Guest post by Kyle

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Reading Challenge Accepted

I’m not exactly sure what POPSUGAR is, but a couple of years ago, I was searching for a reading challenge and came across their 50 book topic challenge. I found the concept interesting enough to give it a try. Instead of a traditional “books to read” list, the POPSUGAR list is a set of topics and criteria to satisfy over the course of the year. I find it appealing because one of the main challenges I (and a lot of other readers) have is picking out a book to read. The library and bookstores have always been among my favorite places to visit, but I have found that I can’t just “pop in” without a plan. I have to know what I’m getting, or I will be there all day. Now, I don’t have to wander around looking for a book from my four or five “comfort” genres. In fact, I enjoy having this reading challenge so much that we created a Summer Reading Challenge for Kids (shared here!)

The POPSUGAR reading challenge essentially gives you a list of prompts and it’s up to you to find books that match the prompt. The next year’s list comes out around November, and then the fun starts! I probably enjoy the research of preparing the list more than actually reading the books. This involves checking all my other reading lists for books that qualify (I have several different book lists going at the moment), checking Goodreads discussion threads, reading the descriptions, and then finding out what’s going to be available at my local library, my college library, or what I might already own (or be willing to buy).

Here are my picks for the first ten prompts from the 2018 list. Also be sure to check out prompts 11-20 here!

1. A book made into a movie you’ve already seen

I am a big fan of watching the movie first; I find both the movie and the book much more enjoyable than the other way around. Like many of you, when I read the book first, the movie fails to live up to my expectations. Nothing is worse than when they cast the wrong actor or actress to play your characters. If anybody else is thinking Owen Wilson in Wonder, then we are on the same page. However, when you watch the movie first, your expectation is built in advance and the characters are already associated with actors. So you cannot be disappointed. If you ever hear Megan complain about the film The Help, based on the Kathryn Stockett novel by the same name, just know that I do not feel the same way. Unlike everyone else, I saw the movie, then read the book! But back to the list!

This turned out to be an easy prompt because I was already reading Män som Hater Kvinnor (Stieg Larsson), which is the original Swedish version of the American adaptation The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (same author…obvs). And trust me, if you are reading a book in a language that you don’t completely understand, having seen the movie first is a big help! If you have not seen the movie or read the book, the story focuses on Mikael Blomkvist. He has been hired to investigate the forty-years-ago disappearance of Harriet Vanger. The story also features Lisbeth Salandar, a young computer hacker who assists Blomkvist in his investigation.

2. True crime

True crime is one of my favorite genres, so there were a lot from which to choose. I ultimately narrowed it down between In Cold Blood (Truman Capote) and The Devil in the White City (Erik Larson). I put them both on hold on Overdrive and In Cold Blood became available first, so I went with it. It’s an account of a family found murdered in a small Kansas town in the 1950s, and is unique in that a portion of the book is from the perspective of the guilty parties.

3. The next book in a series you started

It seems like every book out there is a part of a series, and when I read one book in a series, I feel obligated to keep going. Damn you, Alex Cross!. This category more than any other seems to have the most potential options. Harry Potter? Hunger Games? Percy Jackson? Adventures of Captain Underpants? Nope, none of those. I originally decided to go with Missing in Malmö (Torquil MacLeod), which is the third book in a series I find very enjoyable, despite the fact that the first book had one of the worst and cheesiest endings I’ve ever read. However, due to the inevitable switerchoos that take place when you “accidentally” read a book that’s not on your list and want it to count toward the reading challenge, I had to make some adjustments. Ain’t nobody got time for reading books that don’t even count.

So for this prompt I ended up reading The Girl Who Played with Fire (Stieg Larsson), the second book in the Millennium series. In this installment, Lisbeth Salander is on the run after being connected to the murder of a young couple.

4. A book involving a heist

Zero hesitation. When I saw this prompt, I knew exactly which book I was reading: Sex on the Moon: The Amazing Story Behind the Most Audacious Heist in History (Ben Mezrich). This book has been sitting in my virtual wish list for years and I finally had a reason to buy it! But instead of buying it, I listened to the audiobook narrated by Casey Affleck (say that without sounding like a duck selling insurance). Thad Roberts convinces his girlfriend and another NASA intern to help him break into a laboratory and steal precious moon rocks that are extremely valuable and also extremely illegal to own!

