Now that we have hit about the middle point of the year I am creating a post just to look at how I’m doing with the reading challenge and seeing what I still want and need. The first six months I just looked to see what could fit as I read it. In the next 6 months I want to pick more books for my tbr that fit with the prompts.
Its a bit of a long post but I hope I’ve made it easier by now using tables.
What I Read so Far
I am doing pretty decent. At this halfway point I have hit 28 prompts of 52. But it is going to be a little harder from here on out. I’m going to have to find a few books that are more specific towards certain prompts. I haven’t been picking up a whole lot of sci-fi so that is where I need to focus on a bit more. Luckily Sci-Fi month is still upcoming so that should give me a bit more motivation to pick up a few of those.
Be a Fire Breathing Dragon
| Prompts | Book |
| Classic Fantasy | Avempartha by Michael J. Sullivan |
| Magic School | Wundersmith by Jessia Townsend |
| Dragon | The Silver Tide by Jen Williams |
| Fairytale Retelling | The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden |
| Uncommon Fantasy Creatures | Stronger Than a Bronze Dragon by Mary Fan |
| Shapeshifters | King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo |
| Gods | Firestarter by Tara Sim |
| Matriarchy | The True Queen by Zen Cho |
| Set in Our World | The Fever King by Victoria Lee |
| Witches | Monstress volume 1 by Marjorie Liu |
| Thief | The Crown Conspiracy by Michael J. Sullivan |
| Pirates | The Abyss Surrounds Us by Emily Skrutskie |
| Portal Fantasy | Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire |
| Warrior | Slayer by Kierstin White |
Be an Alien
| Prompts | Book |
| On a Different Planet | Second Star by J.M Sullivan |
| Space Ship | Artificial Condition by Martha Wells |
| AI Point of View | All Systems Red by Martha Wells |
| Virtual Reality | Wildcard by Marie Lu |
| Steampunk | Cogheart by Peter Bunzl |
| Superpowers | Not Your Backup by C.B. Lee |
| Space Creatures/Beasts | The Outside by Ada Hoffmann |
Be a Generic Robot
| Prompts | Book |
| Under 500 Pages | Red Sister by Mark Lawrence |
| Satire | Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman |
| Novella | Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire |
| Finish a Series | The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden |
| Mental Health | Shadowsong by S. Jae-Jones / Bipolar |
| By a Woman of Color | Shadow of the Fox by Julie Kagawa |
| One Word Title | Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones |
What I Am Planning on Reading
So here I’ve gone through books I own or books that my library has (which is why some have the dutch title behind them). Especially with sci-fi I’ll be picking up some more books from the library. Of course this isn’t set in stone and I might be picking up something different if it passes me by.
Be a Fire Breathing Dragon
| Prompts | Book | Owned | Library |
| Necromancers | The Bone Witch | x | |
| PTSD | The First Law or The Way of Kings | x | |
| Grimdark | Grey Sister | x | |
| Ghosts | The Awakening | x | |
| Animal Companion | Spellslinger | x | |
| Magical Law Enforcement | Stormfront | x |
Be an Alien
| Prompts | Book | Owned | Library |
| Utopia | The Dispossessed / Ontheemde | x | |
| Hive | Hellstrom’s Hive / Gonzende Nachtmerrie | x | |
| Alien | Only You Can Save Mankind | x | |
| Science | The Three Body-Problem | x | |
| Proto Sci-Fi | From the Earth to the Moon or Dr Jekyll and Dr. Hyde | x | |
| Replicate | Ringer | x | |
| Space Colonization | Avalon? | x | |
| Time Travel | The Last Magician | x | |
| Mecha | |||
| Space Creatures/Beasts | Perido Street Station / Station Perido | x | |
| Teleportation | The Long Earth | x | |
| Space Western | Leviathan Wakes | x | |
| The Moon | Caliban’s War? | x | |
| Invasion | The Three Body-Problem | x |
Be a Generic Robot
| Prompts | Book | Owned | Library |
| Over 800 Pages | The Priory of the Orange Tree | x | |
| Disability | Ancillary Justice | x | |
| Published before 1990 | Wyrd Sisters | x | |
| Library | Library of fates / Sorcery of thorns | X / X | |
| Set in Africa | Akata Witch | x |
Suggestions from Me & Others
As with the actual reading challenge post here are some suggestions for some of the prompts that aren’t already up above. I hope some of these will help you to continue on with the reading challenge!
