Happy new year! This is the gateway post for What’s In A Name 2016 which is now in its eighth 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 country
The page for an item of clothing
The page for an item of furniture
The page for a profession
The page for a month of the year
The page for a title with the word ‘tree’ in it
The page for your wrap-up links (or to leave a comment to say you’re finished)

This is the sign-up post for the ninth annual What’s In A Name challenge, originally started by Annie, handed to Beth Fish Reads, and now continued here at The Worm Hole. Bloggers have written up this post in other languages: Italian, Portuguese.

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 – I’ve included some from other languages, and translations most definitely count!):

• A country (try not to use ‘Africa’!) Suggestions: Daphne Du Maurier’s Jamaica Inn, Xiaolu Guo’s I Am China, Martin Wagner’s Deutschland)
• An item of clothing (Su Dharmapala’s Saree, Ann Brashare’s The Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants, Javier Moro’s El Sari Rojo; Pierre Lemaitre’s Vestido De Novia)
• An item of furniture (Marghanita Laski’s The Victorian Chaise-Longue; C S Lewis’s The Silver Chair; Gøhril Gabrielsen’s The Looking-Glass Sisters)
• A profession (Adriana Trigiani’s The Shoemaker’s Wife; Mikhail Elizarov’s The Librarian)
• A month of the year (Elizabeth Von Arnim’s The Enchanted April; Rhoda Baxter’s Doctor January)
• A title with the word ‘tree’ in it (Ai Mi’s Under The Hawthorn Tree; Elle Newmark’s The Sandalwood Tree)

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 Black Swan Rising for ‘an animal’ could be used for the ‘colour’ category or ‘animal’ category, 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, ‘gateway’, 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. 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. 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 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 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 (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 2016, you can sign up at any time during the year.

Hope you enjoy the challenge and best of luck! The hashtag for Twitter is #whatsinaname2016 (the number included so we don’t get lost amongst various Romeo And Juliet quotes!)

Sign up here!

Happy new year! This is the gateway post for What’s In A Name 2015 which is now in its eighth 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 word including ‘ing’ in it
The page for a colour
The page for a familial relation
The page for a body of water
The page for a city
The page for an animal
The page for your wrap up links (or to leave a comment to say you’re finished)

This is the sign-up post for the eighth annual What’s In A Name challenge, originally started by Annie, handed to Beth Fish Reads, and now continued here at The Worm Hole. Information in other languages: Português

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 word including ‘ing’ in it (The Time Of Singing, Dancing To The Flute, Lex Trent Fighting With Fire) My examples are verbs but you can of course use other words.
• A colour (The Red Queen, White Truffles In Winter, On Gold Mountain)
• A familial relation (Daughter Of Smoke And Bone, Dombey And Son, My Cousin Rachel) By all means include in-laws, step, and halves.
• A body of water (The River Of No Return, Black Lake, Beside The Sea)
• A city (Barcelona Shadows, Shanghai Girls, Under The Tripoli Sky)
• An animal (Black Swan Rising, The Leopard Unleashed, The Horse And His Boy)

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 Black Swan Rising for ‘an animal’ could be used for the ‘colour’ category or ‘animal’ category, 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, ‘gateway’, 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. 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. 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 (please note that if you’ve not commented on this blog before your comment will not show up straight away as per my site moderation but I will see it so do come back if you’ve asked a question). 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 (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 2015, you can sign up at any time during the year.

Hope you enjoy the challenge and best of luck! The hashtag for Twitter is #whatsinaname2015 (the number included so we don’t get lost amongst various Romeo And Juliet quotes!)

Sign up here!

I published the What’s In A Name challenge without a 6th category. It was forgetfulness on my part and I’m not sure how I managed to not notice it in all the time I was planning. Nevertheless many people have asked for a category, if they can create their own, or if I could come up with a subject for their particular blog.

So I’ve decided to create an official sixth category for this year. Because it hasn’t been available from the start and because I know not everyone will see this post, this sixth category will be considered a bonus. You can read for it or not – if you only want to read for the original five categories your last book of the five will still mean you have completed this year’s challenge.

Without further ado, here is the sixth, bonus, category for What’s In A Name 2014:

A book with a school subject in the title. And yes, that does mean you can get creative and use a magical academic subject if you wish – Hogwarts is a school, after all.

Examples of books you can choose: The History Boys by Alan Bennett, Angelology by Danielle Trussoni, Mastering The Art Of Soviet Cooking by Anya Von Bremzen

Hope you’re all enjoying your books, this reading challenge and others.

And if you’re wishing you had signed up, there is still time, head on over to the sign-up page, fill in your details, and get reading.