2020 Master Reading List

People often ask me how I manage to read so many books every year. The truth is, I always have a book in my hand - or in my ear, if I'm feeling an audiobook that day. I prefer reading over watching tv, going to the movies, or participating in any organized group activities. I also don't have kids and tend to shy away from social events. Hello, introvert!

If you make reading a priority, you can get a lot of it done. This is how I manage to read close to, if not more than, two hundred books a year. Another thing that helps me is to have a reading list. Some prefer to pick a book off the library shelf and go with it. I need to have a game plan to help me tackle my reading goals, and that comes in the form of my master reading list. This list is comprised of prompts from several super fun reading challenges.

As always, I will be completing the Popsugar Reading Challenge, which gives ideas for fifty books to read. To add a little oomph to my bookshelf, I add in the Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge, which has more difficult prompts that allow you to step outside of your comfort zone and pick up more books from authors of color, Own Voices stories, and reads from places you've never been - or heard of.

Then, there's a handful of smaller challenges like Modern Mrs. Darcy Challenge, the RAD Reading Challenge, and the Reading Glasses Challenge, which not only gives you prompts for books to read, but also activities like donating a book or annotating one. Finally, I'll be choosing ten books from the Back to University list - a compilation of all the required reading for a standard education in literature, shared by Sanne from Books and Quills. *At the last minute, I also added ten books for the #ReadYourBooks Challenge by Jessica Turner.

That's one hundred thirty-one books in all, not to mention the ARCs I read for publishers and the books I pick up along the way. I'll be updating this list throughout the year as I check books off, so buckle up. Here we go!

Popsugar Reading Challenge (Count: 50/50)

1. A book that's published in 2020 - Mr. Nobody by Catherine Steadman

2. A book published the month of your birthday - The Confessions Club by Elizabeth Berg

3. A book by a trans or nonbinary author - Female Husbands by Jen Manion

4. A book about or by a woman in STEM - Women in Science by Rachel Ignotofsky & Sarah Mollo-Christensen

5. A book with a great first line - The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

6. A book that won an award in 2019 - Less by Andrew Sean Greer

7. A book about a book club - The Mother-Daughter Book Club by Heather Vogel Frederick

8. A book on a subject you know nothing about - Plague of Corruption by Kent Heckinlively & Judy Mikovitz

9. A book set in a city that has hosted the Olympics - Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

10. A book with only words on the cover - The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

11. A bildungsroman - The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

12. A book with a pun in the title - Stork Raving Mad by Donna Andrews

13. The first book you touch on a shelf with your eyes closed - An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

14. A book featuring one of the seven deadly sins - We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

15. A book with an upside-down image on the cover - The World Without Us by Alan Weisman

16. A book with a robot, cyborg, or AI character - I, Robot by Isaac Asimov

17. A book with a map - Map of Salt and Stars by Zeyn Joukhadar & Lara Sawalha

18. A book with a bird on the cover - Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris

19. A book recommended by your favorite blog, vlog, podcast - The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton

20. A fiction or nonfiction work about a world leader - Elizabeth the Queen by Sally Bedell Smith

21. An anthology - Fresh Ink by Lamar Giles

22. A book with "gold" "silver" or "bronze" in the title - Silver Girl by Elin Hilderbrand

23. A book that passes the Bechdel test - Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson

24. A book by a WOC - On the Come Up by Angie Thomas

25. A book with the same title as a movie or TV show but unrelated to it - The Professor by Charlotte Bronte

26. A book with at least a four-star rating on Goodreads - Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah

27. A book by an author with flora or fauna in their name - The Astronaut Wives Club by Lily Koppel

28. A book you meant to read in 2019 - It's Not You, It's Me by Camilla Sacre-Dallerup

29. A book about or involving social media - Emily Post's Manners in a Digital World by Daniel Post Senning

30. A book with a three-word title - The First Conspiracy by Brad Meltzer

31. A book that has a book on the cover - How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster

32. A book with a pink cover - From the Corner of the Oval by Beck Dorey-Stein

33. A Western - The Painter by Peter Heller

34. A medical thriller - The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton

35. A book by or about a journalist - Blowout by Rachel Maddow

36. A book with a made-up language - A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

37. A banned book during banned books week (9/20-9/26) - Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

38. A book set in a country beginning with "C" - King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild

39. Your favorite prompt from a past Popsugar Reading Challenge - Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

40. A book you picked because the title caught your attention - Word by Word by Kory Stamper

41. A book written by an author in their 20s - Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi

42. A book by an author who has written more than 20 books - Spring's Gentle Promise by Janette Oke

43. A book with "20" or "twenty" in the title - The First Twenty Hours by Josh Kaufman

44. A book with more than 20 letters in its title - Traveling to Infinity by Jane Hawking

45. A book with a character with vision impairment/enhancement - Code White by Scott Britz-Cunningham

46. A book published in the 20th century - The Pelican Brief by John Grisham

47. A book from a series with more than 20 books - Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind

48. A book set in Japan - The Street of a Thousand Blossoms by Gail Tsukiyama

49. A book with a main character in their 20s - The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger

50. A book set in the 1920s - The Paris Wife by Paula McLain

Book Riot Read Harder Challenge (Count: 24/24)