Imyril
The lovely Imyril from X+1 has been sharing her recommendations for the prompts on this reading challenge over on her blog and what she has out so far I am linking down below.
Fantasy
| Prompt | Book |
| Animal or in Animal form companion(s) | Godsgrave by Jay Kristoff |
| Thief | The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi |
| Gods | The Copper Promise by Jen Williams |
| PTSD | Ascendant Kingdoms by Gail Z. Martin (PTSD will be a topic at some point in the series but I am not a 100% sure where) The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater The Dragon Republic by R.F. Kuang |
Sci-Fi
| Prompt | Book |
| On a Different Planet | All Systems Red by Martha Wells Empress of a Thousand Skies by Rhoda Belezza Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee Saga by Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples |
| Space Ship | Nyxia by Scott Reintgen Sanctuary by Caryn Lix Avalon by Mindee Arnett The Ship Who Sang by Anne McAffrey |
| AI Point of View | All Systems Red by Martha Wells Diaspora by Greg Egan The Bicential Man by Isaac Asimov Excession by Ian Banks Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson |
| Proto Sci-Fi | Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift The Blazing World by Margaret Cavendish |
| Alien | The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. le Guin Destroyer by Anna Carven We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson The Humans by Matt Haig |
| Steampunk | Homonculus by James P. Baylock |
| Invasion | The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu Skyward by Brandon Sanderson |
| Mecha | United States of Japan by Peter Tieryas |
| Space Creatures/Beasts | Dune by Frank Herbert Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons |
General
| Prompt | Book |
| Mental Health | Someone Like Me by M.R. Carey Borderline by Misshel Baker (Borderline, suicide) Planetfall by Emma Newman (Anxiety) Hystopia by David Means ( PTSD) The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater (anxiety, PTSD) Dragonslayer by Duncan M. Hamilton (Alcoholism) |
| Disability | The Electrical Menagerie by Mollie E. Reeder A Curse so Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer / Ceberal Palsy Crown of Feathers by Nicki Pau Preto / Blind Character |
| Set in Africa | Unholy Land by Lavie Tidhar Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor Rosewater by Tade Thompson The Prey of Gods by Nick Drayden The Ear, the Eye and the Arm by Nancy Farmer |
| By a Woman of Color | Octavia Butler |
Thank you to
Tammy / Imiryl / Vicki / Kathy Austin / Elizabeth / Kathy for your help with recs in the original reading challenge post comments or elsewhere.
I can’t tell if I’m more excited for you to read Storm Front or Sorcery of Thorns. Dresden Files is one of my favorite series ever, but man if I didn’t fall head over heels in love with Thorns!
You’ve read so many awesome books and have so many awesome ones to come!
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Be for Sorcery of Thorns because I have that in my hands right now haha.
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The ‘over 800 pages’ is down to two for me: The Priory of the Orange Tree of Robin Hobb’s Ship of Magic – but pretty sure Priory will win out for me too 🙂
Very excited to hear what you make of The Expanse…
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I’m just really curious about Priory!
Me too. I’ve heard little of it so I was surprised to find the translation in the library catalogue.
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I’m going to be filling out my bingo cards this week. After that I’ll take a look at all the recommendations. Thanks for those categorized books! 👍✨
You’ve covered a lot of ground! I hope I have done half as well as you have. I have no clue because I haven’t been keeping track. 😛
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Oh curious to see! I hope you got a great amount already 😀
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