The 52 Book Club’s 2024 Reading Challenge

The 52 Book Club’s annual reading challenge is made up of 52 unique prompts. The goal is to match one book to each prompt, for a total of fifty-two books over the course of the year. Prompts are related to everything from specific titles, to cover designs, authors, genres, settings, themes, characters, etc. (Think of it like a giant bookish scavenger hunt!) We encourage participants to try books outside of their regular reading comfort zones and push themselves to read more, read differently, and get creative with it!

Visit The 52 Book Club to find out more and join the challenge!

Below is the 52 Book Club’s list of prompts for 2024. These prompts are linked to Goodreads Lists of books that fit each prompt. I copy and pasted them from here, for easy access, and so I can link to each prompt with the books I finish.

Completed August 2024!

The 2024 Goodreads Lists:

1. Locked-room mysteryGideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
2. Bibliosmia: A smelly bookThe Scent Keeper by Erica Bauermeister
3. More than 40 chaptersStiletto by Daniel O’Malley
4. Lowercase letters on the spineThe Way Forward by Yung Pueblo
5. Magical realismYou Like It Darker by Stephen King
6. Women in STEMWomen in Science by Rachel Ignotofsky
7. At least four different POVsLight Bringer by Pierce Brown
8. Features the oceanRemarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
9. A character-driven novelTuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
10. Told in non-chronological orderHolly by Stephen King
11. Title starting with the letter “K”Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey
12. Title starting with the letter “L”Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
13. An academic thrillerIf We Were Villains by M. L. Rio
14. A grieving characterThe Librarian Spy by Madeline Martin
15. Part of a duologyA River Enchanted by Rebecca Ross
16. An omniscient narratorThe Bad Weather Friend by Dean Koontz
17. Nominated for The Booker PrizeOryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
18. An apostrophe in the titleDon’t Call It A Cult by Sarah Berman
19. A buddy read Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree
20. A revenge storyThe Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo
21. Written by a ghostwriterI’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara
22. A plot similar to another bookDemon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
23. The other book with the similar plotDavid Copperfield by Charles Dickens
24. A cover without people on itThornhedge by T. Kingfisher
25. An author “everyone” has read except youDaughter of No Worlds by Carissa Broadbent
26. Hybrid genreSlewfoot by Brom
27. Be a neurodivergent authorArtificial Condition by Martha Wells
28. A yellow spineThe Bodyguard by Katherine Center
29. Published in a Year of the DragonThe Rook by Daniel O’Malley
30. Picked without reading the blurb – The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan
31. Includes a personal phobiaThe September House by Carissa Orlando
32. Time frame spans a week or lessThe Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
33. An abrupt endingThe Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie
34. Set in a landlocked countryThe Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
35. Title matches lyrics from a songHello Stranger by Katherine Center
36. Has futuristic technologyAll Systems Red by Martha Wells (Murderbot Diaries 1)
37. Palindrome on the coverThe Women by Kristin Hannah
38. Published by HachetteCanadian Boyfriend by Jenny Holiday
39. Non-fiction recommended by a friendThe Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande
40. Set during a holiday you don’t celebrateThe Improbable Meet-Cute series by various authors
41. A sticker on the coverDucks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton
42. Author debut in the second half of 2024Four Weekends and a Funeral by Ellie Palmer
43. About finding identityOur Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng
44. Includes a weddingThe Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
45. Chapter headings have datesEmily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett
46. Featuring Indigenous cultureBraiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
47. Self-insert by an authorSea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
48. The word “secret” in the titleThe Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
49. Set in a city starting with the letter “M”The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
50. A musical instrument on the coverThe Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden
51. Related to the word “Wild”Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett
52. Published in 2024Lunar New Year Love Story by Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham

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