What's in a Name 2026 Reading Challenge

I have been participating in "What's in a Name?" ages ago (2014 and 2020) but then the person who did it finished and I somehow lost touch.

Now I found this on Margaret's page BooksPlease and decided to join again. This is currently hosted by Andrea at Carolina Book Nook. It was started by Annie, who was ten or eleven at the time, on her blog Words by Annie. First Beth @ Beth Fish Reads and then Charlie @ The Worm Hole took over hosting before handing it over to Andrea.

So, this is a ‘must‘ challenge for me!

The words we need to find this year are:

Six/6:
Titles for this category need to include the word "six" or number "6" somewhere in the title, even if they are part of another word or number.

Cold weather:
Your title for this category should include a word that describes cold weather such as "snow," "ice," "blizzard," "frozen," etc.

Peace:
Titles for this category need to include a word that describes peace: "peace," "serenity," "still," "calm," etc, even if it doesn’t directly mean "peace."

Pathways:
Titles for this category need to include a words that are types of paths: "trail," "road," "avenue," "sidewalk," etc.

Terrain:
Titles for this category need to include a word for a type of topographic terrain or the name of a particular part of terrain.
Lanschot, Reinier van "We are Europe" (NL: Wij zijn Europa: een nieuw Europees verhaal) - 2024

Flower:

Titles for this category need to include a type of flower or the word "flower."

I don't know whether I will manage to fill all the challenges but, as you say, have already done one.

What's in a Name 2025 Reading Challenge

What's in a Name 2025 Reading Challenge

Have a look at Carolina Book Nook. The blogger Andrea posted about this year's reading challenge "What's in a Name". According to Andrea, this challenge was hosted by Charlie at The Worm Hole in years past. She took over in 2019 and I’m very grateful that she did.

I had first found this ages ago on Emma's page at Words and Peace (like so many other interesting challenges) and then participated in 2014 and 2020 and included all the books with a name in the title in my statistics ever since.

So, I was happy to find this again the other day and just in time to join for this past year.

The challenge runs from January 1, 2025 to December 31, 2025. You can sign up any time, but only count books that you read between those dates.

These are her conditions:

Read a book in any format (hard copy, ebook, audio) with a title that fits into each category.

Don’t use the same book for more than one category.

Creativity for matching the categories is not only allowed, it’s encouraged!

You can choose your books as you go or make a list ahead of time.

Sign up using the Mr Linky on Andrea's page (here) with a link to your WIAN challenge page/post, not your main blog URL. Feel free to save and use the graphic at the top of the page! Also, link back to her sign up page in your challenge post so others can join too.

The categories below are links to each category sign up link.  Add your book review for each category so we can see what you’ve read and discover ideas as needed.

In 2025, choose 6 books that have titles that contain:

(Andrea gives links with more examples and info)

1. Cardinal direction
2. Wanderlust
3. First & last name
4. Alliteration
5. Deity
6. Crime

And here are my books:

Category 1: 

Cardinal direction
Mason, Daniel "North Woods" - 2023

Category 2:

Wanderlust
Mak, Geert "The Dream of Europe. Travels in a Troubled Continent" (NL: Grote verwachtingen. In Europa 1999-2019) - 2019

Category 3:

First & last name
Worsley, Lucy "Jane Austen at Home" - 2017

Category 4:

Allilteration
Austen, Jane "Pride & Prejudice" - 1813 (The Motherhood and Jane Austen) 
And yes, even though I wrote this review ages ago, I re-read the book this year.

Category 5:

Deity
I doubt that I will be able to include a book for this challenge. I might have found one had I known about this earlier but I really couldn't finish another one before the end of the year.

Category 6:
Crime
Osman, Richard "We Solve Murders" - 2024

What's in a Name 2020 Reading Challenge

What's in a Name 2020 Reading Challenge

I have done this challenge in 2014 and have since followed the titles of books I read in my statistics

So, when the Canadian Bookworm librarians reminded me of it here, I decided I'll give it another go, especially since this year there are some totally different challenges.

Carolina from carolinabooknook came up with some brilliant ideas. I have no ideas whether I will find books that fit all the challenges but I'll give it a try.

