Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge discussion

First category, revealed in today's sneak peek!

A book you meant to read in 2022.


This one is going to be different for everyone, so I don't think it lends itself to a Listopia.



On January 1st, I'm going to wake up and look at the pile of unread library books next to my bed, and I'll pick one of those to read for this category.

unlocked!

A friend and I loaned each other a full bag of books much earlier this year. For some reason, I have only read one so far. Fortunately she's in no hurry to trade back! I will pull something from that bag. It's now at the point where it will be very exciting because I've forgotten what some of the books in there are! I will wait to see the rest of the prompts before deciding though so I will know if I can slot any of the others into their own prompts.

A few ideas for me:
Locklands
The Prisoner of Heaven
Killers of a Certain Age
The Book Eaters
The White Rose
The Ninth Rain
Malibu Rising
Fable
Rivers of London

I think I will try for Frankenstein: The 1818 Text. I have never read it. I had it on my plan for a classics challenge last year, but gave up on that challenge and never ended up reading the book.

I'll be going with Light from Uncommon Stars. I got to hear the author do a reading earlier this year and bought a copy, but I didn't get around to reading it.

To narrow this down I'll probably go with something I pre-ordered and haven't got round to yet... The Book Eaters, Our Crooked Hearts, The Society For Soulless Girls, Juniper & Thorn, Bloodmarked, All My Rage, What Moves the Dead, Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes: The Official Biography, A Scatter of Light or Our Missing Hearts.

I like this!

Agreed! Way too personal for a Listopia, though I could probably create a huge one for a list of possibilities! :)

So many from which to choose! I don't know which one I will use for this prompt, but assume there will be many from which to select as I read throughout 2023! It always seems that I read quite a few books at least ONE year later than I intended! LOL :)

I will probably try to read one of the books that I own for this one. Usually they get planned for challenges and then never read due to the fact that I own them and have no due date for them.

I am listing those that have been planned for multiple challenges this year.

The Brass Verdict
The Murder of an Angel
The Son
Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas
Bone Deep
Chasing Midnight
Five Seasons
So Help Me God!
The Hornet's Nest: A Novel of the Revolutionary War
The Last of the Mohicans

The Henna Artist

L Y N N wrote: "Agreed! Way too personal for a Listopia, though I could probably create a huge one for a list of possibilities! :)"

It reminds me of one of the choices last year (I think?), Book I Picked Off a Shelf With My Eyes Closed or some such thing :)

Ashley Marie wrote: "L Y N N wrote: "Agreed! Way too personal for a Listopia, though I could probably create a huge one for a list of possibilities! :)"

It reminds me of one of the choices last year (I think?), Book I..."



I know a lot of people hate that one but I really liked that category!!! My daughter walked me through the library and I kept my eyes closed and reached out and grabbed a book. It was so completely random. I hope it shows up again someday.

I looked at group reads I didn’t get to this year. Many are over 500 pages, hence the not getting to them.

* The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
* The Old Curiosity Shop by Dickens
* The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky
* The Bostonians by Henry James
* The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith
* The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
* The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
* The House of the Dead by Fyodor Dostoevsky
* Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
* Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

And then books on monthly TBR lists that I didn’t get to:
* Becoming by Michelle Obama
* The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner

I'll probably just go with one of the books I have on hold or on wish list at the library when January rolls around. Otherwise - honestly, this is kind of a nice "free space" for me. As long as the book was out in 2022, IMO, it fits. :)

I returned many books to the library unread this year, so I have a lot of choices. There are also the stacks of books on my floor that I said I would get to this year. Honestly, I could have a 50-prompt challenge list using this same one over and over.

I have a shelf of books I've picked up at library sales and used book stores. Every year I tell myself "this is the year I read through the shelf". So something from that shelf will do nicely.

I guess all of the BOTMs would work for people who didn’t participate this year.

There were a lot of books published in 2022 that I didn't read because they didn't fit a prompt. Anyone of them would work here.

Ashley Marie wrote: "L Y N N wrote: "Agreed! Way too personal for a Listopia, though I could probably create a huge one for a list of possibilities! :)"

It reminds me of one of the choices last year (I think?), Book I..."
Yeah. Very similar. :)

Teri wrote: "I returned many books to the library unread this year, so I have a lot of choices. There are also the stacks of books on my floor that I said I would get to this year. Honestly, I could have a 50-prompt challenge list using this same one over and over."
Me, too! LOL

I have 3 books on the hold at the library that still have a 6-week wait at minimum, so I'll use whichever one comes first after Dec 31st.

