Brainstorming for 2023

[Stina]

I am off to a late start this time, but yes, we are continuing our game in 2023!

The name of the game is still GenreLand, but over the years we've morphed a bit and now we tend to assign prompts or themes to each month of the game. The "rules" of the game are for each player to read something fitting the monthly assignment, or to instead play their wildcard for the year and read whatever they like, and report back to the group how it went. Do we keep score? Uh, no, not really. We're just here to talk books and have fun.

But we do need some fresh prompts for the coming year! So use this thread to share your ideas for prompts you would like to see. Ideally, they are concepts that can be summarized in one to two words or at most a short phrase. I'll start by listing some below, and I hope you will follow suit. After about a week, I will start a thread for a sort of semifinals round where each of you can upvote a certain number (depending on how many there are in total) of the suggestions. Then sometime in the last week of December we will do a final picks round. (The format will be determined by the level of participation.)

This is an open group, so please invite your bookish friends to play. As reading challenges go, this is pretty laid-back and low-pressure. And even if you are new here, do not hesitate to jump in with suggestions! We would love to hear from you!

[Stina]

By or about someone who died in 2022
Set in the 1980s
Recipes included
A pronoun in the title
Older than yourself
Escape
Art
Bunnies!

[Cheryl]

I have been doing some recon on other lists and saw some that looked interesting -- Alliteration in the Title is one that stuck out to me. The other one that made me think of you and your other challenge was "book that you were supposed to read last year".

I was trying to think of something else interesting and was wondering about ? or ! in the title.

I am looking forward to next year. I am sad that there was one month when I failed to complete the assignment. This has also reminded me that I need to physically locaate the two books I have mentally set aside for December.

[Cobwebs-Iced-Across-SpaceTime]

Outer Space.
Owned before 2022.
Asian Author or Setting Science Fiction.
African Author or Setting Science Fiction.
Scandinavian (Iceland/Greenland/Norway/Finland-Lapland/Sweden/Denmark/Arctic Circle) Fiction.
Longest on TBR.
Newest on TBR (Prior to 1/1/23).
Color Cover (individual reader's color choice).
Classics (publication prior to 1/1/2001).
John Updike.
Norman Mailer.
Thomas Pynchon.
Kurt Vonnegut.
Choose an author, read 3+ Titles from that Author. (Any publication date.).

[Andy]

Thanks for organising this again - always fun to participate at this time of year. Here are my prompts:

An issue that you care about.
Cover is a C20 painting.
Wooden ships.
About a musician.
Splendid trousers!
Animal in title, but not about an animal.
New to you genre,
Criminal protagonist.
You are the hero!
A favourite book from childhood you haven't re-read since.

[Jacqie]

Thanks from me too for keeping us going! One group I am in had some thoughts about fun prompts for 2023 and these are the ones I liked the most:

A book or cover that has to do with rabbits (2023 is the zodiac year of the rabbit)
A book involving genetics or genealogy (23 pairs of chromosomes)
The 23rd book on your TBR list?
A book with five words in the title (because 2+3=5).
A title that starts with W (23rd letter in the English alphabet).
A book about or set in an ancient civilization. (Julius Caesar was stabbed 23 times).
A book less than 230 pages long.

These are from me:
a book that makes you hungry
a book that makes you sleepy
a book that wakes you up!
a sequel
armchair travel
a book you meant to read in 2022
cozy fantasy

[Cheryl]

The other one that occurred to me was It's All Relative (title includes mother or sister or uncle, etc)

[Stina]

A few more from me:
Ghost(s) -- a ghost story, a ghostwritten book, a book that has been haunting your TBR
Espionage
Second Chance -- a story with a second chance trope, a book or an author you're trying again
Shakespeare-Adjacent
Recommended by someone from a different generation

There is still a little bit of time to add to this thread. I will close it out sometime tomorrow (Friday) and put all the suggestions in an upvoting thread.

[Stina]

Locking this thread now. Watch for the upvoting thread to be posted later tonight!