Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

Jan
✔️1. A book with a main character whose name starts with A, T, or Y
Midnight at the Blackbird Café
✔️2. A book connected to a book you read in 2021
The Fires of Heaven
✔️3. A book with 22 or more letters in the title
📚Slow Train to Switzerland: One Tour, Two Trips, 150 Years - and a World of Change Apart
✔️4. A book that fits your favorite prompt that did not make the list
Mirror, Mirror: Classic SF Stories by the Star Trek and Fantastic Voyage Author (for the prompt: A book related to The Twilight Zone, in honor of the classic second season episode, "Twenty Two")
✔️5. A book by an author with two sets of double letters in their name
The Beneficiary: Fortune, Misfortune, and the Story of My Father

Feb
✔️6. A book with an image of a source of light on the cover
📚To the Lighthouse
✔️7. A book related to psychology, neuroscience or the mind
The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil
✔️8. 3 books set on three different continents - Book 1
Silent Winds, Dry Seas (Africa)
✔️9. 3 books set on three different continents - Book 2
99 Nights in Logar (Asia)

Mar
✔️10. 3 books set on three different continents - Book 3
The Eagle Tree
✔️11. A book from historical fiction genre
📚Underworld
✔️12. A book related to glass
The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements
✔️13. A book about a woman in STEM
Lord of Chaos (this is a bit of a stretch, but one of the main characters is a woman trying to recreate lost technologies)

Apr
✔️14. A book with fewer than 5000 ratings on Goodreads
He Forgot to Say Goodbye - 1,485 when added to list
✔️15. A book without a person on the cover
The Feather Thief
✔️16. A book related to Earth Day
📚After the Apocalypse
✔️17. A book from NPR's Book Concierge
A Most Remarkable Creature: The Hidden Life and Epic Journey of the World’s Smartest Birds of Prey

May
✔️18. A book by an Asian or Pacific Islander author
Rashomon and Other Stories
✔️19. A book that involves alternate reality, alternate worlds, or alternate history
📚In the Land of Invented Languages: Esperanto Rock Stars, Klingon Poets, Loglan Lovers, and the Mad Dreamers Who Tried to Build a Perfect Language
✔️20. A fiction or nonfiction book that is set during 1900 -1951
The Fatal Eggs
✔️21. A book with one of the Monopoly tokens on the cover
Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress: Tales of Growing up Groovy and Clueless (boot)
✔️22. A book with a Jewish character or author
The Canvas and Other Stories by Salomea Perl

Jun
✔️23. A book that features loving LGBTQIA+ relationship
One Last Stop
✔️24. A book related to inclement weather
The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories
✔️25. A book less than 220 pages OR more than 440 pages
Middlesex (529 pages)
✔️26. 2 books with the same word in the title - Book 1
📚The Lost Art of Walking: The History, Science, and Literature of Pedestrianism

Jul
✔️27. 2 books with the same word in the title - Book 2
📚The Art of Fielding
✔️28. A book that won an award from Powell's list of book awards
Animals Strike Curious Poses (Oregon Book Award 2018)
✔️29. A book set on or near a body of water
The Jumbies
✔️30. A book related to mythology
The Werewolf of Paris

Aug
✔️31. A book published at least 10 years ago
📚Rock Paper Tiger
✔️32. A book where the main character is a female detective/private eye/police officer
The Trespasser
✔️33. The next book in a series
In the Flesh
✔️34. A book with an academic setting or with a teacher that plays an important role
Purple Hibiscus
35. 2 books related to flora and fauna - Book 1
The Wood for the Trees: The Long View of Nature from a Small Wood

Sep
✔️36. 2 books related to flora and fauna - Book 2
Your Inner Fish: a Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body (fauna)
✔️37. A book that uses all five vowels in the title and/or author's name
📚Radio Free Albemuth
38. A book by a Latin American author
Ficciones
✔️39. A book from the TIME list of 100 Best YA Books of All Time
The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives

Oct
✔️40. A book related to one of the 22 Tarot Major Arcana cards
The Keepers of Metsan Valo
✔️41. A book with a theme of food or drink
Caffeine: How Caffeine Created the Modern World
42. A book with a language or nationality in the title
Scottish Fairy Tales
✔️43. A book set in a small town or rural area
News of the World
✔️44. A book with gothic elements
Rosemary's Baby

Nov
✔️45. A book related to a game
Gold
✔️46. A book with a non-human as one of the main characters
Cosmicomics
✔️47. A book with handwriting on the cover
A Wild Swan: And Other Tales
✔️48. A book posted in one of the ATY Best Book of the Month threads in 2021 or 2022
The Golem and the Jinni

Dec
✔️49. A book connected to the phrase "Here (There) Be Dragons"
Furnace
✔️50. A book that involves aging, or a character in their golden years
I Was Anastasia
✔️51. A book published in 2022
The Book of Cold Cases
✔️52. A book with a time-related word in the title
Emma in the Night

Pre-update, 12/28/21

📚 = from first page of TBR

After two years of geography challenges, I've decided to change it up a little and have at least one book a month come from the first page (first 30 books) of my TBR. ​

It's time to remind myself why I wanted to read these books in the first place or admit that I don't actually want to anymore.

