Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

I'm going to try to read in month order this year. Within a month's prompts I can start them in any order but I'll need to finish all the prompts before I can move onto the next month.

I'm also going to keep track of any other challenges here as well. My main challenges will be this and Popsugar but there will be a few other ones like Book Riot and Modern Mrs Darcy, and I'll also track things like new releases, nonfiction, owned books, etc.

I have a number of books from Netgalley and also giveaways that I've been holding onto for awhile so I'm going to try to knock out as many of those as I can. In general I'm going to try to prioritize books that I own as much as possible (but I work at a library so I guess we'll see how that goes...)

Edit (7/29/20): Ha! So you would think a pandemic would lend itself to getting a lot of reading done. Not so much for me and I have no idea why. I'm no longer trying to do any kind of order and will just plug books in wherever they fit. There's also a few that I started and never finished--maybe I'll go back to them??


Overall Reading Goal: 19/55
Total Pages Read: 6481
Average Rating: 3.95
(view spoiler)[5: 2 | 4.5: 2 | 4: 9 | 3.5: 4 | 3: 2 (hide spoiler)]

Stats
Source (For the format I primarily used.)
Owned (as of Jan 1): 10 | Library: 2 | Got this Year: 6 |
Subscription (Kindle Unlimited, Prime Reading, etc.): 1 | Borrowed from Someone: 0

Format
Print: 0 | Kindle: 5 | Audio: 12 | More than One: 2
(view spoiler)[For some books I follow along while listening so they'll count as "more than one". Last year I did this for Illuminae and World War Z and I know that this year I'll do it for Iliad, Odyssey, and probably the rest of the Illuminae series. If I'm not following along for the whole book I'll count the audio version even if I also have the kindle/print edition. (hide spoiler)]

Challenges
ATY: 18/52
Popsugar: 16/50
Book Riot: 4/24
2019 Goodreads Choice Awards: 1/10
Modern Mrs Darcy: 5/12
A-Z: 18/26

New Releases: 3 | Non-Fiction: 1 | Classics: 0 | Graphic Novels: 3 | Part of Series: 14

ATY 2020

Weekly Topic Threads
Listopias

18/52

January
✔1. A book with a title that doesn't contain the letters A, T or Y -- 1/15/20

✔2. A book by an author whose last name is one syllable -- 1/29/20

✔3. A book that you are prompted to read because of something you read in 2019 -- 2/1/20

✔4. A book set in a place or time that you wouldn't want to live -- 7/31/20

✔5. The first book in a series that you have not started -- 1/8/20

February
✔6. A book with a mode of transportation on the cover -- 8/5/20

7. A book set in the southern hemisphere
Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood
8. A book with a two-word title where the first word is "The"
The Test | The Immortalists
✔9. A book that can be read in a day -- 7/28/20

March
10. A book that is between 400-600 pages
And the Mountains Echoed | The Raven Tower | Indianapolis: The True Story of the Worst Sea Disaster in U.S. Naval History and the Fifty-Year Fight to Exonerate an Innocent Man | Leadership: In Turbulent Times
✔11. A book originally published in a year that is a prime number (2011) -- 12/24/20

✔12. A book that is a collaboration between 2 or more people -- 8/4/20

13. A prompt from a previous Around the Year in 52 Books challenge
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (2016--childhood classic) | Circe (2016--a book with a first name in the title)
April
14. A book by an author on the Abe List of 100 Essential Female Writers
Beloved | The Casual Vacancy | The Color Purple | Room | Manhattan Beach | An American Marriage | Little Fires Everywhere
15. A book set in a global city
The Phantom of the Opera | In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin | The Paris Architect
16. A book set in a rural or sparsely populated area
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn | Disappearing Earth
✔17. A book with a neurodiverse character -- 7/29/20