5. Nordic noir

My favorite genre. Nordic noir, sometimes called Scandinavian noir, is a very interesting crime fiction genre. It typically uses simple and straightforward language and the stories are contrastingly dark compared to the calmness that we sometimes associate with nordic countries. The genre owes a lot to Stieg Larsson, who (posthumously) brought international attention to Swedish crime fiction and who features heavily in my reading. I had a lot of choices here, and ultimately, due to the switching and replacing that was mentioned earlier, I read Roseanna (Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahloo), which is the first book in the Martin Beck series. Yes, another series. In this book, Martin Beck is investigating the murder of a solo traveler, whose body is dredged from Lake Vattern. All Beck has is her name and the 185 fellow cruise ship passengers who could potentially have strangled her.

6. A novel based on a real person

Here is a prompt that poses a bit of a problem. Novel implies fiction, so you have to stay away from memoirs or biographies. But researching this is kinda difficult, so I ended up looking at a Goodreads list and just trusting the contributors that The Sun Also Rises (Ernest Hemingway) is, in fact, based on a real person. The story follows Brett and Jake as they journey from the nightlife of 1920s Paris to the brutal bullfighting rings of Spain with a group of expatriates.

7. A book set in a country that fascinates you

If you haven’t figured it out yet, Sweden is a country that fascinates me. I have several books in this list that qualify here, but I wanted to read something for this prompt that didn’t exactly qualify for anything else. So, I went with My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry (Fredrik Backman), which follows seven-year-old Elsa who is sent on an adventure when her grandmother dies and leaves behind a series of letters apologizing to people she has wronged in her past. Also, if you haven’t read Backman’s A Man Called Ove, do yourself the favor. I also hear that Beartown is good, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet. Maybe it’ll fit on 2019’s list?

8. A book with a time of day in the title

Here is the fun part about this reading challenge: you get to decide which books count and which books don’t count. I don’t know if “night” is technically a time of day, but I decided that The Friday Night Knitting Club (Kate Jacobs) was close enough. This book features a group of women who come together once a week in a New York City yarn shop to work on their latest projects and share their lives.

I didn’t think I would like this one, but it surprised me. If you are into knitting or group-crafting of any kind, I think you will have fun with this book. It will remind you of the crafters in your circle!

9. A book about a villain or antihero

As I mentioned, reading a book AFTER watching the movie is the way to go. I failed to mention that it also includes going back and re-watching the movie after reading the book after watching the movie. This applies to television shows too. Darkly Dreaming Dexter (Jeff Lindsay) is the foundation for the Showtime series Dexter, about a *spoilers*serial killer who works as a blood analyst and only kills bad guys. The show does deviate from the book, particularly the ending. But since I saw the show first, in my mind, the books deviates from the show!

10. A book about death or grief

And to end this first post, we arrive at the true purpose of the reading challenge. The Year of Magical Thinking (Joan Didion) is a book that is critically acclaimed and an amazing book, but under no circumstances would I have “chosen” to read it on my own. Facing a parent’s worst nightmare, Didion and her husband watch their only child fall seriously ill, be induced into a coma and placed on life support. While eating dinner after visiting the hospital, Didion’s husband suffers a fatal heart attack. This book is Didion’s attempt to make sense of her life and put into perspective the realities of grieving.

A Challenge to Branch Out

I enjoy this reading challenge because the prompts open readers up to new ideas through new genres, authors, and books. They provide opportunities to grow when you otherwise would have ignored the chance. (Please ignore the fact that 3 of the first 10 books involve Swedish crime fiction. I promise I get more diverse as the prompts go on!).  Please share any thoughts or suggestions in the comment section. Hopefully, you will be inspired to branch out from your comfort zone and try a new book. Let us know if you are going to try this reading challenge and what books you choose.

Ready to keep it going? Check out my picks for prompts 11-20 in this post! And if you want to be the first to know when I post my next picks, sign up for the mailing list!

My Pick:

Here’s @oscarshead with my favorite book out of the first ten prompts.

I liked a lot of these books, but The Year of Magical Thinking (Joan Didion) is the only one I would recommend to anyone regardless of their genre preference. Everyone will experience grief differently and everyone will experience this book differently. But someone out there needs this book to help put life, death, and grieving into perspective.