Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge discussion

A book with just text on the cover.


One for the minimalists!! And another repeat, because the 2023 list is all about repeats! Most of Rebecca Solnit's books have only text on the cover. Luckily for me, I still have the last two of Sue Grafton's alphabet mysteries left to read, and their covers are text only.

Here's our 2020 Listopia for this same category:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

Here's another Listopia that I think was created by AtY members:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

And we can create a new Listopia here, because why not: A Book with Only Text on the Cover (2023 version)

So many prompts (including this one) are pushing me to read The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. This might be the year I finally read it.

I'm thinking of Girlhood. This could work for the "girl" title as well.

Oh! Severance is on that first list! I've had that since indie bookstore day... the time has come :)

A lot of those Penguin Classics books only have text on the cover. In an attempt to read things I already own, I'll be reading the Penguin Classics edition of Cold Comfort Farm.

I'm really pleased as I go through the Popsugar prompts looking for book possibilities to see that there are some prompts that really fit well for the nonfiction books on my list. This prompt is one of them. A ton of reading challenge prompts pretty much require a fiction book to fulfill (or at least don't fit any of the nonfiction on my own TBR). I'll be choosing from:
Jews Don't Count
Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism
This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate
Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto
What Happened
Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language

While I like the Girlhood one, I'm using that for the 'Girl' topic and don't feel like double-dipping in this one.

Decided to go a bit political in this case with Critical Race Theory: An Introduction . I tried reading it once before and highlighted it but I was not satisfied with the way I highlighted so I'm going to give it another go at it with a new copy.

I will be reading The Library Book for this prompt. I have it planned for several other challenges, so it is exciting to find a new crossover for it.

BTW, does anyone else find it hard to choose a book with no picture on the cover? I never thought that I was aware of covers until I joined GR and had challenges that were cover related.

I am hesitating between those three:

and

Trying to decide if would work for this. It's bending the rules a bit but is it outright breaking them?

Fannie wrote: "I am hesitating between those three:

and "

I happen to have Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind on hold at my library now, but thought first of this one - The White Dress by Nathalie Léger

Fannie,

The Ted Chiang collection is very good. The title story is what inspired the movie Arrival.

I'm going to read Stories of Your Life and Others

I am reading Minor Feelings in one of my book clubs next year so I was hoping it could fit this prompt close enough. Don't know a lot about it but heard good things!

My Audiobook copy of Stein on Writing: A Master Editor of Some of the Most Successful Writers of Our Century Shares His Craft Techniques and Strategies has only text, so I'm very thankful for that. This is the Category I'm least excited for simply because it's so hard for me to find a book that just has text.

Im going to be reading

Brandon wrote: "Fannie,

The Ted Chiang collection is very good. The title story is what inspired the movie Arrival."

Oh, that's a good incitative to bump it on the top of my TRL.

Redskins: Insult and Brand

This one can work here too. I have it placed for 2 other prompts as well so that's cool.

I didn't like this prompt the first time around, and it's not gotten any better for me. I just looked at my entire to-read bookshelf of paper books and found not a single one qualifies.

On my Kindle list there are some classics with color blocked cover and only text (no image).
The life of Abraham Lincoln
Chronicles of Avonlea
My First Summer in the Sierra
The Yosemite
North and South
The Circular Staircase

Tania wrote: "I didn't like this prompt the first time around, and it's not gotten any better for me. I just looked at my entire to-read bookshelf of paper books and found not a single one qualifies.

On my Kin..."

yeah I kind of hate this one, too. Thats why I'm lucky I still have the two last books in Sue Grafton's series left to read, otherwise I don't know what I would read!

I'm not sure if HellSans would count or not, since there is *some* decoration / simple illustrations within the letters...

Cendaquenta wrote: "I'm not sure if HellSans would count or not, since there is *some* decoration / simple illustrations within the letters...

"

I would count it. There's not anything besides text on it, even if the text is fancy.

So far the only book I've found that I have any interest in is one where the text is made out of plants... This Book is a Plant: How to Grow, Learn and Radically Engage with the Natural World



I guess it'll do if I don't find anything else.

I'm going to go for this one...


I got excited because it also takes place on one day (time-loop with themes of sa and grief) but i see that's an advanced prompt and I don't think I'll be going for advanced.

I thought I had found the perfect fit with Refugee High, but then I noticed the eraser in the lower right corner. Drat.

Guess I'll keep looking.

