
In an effort to have an organized reading list, I made a spreadsheet of all the prompts in the various reading challenges I’m a part of this year then threw the entire thing in a google doc just to see how nicely it’ll print.
I got the idea from this Google Sheets spreadsheet, but I did a little editing. I did use some of the suggestions for my own list as they sounded really interesting.
There are 152 prompts on the list with 34 extra options. Not all the prompts have a choice in them and will be filled once I find the book to fit. Those will be edited in when I’ve made my choice, and I’ll also edit in the book I chose for the prompts with multiple options.
Challenge Prompt | Choice 1 | Choice 2 | Choice 3 | Choice 4 | |
An epistolary novel or collection of letters | The Habit of Being: The Letters of Flannery O’Connor | The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows | Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster | ||
BR 2 | An alternate history novel | Age of Aztec by James Lovegrove | Clash of Eagles by Alan Smale | The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead | |
BR 3 | A book by a woman and/or POC that won a literary award in 2018 | The Art of Death by Edwidge Danicat | Flights by Olga Tokarczuk | ||
BR 4 | A humor book | The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish | Forever, Erma by Erma Bombeck | ||
BR 5 | A book by a journalist or about journalism | Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News by Kevin Young | |||
BR 6 | A book by an POC set in or about space | Hidden Figures: The Untold True Story of Four African-American Women Who Helped Launch Our Nation into Space by Margot Lee Shetterly | Binti by Nnedi Okorafor | Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee | The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin, translated by Ken Liu |
BR 7 | An #ownvoices book set in Mexico or Central America | Blood of the Dawn by Claudia Salazar Jiménez, trans. by Elizabeth Bryer | Leaving Tabasco by Carmen Boullosa | ||
BR 8 | An #ownvoices book set in Oceania | The Bone People by Keri Hulme | The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera | ||
BR 9 | A book published prior to January 1, 2019, with fewer than 100 reviews on Goodreads | The Diamond: A Novel by Julie Baumgold | |||
BR 10 | A translated book written by and/or translated by a woman | The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson | |||
BR 11 | A book of manga | A Bride’s Story by Kaoru Mori | The Ancient Magus’ Bride by Kore Yamazaki | ||
BR 12 | A book in which an animal or inanimate object is a point-of-view character | The 101 Dalmatians by Dodie Smith | The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker | ||
BR 13 | A book by or about someone that identifies as neurodiverse | The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang | |||
BR 14 | A cozy mystery | What Child is This?: An Ellie Kent Mystery by Alice K. Boatwright | Hollywood Homicide by Kellye Garrett | ||
BR 15 | A book of mythology or folklore (PS 12, RW 13) | Circe by Madeline Miller | The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty | ||
BR 16 | An historical romance by an AOC | In The Midst of Winter by Isabella Allende | The Beautiful Ones by Sylvia Moreno-Garcia | ||
BR 17 | A business book | Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou | |||
BR 18 | A novel by a trans or nonbinary author | The Black Tides of Heaven by J.Y. Yang | |||
BR 19 | A book of nonviolent true crime | Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art by Laney Salisbury | Sex on the Moon: The Amazing Story Behind the Most Audacious Heist in History by Ben Mezrich | The Library Book by Susan Orlen | |
BR 20 | A book written in prison | De Profundis, The Ballad of Reading Gaol & Other Writings by Oscar Wilde | Letter From Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King, Jr. | ||
BR 21 | A comic by an LGBTQIA creator | Strong Female Protagonist by Molly Ostertag | Black Panther: World of Wakanda by Roxanne Gay | Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel | |
BR 22 | A children’s or middle grade book (not YA) that has won a diversity award since 2009 | Tales of the Mighty Code Talkers, Vol 1 edited by Arigon Starr | |||
BR 23 | A self-published book | The Martian by Andy Weir | |||
BR 24 | A collection of poetry published since 2014 | Wade in the Water: Poems by Tracy K. Smith | |||
