Eat_Read_Knit goes for 12 categories in 2024

I'm back again for 2024 :)

I've been pondering what aspects of my reading I was dissatisfied with in 2023, and concluded the really big thing was the lack of variety in the second half of the year. I started okay, but my life quickly devolved into either studying, or reading escapist fluff to counteract the studying. Much as I love a rom com, there are limits - and reading pretty much nothing but rom coms for several months is well past my personal limit. My brain feels much like my body feels right now, after eating way more chocolate than is normal/wise/healthy over Christmas. And it's time to reintroduce something that's not candy into both of them.

So, variety is good.

I decided to go for lots categories, and small numbers in each. I'm challenging myself to read across 12 categories - 6 fiction, 6 non-fiction. And I'm awarding myself a bronze medal for reading one book in a category, a silver medal for two, and a gold medal for three. (Every book is a win to celebrate, but some are better wins than others!) I have set myself rules, which I'll put in a separate post so everyone who's not me can skip over it.

My 12 categories are:

Fiction
1. Fantasy
2. Contemporary romance/rom coms/chick lit
3. British Library Crime Classics
4. Literary fiction
5. LGBT+ (author and/or main characters)
6. Writers and/or characters of colour

Non-fiction
7. Politics and society
8. Food and nutrition
9. Personal development and self-help
10. Science
11. History and archaeology
12. Biography/autobiography/memoir

And I'm going to add a list of possible reads below, partly as reminders to myself for specific things I'm hoping to get to, and partly as a flavour of the kinds of things that I'm likely to be reading.

Not everything (and possibly not even anything!) on the possibles list will actually get read, although hopefully plenty will. And some could end up under different categories than the one they're in here. Everything on the possibles list is something I'm interested in reading relatively soon, and which I already have a copy of. Some are recent acquisitions, and some I've been getting round to for years. Anything from this possibles list that gets read, will get deleted from here when it goes into a the completed reads post.

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Possible reads:

1. Fantasy
The Atlas Six - Olivie Blake
Babel - R F Kuang
The Burning God and The Dragon Republic - R F Kuang
The Obelisk Gate and The Stone Sky - N K Jemisin
The Priory of the Orange tree - Samantha Shannon
Starless Night - R A Salvatore
Nation - Terry Pratchett

2. Contemporary romance/rom coms/chick lit
The Burnout - Sophie Kinsella
The Long Game - Elena Armas
Promise Me - Jill Mansell
The Unhoneymooners - Christina Lauren

3. British Library Crime Classics
Big Ben Strikes Eleven - David Magarshack
The Wheel Spins - Ethel Lina White
Suddenly at his Residence - Christianna Brand
The Seat of the Scornful - John Dickson Carr
Murder in Piccadilly - Charles Kingston
The Theft of the iron Dogs - E C R Lorac
Crook o'Lune - E C R Lorac

4. Literary fiction
The Island of Missing Trees - Elie Shafak
Small Pleasures - Clare Chambers
Life After Life - Kate Atkinson
The Luminaries - Eleanor Catton
The Bone Clocks - David Mitchell
Piranesi - Susanna Clarke

5. LGBT+ (author and/or main characters)
Under the Whispering Door - T J Klune
This Is How You Lose The Time War - Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
The Confessions of Frannie Langton - Sara Collins

6. Writers and/or characters of colour
Girl, Woman, Other - Bernardine Evaristo
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida - Shehan Karunatilaka
Memphis - Tara M Stringfellow

7. Politics and society
Code of Conduct: Why we need to fix Parliament and how to do it - Chris Bryant
Empireland - Sathnam Sanghera
Why We Get The Wrong Politicians - Isabel Hardman
So You Want to Talk About Race - Ijeoma Oluo
Natives - Akala

8. Food and nutrition
Food for Life - Tim Spector
Why Calories don't count - Giles Yeo
Spoon Fed - Tim Spector
Gene Eating - Giles Yeo

9. Personal development and self-help
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Dummies
Menopausing - Davina McCall
Glucose Revolution - Jessie Inchauspe

10. Science
The Insect Crisis - Oliver Milman
Preventable - Devi Sridhar
The Planet in a Pebble - Jan Zalasiewicz
Geology: a complete introduction - David Rothery
Other Minds - Peter Godfrey-Smith
Exercised - Daniel Liebermann

11. History and archaeology
Lady Sapiens - Thomas Cirotteau
Femina - Janina Ramirez
Buried - Alice Roberts
Black Tudors - Miranda Kaufmann
Insurgent Empire - Priyamvada Gopal
SPQR - Mary Beard
Parliament: The Biography volumes 1 and 2 - Chris Bryant

12. Biography/autobiography/memoir
Agatha Christie: A very elusive woman - Lucy Worsley
Terry Pratchett: A life with footnotes - Rob Wilkins
Becoming - Michelle Obama

Rules I'm setting for myself:

I'm challenging myself to read across 12 categories - 6 fiction, 6 non-fiction. And I'm awarding myself a bronze medal for reading one book in a category, a silver medal for two, and a gold medal for three.