Too bad I JUST finished Mom & Me & Mom by Maya Angelou. It would have been perfect. Definitely recommend it—and the audiobook is narrated by Maya Angelou herself!

Cendaquenta wrote: "I'm not sure if HellSans would count or not, since there is *some* decoration / simple illustrations within the letters..."

Distressed text is still just text. And color-blocking has to be allowed, or we're done for…

Graphics, though, would disqualify it in my opinion. But I'm coming at it from an artist and designer's standpoint.

And oh my goodness. A dystopian book about a typeface that affects peoples' minds? And can kill them? And quite obviously inspired by the ubiquitous nature of Helvetica?

As a graphic designer, I'm in. Prompt filled! Thanks.

I think the cover to Zeroes is clever, because there's kind of an image, but if you look closely, it's created out of colored text (0s and 1s)

Tania wrote: "I didn't like this prompt the first time around, and it's not gotten any better for me. I just looked at my entire to-read bookshelf of paper books and found not a single one qualifies.

On my Kin..."

❤️ Chronicles of Avonlea

I just finished reading The Moving Finger, by Agatha Christie, and I think it would work well for this prompt.

There are so many great books out there but I think I found one that is especially interesting:


Index, A History of the: A Bookish Adventure from Medieval Manuscripts to the Digital Age

I don't know much about this book other than it talks about the index, a section of a book that is often overlooked so I thought that sounded interesting.

I found the following titles at my Library:
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
Laughter in the Dark by Vladimir Nabokov
Did You Ever Have a Family by Bill Clegg
The One Memory of Flora Banks by Emily Barr (YA)
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne (YA)
Blind by Rachel DeWoskin (YA)

The Cobbler: How I Disrupted an Industry, Fell From Grace, and Came Back Stronger Than Ever by Steve Madden

I think I'm going to read The Trees by Percival Everett for this one.



Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit is also an option.

Still looking through my books for something that fits this. A book I read in 2022 would fit this prompt: The Princess Saves Herself in This One by Amanda Lovelace
.

I will likely be reading How Civil Wars Start: And How to Stop Them by Barbara F. Walter.

I find this one so difficult cause so many books i read cause i like the cover lol
i have a bunch of classics that have no images so those are options

i also have You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life that could be interesting

I read My Favorite Half-Night Stand this year which would fit this prompt. I also really enjoyed it.

So many political and/or race nonfiction books work for this prompt. Some options:

Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie: The Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR
The Women's History of the Modern World: How Radicals, Rebels, and Everywomen Revolutionized the Last 200 Years
The New Age of Empire: How Racism and Colonialism Still Rule the World
How to Survive America
Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism
How We Can Win: Race, History and Changing the Money Game That's Rigged

I read How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America. 5 stars.

I think this is the prompt I will be reading nonfiction for, don't know which one yet though!

I'm probably going to be reading On Tyranny for this one, since it's a short read and the cover fits perfectly:

This one would go good, "Life on Delay: Making Peace With A Stutter" so I'll probably add it. The title already captured my attention because like the author I do have a stutter so it will be nice to read something by someone who deals with the same thing.

Currently reading You’re the Only One I’ve Told, Stories Behind Abortion for this prompt. Very interesting read.

Debbie wrote: "Currently reading You’re the Only One I’ve Told, Stories Behind Abortion for this prompt. Very interesting read."

added it to my tbr!

I read

Most of the new stories caught the right tone, and some were very good at doing so. I thought one of the best was by Natalie Haynes who I think of in terms of Greek myth rather than cosy mystery. One of the best in terms of capturing the original was by Leigh Bardugo, but I thought the ending very unMarple , or perhaps unChristie like.

I read Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella

I am thinking of this one
Black and Female: Essays

I READ the Ickabog

Sweet, I was able to move Life on Delay elsewhere so that left this one empty which I'll be reading Sensitive: The Hidden Power of the Highly Sensitive Person in a Loud, Fast, Too-Much World which is perfect.

Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk is another option.



I ended up reading The Trees for this one which was excellent.

I read The Moving Finger by Agatha Christie


Features Miss Marple - 3rd in that series. One of her best andoneof Christie's favorites. Miss Marple is brought in as an expert on wickedness.

I wound up reading Paradise by Toni Morrison, but I had recently read, also by Toni Morrison, the first two books in that trilogy, Beloved and Jazz, which would also fit this prompt, as would her book, Song of Solomon, which is in my TBR.

I am reading . Never read anything by Didion before, so I'm excited one of her best books.

This prompt was also in an earlier reading challenge, at that time I read .