A book becoming a movie in 2019 | Little Women by Louisa May Alcott | The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath | |||
PS 2 | A book that makes you nostalgic | ||||
PS 3 | A book written by a musician (fiction or nonfiction) | Ten Ways Not to Commit Suicide by Darryl McDaniels | Creative Quest by Ahmir Questlove Thompson | ||
PS 4 | A book you think should be turned into a movie | Granted by John David Anderson | |||
PS 5 | A book with at least one million ratings on Goodreads | 1984 by George Orwell | |||
PS 6 | A book with a plant in the title or on the cover | The book of Memory by Petina Gappah | |||
PS 7 | A reread of a favorite book | Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster | |||
PS 8 | A book about a hobby | Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil de Grasse Tyson | |||
PS 9 | A book you meant to read in 2018 | Catalyst: A Rogue One Novel by James Luceno | |||
PS 10 | A book with POP, SUGAR, or CHALLENGE in the title | No More Heroes: Grassroots Challenges to the Savior Mentality by Jordan Flaherty | |||
PS 11 | A book with an item of clothing or accessory on the cover | ||||
PS 12 | A book inspired by myth/legend/folklore (BR 15, PS 15, RW 13) | Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni | Circe by Madeline Miller | ||
PS 13 | A book published posthumously | When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi | |||
PS 14 | A book you see someone reading on TV or in a movie | Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll | |||
PS 15 | A retelling of a classic | Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler {retelling of The Taming of the Shrew} | Unmarriageable by Soniah Kamal {retelling of Pride and Predjudice} | An Orchestra of Minorities by Chigozie Obioma {twist on the Odyssey} | |
PS 16 | A book with a question in the title | What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe | |||
PS 17 | A book set on college or university campus | The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl | |||
PS 18 | A book about someone with a superpower | Not Your Villain by C.B. Lee | |||
PS 19 | A book told from multiple POVs | A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth | |||
PS 20 | A book set in space (BR 6) | Binti by Nnedi Okorafor | |||
PS 21 | A book by two female authors | When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and Asha Bandele | |||
PS 22 | A book with SALTY, SWEET, BITTER, or SPICY in the title | Bitter Orange by Claire Fuller | |||
PS 23 | A book set in Scandinavia | Britt-Marie was Here by Fredrik Backman | |||
PS 24 | A book that takes place in a single day | Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds Jason Reynolds | |||
PS 25 | A debut novel | Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens | |||
PS 26 | A book that’s published in 2019 | Stay Sexy & Don’t Get Murdered: The Definitive How-To Guide by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark | The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Children by Anissa Gray | ||
PS 27 | A book featuring an extinct or imaginary creature | Animals of a Bygone Era by Maja Säfström | |||
PS 28 | A book recommended by a celebrity you admire | Becoming by Michelle Obama | |||
PS 29 | A book with LOVE in the title | The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean | |||
PS 30 | A book featuring an amateur detective (BR 14) | Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann | What Child is This? An Ellie Kent Mystery by Alice K. Boatwright | Hollywood Homicide by Kellye Garrett | |
PS 31 | A book about a family | Please Look After my Mother by Kyung-Sook Shin, Chi-Young Kim (Translator) | |||
PS 32 | A book author from Asia, Africa, or South America | Mrs. Funnybones by Twinkle Khanna | |||
PS 33 | A book with a zodiac sign or astrology term in title | Aries by Rachel Medhurst | |||
PS 34 | A book that includes a wedding | Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan | |||
PS 35 | A book by an author whose first and last names start with the same letter | The Year of the Runaways by Sunjeev Sahota | |||
PS 36 | A ghost story | Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders | |||
PS 37 | A book with a two-word title | Dread Nation by Justina Ireland | |||
PS 38 | A novel based on a true story | Miss Burma by Charmaine Craig | |||
