Happy new year! This is the gateway post for What’s In A Name 2014 which is now in its seventh year. Below are the links to the pages for each category, as well as the wrap up page. As you read and review your chosen books, add the review links to these pages so that everyone can follow the progress and find out what’s being read for the challenge.

If you’re seeing this post and wishing you’d signed up, never fear, you can sign up at any time (right up until late December if you want to!) The sign-up page includes all the rules and information you need to know. If you don’t want to review your books that’s okay, just leave a comment on the appropriate page instead.

I declare this challenge officially open!

The page for a reference to time
The page for a position of royalty
The page for a number written in letters
The page for a forename or names
The page for a type or element of weather
The page for your wrap up links (or to leave a comment to say you’re finished)

Bonus category: The page for a school subject

Please read this page for details about the sixth category, which was added to the challenge on 28th February

Bloggers who have signed up have written posts in the following languages: Portuguese (Landslide), Italian (Cinzia)

This is the sign-up post for the seventh annual What’s In A Name challenge, originally started by Annie, handed to Beth Fish Reads, and now continued here at The Worm Hole. I published a post earlier in the month in which I explained how I came to be the newest host, however to summarise:

Beth needed someone to hand it to and I had never taken part before but I knew I had the time she was saying it would take, and if there’s one thing that saddens me about blogging, it’s the demise of long-time ‘traditions’ and blogs. So here we are. I love the concept, the creativity, and I’m looking forward to meeting you all.

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):

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

Remember the titles I’ve given here are only examples, you can by all means use them if you want to – some are classics after all – 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. I’ve been getting a lot of questions about whether there will be a sixth category – not this year. I realised too late after publishing the post that I hadn’t included a sixth, so as not to confuse everyone we’ll be sticking with five this time around.

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 first example, Eleven Minutes, could be used for category 1 or 3 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 one main post on the blog. 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. You’ll be able to find this main post through a link I’ll be adding to the navigation section of my sidebar. Alternatively, for ease, you might want to subscribe to this blog via Feedly or email so that the gateway post will be immediately available to you without you having to search the site. The non-Feedly feed link and also a Bloglovin’ link are on the sidebar.

If you have trouble finding a book for a category, have a look at the corresponding page for it here – 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 simply leave a comment below. If at any time you have difficulties adding your link, email me at the address on my contact page with 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.

And remember that you don’t have to sign up today – as the challenge runs until the end of 2014, you can sign up at any time during the year.

Hope you enjoy the challenge and best of luck! The hashtag for Twitter is #whatsinaname – it’s used randomly for other reasons, but still it makes the most sense for this challenge. Sorry about the lack of line-spacing on the links, I don’t know how to change it.

Sign up here!