✔18. A book by an author you've only read once before -- 8/2/20

May
19. A fantasy book
Uprooted | Strange the Dreamer or Muse of Nightmares | The Name of the Wind | The Lies of Locke Lamora | A Blade So Black
20. The 20th book [on your TBR, in a series, by an author, on a list, etc.]
The Sky Below (set my "want to read" shelf to random and this was the 20th book)
21. A book related to Maximilian Hell, the noted astronomer and Jesuit Priest who was born in 1719
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry
22. A book with the major theme of survival
The Lost Men: The Harrowing Saga of Shackleton's Ross Sea Party | Alas, Babylon | The Maze Runner | Room | Jungle (Movie Tie-In Edition): A Harrowing True Story of Survival in the Amazon
June
23. A book featuring an LGBTQIA+ character or by an LGBTQIA+ author
Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda | All the Birds in the Sky | The Priory of the Orange Tree | The City in the Middle of the Night
24. A book with an emotion in the title
More Happy Than Not | The Hate U Give | Time and Regret
25. A book related to the arts
The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History | Daisy Jones & The Six
26. A book from the 2019 Goodreads Choice Awards
July
27. A history or historical fiction
Warlight | Beneath the Same Stars: A Novel of the 1862 U.S.-Dakota War | Katherine of Aragón: The True Queen | A Gentleman in Moscow | Burial Rites
28. A book by an Australian, Canadian or New Zealand author
The Testaments | What Alice Forgot
29. An underrated book, a hidden gem or a lesser known book
The Ballad of Huck & Miguel (got it from Netgalley and has only 120 ratings) | The Patriots (been on my TBR for awhile and has less than 2000 ratings) | The Forgotten Book (got it as an ARC back around the time it came out--only has about 1300 ratings)
30. A book from the New York Times '100 Notable Books' list for any year
Warlight | An American Marriage | American War | Disappearing Earth | Exhalation: Stories | No Visible Bruises: What We Don’t Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us
31. A book inspired by a leading news story
Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania | The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America | Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture
August
32. A book related to the 2020 Olympic Summer Games in Japan
Warcross | Kitchen | The Tale of Genji
33. A book about a non-traditional family
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children | Far from the Tree | Peter Pan
✔34. A book from a genre or sub genre that starts with a letter in your name (counts for action, espionage, or thriller--all start with letters in my name) -- 11/27/20

35. A book with a geometric pattern or element on the cover
City of Saints & Thieves | Small Great Things | Another Day | A Darker Shade of Magic | Recursion
September
36. A book from your TBR/wishlist that you don't recognize, recall putting there, or put there on a whim
Time Travelers Never Die | The Age of Miracles | The Promise | The Editor | When
37. Two books that are related to each other as a pair of binary opposites: Book #1
The Overstory
38. Two books that are related to each other as a pair of binary opposites: Book #2
Underland
39. A book by an author whose real name(s) you're not quite sure how to pronounce
✔40. A book with a place name in the title -- 11/23/20

October
41. A mystery
Murder on the Orient Express
42. A book that was nominated for one of the ‘10 Most Coveted Literary Prizes in the World’
✔43. A book related to one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse Death -- 12/23/20

44. A book related to witches
The Vine Witch
November
✔45. A book by the same author who wrote one of your best reads in 2019 or 2018 -- 7/30/20

46. A book about an event or era in history taken from the Billy Joel song "We Didn't Start the Fire"
Peter Pan
47. A classic book you've always meant to read
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz | The Phantom of the Opera | Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea | Gilgamesh | Beowulf
✔48. A book published in 2020 -- 12/31/20

December
✔49. A book that fits a prompt from the list of suggestions that didn't win (link) A book with a main character's name in the title -- 12/30/20

50. A book with a silhouette on the cover
The Space Between the Stars | Wolf by Wolf | Someday
✔51. A book with an "-ing" word in the title -- 1/8/20

52. A book related to time
A Murder in Time | A Time to Kill | An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943 | My Real Children | Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore | This Is How You Lose the Time War | Doomsday Book

Popsugar

16/50

Regular prompts
✔1. A book that's published in 2020 -- 7/30/20

2. A book by a trans or nonbinary author
All the Birds in the Sky | The City in the Middle of the Night
✔3. A book with a great first line -- 7/29/20
When I got back to HaveRatton Station, a bunch of humans tried to kill me. (Next line is "Considering how much I'd been thinking about killing a bunch of humans, it was only fair.")

4. A book about a book club
The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires
5. A book set in a city that has hosted the Olympics
In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin
6. A bildungsroman
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer | The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
7. The first book you touch on a shelf with your eyes closed
8. A book with an upside-down image on the cover
✔9. A book with a map -- 7/31/20

10. A book recommended by your favorite blog, vlog, podcast, or online book club
Exhalation: Stories
11. An anthology
From a Certain Point of View
12. A book that passes the Bechdel test
The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy
✔13. A book with the same title as a movie or TV show but is unrelated to it -- 11/27/20

✔14. A book by an author with flora or fauna in their name -- 8/2/20

✔15. A book about or involving social media -- 12/31/20

16. A book that has a book on the cover
17. A medical thriller
18. A book with a made-up language
19. A book set in a country beginning with "C"
✔20. A book you picked because the title caught your attention -- 1/8/20

✔21. A book published the month of your birthday -- 8/4/20

22. A book about or by a woman in STEM
✔23. A book that won an award in 2019 -- 2/1/20

24. A book on a subject you know nothing about
Sea of Glory: America's Voyage of Discovery, the U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842 | The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World | The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women | Aberfan: A Story of Survival, Love and Community in One of Britain's Worst Disasters
25. A book with only words on the cover, no images or graphics
The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of September 11, 2001
26. A book with a pun in the title
Tweet Cute | Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
✔27. A book featuring one of the seven deadly sins -- 12/30/20

