Setting the groundwork...

 Although I've never been fully successful in achieving an annual reading challenge, one that I'm considering for 2025 is below. I've even created a notebook with books that fill the need for the various categories. I'll list them in this post and cross them off as I go! I tried to go with physical books that I own already to try and make a dent in my shelf space (underlined books are owned), but I'm flexible and going with books on my TBR list in general too. 😂 

This is definitely a work in progress, so don't hold me to having every category figured out just yet!

I'm also going to stick with the Goodreads rating system (more or less)

1 star - didn't like it

2 stars – it was OK

3 stars – liked it

4 stars – really liked it

5 stars – it was amazing

1. Three or more point of views: World War Z
2. Takes place at a college: The Art of Fielding, On Beauty, Fangirl
3. Takes place next to a body of water: The Light Between Oceans, The Woman in Cabin 10, This Tender Land
4. Small town Life: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society. 'Salem's Lot
5. Has 300-350 pages: The Unmaking of June Farrow, Room, The Days I Loved You Most
6. Trending on TikTok: We Used to Live Here
7. Part of a series: The Eyre Affair, Lost in A Good Book
8. Became a movie: The Godfather, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
9. Male POV: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, All Quiet on the Western Front, Dracula, A Clockwork Orange
10. Young Adult: Ready Player One, Ender's Game, A Monster Calls
11. Has multiple authors: Finding Your People: The Ultimate Guide to Friendship
12. Takes place in a Big City: 
13. Takes place on the East Coast: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Rules of Civility, The Cider House Rules
14. Reviewed by Favorite Author: 
15. 4* review: The Handmaid's Tale
16. Amazon "for you" recommendation: All the Colors of the Dark, The Women
17. Reviewed as "can't put down": The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Room, The Secret Life of Bees
18. Setting in the title: China Rich Girlfriend, First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers
19. Green on the cover: Fangirl, Snowflower and the Secret Fan
20. Takes place during the holidays: Little Women, Holidays on Ice, The Five Wounds
21. Takes place during the summer: Happy Place, Malibu Rising, 
22. An indie book: 
23. Off your wishlist:
24. Book club edition: The Prospectors 
25. Mystery: The Big Sleep
26. Has purple on the cover: The White Tiger, In the Time of the Butteflies
27. 2005 bestseller: Snowflower and the Secret Fan, A Long Way Down, The Inheritance of Loss
28. Involves a sport: The Boys in the Boat, Beartown
29. Recommended on Facebook: The Heart's Invisible Furies
30. By a new-to-you author: Sky Full of Elephants
31. One word title: Pachinko, Passing, Atonement
32. Second chance DNF: Half of A Yellow Sun, All the Light We Cannot See
33. International bestseller: A Thousand Splendid Suns, The Kite Runner
34. A Novella: Small Things Like These, Heart of Darkness
35. Second chance lover's trope: The Unmaking of June Farrow, 
36. Reread favorite classic: Their Eyes Were Watching God
37. Author as main character: Sickened: The Memoir of a Munchausen by Proxy Childhood
38. Takes place in another country: Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
39. Romance: The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, Landline, The Wedding People
40. Two word title: Cold Mountain
41. Image of a person on the cover: Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace ... One School at a Time, Lovecraft Country
42. 600+ pages: Fairy Tale, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, The Stand, The Shining
43. Main character is a parent: The Kitchen God's Wife
44. Historical Fiction: The Nightingale, Memoirs of A Geisha
45. 2015 bestseller: The Nightingale, Orphan Train, The Invention of Wings
46. # in the title:The Three-Body Problem, Two Boys Kissing, A Thousand Splendid Suns
47. About family: The Days I Loved You Most 
48. Favorite color on the cover: The Grace Year
49. Involves a vacation: People We Meet on Vacation, The Vacationers, Beautiful Ruins
50. By an author with 25+ published titles: Sycamore Row
51. Main character shares your profession:
52. 2025 new release:
53. New-to-you classic: Jane Eyre, The Giver, Beloved 
54. Recommendation by a friend: The Strange Career of Jim Crow, Sky Full of Elephants
55. Involves a bookstore: Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, Before the Coffee Gets Cold, The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
56. Teenage point-of-view: Hollow City, The Other Boleyn Girl
57. 2010 bestseller: Unbroken, Matched, What Alice Forgot
58. Sci-fi: Lovecraft Country
59. About a kid: Just A Hat
60. Has a map:
61. Enemies to lovers trope: Carry On, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
62. Banned book: Black Boy, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
63. Murder mystery: Mother-Daughter Murder Night, The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
64. 2000 bestseller: The Corrections, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, White Teeth
65. Takes place during autumn:
66. Has a color in the title: The Red Tent
67. True crime nonfiction: Helter Skelter,
68. Recommended by a bookstore clerk:
69. Character's name in title: 
70. By an author who shares your birthday month: Little Women
71. Up and coming author:
72. Read in opposite media preference: When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir
73. 5 * review: The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Schindler's List
74. Spooky read: Dracula, The Girl With All The Gifts, Beloved
75. Fantasy: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, The Gunslinger
76. Three word title: The Life Impossible, 
77. Takes place during spring:
78. Book with siblings: No One Can Know
79. Blue on the cover: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
80. Popular in high school: The Devil Wears Prada
81. Became a TV show: Orange is the New Black, American Gods, 
82. Released 1980-1989: The Remains of the Day, Love in the Time of Cholera
83. Will be a movie in the future: Exit West
84. Recommended by a librarian: Louder Than Hunger
85. 2020 bestseller: The Thursday Murder Club, A Promised Land
86. Has a picture of food on the cover: Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise, The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
87. Genre out of your comfort zone: Like Water for Chocolate
88. Takes place in CA: The Grapes of Wrath, Season of the Witch: Enchantment, Terror and Deliverance in the City of L\ove, Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders
89. 25th anniversary edition:
90. 25 year old main character: The Plated Prisoner
91. Thriller: Misery, The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, No One Can Know
92. About an animal: H is for Hawk, Cujo, Jurassic Park
93. Borrowed from a friend: Truly, Madly, Guilty, The Hypnotist's Love Story
94. Takes place during winter: Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
95. Favorite love trope:
96. Takes place during a war: The Summer Before the War, The Women
97. On your TBR for 3+ years: Siddhartha, The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child's Developing Mind
98. Has red on the cover: Beneath A Scarlet Sky, The Maid
99. Written by an unreliable narrator: Lolita, Piranesi, American Psycho
100. Takes place on West Coast: The Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco, The Women