Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

It's here!

A book published posthumously
A book of true crime
A classic of genre fiction (i.e. mystery, sci fi/fantasy, romance)
A comic written and illustrated by the same person
A book set in or about one of the five BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, or South Africa)
A book about nature
A western
A comic written or illustrated by a person of color
A book of colonial or postcolonial literature
A romance novel by or about a person of color
A children’s classic published before 1980
A celebrity memoir
An Oprah Book Club selection
A book of social science
A one-sitting book
The first book in a new-to-you YA or middle grade series
A sci fi novel with a female protagonist by a female author
A comic that isn’t published by Marvel, DC, or Image
A book of genre fiction in translation
A book with a cover you hate
A mystery by a person of color or LGBTQ+ author
An essay anthology
A book with a female protagonist over the age of 60
An assigned book you hated (or never finished)

I actually quite like the look of the 2018 challenge - it feels far less specific than 2017's.

It seems a lot easier than the previous years, it'll be a nice break for those doing it each year.

The prompts are nice, I like the addition of comic books :)

Lots of comics and seems like shorter reads. I don’t know how I feel about it. I’ll make up a list but I’m not sure if I’ll get around to it. It’s definitely not a priority for me.

Hmmmm. I do like this better than 2017, which I half finished and then gave up on, but I’m still not sure I’ll join in with this. I’m really not a comic reader so three prompts requiring comics is putting me off a bit. Or perhaps I should treat it as an opportunity to read some comics and see if I start to enjoy them.

It definitely seems a lot easier to manage than last year's challenge, but I'm not sure how interested I am either. I'm going to start compiling a tentative list of books and see how that shapes up.

I'm not going to bother with it this year. I like having diverse readings, and trying new things, but every year I've read one or two comic books for various challenges and I don't really want to read three for a 24-book challenge! It's been fun to discover them, but I don't want them to be a major part of my reading.

This comic book thing is getting to me.....Do Graphic Novels count as comic books? Manga? This is not something I typically (ever) read, so is there a difference? HELP!!!!

Tracy wrote: "This comic book thing is getting to me.....Do Graphic Novels count as comic books? Manga? This is not something I typically (ever) read, so is there a difference? HELP!!!!"

I'm probably not doing the challenge this year, since the list doesn't really excite me much, but if I was I would probably read the prompt as graphic novel or comic. They seem similar to me, although I'm sure there are technically differences.

Rachel wrote: "Tracy wrote: "This comic book thing is getting to me.....Do Graphic Novels count as comic books? Manga? This is not something I typically (ever) read, so is there a difference? HELP!!!!"

I'm proba..."

Making out a list, but like this past year, its doubtful I'll attempt it because I just don't find myself getting excited about this challenge :-(

Hmmm.... Like I need another challenge. But I think I'll do this!

Did this challenge last year with 6 members of my book club and we all enjoyed it, but no one likes the reading choices this year. I will skip it.

For those who asked, I consider comics and graphic novels to be the same thing (and FYI, I did graduate work with comic books). I've always considered the term graphic novel to be a term to make people feel better about reading comics. Some books might truly be described as graphic novels because they are complete works in comic form (Maus, for example). But at the end of the day, they're still comic books.

Remember that you can use the same book for more than one prompt. If you were to do American Born Chinese, you would have all three comic prompts taken care of. Just a thought for those intimidated by reading multiple comic prompts.

I don't know if I'll do the challenge or not. I'm not keen on nature books or westerns. I'm making a list to see how it would work with my main challenges.

I like the 2018 year's challenge better than the 2017 one. I passed on Book Riot's challenge this year. So, I might work on it since I'm not going to do the PopSugar challenge for 2018, but it will be more of a side challenge. If, I complete it great if not that will be okay too.

The Mod Squad police and the readers are popping up already in the Book Riot thread. This happened last year where sometimes people would choose a book for a prompt and someone would call them out on it and say it "doesn't work for this".

I stopped posting on the threads in the other challenges pretty quickly last year and then lost interest in the challenges as a whole because of this.

I like it here, where people cheer each other on & aren't so "judge-y".