Killers of a Certain Age
Verity
Our Wives Under the Sea

I think I'll go with On Saudi Arabia: Its People, Past, Religion, Fault Lines - and Future. It's a book I checked out and then returned to the library without finishing it. It seemed really interesting though. This was after meeting a woman from Saudi Arabia. So of course, I had to get a book out about her country.

Stephanie wrote: "I have chosen, All the Ugly and Wonderful Things by Bryn Greenwood."



I loved that book. I love everything she writes.

Lots of possibilities for this one, but Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro is the one that springs to mind. I have it on Kindle, but it kept getting pushed by library books or new pickups.

I have SO MANY books that I feel like I plan to read and don't get around to. Some of the ones I *really* wanted to read but haven't yet so far are
The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson
Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins
The Haunting of Leigh Harker by Darcey Coats

I will probably choose one of them if I can't fit them in for any other prompt!

Yikes, what a list! I'm going to have to go through the books I either did not finish or the ones I bought and planned to read but didn't have the time for.

Ron wrote: "Yikes, what a list! I'm going to have to go through the books I either did not finish or the ones I bought and planned to read but didn't have the time for."

Ooh finishing a dnf is a good idea.

I’ll probably go with The Absolute Book or Things I Should Have Said: Family, Fame, and Figuring it Out. I checked them both out and then just never read them so they expired mostly untouched.

But maybe I’ll do Terciel and Elinor, Sabriel is my fave series, I have the new addition to the series on audible but I never got around to it.

This one will be nice later in the year when I just need to squeeze something in. And honestly, we need some easier prompts to balance out the tough ones they through at us.

Found this one that I had not gotten around to finishing:

Arrow and Superhero Television: Essays on Themes and Characters of the Series

Dani wrote: "I’ll probably go with The Absolute Book or Things I Should Have Said: Family, Fame, and Figuring it Out. I checked them both out and then just never read them so the..."

I meant to read Terciel and Elinor as well this year! Like you, I'm a huge fan of the Sabriel series and reread it every few years. I'm not sure why I keep not reading this new one.

Hmm actually it may be because I have only been checking it out from Libby as an ebook (and letting it return unread). I wonder if I would have better luck with a physical book version.

I'm going to read Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel. I have already started it but i havent finished it yet and probably wont finish anytime soon.

So many books to choose from, lol. I have a particular stack that I'll try not to touch (or add to!) and pull from that pile when I'm ready for this prompt.

Indigenous Continent: The Epic Contest for North America

This is one I wanted to get through but couldn't. It's 592 pages and my average is like 300.

HaHa. I just revisited my list in message #9. I didn't choose any of those. Nope I went for Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara, which seems to come up as an option on nearly every challenge this year.

Bea wrote: "HaHa. I just revisited my list in message #9. I didn't choose any of those. Nope I went for Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara, which seems to come u..."

Every year I come up with a wonderful detailed plan, I choose a book plus multiple backup choices for each category. And every year I toss that plan aside and read something else for a third of the categories! But making a plan is fun, and it feels good to know I have a plan.

I've been lagging in finishing the Uglies series. Maybe this year I'll finally get around to reading Specials by Scott Westerfeld.

I really enjoyed the first two. It's just that ADHD keeps seeking dopamine hits from things ALL NEW. When my brain isn't craving the comfort of rereading my favorite series, that is.

My brain is a difficult child…

I am reading Kindred Spirits by Rainbow Rowell. Wanted to finish this for the longest time.

i’ll be reading Career of Evil (Cormoran Strike #3) by Robert Galbraith. i meant to finish it before 2023 so that’s perfect since i’m currently reading it.

I just finished reading my book for this prompt. It was a book I had marked for one of the 2022 Popsugar prompts, Lie With Me by Sabine Durrant

Phosphorescence: On Awe, Wonder and Things That Sustain You When the World Goes Dark by Australian journalist, broadcaster and author Julia Baird is a self-help book and memoir about how to find beauty and awe in the small things in life to buoy us through the tough times. Here is my review

I read which I meant to get to as soon as it came out last fall.

I meant to read Pride: The Unlikely Story of the True Heroes of the Miner's Strike for the "set in the 80s" prompt last year, but it didn't come in at the library until mid-December. So it was my second read of the year. Great book about a part of history I didn't know much about.

definitely Loveless

I'm going to read Sleight of Hand for this one!

I read The Journey Back by Johanna Reiss. My schedule at the end of 2022 made it nearly impossible for me to read. I picked it up as soon as I was done with the first book in the series, The Upstairs Room.

I'm currently reading Master of Salt & Bones which I had planned to start reading before Christmas, but only picked up yesterday.

The Secret History

The book of night women

I checked The Other Dr. Gilmer: Two Men, a Murder, and an Unlikely Fight for Justice out of the library twice in 2022 and didn't read it, but I finally read it last week while I was off work!