Anything after 3 doesn't count for the challenge, although there's obviously nothing to stop me from reading more, and I may (or may not) choose to log further reads.

Because I'm aiming for breadth, I'm not allowing myself to count any book for more than one category: a fully complete challenge would be 36 books across 12 categories. However, I am allowing myself to move books between categories after I've read them, if I feel that would help to complete the overall challenge, provided that moving something out wouldn't leave a category empty.

I am giving myself permission to change unstarted categories if I need to. Since a category with a book logged against it is technically already a win, those categories can't be changed.

I have enough books in all the categories in my TBR pile to complete the challenge without acquiring any new ones. Although we all know that 'not acquiring more' won't happen, and there's no rule that a book has to come from the TBR.

Edit 22/9/24 - I am allowing re-reads: If I read it all again, I'm counting it.

And here are my completed reads:

1. Fantasy
1. Kings of the Wyld - Nicholas Eames
2.
3.

2. Contemporary romance/rom coms/chick lit
1. Promise Me - Jill Mansell
2. Rise - Karina Bliss
3. Hate Mail - Donna Marchetti

3. British Library Crime Classics
1.
2.
3.

4. General/literary fiction
1. Romantic Comedy - Curtis Sittenfield
2.
3.

5. LGBT+ (author and/or main characters)
1. Change of Heart - Claire Lydon
2. Here For The Wrong Reasons - Annabel Paulson and Lydia Wang
3. The Weight of it All - N R Walker

6. Writers and/or characters of colour
1. The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida - Shehan Karunatilaka
2.
3.

7. Politics and society
1.
2.
3.

8. Food and nutrition
1. Ultra-Processed People - Chris van Tulleken
2.
3.

9. Personal development and self-help
1. Economics and Property - Danny Myers (bit of a stretch for the category, but I read it as CPD for work, so...)
2. I think I Might be Autistic - Cynthia Kim
3.

10. Science
1.
2.
3.

11. History and archaeology
1. How to Date Buildings - Trevor Yorke
2.
3.

12. Biography/autobiography/memoir
1. What Does This Button Do - Bruce Dickinson
2. Diddly Squat: 'Til the Cows Come Home - Jeremy Clarkson
3.

You have an excellent variety of topics! Here's wishing you a pile of medals!

Good luck with your 2024 reading!

Ooh I loved Babel and This Is How You Lose the Time War! I hope you like them too. Happy reading in 2024!

Have fun with your 2024 reading!

Wow, what an elaborate theme! I wish you success with winning lots of medals!

Thanks everyone :)

Good luck with your 2024 reading.

Stopping by to wish you a wonderful year of reading in 2024!

Just to say hello and wish you a happy New Year.

Happy reading! I am reading through some of the British Library Crime Classics as well.

Interesting categories, and the best of luck for winning your medals!

So, first up is Change of Heart by Claire Lydon, which is a lesbian romance based around a fake dating trope. This could either count for category 2 or 5; I've gone with 5 because I have way more other books for 2 than I do 5.

There was a lot about this that I enjoyed, but I didn't like the way the main characters handled the Big Plot Twist. I get that it was a huge thing and they were blindsided by it, but the reactions didn't feel (a) good or (b) consistent with how the characters were the rest of the time. It also seemed like the Big Terrible Thing that was tearing a family apart, was far too easily resolved when they actually did deal with it (if it was that easily resolved, why did it take so long for them to do something?). Those things didn't ruin the book, but they dropped it from about a 4.5 to about a 3 for me.

Next up is Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfield. Which is not in the romcom category. Because I don't think it is one. Not exactly. Although it's also not not one.

I have ambiguous feelings about the characters, but I very much appreciated the way they unpacked themselves and their relationship.

Although it will be a long time before reading a book where the pandemic features so heavily isn't weird any more.

Promise me by Jill Mansell, for the rom com/chick lit category. Jill Mansell is one of my favourite authors in this genre, and has been for years. This was a good one. 4.5/5.

>17 Eat_Read_Knit: I always see Jill Mansell in bookstores, and I'd like to try her but have no idea where to start. Any recommendations?

>18 christina_reads: Ooh, I'm not sure. I feel like she's consistently good, rather than specific ones being standout excellent or obvious starting places.

That said, some of the early ones feel a bit dated. I loved Perfect Timing when I read it, but that was 25 years ago and there are a couple of aspects I suspect wouldn't stand up so well to a re-read now.

To The Moon and Back and The Unpredictable Consequences of Love are probably solid choices. But I think you can probably dive in anywhere.

>19 Eat_Read_Knit: Thanks, this is good to know! I wasn't sure if there was one book that's widely considered her best or most popular. Sounds like I can just search for a premise that appeals to me!