✔28. A book with a robot, cyborg, or AI character -- 7/28/20

✔29. A book with a bird on the cover -- 1/15/20

✔30. A fiction or nonfiction book about a world leader -- 8/5/20

31. A book with "gold," "silver," or "bronze" in the title
Iron Gold | Spinning Silver
32. A book by a WOC
✔33. A book with at least a four-star rating on Goodreads -- 1/29/20

34. A book you meant to read in 2019
✔35. A book with a three-word title -- 12/23/20

36. A book with a pink cover
Red, White & Royal Blue
37. A Western
Dragon Teeth
38. A book by or about a journalist
39. Read a banned book during Banned Books Week
40. Your favorite prompt from a past POPSUGAR Reading Challenge

Advanced prompts
1. A book written by an author in their 20s
2. A book with "20" or "twenty" in the title
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
3. A book with a character with a vision impairment or enhancement (a nod to 20/20 vision)
4. A book set in the 1920s
5. A book set in Japan, host of the 2020 Olympics
Warcross/Wildcard | Kitchen | The Tale of Genji | Memoirs of a Geisha
6. A book by an author who has written more than 20 books
7. A book with more than 20 letters in its title
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry
8. A book published in the 20th century
9. A book from a series with more than 20 books
Murder on the Orient Express
✔10. A book with a main character in their 20s -- 11/23/20

Pages Read

Total: 6481

Star Trek: Boldly Go Vol. 3: 144
The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue: 533
The Gentleman’s Guide to Getting Lucky: 128
Hollow Kingdom: 320
A Monster Calls: 224
Artificial Condition: 160
Rogue Protocol: 158
Exit Strategy: 176
Network Effect: 350
They Called Us Enemy: 212
Gemina: 663
Obsidio: 615
The Last Emperox: 313
Pompeii: 368
Memorial Day: 574
Consent to Kill: 661
Ready Player One: 386
Star Wars: Darth Maul: 112
Ready Player Two: 384

Book Riot

I'm not super committed to this one but I'll check them off as I go and then see if I have time to finish it off after I'm done with my other challenges.

4/24

1. Read a YA nonfiction book
2. Read a retelling of a classic of the canon, fairytale, or myth by an author of color
Pride | A Blade So Black
3. Read a mystery where the victim(s) is not a woman
✔4. Read a graphic memoir -- 7/31/20

✔5. Read a book about a natural disaster -- 11/23/20

6. Read a play by an author of color and/or queer author
Fences
✔7. Read a historical fiction novel not set in WWII -- 1/8/20

8. Read an audiobook of poetry
The Iliad/The Odyssey
✔9. Read the LAST book in a series -- 8/4/20

10. Read a book that takes place in a rural setting
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer | The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn | Disappearing Earth
11. Read a debut novel by a queer author
Gideon the Ninth
12. Read a memoir by someone from a religious tradition (or lack of religious tradition) that is not your own
13. Read a food book about a cuisine you’ve never tried before
14. Read a romance starring a single parent
15. Read a book about climate change
The Death and Life of the Great Lakes
16. Read a doorstopper (over 500 pages) published after 1950, written by a woman
Indianapolis: The True Story of the Worst Sea Disaster in U.S. Naval History and the Fifty-Year Fight to Exonerate an Innocent Man | Strange the Dreamer
17. Read a sci-fi/fantasy novella (under 120 pages)
The Test
18. Read a picture book with a human main character from a marginalized community
19. Read a book by or about a refugee
20. Read a middle grade book that doesn’t take place in the U.S. or the UK
21. Read a book with a main character or protagonist with a disability (fiction or non)
22. Read a horror book published by an indie press
The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires | Horrorstör
23. Read an edition of a literary magazine (digital or physical)
24. Read a book in any genre by a Native, First Nations, or Indigenous author
Trail of Lightning/Storm of Locusts

Other Challenges

2019 Goodreads Choice Awards | 1/10

1. They Called Us Enemy -- 7/31/20


Modern Mrs. Darcy | 5/12

1. A book published the decade you were born
✔2. A debut novel -- 1/15/20

3. A book recommended by a source you trust
4. A book by a local author
5. A book outside your (genre) comfort zone
6. A book in translation
7. A book nominated for an award in 2020
✔8. A re-read -- 11/23/20

9. A classic you didn't read in school
✔10. Three books by the same author #1 -- 2/1/20

✔11. Three books by the same author #2 -- 7/28/20

✔12. Three books by the same author #3 -- 7/29/20



TBR Random | 0/3
(randomly chosen books from my TBR; I'll have 3 options at a time and add a new book every time I finish one; probably stop adding books around Sept/Oct)

The Sky Below
The Zookeeper's Wife
Orphan Train


A-Z Challenge | 18/26
Taken from first letters of any of the words in the title (excluding a, an, the, in, of, to)

