The 2020 PopSugar Reading Challenge: My Reading List

Although I’ve set myself a few reading goals in the past, the PopSugar Reading Challenge will be the first year-long challenge I’ve taken part in. For most of the prompts, I’ve chosen books that have been patiently sitting on my TBR list for a while. Others, however, were slightly trickier and I’ve opted for a few books that are slightly outside of my comfort zone. All in all, this challenge will motivate me to shorten my backlist as well as broaden my bookish horizons.

This year’s challenge consists of 40 main prompts. If you’re feeling confident, there are ten “advanced” 2020-themed categories, from “a book set in Japan, host of the 2020 Olympics” to “a book set in the 1920s.” There are also Facebook and Goodreads groups where you can swap reading recommendations for the challenge or simply chat about your current reads.

While I’m sharing my reading list here, there’s no saying I won’t change it if I happen to come across another book that fits the bill. After all, we have a whole year of fresh releases, and we all know how tempting those shiny new covers can be. As the year goes by, I’ll return to this post to check off the books I’ve read and also leave a rating. So, without further ado, here are the titles I plan on reading for the 2020 PopSugar Reading Challenge…

• 

• 

The Titles:

1. A book published in 2020: My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell	21. A book published the month of your birthday: Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
2. A book by a trans or non-binary author: Over the Top by Jonathan Van Ness ★★★★★	22. A book by or about a woman in STEM: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Recca Skloot
3. A book with a great first line: Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy	23. A book that won an award on 2019: Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo
4. A book about a book club: The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix	24. A book on a subject you know nothing about: Mythos by Stephen Fry ★★★★
5. A book set in a city that has hosted the Olympics: Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen	25. A book with only words on the cover, no graphics or images: Beloved by Toni Morrison
6. A bildungsroman: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith	26. A book with a pun in the title: 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
7. The first book you touch on a shelf with your eyes closed: An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir ★★★	27. A book featuring one of the Seven Deadly Sins: IT by Stephen King
8. A book with an upside-down image on the cover: Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner	28. A book with a robot, cyborg or AI character: The God Game by Danny Tobey ★★★★
9. A book with a map: The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon	29. A book with a bird on the cover: Godsgrave by Jay Kristoff
10. A book recommended by your favourite blog, vlog, podcast, or online book club: The Whisper Man by Alex North	30. A fiction or nonfiction book about a world leader: Becoming by Michelle Obama
11. An anthology: Salt, Slow by Julia Armfield	31. A book with “gold,” “silver” or “bronze” in the title: A Sky Painted Gold by Laura Wood
12. A book that passes the Bechdel test: My Brilliant Friend (L’amica geniale) by Elena Ferrante, or Circe by Madeline Miller	32. A book by a WOC: The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin
13. A book with the same title as a movie or TV show but is unrelated to it: The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah	33. A book with at least a four-star rating on Goodreads: A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne
14. A book by an author with flora or fauna in their name: The Wicked King by Holly Black	34. A book you meant to read in 2019: The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
15. A book about or involving social media: If I Never Met You by Mhairi McFarlane	35. A book with a three-word title: North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
16. A book that has a book on the cover: The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield	36. A book with a pink cover: Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
17. A medical thriller: The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides	37. A Western: Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
18. A book with a made-up language: A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin	38. A book by or about a journalist: Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez
19. A book set in a country beginning with “C”: One Hundred Years of Solitude (Cien Años de Soledad) by Gabriel García Márquez	39. Read a banned book during Banned Books Week: The Color Purple by Alice Walker
20. A book you picked because the title caught your attention: Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk	40. Your favourite prompt from a past PopSugar Reading Challenge: The Brothers Karamazov (Brat’ya Karamazovy) by Fyodor Dostoyvesky (translated fiction)

Advanced

41. A book written by an author in their 20s: Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi	46. A book by an author who has written more than 20 books: Carrie by Stephen King ★★★★
42. A book with 20 or “twenty” in the title: Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella	47. A book with more than 20 letters in its title: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë ★★★★.5
43. A book with a character with a vision impairment or enhancement (nod to 20/20 vision): Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling	48. A book published in the 20th Century: East of Eden by John Steinbeck
44. A book set in Japan, host of the 2020 Olympics: Pachinko by Min Jin Lee	49. A book from a series with more than 20 books: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (Hercule Poirot, #4) by Agatha Christie
45. A book set in the 1920s: The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton	50. A book with a main character in their 20s: Emma by Jane Austen

Are you taking part in any reading challenges this year?

Also read: 12 Classic Novels in 12 Months