Hello Readers! This will be my sixth year to participate in the Popsugar Reading Challenge. What I like about this challenge is it pushes me out of my comfort zones a bit, but I can almost always find books off my own shelf to fill the prompts. There’s an informative Goodreads group, as well as a Facebook group, and multiple groups on StoryGraph (but this one seems to be the most official). All of which are great places to go to gather inspiration for the prompts. I like to create this post to refer back to as I read, creating update posts throughout the year, as well.

When choosing books for the prompts, I try to pick out existing books on my physical and digital shelves first and then fill in any other spots with books I’ve been wanting to read but don’t own yet. What usually causes my list to change the most are my ARCs (advanced reader copies). It’s usually while I’m reading them that I discover they’ll fit a prompt on the list. But I do also like to allow some room for mood reading by choosing alternate books for most prompts.

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After browsing through 2023’s prompts, I quickly realized many were familiar. When Popsugar released the list they stated, “For this ninth iteration of the challenge, we’re subtly leaning into the nostalgia all around us.” Half of the list is composed of repeated prompts from more recent years, as well as having prompts that inspire rereading or nostalgia from readers’ birth or high school years, for example. There was much grumbling among participants in the Goodreads group, who would have preferred a more unique list, but I’m rather excited about it. I love to reread—which I failed to do at all in 2022—and I’ve easily been able to fill in all the prompts with existing books from my TBR—most already waiting on my digital and physical shelves.

The prompt I’m most excited about: A book you read more than ten years ago. I’ve been wanting to do a reread of The Hunger Games series, as well as read the latest release in the world: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes before the adaptation is released. I found the perfect prompts on this year’s challenge for each of the books in the series.

For the past five years, I’ve challenged myself by adding multiple books for several prompts, reading more than the total 50 books for the challenge. This year, I’ve decided to stick to the original 50 total prompts, allowing room for more mood reading outside of the challenge.

Let’s see what books I’ve penciled in for my reading this year!

• A book you meant to read in 2022 – Running Wild by K.A. Tucker (alternate – My Policeman by Bethan Roberts)
• A book you bought from an independent bookstore – Babel by R.F. Kuang (alternate – Conversations With Friends by Sally Rooney)
• A book about a vacation – Happy Place by Emily Henry
• A book by a first-time author – The Stranded by Sarah Daniels
• A book with mythical creatures – Greywaren (Dream Thieves, #3) by Maggie Stiefvater (alternate – Circe by Madeleine Miller)

• A book about a forbidden romance – My Policeman by Bethan Roberts (alternate – My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell)
• A book with “Girl” in the title – The Summer Girl (Avalon Bay, #3) by Elle Kennedy (alternate – Girls of Brackenhill by Kate Moretti)
• A celebrity memoir – Stories I Only Tell My Friends by Rob Lowe (alternate – Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher)
• A book with a color in the title – Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert (Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë)
• A romance with a fat lead – Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert (alternate – Ever After Always by Chloe Liese)
  *This prompt caused a little controversy among the discussion group because of the word choice. The idea behind the prompt is to take back the word “fat”, removing the negative stigma the word has gained—much like the LGBTQIA community has done for the word “queer”, but some readers argued the word “fat” can be triggering. It’s an interesting discussion, but I’m not sure what the right choice is.

• A book about or set in Hollywood – The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren (alternate – Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief by Lawrence Wright)
• A book published in spring 2023 – The Half Moon by Mary Beth Keane (alternate – Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfield)
• A book published the year you were born – Light Years by James Salter (alternate – Ramona the Brave by Beverly Cleary)
• A modern retelling of a classic – Circe by Madeline Miller (alternate – Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors by Sonali Dev)
• A book with a song lyric as its title – Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (alternate – Don’t You Forget About Me by Mhairi McFarlane)