1. A YA nonfiction book - The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater

2. A retelling of a classic of the canon, fairytale, or myth by an AOC - Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippincott

3. A mystery where the victim(s) is not a woman - The Simple Truth by David Baldacci

4. A graphic memoir - Adulthood is a Myth by Sarah Andersen

5. A book about a natural disaster - Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala

6. A play by an AOC and/or queer author - Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz

7. A historical fiction novel not set in WWII - The Emporer's Assassin by Autumn Bardot

8. An audiobook of poetry - The Edgar Allan Poe audio collection

9. The last book in a series - Origin by Dan Brown

10. A book that takes place in a rural setting - The Betrayal by Beverly Lewis

11. A debut novel by a queer author - Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

12. A memoir by someone from a religious tradition that is not your own - Escape by Carolyn Jessop

13. A food book about a cuisine you've never tried before - The Cooking Gene by Michael W. Twitty

14. A romance starring a single parent - The Next Always by Nora Roberts

15. A book about climate change - The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells

16. A doorstopper (over 500p) published after 1950, written by a woman - Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

17. A sci-fi/fantasy novella - Dreamsongs by George R. R. Martin

18. A picture book with a character from a marginalized community - I Came From the Water by Vanita Oelschlager

19. A book by or about a refugee - Outcasts United by Warren St. John

20. A middle-grade book that doesn't take place in the U.S. or UK - Lost in the Amazon by Tod Olson

21. A book with a main character or protagonist with a disability - Rescue and Jessica by Jessica Kensky

22. A horror book published by an indie press - Haunting of the Blackthorne House by Bruce Knapp

23. An edition of a literary magazine (digital or physical) - Harvard Review

24. A book in any genre by a Native, First Nations, or Indigenous author - Dreaming in Indian by Lisa Charleyboy

Modern Mrs. Darcy Reading Challenge (Count: 10/10)

1. A book published the decade you were born - Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume

2. A debut novel - Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney

3. A book recommended by a source you trust - Miracle Creek by Angie Kim

4. A book by a local author - The Calligrapher's Daughter by Eugenia Kim

5. A book outside your comfort zone - The Warden by Anthony Trollope

6. A book in translation - The Dinner by Herman Koch

7. A book nominated for an award in 2020 - The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom

8. A re-read - The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

9. A classic you didn't read in school - East of Eden by John Steinbeck

10. Three books by the same author - The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins (and here, here)

10 Books from the Back to University Reading List (Count: 10/10)

1. Clarissa by Samuel Richardson

2. The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyon

3. The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot

4. Volpone by Ben Jonson

5. A Sentimental Journey by Laurence Sterne

6. Songs of Innocence and Experience by William Blake

7. Caleb Williams by William Godwin

8. Nightmare Abbey by Thomas Love Peacock

9. Don Juan by Lord George Gordon Byron

10. The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowle

5 Books of Poetry (Count: 5/5)

1. Swallowtail by Brenna Twohy

2. Forgive Yourself These Tiny Acts of Self-Destruction by Jared Singer

3. The Selected Poems of Donald Hall

4. The Essential Dylan Thomas

5. The Wug Test by Jennifer Kronovet

A RAD Reading Challenge (Count: 12/12)

1. A book with a cover in your favorite color - Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan

2. A book of short stories or essays - Collected Stories by William Faulkner

3. A book recommended by someone older than you - The Life of Greece by Will Durant

4. A book about a faith you don't practice - Jerusalem by Simon Sebag Montefiore

5. A book first written in a language you don't speak - Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami

6. A book featured at your local bookstore - The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

7. A book you loved as a kid - Oh, the Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss

8. A book published the year you were born - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

9. An unread book you already own - Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff

10. A book about a hobby or passion of yours - Maestra by L.S. Hilton

11. A spooky thriller/mystery read - The Last Widow by Karin Slaughter

12. A holiday/winter themed read - Winter Street by Elin Hilderbrand

Reading Glasses Challenge (Count: 10/10)

1. A book set in another country - The Secret River by Kate Grenville

2. A romance novel - Meet Cute by Jennifer L. Armentrout

3. A book written by a woman of color - The Friend by Sigrid Nunez

4. A novel with a non-human protagonist - Seargent Stubby by Ann Bausum

5. A book you have already read - Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

• Stop reading a book you aren't enjoying

• Review a book on Goodreads

• Donate a book

• Recommend a book on social media

• Annotate a book or write/save/highlight quotes you like

#ReadYourBooks Challenge (Count: 10/10)

1. This I Believe edited by Jay Allison and Dan Gediman

2. With Every Letter by Sarah Sundin

3. Good Men by Jennifer Weiner

4. Neverland by Anna Katmore

5. The Art of Work by Jeff Goins

6. Pretty Things Don't Break by Lauren Jayne

7. The Last Orphans by N.W. Harris

8. The Thorn by Beverly Lewis

9. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

10. Mississippi Sissy by Kevin Sessums