Oulfis' Bespoke 2019 Reading Challenge

[oulfis]

Because life is meaningless without rules and spreadsheets, I've set myself a challenge to fulfill the following 50 prompts with my reading this year! Books can count for as many prompts as they fit.

Current Status: Reading lots of things, finishing very few of them.

Prompts
A little bit of variety

1. A volume of poetry: 16, Stag's Leap, by Sharon Olds.
2. A book that won a Hugo or Nebula: 18, Three Body Problem (Hugo)
3. A book I love re-reading: 11, Pride and Prejudice; 30, The Curse of Chalion
4. A Gothic novel NOT from the 18thC
5. A book that I hear people talk about a lot: 22, The Essex Serpent
6. A work of non-fiction (not a literary monograph): 7, Wrong About Japan, a travelogue; 10, Japan Lonely Planet guide; 13, Daughters of the Samurai; 20, Augustus: First Emperor of Rome; 26, Post-Capitalist Survival Guide
7. A random book from my Goodreads to-read shelf: 15, Privilege of the Sword, previously book #49 on the list, added on July 2, 2016. (If I want to do another, the next one my random number generator picked was, bizarrely, also 49, now referring to The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, added July 24, 2016)
8. A book I meant to read in 2018: 22, The Essex Serpent.
9. A book mentioned in another book
10. A book with a nun: 3, Katherine, whose title character sometimes remembers having grown up in a convent.
11. A comic book
12. A book set in a country where I have never been: 7, Wrong About Japan, read before I went to Japan.
13. A book involving a non-Christian holiday
14. A book that revolves around a bet or game

Judging a book by its bibliographic metadata

15. A book by an author whose first and last names start with the same letter: 12, Rainbow Rowell
16. A book published in 2019: 21, This Is How You Lose the Time War; 26, Post-Capitalist Survival Guide.
17. A book with a question in the title
18. A book that’s been the title of my newsletter
19. A "birthday book": released during my birth month, or by an author who shares my birthday: 24, a lecture given on my birth date (February 19) in 1795
20. A copy of a book printed before 1830
21. A work published at one point as an incunabulum
22. A book by an author whose name is also an animal

Making things complicated

23. Three books by authors of three different ethnicities (1): 1, by Paul Krueger, Filipino
24. Three books by authors of three different ethnicities (2): 18, by Cixin Liu, Chinese
25. Three books by authors of three different ethnicities (3)
26. Three books recommended by friends from different friend circles (1): 20, from an Ohio IRL friend
27. Three books recommended by friends from different friend circles (2): 22, from a tumblr friend
28. Three books recommended by friends from different friend circles (3)
29. An author’s first and last books (first)
30. An author’s first and last books (last)
31. A five-book "title chain" (each book's title must share a word with the preceding book): 1, Last Call at the Nightshade Lounge
32. A five-book "title chain" (2): 33, Mira's Last Dance
33. A five-book "title chain" (3)
34. A five-book "title chain" (4)
35. A five-book "title chain" (5)

Can't take a guy out of the 18th century

36. Something published in the 1770s
37. Something published in the 1780s: 4, Cecilia (1782).
38. Something published in 1789
39. Something published in 1790
40. Something published in 1791
41. Something published in 1792
42. Something published in 1793
43. Something published in 1794
44. Something published in 1795: 24, Mr. Denne's observations (1795)
45. Something published in 1796
46. Something published in 1797
47. Something published in 1798
48. Something published in 1799
49. Something published in the 1800s
50. Something published in the 1810s: 11, Pride and Prejudice (1813).

Books Read

1. Last Call at the Nightshade Lounge, by Paul Krueger (2016). Prompts filled: 23, three books by authors of different ethnicities; 31, first book in the title chain.
2. The Inimitable Jeeves, by P.G. Wodehouse (1923).
3. Katherine, by Anya Seton (1954). Prompt filled: 10, a book with a nun.
4. Cecilia: Memoirs of an Heiress, by Frances Burney (1782). Prompts filled: 37, something published in the 1780s.
5. Lord Peter Views the Body, by Dorothy Sayers (1928).
6. Carry On, Jeeves, by P.G. Wodehose (1925).
7. Wrong About Japan, by Peter Carey (2004). Prompts filled: 6, a work of non-fiction; 12, a book set in on a continent where I have never been.
8. The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, by Dorothy Sayers (1928).
9. Strong Poison, by Dorothy Sayers (1930).
10. Japan, by Lonely Planet (2017). Prompt filled: 6, a work of non-fiction. It no longer qualifies for 12, a book set in on a continent where I have never been, because I have now been in Japan, and read this book while there!
11. Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen (1813). Prompts filled: 3, a book I love re-reading; 50, a work published in the 1810s.
12. Carry On, by Rainbow Rowell (2015). Prompt filled: an author whose first and last names start with the same letter.
13. Daughters of the Samurai: A Journey from East to West and Back, by Janice P. Nimura (2015). Prompt filled: 6, a work of non-fiction.
14. The Five Red Herrings, by Dorothy Sayers (1931).
15. The Privilege of the Sword, by Ellen Kushner (2006). Prompt filled: 15, a random book from my to-read shelf.
16. Stag's Leap: Poems, by Sharon Olds (2012). Prompt filled: 1, a volume of poetry.
17. Very Good, Jeeves!, by P.G. Wodehouse (1930).
18. The Three-Body Problem, by Cixin Liu (2008). Prompts filled: 2, won a Hugo; 24, three books by authors of different ethnicities.
19. Charlotte Smith in British Romanticism, ed. Jacqueline Labbe (2008).
20. Augustus: First Emperor of Rome, by Adrian Goldsworthy (2015) . Prompts filled: 6, a work of non-fiction; 26, first book recommended by friends from different friend circles.
21. This Is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (2019). Prompt filled: 16, a book published in 2019.
22. The Essex Serpent, by Sarah Perry (2016). Prompts filled: 5, a book that I hear people talk about a lot; 8, a book I meant to read in 2018; 27, second book recommended by friends from different friend circles
23. Thank You, Jeeves, by P.G. Wodehouse (1933).
24. Mr. Denne's observations on a triple stone seat at Upchurch in Kent, by Samuel Denne (1795). Prompts filled: 19, a "birthday book" (the original lecture was given on my birth date, February 19, in 1795); 44, something published in 1795.
25. Thank You, Jeeves, by P.G. Wodehouse (1933).
26. The Worst Is Yet to Come: A Post-Capitalist Survival Guide, by Peter Fleming (2019). Prompt filled: 6, a work of non-fiction; 16, a book published in 2019.
27. Maisie Dobbs, by Jacqueline Winspear (2003).
28. Howl's Moving Castle, by Diana Wynne Jones (1986).
29. Uprooted, by Naomi Novik (2015).
30. The Curse of Chalion, by Lois McMaster Bujold (2000). Prompt filled: 3, a book I love re-reading.
31. Paladin of Souls, by Lois McMaster Bujold (2003).
32. Penric's Mission, by Lois McMaster Bujold (2016).
33. Mira's Last Dance, by Lois McMaster Bujold (2017). Prompt filled: 32, second book in the title chain.

My goal with this challenge is partly to read things that I wouldn't otherwise have picked up, but mostly to push myself to think frequently about reading.

Wish me luck! And give me reading recs filling these prompts (or prompts for next year!) in the comments!!