I get the point of the Read Harder challenge but really?? What is the point in reading something that is going to make you miserable. Today an anthology of essays has to be written by multiple authors, not by just one author. Oh well, my choice is wrong then. But I'm still going to read it (eventually, probably not this year).

Heres the list I came up with last night:
2018 Book Riot Read Harder Challenge (that I'll never actually do ...)

A book published posthumously
The Diary of a Young Girl
A book of true crime
Starvation Heights: A True Story of Murder and Malice in the Woods of the Pacific Northwest
A classic of genre fiction (i.e. mystery, sci fi/fantasy, romance)
The Turn of the Screw
A comic written and illustrated by the same person
The Complete Maus
A book set in or about one of the five BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, or South Africa)
Waiting
A book about nature
Deep Blue Home: An Intimate Ecology of Our Wild Ocean
A western
All the Pretty Horses
A comic written or illustrated by a person of color
This One Summer
A book of colonial or postcolonial literature
Disgrace
A romance novel by or about a person of color
A Bollywood Affair
A children’s classic published before 1980
Pippi Longstocking
A celebrity memoir
My Booky Wook: A Memoir Of Sex, Drugs, and Stand-Up
An Oprah Book Club selection
The Road
A book of social science
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
A one-sitting book
The Trumpet of the Swan
The first book in a new-to-you YA or middle grade series
Beast Keeper
A sci fi novel with a female protagonist by a female author
Kindred
A comic that isn’t published by Marvel, DC, or Image
The Best We Could Do
A book of genre fiction in translation
Ring
A book with a cover you hate
Stardust
A mystery by a person of color or LGBTQ+ author
Malice
An essay anthology
Her Body and Other Parties
A book with a female protagonist over the age of 60
4:50 from Paddington
An assigned book you hated (or never finished)
Lord of the Flies

Tracy wrote: "The Mod Squad police and the readers are popping up already in the Book Riot thread. This happened last year where sometimes people would choose a book for a prompt and someone would call them out ..." Good choice of books, but I still say no this year. One of my senior book clubs is deciding to do a continents around the world challenge...reading a book from each continent with S.E. Asia, Middle East and Russsia in separate places. I guess it makes 10 books. I will of course have to do this one also. How many can one person do?

Ann wrote: "Tracy wrote: "The Mod Squad police and the readers are popping up already in the Book Riot thread. This happened last year where sometimes people would choose a book for a prompt and someone would ..."

Haha Ann, Exactly. I make out all the lists, which is somehow a very relaxing hobby for me. Then I never finish the challenges.

That’s a really interesting list Tracy. Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History and Kindred were both 5 star reads for me.

I agree it’s nice that we all cheer each other on in this group. I had to take a break from another reading challenge recently because I kept making mistakes in book choices and I ended up really stressed about getting corrected by the mods - even though they were totally right. Guess I’m a bit of a perfectionist and can’t deal with mistakes!

I’m reconsidering doing the Book Riot challenge after Angie’s explanation about graphic novels and comics. I think I associate comics with superhero stuff that I’m just not interested in, but I have read a couple of excellent graphic novels so I may see if I can find books to fit those prompts after all. Thanks for explaining that Angie!

That's exactly why I left the Seasonal Reading Challenge group. I get certain rules, but some seemed arbitrary and I didn't agree with them. For me, I do challenges is to get me reading more, and to help me branch out and find some books that I might not otherwise find. I don't need to have a book disallowed because the foreign language mass market paperback version which happens to be the highest rated one here has the "wrong" number of pages.

I enjoy making the lists and putting options in too, Tracy. It helps me find new books, and remind me of other books that I really want to read. Even if I don't finish all of the challenges, even doing them partially helps me out.

I was originally not planning on doing BookRiot, but my addiction to adding books to lists got the better of me, and now I'm strongly considering it again. I've realized that quite a few of the prompts can be fulfilled with graphic novels (including the comics prompts, which I'm choosing to interpret as comic or graphic novel), which is something I'd like to read more of.