PS 39 | A book revolving around a puzzle or game | The Queen of Katwe by Tim Crothers {chess in Uganda} | |||
PS 40 | Your favorite prompt from a past POPSUGAR Reading challenge | Circe by Madeline Miller | |||
A “cli-fi” (climate fiction) book | Archipelago by Monique Roffey | American War by Omar El Akkad | |||
PS+ 2 | A “choose-your-own-adventure” book | Neil Patrick Harris: Choose your own Autobiography by Neil Patrick Harris | |||
PS+ 3 | An “own voices” book (BR 7/8) | Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo | |||
PS+ 4 | Read a book during the season it is set in | The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey | |||
PS+ 5 | A LitRPG book | Mass Effect: Initiation by N.K. Jemisin | |||
PS+ 6 | A book with no chapters / unusual chapter headings / unconventionally numbered chapters | The Novel Cure: From Abandonment to Zestlessness: 751 Books to Cure What Ails You by Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin | |||
PS+ 7 | Two books that share the same title | Great Expectations by Charles Dickens | Salt by Nayyirah Wheed | ||
PS+ 8 | Two books that share the same title | Great Expectations by Kathy Acker | Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky | ||
PS+ 9 | A book that has inspired a common phrase or idiom | The Princess Bride by William Goldman | |||
PS+ 10 | A book set in an abbey, cloister, monastery, vicarage, or convent | The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough | |||
A mystery or thriller written by a woman of color | Murder in G Major by Alexia Gordon | ||||
RW 2 | A book about a woman with a mental illness | Postcards from the Edge by Carrie Fisher | |||
RW 3 | A book by an author from Nigeria or New Zealand | The Bone People by Keri Hulme | |||
RW 4 | A book about or set in Appalachia | What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia by Elizabeth Catte | White Trash: The 400-Year Untold Story of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg | ||
RW 5 | A children’s book (BR 22) | ||||
RW 6 | A multigenerational family saga | Pachinko by Min Jin Lee | |||
RW 7 | A book featuring a woman in science | Rise of the Rocket Girls: The Women Who Propelled Us, from Missiles to the Moon to Mars by Nathalia Holt | In the Shadow of Man by Jane Goodall | ||
RW 8 | A play | A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry | |||
RW 9 | A novella | Borders of Infinity by Lois McMaster Bujold | |||
RW 10 | A book about a woman athlete | Sum It Up: A Thousand and Ninety-Eight Victories, a Couple of Irrelevant Losses, and a Life in Perspective by Pat Summit with Sally Jenkins | |||
RW 11 | A book featuring a religion other than your own | The Viking’s Kurdish Love: A True Story of Zoroastrians’ Fight for Survival, Part I: 988-1003 by Widad Akreyi | |||
RW 12 | A Lambda Literary Award winner | Hunger by Roxane Gay | |||
RW 13 | A myth retelling (BR 15, PS 12, RW 13) | The Just City by Jo Walton | |||
RW 14 | A translated book published before 1945 | The Pillow Book by Sei Shōnagon | |||
RW 15 | A book written by a South Asian author | A Newlywed’s Adventures in Married Land by Shweta Ganesh Kumar | |||
RW 16 | A book by an Indigenous woman | Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse | |||
RW 17 | A book from the 2018 Reading Women Award shortlist | Educated by Tara Westover | |||
RW 18 | A romance or love story (B16) | In The Midst of Winter by Isabella Allende | |||
RW 19 | A book about nature | Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer | |||
RW 20 | A historical fiction book | The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey | |||
RW 21 | A book you bought or borrowed in 2019 | ||||
RW 22 | A book you picked up because of the cover | ||||
RW 23 | Any book from a series | Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie | |||
RW 24 | A young adult book by a woman of color | Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi | |||
RW+ 1 | BONUS: A book by Jesmyn Ward | Sing, Unburied, Sing OR Salvage the Bones | |||
RW+ 2 | BONUS: A book by Jhumpa Lahiri | The Lowland | |||
PingSis 1 | A Book With More Than 500 Pages | The Outsider by Stephen King | |||
PingSis 2 | Book You Haven’t Read by Author You Love | The Girl Who Knew Too Much by Amanda Quick | |||
PingSis 3 | Goodreads winner in 2018 | I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara, Gillian Flynn, Patton Oswalt | |||
