond Chandler
Streaks of Blue by Jack Chaucer
Far from the Tree by Robin Benway
The Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pullman
Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo
American Panda by Gloria Chao
Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman

I'm going with Looking For Salvation At The Dairy Queen

I just finished Strange Beasts of China, which was selected for a book club I'm in. I thought it was excellent, and I'm so glad I knew nothing about it going in, because that added to the delightful weirdness of it.

I just finished reading Everything is Figureoutable. My girlfriend and I bought it at the local book store last year because we liked the cover and neither of us had picked it up ever since. It was alright, a very easy read for sure.

Kristen wrote: "I'm going with Looking For Salvation At The Dairy Queen"


Great title…I am going to give it a try.