• A book where the main character’s name is in the title – Georgie, All Along by Kate Clayborn (alternate – A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman)
• A book with a love triangle – Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (reread)
• A book that’s been banned or challenged in any state in 2022 – Stamped by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi (alternate – All American Boys by Jason Reynolds)
• A book that fulfills your favorite prompt from a past challenge – 2019: A reread of a favorite book – The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
• A book becoming a TV series or movie in 2023 – Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins (alternate – A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman)

• A book set in the decade you were born – If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin (alternate – The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton)
• A book with a queer lead – Here the Whole Time by Vitor Martin (alternate – Loveless by Alice Oseman)
• A book with a map – A Torch Against the Night (Ember in the Ashes, #2) by Sabaa Tahir (alternate –Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas)
• A book with a rabbit on the cover – Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo
• A book with just text on the cover – My Favorite Half-Night Stand by Christina Lauren (alternate – Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris)

• The shortest book (by pages) on your TBR list – Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (This is the shortest book on my physical shelf, but it might get replaced by the shortest on my digital shelf, The Bookstore Sisters by Alice Hoffman)
• A #Booktok recommendation – It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover (alternate – Verity by Colleen Hoover)
• A book you bought secondhand – Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood (alternate – Somewhere Close to Happy by Lia Louis)
• A book your friend recommended – My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante (alternate – Addicted to You by Krista Ritchie and Becca Ritchie)
• A book that’s on a celebrity book-club list – Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid (alternate – Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman)

• A book about a family – Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi (alternate – Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng)
• A book that comes out in the second half of 2023 – Hello Stranger by Katherine Center (alternate – Our Place on the Island by Erika Montgomery)
• A book about an athlete/sport – The Deal by Elle Kennedy (alternate – Wait For It by Mariana Zapata)
• A historical-fiction book – The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah (alternate – The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah)
• A book about divorce – After I Do by Taylor Jenkins Reid (alternate – Heartburn by Nora Ephron)

• A book you think your best friend would like – I’ll leave this one blank and choose it while reading.
• A book you should have read in high school – A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (alternate – Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison)
• A book you read more than 10 years ago – Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
• A book you wish you could read again for the first time – Beach Read by Emily Henry
• A book by an author with the same initials as you – Parkland by Dave Cullen (alternate – Necessary Lies by Diane Chamberlain)

Advanced Prompts

• A book written during Nanowrimo – Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes (alternate – Cinder by Marissa Meyer, which would be a reread)
  *There was a bit of grumbling about this prompt, as well, but as a years-long Nanowrimo participant, I was quite happy to see it on the challenge.
• A book based on a popular movie – Pretty in Pink by H.B. Gilmour (alternate – The Karate Kid by Bonnie Bryant Hiller)
  *This prompt is perfect for my newly acquired vintage movie novelizations!
• A book that takes place entirely in one day – The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon (alternate – The Night of Many Endings by Melissa Payne)
• A book that was self-published – Wool by Hugh Howey (alternate – Lovelight Farms by B.K. Borison)
• A book that started out as fan-fiction – Heartless by Marissa Meyer (alternate – Beautiful Bastard by Christina Lauren)

• A book with a pet character – Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton (alternate – The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Nes)
• A book about a holiday that’s not Christmas – The Do-Over by Lynn Painter (alternate – The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling)
• A book that features two languages – This prompt appeared on last year’s challenge, as well, and I was surprised by how many books I read that would fulfill it, so I’ll leave this one blank to fill in with the first book that works.
• The longest book (by pages) on your TBR list – This dreaded prompt also appeared on the advanced portion of the 2021 challenge. I ended up using the longest book on my tbr for the year instead of one from my overall Goodreads tbr. I’ll probably end up doing that again, which means I’ll slot Chain of Thorns by Cassandra Clare (752 pages) here or for the alternate, my next Outlander book, Written in My Own Heart’s Blood by Diana Gabaldon (842 pages).
• A book with alliteration in the title – Meet Me in Mumbai by Sabina Khan (alternate – I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith)

Are you participating in the Popsugar Reading Challenge? Did I include any of your favorite books? Let me know in the comments!

Happy Wandering!