2025 Pick Your Poison Challenge

I discovered this reading challenge by Gregory Road in December of 2024, ten years too late to be a long-term participant. I was disappointed to learn 2025 was to be the final year of the challenge but made the decision to join in the fun while it lasted. The challenge was designed to be a reading challenge for people who struggle with reading challenges, offering a wide variety of topics for participants to choose from. 

I challenged myself to the Baker's Dozen: 13 books - Choose one category from any of the thirteen topics provided except for the wildcard books, thinking it would give me the best shot at actually completing the challenge. Thirteen would be one more book than my GoodReads Challenge so it seemed like an okay goal. Imagine how stunned I was that I hit book 13 by July, surpassing my GoodReads Challenge, and I hadn't had to go out of my way to track down suitable books.

These are the categories and books I chose:

1. Basic Genres - Biography. American Pharoah by Joe Drape

2. Sub-Genres - An eldritch horror book. I had to look up the definition of 'eldritch' in order to achieve this goal. According to Wikipedia, eldritch horror "is a subgenre of horror, fantasy fiction and weird fiction that emphasizes the horror of the unknowable and incomprehensible more than gore or other elements of shock."  Handling the Undead by John Ajvide Lindqvist 

3. Change It Up! - A book in a genre you don't normally read. Zodiac Unmasked by Robert Graysmith, my first true crime novel ever.

4. Let's Go Small - A book set in a small town. The Whisper Man by Alex North 

5. Delve Into The Past - A book about an ancient civilization. Circe by Madeline Miller 

6. Measuring Up - A book about a long-distance relationship. Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston 

7. Ticklish - A book about a touchy subject. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

8. That Wedding Tradition - Something Old: A book set at least 3 decades before you were born. Quiet Dell by Jayne Anne Phillips

9. Isolation - A book with a hermit character. The Land of Lost Things by John Connolly

10. Mistakes Were Made - A story of misadventure. The Wager by David Grann

11. School Lunches - A YA Novel. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

12. Cardinal - A book with a cardinal number in the title. One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig

13. Card Suits - Clubs: A book about an exclusive group or club. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

I've been aware of reading challenges but outside of Goodreads I've never participated in one until now. I found it was an interesting way to motivate myself to keep on reading and to keep on blogging.

On this New Year's Eve, I've already picked out my next blogging challenge: The Speccy Fiction Challenge which is all about speculative fiction, hosted by Bookd Out, but I'll have more information on that tomorrow.