PingSis 4 | You Can Read in a Day | The Firm by John Grisham | |||
PingSis 5 | Book About a Difficult Topic | The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander | |||
PingSis 6 | Recommended by a Friend | The Ancient Magus’ Bride by Kore Yamazaki | |||
PingSis 7 | Book That Will Make You Cry | ||||
PingSis 8 | Book Published in 2009 | Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente | |||
PingSis 9 | Book Becoming Movie in 2019 | The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath | |||
PingSis 10 | A Genre You Don’t Usually Read | Elevation by Stephen King | |||
PingSis 11 | Children’s Classic | Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll | |||
PingSis 12 | Cover With Your Favorite Color | ||||
PingSis 13 | Bought at a Thrift Store | Polgara the Sorceress by David Eddings | |||
PingSis 14 | Young Adult Fiction | Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi | |||
PingSis 15 | First Book in a Trilogy | The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin | |||
PingSis 16 | Second Book in a Trilogy | The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin | |||
PingSis 17 | Third Book in a Trilogy | The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin | |||
PingSis 18 | Dystopian Novel | The Stand by Stephen King | |||
PingSis 19 | Award-Winning Book | Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie | |||
PingSis 20 | A Book from the Rory Gilmore Challenge | Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll | |||
PingSis 21 | Published the Decade Before You Were Born | The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough | |||
PingSis 22 | Historical Fiction From A Favorite Time Period | The Alienist (Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, #1) by Caleb Carr | |||
PingSis 23 | Classic You’ve Never Read | The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath | |||
PingSis 24 | A Book That Will Keep You Up All Night | The Stand by Stephen King | |||
PingSis 25 | 2018 Bestseller | Becoming by Michelle Obama | |||
PingSis 26 | Nonfiction Book about Science | Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil de Grasse Tyson | |||
PingSis 27 | Listen to an Audiobook | Hidden Figures: The Untold True Story of Four African-American Women Who Helped Launch Our Nation into Space by Margot Lee Shetterly | |||
PingSis 28 | Set in Your Home State | The Firm by John Grisham | |||
PingSis 29 | You Once Started But Never Finished | Catalyst: A Rogue One Novel by James Luceno | |||
PingSis 30 | With a One Word Title | Hunger by Roxane Gay | |||
PingSis 31 | A Fairy Tale Retelling | The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey | |||
PingSis 32 | Celebrity Book Club Pick | The Library Book by Susan Orlean | |||
PingSis 33 | A Book You Read in High School | The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway | |||
PingSis 34 | Business or Personal Finance Book | Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou | |||
PingSis 35 | Autobiography or Memoir | Becoming by Michelle Obama | |||
PingSis 36 | Book Set in Another Country | The Pillow Book by Sei Shōnagon | |||
PingSis 37 | Reread a Favorite Book | Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster | |||
PingSis 38 | Book by a Local Author | Death in the Family by James Agee | |||
PingSis 39 | Banned Book | To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee | |||
PingSis 40 | Narrative Nonfiction | Educated by Tara Westover | |||
PingSis 41 | On Your To-Read List the Longest | Polgara the Sorceress by David Eddings | |||
PingSis 42 | A Book About Travel | West With The Night by Beryl Markham | A Woman in Arabia: The Writings of the Queen of the Desert by Gertrude Bell | ||
PingSis 43 | Popular Book You’ve Never Read | Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan | |||
PingSis 44 | True Crime | Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art by Laney Salisbury | |||
PingSis 45 | Nonfiction Bestseller | Educated by Tara Westover | |||
PingSis 46 | Science Fiction Novel | Binti by Nnedi Okorafor | |||
PingSis 47 | A Book You Own But Haven’t Read | Ready Player One by Ernest Cline | |||
PingSis 48 | Recommended by a Local Librarian | ||||
PingSis 49 | New Release | ||||
PingSis 50 | The First Book in a Series | Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie | |||
PingSis 51 | Prettiest cover | ||||
PingSis 52 | An Inspirational Story |