This year the six things to have in a book title are:
1.    An ampersand - & (e.g. Blanca & Roja, Rot & Ruin)
2.    An antonym (e.g Big Little Lies, Wicked Saints)
3.    4 letters or less (e.g Feed, Vox)
4.    A given/first name (e.g. Tess of the Road, Flowers for Algernon)
5.    Reference to children (e.g. Baby Proof, Children of Blood and Bone)
6.    One of the 4 natural elements - water, air, fire, earth (e.g. The River at Night, The Name of the Wind)

The challenge runs from January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020. You can sign up any time, but only count books that you read between those dates.

Read a book in any format (hard copy, ebook, audio) with a title that fits into each category.

Don’t use the same book for more than one category.

Creativity for matching the categories is not only allowed, it’s encouraged!

You can choose your books as you go or make a list ahead of time. The book titles are just suggestions, we can read whatever book that fits the category.

Sign up up on Carolina's page.

And here are my books:
Category 1:
Masood, Ehsan "Science & Islam: a history" - 2009
Category 2: 
Stendhal "The Red and the Black" (Le Rouge et le Noir) - 1830
Category 3:
MacLaverty, Bernard "Cal" - 1983
Category 4: 
Undset, Sigrid "Kristin Lavransdatter" (Kristin Lavransdatter)
Category 5:
Stroyar, J.N. "The Children's War" - 2001
Category 6:
Ruiz Zafón, Carlos- "The Shadow of the Wind" (E: La sombra del viento - El cementerio de los libros olvidados #1) - 2001

What's in a Name 2014 Reading Challenge

What's in a Name 2014 Reading Challenge

I love to think about new books to read and don't normally struggle to find new books. However, I find that if I am given ideas by others, I often find some fantastic new authors and therefore I miss my book club that I had to give up for health reasons.

So, it is great to have the Internet to communicate with other readers. And some of them come up with some great ideas like Emma at Words and Peace.

These are her conditions:

Between January 1 and December 31, 2014, read one book in each of the following categories:

1.    A book with a reference to time in the title (Eleven Minutes, Before Ever After)
2.    A book with a position of royalty in the title (The People’s Queen, The Last Empress, The Curse Of The Pharaoh)
3.    A book with a number written in letters in the title (The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, A Tale Of Two Cities)
4.    A book with a forename or names in the title (Rebecca, Eleanor & Park, The Unfinished Work Of Elizabeth D.)
5.    A book with a type or element of weather in the title (Gone With The Wind, Red Earth Pouring Rain)

The book titles are just suggestions, we can read whatever book that fits the category.

And here are my books:

Category 1:
Fo, Dario "My first seven years (plus a few more)" (also under #3)

Ruiz Zafón, Carlos "The Midnight Palace" (El Palacio de la Medianoche)
Scott, Mary "Turkey at Twelve" (also under #3)

Category 2:
Ruiz Zafón, Carlos "Der Fürst des Parnass" (El principe de parnaso)

Category 3:
Fo, Dario "My first seven years (plus a few more)" (also under #1)
Mathis, Ayana "The Twelve Tribes of Hattie" (also under #4)
Scott, Mary "Breakfast at Six"
- "Turkey at Twelve" (also under #1)
Seth, Vikram "Two Lives"

Category 4 
Austen, Jane "Emma"
Berry, Wendell "Hannah Coulter"
Dickens, Charles "The Pickwick Papers"
Döblin, Alfred "Berlin Alexanderplatz: Die Geschichte vom Franz Biberkopf" (Berlin Alexanderplatz: The Story of Franz Biberkopf)
Gaarder, Jostein "Sophie's World"
George, Margaret "Elizabeth I"
Joyce, James "Ulysses"
Mankell, Henning "Daniel"
Mathis, Ayana "The Twelve Tribes of Hattie" (also under #3)
Montgomery, L.M. "Anne of Green Gables"
Nabokov, Vladimir "Lolita"
Nafisi, Azar "Reading Lolita in Tehran"
NDiaye, Marie "Rosie Carpe"
Nietzsche, Friedrich "Thus spoke Zarathustra"
Roth, Philip "Zuckerman Unbound"
See, Lisa "Peony in Love"

Category 5:
Palma, Félix J. "The Map of the Sky" (El mapa del cielo)
Pamuk, Orhan "Snow" 

I read:
three books in category 1: seven years, midnight, twelve (o'clock)
one in category 2: prince,
three in category 3: two, six, seven, (2x) twelve
15 in category 4: Anne, Antje, Berlin, Daniel, Elizabeth, Emma, Faber, Franz, Hannah, Hattie, (2x), Jesus, Lolita, Nero, Peony, Rosie, Sophie, Ulysses, Zarathustra
and two in category 5: snow, sky