Colleen at The Thursday 13 holds a weekly blogging prompt where bloggers make a list of 13 things on Thursdays. The topic is for you to choose. The blog host doesn't have any official graphics to display on the Thursday 13 posts, so I decided to whip one up myself. 🙂
This is also a book-themed post, so I will be sharing it to the Book Blog Discussion Challenge as well.
Every year, the different reading prompts get more bizarre and hard to determine a book for. Here are some this year (in no particular order) that I have some difficulty finding something for. I try Googling ideas, but often come up with books I likely won't be able to find without buying them. I'll see an obscure title and figure it won't be at my library (that often is the case). And results can be spotty, of course, not quite pertaining to the particular search info. I don't look up every single title or name I come across, but who has time for that? If you have any ideas, I'd love to hear them, hoping I'll be able to find them:)
- MC who collects something unusual. (From this challenge). Hmm.. What is something unusual that a person might collect? Lots of people collect coins, bottle caps, stamps, toys, sports cards. Googling this one produces very spotty results, few if any, related to book. Of course, I don't have time to go through every single result, but the top ones have no book suggestions.
- Poetry by a Black British writer (Feminist Reading Challenge):The top search for this one produced only one familiar name, Bernadine Evaristo, whose book of poetry Girl, Woman, Other, I have at home. I read it already, and am not sure about rereading it just yet. None of the other top results from this search are familiar to me. I'm willing to discover someone new to read, but none can be found in my library database.
- Book mentioned in a TV show or streamed series (Two variants on this theme at two different challenges). I was having trouble with this one, until I checked the Goodreads group for one of the challenge (just now) and saw that a book I just completed is part of the Gilmore Girls Reading list. I'll have to go back and add that one. Since I never saw that show, I'm only somewhat familiar with the list. I have to find books for in other reading categories, but always have to look at the list.
- Book revealed to be a literary hoax or forgery (Robot Librarian): The Goodreads group for this one provides a Wikipedia link with suggestions. One I have already read and others that seem hard to find. Some I've looked up in my library database, to no avail, but one is on Project Gutenberg as an E-book. It's a little long, but may be my only choice.
- Instagram find/recommendation (several variants on this idea at different challenges). This might not seem too difficult or bizarre to some people, but Instagram is rarely the place where I look for book ideas. I know I'll have to do this and it's not hard to do, but I just have push myself to do so. Just not used to this idea:) Who has found book recs on IG?
- TikTok find/recommendation (again, several variations on this idea at different challenges). Since I don't use TikTok, this is nearly impossible! I know I can look up recommendations for this, and have tried this already, but just have not completely decided on anything. So many people I know have started using TikTok, but I'm still unsure of getting into it myself.
- Lowest rated book on your TBR. This is certainly not meant to be an absolute thing. I mean, who has time to look up all the ratings for all the books you have on your TBR, whether it's those you already have or those recently checked out from the library? Readers are free to interpret prompts their own way, so I'll have to pick two or more books I have to see which has the lowest Goodreads rating out of each of them. This seems like a good approach for this one.
- Set in space/space race/with space aliens (again, different variations on this topic). On the surface, this may not seem like a difficult category, but as someone who reads very few space-related genres, trying to decide on book for this one is taking time. I plan to read only one such book this year, if I can get it to cross over into the different challenge categories.
- Protagonist is a plant. How bizarre is this one? I looked for a Goodreads listopia on this one, but this is all that came up. (Protagonist is a dungeon?--I now know where to look if anyone ever comes up with that as reading category) Horror stories with an evil attacking plant is one of the things that came to my mind upon seeing this category. One of the pictures in this bingo challenge is a plant--a plant as protagonist would also work well for this one.
- Read a book by an author with an upcoming event (virtual or in person) and then attend the event (Book Riot): The first thing that came to mind when I saw this was not being able to afford to go to any such events. Even virtual events can have fees. But I have decided to approach this one as someone on the Goodreads group for the challenge suggested. Only complete the first part. Look up any upcoming author events, and read a book by any of those authors.
- Recommended on a podcast (More than one variation on this one as well). As someone who doesn't listen to podcasts, this one is hard. One of the challenges with this prompt is this year is PBN. I'll just look at the site to see what they recommend and use it for all the challenges that have this category. Seems like the best solution for this.
- Book recommended for your zodiac sign. I recently started looking for books for this one. A lot of the ones that came up were books I've already read! But I did find one that I've never read that caught my interest. I had a feeling it would not be at my library, but it is!
- A book from Editors Pick on Amazon for your birth month. I have done some searching for this one, but have not chosen anything. I will have to go back to this one soon.
And those are just some categories I have found a little challenging this year. One that I was having trouble with but finally finished last month was "NFL team" for this one. The title has to contain a word that is found in the name of a team, and the first things that crossed my mind were the words "eagles" and "cowboys." I don't watch football, so I am only familiar with so many team names! I was also trying to finish up the Color Coded challenge with a title for the color brown. I then remembered about the Cleveland Browns, so I decided to count the title with brown for the NFL team as well. Now I've got those two done!
I don't want to get started on "Started but never finished," but I've gotten this one many times in different year, and have it twice this year. It's rare that I never begin book without finishing it. Almost never, in fact. Again, since categories are open to interpretation, I have often gotten around this one by trying to complete a series I'd started but didn't finish. Or at least continue with the next book in sequence. I keep thinking I'll pretend to start a book, then go back and read it in full later.
What are some bizarre reading categories you have encountered? Or difficult ones for you?
5 comments:
I don't participate in things like this. I read a lot of different genres and try to pick up a couple of classics that I may have missed when I was younger every year. For the space one (and maybe the plant one), I offer you "This is How You Lose the Time War" by Max Gladstone et al.
'Protagonist is a Plant'. That one may be challenging;)
Wow, those are hard. I have enough books (most that I picked up free) on my ereader that when I have time to read, I scroll through what I have and pick something.
This is an interesting post. I didn't know there was a Gilmore Girls reading page. It's a long list too, isn't it? (I had to check it out.) And like you, a list of books I didn't finish might be on the longer side, although books I read most of and then didn't finish would be doable. Most of the time if you get that far into a book it's just worth wrapping it up, but not always. The protagonist is a plant, that sounds really difficult. have a great weekend.
This is one challenging challenge! Do you like baseball? Joe Maddon's book, The Book of Joe, inspired his podcast by the same name, so that would count.
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