✔A: Artificial Condition
✔B: Star Trek: Boldly Go Vol. 3
✔C: A Monster Calls
✔D: Memorial Day
✔E: The Last Emperox
F:
✔G: Gemina
✔H: Hollow Kingdom
I:
J:
✔K: Consent to Kill
✔L: The Gentleman’s Guide to Getting Lucky
✔M: Star Wars: Darth Maul
✔N: Network Effect
✔O: Obsidio
✔P: Pompeii
Q:
✔R: Rogue Protocol
✔S: Exit Strategy
✔T: Ready Player Two
✔U: They Called Us Enemy
✔V: The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue
W:
X:
Y:
Z:

Owned Books

Total: 17
Owned prior to Jan 1: 11


1. Star Trek: Boldly Go, Vol. 3 📱
2. The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue 📱/ 🎧
3. The Gentleman’s Guide to Getting Lucky 📱* (listened to this and bought kindle after reading it)
4. Hollow Kingdom 📱
5. A Monster Calls 🎧
6. Artificial Condition 📱/ 🎧
7. Rogue Protocol 📱*/ 🎧
8. Exit Strategy 📱*/ 🎧
9. Network Effect 🎧*
10. Gemina 🎧*
11. Obsidio 🎧*
12. The Last Emperox 🎧*
13. Pompeii 📱
14. Memorial Day 🎧
15. Consent to Kill 🎧
16. Ready Player One 📱/ 🎧*
17. Ready Player Two 📱*/ 🎧*

Print: 0
Kindle: 10
Audio: 13

*Got in 2020

Other Categories

Nonfiction: 1


2020 Releases: 3


Classics: 0

Graphic Novels: 3

Series

Star Trek: Boldly Go


Montague Siblings


The Murderbot Diaries


The Illuminae Files


The Interdependency Series


Mitch Rapp


Ready Player One

Cover/Title/Author Challenge

I'm going to keep track of things like colors, animals, numbers, and other types of things I come across on the covers, in titles, and the authors of books.

Cover Color (view spoiler)[For this one each book can only fit under one color. There's also the multiple/other category for those that don't definitively fit for one color. For every other category books can go in as many as they fit (i.e. a book can have a blue cover, have an animal on the cover and in the title, and have a person on the cover.) (hide spoiler)]

Red

Pink
Orange

Yellow

Green

Blue

Purple
Brown

Black
Gray

Metallic

White

Multiple/Other


Color in Title

Descriptive Word in Title (stripes, rainbow, shadow, dark, etc.)

Geometric Shapes


Animals

People

Mode of Transportation

Food
Plants

Numbers

All Books Read

Total: 19

📖 Print
📱 Kindle
🎧 Audio

1. Star Trek: Boldly Go, Vol. 3 by Mike Johnson (1/4/20) ★★★★
Pages: 144 | Owned | 📱
2. The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee (1/8/20) ★★★★ ½
Pages: 533 | Owned | 🎧
3. The Gentleman’s Guide to Getting Lucky by Mackenzi Lee (1/8/20) ★★★ ½
Pages: 128 | Library | 🎧
4. Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton (1/15/20) ★★★½
Pages: 320 | Owned | 📱
5. A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness (1/29/20) ★★★★
Pages: 224 | Owned | 🎧
6. Artificial Condition by Martha Wells (2/1/20) ★★★★
Pages: 160 | Owned | 🎧
7. Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells (7/28/20) ★★★★
Pages: 158 | Owned | 🎧
8. Exit Strategy by Martha Wells (7/29/20) ★★★★
Pages: 176 | Owned | 🎧
9. Network Effect by Martha Wells (7/30/20) ★★★★★
Pages: 350 | Owned | 🎧
10. They Called Us Enemy by George Takei (7/31/20) ★★★★½
Pages: 212 | Library | 📱
11. Gemina by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff (8/2/20) ★★★★
Pages: 663 | Library/Owned | 📱/🎧
12. Obsidio by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff (8/4/20) ★★★★
Pages: 615 | Library/Owned | 📱/🎧
13. The Last Emperox by John Scalzi (8/5/20) ★★★★
Pages: 313 | Owned | 🎧
14. Pompeii by Robert Harris (11/23/20) ★★★
Pages: 368 | Owned | 📱
15. Memorial Day by Vince Flynn (11/27/20) ★★★½
Pages: 574 | Owned | 🎧
16. Consent to Kill by Vince Flynn (12/23/20) ★★★★
Pages: 661 | Owned | 🎧
17. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (12/24/20) ★★★★★
Pages: 386 | Owned | 🎧
18. Star Wars: Darth Maul by Cullen Bunn (12/30/20) ★★★
Pages: 112 | Kindle Unlimited | 📱
19. Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline (12/31/20) ★★★½
Pages: 384 | Owned | 🎧

All the Covers