The basics

The challenge runs from January to December. During this time you choose a book to read from each of the following categories. (Examples of books you could choose are in brackets – translations and other languages most definitely count!):

The word ‘the’ used twice (The Secret By The Lake; The End Of The Day, The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time)
A fruit or vegetable (The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society; The Particular Sadness Of Lemon Cake)
A shape (The Ninth Circle, The Square Root Of Summer, Circle Of Friends)
A title that begins with Z – can be after ‘The’ or ‘A’ (Zen In The Art Of Writing; The Zookeeper’s Wife, Zelda)
A nationality (Anna And The French Kiss; How To Be A Kosovan Bride; Norwegian Wood)
A season (White Truffles In Winter; The Spring Of Kasper Meier; The Summer Queen; Before I Fall; The Autumn Throne)

As usual I’ve tried to include some easy categories and some not so. Remember the titles I’ve given here are only examples, you can by all means use them if you want to but it’s not necessary. There are plenty of other books that will fit the categories and you may have some in mind already or even some on your shelves you can read.

Extra information

Books can be any format (print, audio, ebook).
It’s preferred that the books don’t overlap with other challenges, but not a requirement at all.
Books cannot overlap categories (for instance my example of The Square Root Of Summer could be used for ‘a shape’ or ‘a season’ but not both).
Creativity for matching the categories is not only allowed, it’s encouraged!
You don’t have to make your list of books beforehand, you can choose them as you go.
You don’t have to read your chosen books in any particular order.

Everything else

On January 1 I’ll publish 7 posts, one for each category and one for your wrap-up post. These posts will be published as WordPress pages and linked to from the What’s In A Name logo on the sidebar. You will be able to post your links to your reviews or leave comments, depending on whether you’re a blogging reader or a non-blogger reader. If you are a blogger, please leave one review per category. You’ll be able to find the gateway post through a link I’ll be adding to the navigation section of my sidebar.

If you have trouble finding a book for a category, have a look at the corresponding page for it here once the challenge has started – readers who’ve already completed the category will have linked to their reviews and added titles that you can look through.

To join the challenge, sign up using the Mr Linky if you’re a blogger, and if you’re not a blogger please email me your details (I’ve had to turn off comments on this post because the spam has become too much). If at any time you have difficulties adding your link, email me at the address on my contact pagewith your information, and I’ll add it myself.

How to use Mr Linky: put your name and/or your blog’s name in the top box and the URL (web address) of your blog in the second box. If you have a Tumblr or use a Facebook page instead of a blog, use the web address to that instead.

How you link is up to you, but it’s suggested that you include both your name and blog name in the first box.

If you have any suggestions for this year’s challenge, let me know in the comments (again, if you’ve not commented here before the comment will show up after I’ve approved it as part of my site spam moderation).

And remember that you don’t have to sign up today – as the challenge runs until the end of 2018, you can sign up at any time during the year.

Hope you enjoy the challenge and best of luck! The hashtag for Twitter is #whatsinaname2018 (the number included so we don’t get lost amongst various Romeo And Juliet quotes!)

I have no idea what books I will be reading, but I'm going to attempt again this year.