This plan is looking pretty empty right now. Every year I tell myself that I'll do less planning ahead and more mood reading. We'll see if I stick to that this year.

Other ideas for the year include:
- one or two long and weird books
- something old
- getting back to The Eye of the World series
- finding a job that is more conducive to audiobook listening
- more nonfiction
- finally reading and returning books I've borrowed from friends and family over the years (thanks to my mom, this would also lead to reading more nonfiction)

I'm also trying to prioritize books that have been on my tbr for a long time. Like you said, it's time to decide if I even still want to read them at this point.

I already gave up on two -- I'm finding that it helps a lot to focus on the first TBR page. I can be really impulsive adding books, so I know there's other stuff on there that I don't want to read anymore, but if I'm just looking at the first page I'm much less overwhelmed.

I also have a couple books that have been on there for a while because I think I'll really like them, so I've been "saving" them. That's kind of ridiculous now that I'm writing it out!

2/2/22 Update:

As it turns out, I did not read much in January, for good and bad reasons. I've been getting back to some of my other interests, which is great, but definitely leaves me with less time to read. There's also some work/life stuff which is stressful and can make it hard to focus. I might be behind for the next few months.

ATY books finished:
Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe - 3*
Slow Train to Switzerland - 3*
Mirror, Mirror - 3*
Silent Winds, Dry Seas - 4*

ATY books in progress:
The Fires of Heaven - 59%
Underworld - 23%

3/2/22 Update:

ATY books finished:
The Fires of Heaven - 3*
The Beneficiary - 3*
99 Nights in Logar - 2*

ATY book in progress:
Underworld - 50%

Underworld is great, but I'm not really feeling the books I've been reading lately. Plus, lots of stuff going on. I'm going to let myself fall behind this spring and hopefully pick things up again. Next update in May.

6/2/22 Update:

The widget tells me I am 11 books behind schedule. I did intend to let myself fall behind in spring, so I'm not panicking yet.

My reading-kind-in-order plans are out the window, though, because I'm moving across the US and have to finish and return all the books I've borrowed from friends and family over the years. I managed to fit them into list prompts. These are:

The Lucifer Effect - 50%
He Forgot to Say Goodbye - 3*
The Feather Thief - 60% (I have never wanted so much to reach into a book I was reading and slap someone)
Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress - 30%
Middlesex - 5*, returned
Purple Hibiscus - 4.5*, returned
Your Inner Fish - not started
The 57 Bus - not started
The Secret Life of Groceries - not started
News of the World - not started

On the other hand, this is great for my reading more nonfiction goal, because my mother lends me a lot of nonfiction that I put off reading but end up really enjoying.

Anyway, I have two weeks to finish these if I don't want to take them across the country and then eventually back to return them. That will certainly catch me up a little.

And then it's three cross-country flights: a round-trip to get things set up and a one-way to bring the cats over. I should get reading done on at least two of those. It's going to be a weird summer.

8/8/22 Update:

I'm updating from across the country! The move is successfully executed, though it is taking a while to get settled in and realize what it actually takes to be responsible for a house. Also, a bunch of heat advisories lately. It is for sure a weird summer.

ATY books finished:
To the Lighthouse - 4.5*
The Lucifer Effect - 3*
The Disappearing Spoon - 5* (Anecdotal style and short sections made this exact right book to read under the COVID brain fog)
The Feather Thief - 4*
After the Apocalypse - 4*
Rashomon and Other Stories - 4* (this was the six-story collection. I'd like to read the larger one that recently came out)
Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress - 4*
The Bloody Chamber - 4*
The Jumbies - 4.5*
The Werewolf of Paris - 3.5*
Rock, Paper, Tiger - 4.5*
Your Inner Fish - 4.5*
The 57 Bus - 4.5*
News of the World - 5*
Rosemary's Baby - 4.5*

I've been reading lots of really good stuff! I'm feeling stingy with 5-star ratings lately, so tons of 4.5.

ATY books in progress:
The Eagle Tree 63% (I swapped this one out for The Underground for #10 because I am certainly not in the mood to read anything that will make me nostalgic for Moscow right now)
Lord of Chaos 72%
A Most Remarkable Creature 25%

The widget today says I'm only 6 books behind. Progress!

Well, I did not finish the challenge this year. I got to 49/52 and that was with counting some side reads because I did not get to the read I had initially planned.

It was a weird year -- I started out behind and just never caught up due to life stuff.

Best reads of the year: A Most Remarkable Creature, The Art of Fielding

My meta challenges both worked and didn't work this year -- I'm really happy I read more nonfiction, but some of the books I chose were pretty dense and take longer for me to read and really take in what I'm reading. I finished 13 nonfiction books but had planned 16.

Focusing on the first page of my TBR led me to some great reads, but I definitely have some ambitions/aspirational reads on there, and I'm not reading 12 of those a year.

Anyway, this was my first failed attempt at ATY. I'm likely to finish the remaining three books in the next couple days, but for now it's time to start planning 2023!