Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

When I finish a book, I will erase the prompt from this list, and add it to the appropriate quarter in the comments below

I’ve never done a rejects challenge. I’d rather do side reads and I’ve only finished the challenge once. I’ve picked 10 rejected prompts and will see how far I get!

THE 52 TOPICS OF THE 2026 ATY READING CHALLENGE

1. A book from a genre that starts with A, T, or Y
Butter (thriller)
Research Is a Passion With Me: The Autobiography of a Bird Lover (autobiography) wpl hoopla
2. A book with a primarily red, green or blue cover
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
3. A book that fits a prompt suggestion for this year that did not make the list
Being Henry: The Fonz . . . and Beyond (a biography or memoir)
4. A book by a new-to-you author
The Tsar of Love and Techno
5. A book you want to read because of something you read in 2025
Daughter of Black Lake

6. A book related to blood, sweat, or tears
Half Blood Blues
Midnight Sweatlodge wpl ill
7. A book with a character who appears in more than one book
The Dallergut Dream-Making District
8. A book set in Africa, Asia, or Australia
A Savage War of Peace: Algeria, 1954-1962
Beijing Comrades
9. A book with a number, ordinal, or iterative numeral in the title
Six Days in Bombay
One Hundred Years of Solitude
A Thousand Acres
10. An award winning book
Orbital
The Sisters Brothers
11. A history or historical fiction book
The Jackal's Mistress
12. A book with cover text that is NOT black or white
Butter
A God in Ruins
13. An author's second/sophomore book
Disappoint Me
Ready Player One
14. A book related to a painting by Vincent Van Gogh
The Midnight Library
Half of a Yellow Sun
The Map of Salt and Stars

15. A book you've wanted to read for a long time
Bleak House
16. A book featuring a character with a similar occupation to one of the Clue/Cluedo characters
As Always, Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avis DeVoto: Food, Friendship, and the Making of a Masterpiece
17. A book set in the wellness or beauty industries
No More Tears: The Dark Secrets of Johnson & Johnson
18. A book with a location in the title
A Gentleman in Moscow
The Lion Women of Tehran
19. A book related to yesterday
Roughing It in the Bush
20. A book related to today
Fifty-Four Pigs
21. A book related to tomorrow
22. A book by a Korean or Korean-diaspora author
Marigold Mind Laundry

23. A book with a road trip or long journey
Lands of Lost Borders: Out of Bounds on the Silk Road
24. A book that is either frothy or gothy
The Bewitching
One Dark Window
25. A book from the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list
The Count of Monte Cristo
Far From the Madding Crowd
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
26. A book with a Z in the title and/or author name
Julie Chan Is Dead
Tender Is the Night
27. A nonfiction book
Agent of Change: My Life Fighting Terrorists, Spies, and Institutional Racism

28. A book related to a resistance, rebellion, or revolution
Louis Riel and Gabriel Dumont
29. A vacation book
The Plague
30. The most recently published book by an author and a book from that same author's backlist: Frontlist Book
This Strange Eventful History
31. The most recently published book by an author and a book from that same author's backlist: Backlist Book

32. A novella of 100-250 pages
Pnin
33. A book with an Indigenous character or author
Green Grass, Running Water
In Search of April Raintree
34. A book with a window on the cover
What You Are Looking For Is in the Library
One Dark Window
35. A book where all or part of the action takes place in a library, a museum, a school, or another public building
The Starless Sea
The Body in the Library
36. A book with a primary character who is a woman over 40

37. A book that includes a science topic
Remarkable Creatures
38. A book that's part of a series
A Prayer for the Crown-Shy
39. A book connected in some way to the "Queen of Crime", Agatha Christie
The Man in the Brown Suit
40. A book that has a punctuation mark in the title

41. A mystery or true crime book
Maisie Dobbs
42. A book set in an isolated location
North to the Night : A Spiritual Odyssey in the Arctic
43. A book involving survival
A Darker Shade of Magic?
44. A book with a symbol of death on the cover
What Moves the Dead

45. A book connected to "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen
Words: escape, silhouette of a man
Never Let Me Go
46. A book that is not a novel
One Game at a Time: My Journey from Small-Town Alberta to Hockey's Biggest Stage
47. A book with "this", "that", "these", or "those" in the title
This Accident of Being Lost: Songs and Stories
The World That We Knew
These Violent Delights
48. A book with something edible in the title
Make Lemonade
At the Coffee Shop of Curiosities
49. A second book for your favorite prompt
To Whom the Wilderness Speaks (bird on cover)

50. A book with a bird on its cover
An Inconvenience of Penguins: Epic voyages in pursuit of the world's most beloved bird
51. A book published in 2026
Honey Bee Mine
52. A book related to the name of one of Santa's reindeer
Knives, Seasoning, and a Dash of Love
The Fox Wife

Reject List:
R1. A book you would consider a classic
The fortnight in September,: A novel,
R2. A book set in or near the Caribbean
Love in the Time of Cholera
Dreaming in Cuban
Frying Plantain
R3. A modern retelling of an old story, myth, or fairytale
Circe
Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
R4. A fiction or non-fiction book that could be considered a microhistory
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary
R5. A book about wildlife or nature conservation
R6. A book that has been made into a movie
High Fidelity
R7. A book that takes place in a country/place along the path of totality for the 2026 solar eclipse
R8. An epistolary novel
Daddy-Long-Legs
R9. A book about books
The Astral Library
R10. A book related to observation, experimentation, or inquiry
A World on the Wing: The Global Odyssey of Migratory Birds

First Quarter:
January
February
March

Second Quarter
April
May
June

Third Quarter
July
August
September

Fourth Quarter
October
November
December

Despite knowing that halfway through next year I won’t want to even consider reading books I’ve selected now, I’m going to spam myself with potential books for each prompt. Never done it before, we’ll se if it’ll help me or not.

The way my list is completely pencilled in I likely won’t get to any of these, but here is a blog post of 60 most read books (or similar) on GR. I managed to read a whole 2 this year and both were v good.

https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/2...