In 2021 I’m planning to shake things up a bit from the past few years:
- 75 books overall, including at least 25 books for Classics Club
- Attempting the Popsugar Reading Challenge again; however, using the prompts more to narrow down a manageable TBR list than to aim for completing the challenge.
- Not doing Book Riot this year – several of the prompts that interest me are repeated on other lists, several are genres I’m not interested in,

2/50 (4%)
…as of January 4th, 2021
(full prompt list)
o 1. A book that’s published in 2021
o 2. A genre hybrid
o 3. An Afrofuturist book
The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin
o 4. A book set mostly or entirely outdoors
The Call of the Wild, Jack London
o 5. A book that has a heart, diamond, club, or spade on the cover
Iron Heart, Nina Varela
o 6. A book with something broken on the cover
o 7. A book by an author who shares your zodiac sign
How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories, Holly Black
o 8. A book by a Muslim-American author
And the Mountains Echoed, Khaled Hosseini
o 9. A dark academia book
o 10. A book that was published anonymously
o 11. A book with an oxymoron in the title
Strangers in Their Own Land, Arlie Russell Hochschild
o 12. A book with a gem, mineral, or rock in the title
The Stone Angel, Margaret Laurence
o 13. A book about do-overs or fresh starts
Persuasion, Jane Austen
o 14. A book where the main character works at your current or dream job
o 15. A magical realism book
One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
o 16. A book that has won the Women’s Prize for Fiction
How to be Both, Ali Smith
o 17. A book set in multiple countries
o 18. A book with a family tree
o 19. A book set somewhere you’d like to visit in 2021
o 20. A bestseller from the 1990s
o 21. A book by a blogger, blogger, YouTuber, or other online personality
o 22. A book about forgetting
Still Alice, Lisa Genova
o 23. A book whose title starts with “Q”, “X”, or “Z”
The Quiet American, Graham Greene
o 24. A book you have seen on someone’s bookshelf
o 25. A book featuring 3 generations (grandparent, parent, child)
o 26. A locked-room mystery
The Chinese Orange Mystery, Ellery Queen
o 27. A book about a social justice issue
Native Son, Richard Wright
o 28. A book set in a restaurant
o 29. A book in a different format than what you normally read
The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin (audiobook)
o 30. A book with a black and white cover
o 31. A book that has fewer than 1000 reviews on Amazon or Goodreads
o 32. A book by an indigenous author
o 33. A book you think your best friend would like
o 34. A book that has the same title as a song
o 35. A book about art or an artist
o 36. A book about a subject you are passionate about
o 37. A book everyone seems to have read but you
A Court of Thorns and Roses, Sarah J. Maas
o 38. A book that discusses body positivity
o 39. A book found on a Black Lives Matter reading list
The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander
o 40. Your favourite prompt from a past POPSUGAR reading challenge
o 41. The longest book (by pages) on your TBR list
The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
o 42. A book from your TBR list you meant to read last year but didn’t
o 43. The shortest book (by pages) on your TBR list
Fence Volume 1, C.S. Pacat and Johanna the Mad
o 44. A book from your TBR you associate with a favourite person, place, or thing
o 45. The book on your TBR with the prettiest cover
o 46. A book from your TBR chosen at random
o 47. The book on your TBR with the ugliest cover
o 48. A DNF book from your TBR
The Italian, Ann Radcliffe
o 49. The book that’s been on your TBR for the longest amount of time
Possession, A.S. Byatt
o 50. A free book from your TBR (gifted, borrowed, library)
Summer of Fear, Lois Duncan
My picks are a mix of YA and adult fiction, new releases and classics,
Fake Dating o Boyfriend Material, Alexis Hall o Written in the Stars, Alexandria Bellefleur | Non-Binary Rep o Ana on the Edge, A.J. Sass | BIPOC Lead o Elatsoe, Darcie Little Badger | Graphic Novel ✔ Fence Volume 1, C.S. Pacat, Johanna the Mad, Joana LaFuente | Lesbian Rep o The Price of Salt, Patricia Highsmith o The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows, Olivia Waite o Stormsong, C.L. Polk |
Pansexual Rep o Seven Ways We Lie, Riley Redgate | Trans Rep o Cemetery Boys, Aiden Thomas | Science Fiction o Winter’s Orbit, Everina Maxwell o Gearbreakers, Zoe Hana Mikuta | Superheroes o Dreadnought, April Daniels o Hero, Perry Moore | Enemies to Lovers o Iron Heart, Nina Varela |
Retelling o The Raven and the Reindeer, T. Kingfisher | Best Friends to Lovers o Bonds of Brass, Emily Skrutskie | FREE SPACE | Gay Rep | Asexual Rep o Every Heart a Doorway, Seanan McGuire |
Intersex Rep o None of the Above, I.W. Gregorio | Novella | Bisexual Rep ✔ I’ll Be the One, Lyla Lee | Contemporary | Genderqueer Rep o |
Mystery/Thriller o The Little Death, Michael Nava | Rom-Com o My Most Excellent Year, Steve Kluger | Dark Academia o The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde | Gothic/Horror o Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir | Rivals to Lovers ✔ In Other Lands, Sarah Rees Brennan |