A new year, a new challenge! I haven’t really participated in any reading challenges before, so this is a first for me. I’ll be taking part in PopSugar’s 2017 Reading Challenge, where readers are challenged to diversify their book selection by reading forty books of varying themes and origins. For those who succeed at that, there’s an additional twelve “hardcore” themes that can be met. For my own sake, I’ve listed the books in the challenge here so that I can mark them off throughout the year and keep track of what I’m reading!
2017 Reading Challenge
- A book recommended by a librarian
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A book that has been on your TBR list for way too long- As Shadows Scream by Kylen Coetzee (This is actually the first review request I ever received through my site, so I consider it the first book on my TBR list for too long that I actually intend to read.)
- A book of letters
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An audiobook
- Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
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A book by a person of color- The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
- A book with one of the four seasons in the title
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A book that is a story within a story- Something Violent by Kristopher Rufty
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A book with multiple authors- House by Frank E. Peretti and Ted Dekker
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An espionage thriller- Three Minutes to Doomsday by Joe Navarro
- A book with a cat on the cover
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A book by an author who uses a pseudonym- In a Cottage in a Wood by Cass Green (Caroline Green’s pseudonym)
- A bestseller from a genre you don’t normally read
- A book by or about a person who has a disability
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A book involving travel- Where Dead Men Meet by Mark Mills
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A book with a subtitle- Chernobyl 01:23:40: The Incredible True Story of the World’s Worst Nuclear Disaster by Andrew Leatherbarrow
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A book that’s published in 2017- The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco
- A book involving a mythical creature
- A book you’ve read before that never fails to make you smile
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A book about food- Final Girls by Riley Sager (Yes, totally cheating here. I know. BUT MC RUNS A BAKING BLOG AND THERE IS LOTS OF FOOD MENTIONED IN THIS BOOK. So nyah! Also, pardon the caps.)
- A book with career advice
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A book from a nonhuman perspective- A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas (I mean, technically Feyre isn’t human anymore, right?)
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A steampunk novel- The Clockwork Dynasty by Daniel H. Wilson
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A book with a red spine- Ninth City Burning by J. Patrick Black (Spine is dark red, red, and orange, depicting flames. I mostly read e-books, so this will have to do.)
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A book set in the wilderness- The Boats of the ‘Glen Carrig’ by William Hope Hodson
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A book you loved as a child- The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
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A book by an author from a country you’ve never visited- The Dry by Jane Harper
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A book with a title that’s a character’s name- Caila: Evil Unbound by Bobby Fisher
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A novel set during wartime- Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard
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A book with an unreliable narrator- I Am the Cheese by Robert Cormier
- A book with pictures
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A book where the main character is a different ethnicity than you- Girl in Snow by Danya Kukafka (Literally, most of the books I read, so I just randomly chose one that I’ve read this year that doesn’t fit a certain label. I’m actually Hispanic.)
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A book about an interesting woman- The Radium Girls by Kate Moore
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A book set in two different time periods- Glow by Megan E. Bryant
- A book with a month or day of the week in the title
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A book set in a hotel- House by Frank E. Peretti and Ted Dekker
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A book written by someone you admire- The Scene by R. M. Gilmore
- A book that’s becoming a movie in 2017
- A book set around a holiday other than Christmas
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The first book in a series you haven’t read before
- A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
- A book you bought on a trip
Advanced
- A book recommended by an author you love
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A bestseller from 2016- End of Watch by Stephen King
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A book with a family-member term in the title- The Witchfinder’s Sister by Beth Underdown
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A book that takes place over a character’s lifespan- Les Misérables by Victor Hugo (This book covers many years of several characters’s lives.)
- A book about an immigrant or refugee
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A book from a genre/sub-genre that you’ve never heard of- Mask of Shadow by Linsey Miller (sub-genre of “Queer”)
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A book with an eccentric character- Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block
- A book that’s more than 800 pages
- A book you got from a used book sale
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A book that’s been mentioned in another book- The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
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A book about a difficult topic- Emma in the Night by Wendy Walker (Don’t wanna go into the details there, but yes: this was a very difficult read.)
- A book based on mythology