So the 2018 Read Harder challenge posted a few weeks ago. I spent way more time than I ought to have done figuring out what books I might use for each task. I have as much fun doing research as I do actually reading, I think. #nerdalert. I managed to get a couple to double dip, which is awesome, and allowed for the challenge. I’m adding another layer of challenge to myself and will only use books I already own and haven’t gotten around to reading, or will use my library, to complete this challenge. I will not buy any more books this year. Unless someone gives me a gift card. Or I get a reading copy from a publicist.

Below is my tentative 2018 Read Harder list, which will probably change as I read throughout the year. It is always interesting to see what I had planned to read vs what I ended up actually reading…

1. A book published posthumously: Northanger Abbey – Jane Austen OR The Aeneid
2. A book of true crime: The Wicked Boy – Kate Summerscale or The Monster of Florence – Douglas Preston & Mario Spezi
3. A classic of genre fiction (i.e. mystery, sci fi/fantasy, romance): The Moon is a Harsh Mistress – Robert A. Heinlein
4. A comic written and illustrated by the same person: Perspolis – Marjane Satrapi
5. A book set in or about one of the five BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, or South Africa): The Bear and the Nightingale – Katherine Arden
6. A book about nature: The Long, Long Life of Trees – Joanna Stafford
7. A western: Topaz – Beverly Jenkins
8. A comic written or illustrated by a person of color: Perspolis – Marjane Satrapi
9. A book of colonial or postcolonial literature: Interpreter of Maladies – Jhumpa Lahiri or Half a Yellow Sun – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
10. A romance novel by or about a person of color: Topaz – Beverly Jenkins
11. A children’s classic published before 1980: The Witch of Blackbird Pond – Elizabeth George Speare
12. A celebrity memoir: Wishful Drinking – Carrie Fisher (or maybe The Princess Diarist)
13. An Oprah Book Club selection: Midwives – Chris Bohjalian
14. A book of social science: Homo Deus – Yuval Noah Harari or We Should All Be Feminists – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
15. A one-sitting book: won’t know for sure until I read it, though I think The Witch of Blackbird Pond would do the job. It’s short.
16. The first book in a new-to-you YA or middle grade series: Howl’s Moving Castle – Diana Wynn Jones or One Crazy Summer – Rita Williams-Garcia
17. A sci fi novel with a female protagonist by a female author: ALL the NK Jemisin books! OR An Unkindness of Ghosts – Rivers Solomon. Or the space books by Anne McCaffrey (The Ship Who Sang, etc)
18. A comic that isn’t published by Marvel, DC, or Image: Perspolis – Marjane Satrapi
19. A book of genre fiction in translation: The Three-Body Problem – Cixin Liu
20. A book with a cover you hate: maybe One Crazy Summer – Rita Williams-Garcia? I hate the way the copy I have depicts the girls. Not a fan of cartoonish book covers.
21. A mystery by a person of color or LGBTQ+ author: The Cutting Season – Attica Locke OR Devil in a Blue Dress – Walter Mosley
22. An essay anthology: View from the Cheap Seats – Neil Gaiman or The Sweetness of a Simple Life – Diana Beresford-Kroeger
23. A book with a female protagonist over the age of 60: Mrs Queen Takes the Train – William Kuhn
24. An assigned book you hated (or never finished): something by Charles Dickens OR The Aeneid