I haven't noticed much judgment in the other group, but then I also haven't really been paying a ton of attention to the discussions. I definitely find this group is the most open and supportive in general, especially when it comes to helping each other find books. I'm sure I've chosen books in the past that don't fit 100% with the prompt, but oh well. My challenge, my choice.

I was going to try and fit the books from this one and Popsugar in to do it but I've decided I'm not bothering. I know they want us to read harder but I'm not reading something I hate just to satisfy some prompt. Life's too short for that kind of negativity.

So....seeing the 2018 Book Riot list has made me reconsider my decision not to finish the 2017 challenge. I’ve got six categories to complete, plus two for Popsugar, and there are two weeks left in the year. Ambitious, or just plain ridiculous? 😂

I agree Jody about the purpose of challenges being to encourage you to read more and choose books you might not otherwise have read. I’ve read some brilliant books I would never have considered without a reading challenge prompt. I think in 2018 I’m going to focus more on those type of challenges, rather than the ones with super strict rules about which edition you read or whether a children’s book is allowed etc (not that I think there’s anything wrong with those challenges, just that for me personally the rules sometimes cause more stress than I think a reading challenge should).

Bryony wrote: "So....seeing the 2018 Book Riot list has made me reconsider my decision not to finish the 2017 challenge. I’ve got six categories to complete, plus two for Popsugar, and there are two weeks left in..."Jeeze, I just read the rules for the Seasonal Challenge, sooo confusing. I would probably break more rules than books I would get right. No way.

I agree it’s definitely one of the more confusing challenges Ann, but on the other hand the prompts are often really creative and they always stretch me to read out of my comfort zone.

Bryony wrote: "I agree it’s definitely one of the more confusing challenges Ann, but on the other hand the prompts are often really creative and they always stretch me to read out of my comfort zone."

This was the first challenge I ever tried and my life in the middle of a shit storm....kind of curious to look at it again but lol who am I kidding??

Tracy wrote: "Bryony wrote: "I agree it’s definitely one of the more confusing challenges Ann, but on the other hand the prompts are often really creative and they always stretch me to read out of my comfort zon..."I think reading 52 books this year and fitting in all the rest of the book club books that didn't work out on the list, and adding the pre-reads I do for the book clubs, I will be maxed out. When will I get to read the slow and easy, slushy stuff I read to relax?

I liked some of the prompts, but the anxiety I had before every time I posted just wasn’t worth it.

I actually really like this year's prompts; I felt like last year there were a bunch that felt specific just for the sake of contrariness. I'll probably do this as a side challenge and we'll see how long it takes me to tick off the prompts.

I think I'm going to approach the 2018 BookRiot challenge the same way I did in 2017--I'm not trying to finish it, but I glance through it when choosing a book to give me a little nudge toward diversity. I love the female protagonist over 60 prompt, and the book about nature, but it's ok if I just incorporate those into my reading.
I'm sad to see people are encountering judginess on some challenge message boards! That is the absolute last thing I would want a message board to be.

I'm going to do what I can on this, however, if I finish I finish if I don't, I don't. Reading is suppose to be fun and enjoyable, so I'll read what I want and if it fits into a category then it fits, if it doesn't I'm not going to worry about it.

Completed: 2/24

A book published posthumously
A book of true crime
A classic of genre fiction (i.e. mystery, sci fi/fantasy, romance): The Picture of Dorian Gray...Finished 2/5/18
A comic written and illustrated by the same person
A book set in or about one of the five BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, or South Africa)...
A book about nature
A western
A comic written or illustrated by a person of color
A book of colonial or postcolonial literature
A romance novel by or about a person of color
A children’s classic published before 1980
A celebrity memoir
An Oprah Book Club selection
A book of social science
A one-sitting book
The first book in a new-to-you YA or middle grade series
A sci fi novel with a female protagonist by a female author
A comic that isn’t published by Marvel, DC, or Image
A book of genre fiction in translation
A book with a cover you hate
A mystery by a person of color or LGBTQ+ author
An essay anthology
A book with a female protagonist over the age of 60
An assigned book you hated (or never finished)