I participate in POPSUGAR’s reading challenges every year, but this is the first year I planned it all out. I picked a book for (almost) every prompt, and I have a stack of those books that I already own sitting on my dresser, easy for the picking when it comes time to choose my next read. I didn’t want this post to be 800 pages long, so I left off the description of the books, but I linked everything, so you can still read more about it.
Let’s get started!
one | a book published in 2021
TBD. I’ll probably instinctively pick up a new publication, so I don’t want to limit myself.
two | an afro-futurist book
The City We Became by N.K. Jemison
three | a book with a heart, spade, club, or diamond on the cover
The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff (mine has a diamond kite on the cover)
four | a book by an author who shares my zodiac sign
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick
five | a dark academia book
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
six | a book with a gem, mineral, or rock in the title
How Much of These Hills is Gold by C. Pam Zhang
seven | a book where the main character works at my current or dream job
Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz
eight | a book that has won the women’s prize for fiction
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
nine | a book with a family tree
Commonwealth by Ann Patchett
ten | a bestseller from the 1990s
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
eleven | a book about forgetting
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
twelve | a book I have seen on someone else’s shelf
Untamed by Glennon Doyle
thirteen | a locked-room mystery
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
fourteen | a genre hybrid
Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer
fifteen | a book set mostly or entirely outdoors
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
sixteen | a book with something broken on the cover
The Adults by Caroline Hulse (on my cover, the Christmas ornament is broken)
seventeen | a book by a Muslim-American author
The City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty
eighteen | a book that was published anonymously
Go Ask Alice
nineteen | a book with an oxymoron in the title
Big Little Lies by Lianne Moriarty
twenty | a book about do-overs and fresh starts
Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano
twenty-one | a magical realism book
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern or The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
twenty-two | a book set in multiple countries
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
twenty-three | a book set somewhere I’d like to visit in 2021
A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende
twenty-four | a book by a blogger, creator, or online personality
The Royal We by Heather Cocks
twenty-five | a book whose title starts with ‘q’,’x’, or ‘z’
Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams
twenty-six | a book featuring three generations
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
twenty-seven | a book about a social justice issue
Hood Feminism by Mikki Kendall
twenty-eight | a book set in a restaurant
The Dinner List by Rebecca Serle
twenty-nine | a book with a black and white cover
In a Dark Dark Wood by Ruth Ware
thirty | a book by an indigenous author
There There by Tommy Orange
thirty-one | a book that has the same title as a song
Anxious Peopleby Fredrik Backman
thirty-two | a book about a subject I am passionate about
The Sense of Style by Steven Pinker
thirty-three | a book that discusses body positivity
Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert
thirty-four | a book found on a Black Lives Matter reading list
How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
thirty-five | a book in a different format than I normally read
Watchmen by Alan Moore
thirty-six | a book that has fewer than 1,000 Goodreads reviews
Good Things Happen to People You Hate by Rebecca Fishbein
thirty-seven | a book that I think my best friend would like
TBD, I’ll know it when I read it
thirty-eight | a book by or about an artist
Luster by Raven Leilani
thirty-nine | a book everyone seems to have read but me
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
forty | a 2020 Goodreads award winner
The Guest List by Lucy Foley
forty-one | the longest book (by pages) on my TBR
A Court of Thorns and Roses (series) by Sarah J. Maas
forty-two | the shortest book (by pages) on my TBR
The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
forty-three | the book on my TBR with the prettiest cover
The Binding by Bridget Collins
forty-four | the book on my TBR with the ugliest color
So Good They Can’t Ignore You by Cal Newport
forty-five | the book that’s been on my TBR for the longest time
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
forty-six | a book from my TBR that I meant to read in 2020
When Life Gives You Lululemons by Lauren Weisberger
forty-seven | a book from my TBR that I associate with a favorite person, place, or thing
Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
forty-eight | a book from my TBR chosen at random
TBD
forty-nine | a DNF book from the TBR
The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker
fifty | a free book from my TBR list
TBD. It will be something I rent from the library or a friend loans to me.
Happy reading,
Kimberly
