| A book titled “___ & ___”: Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon | A book borrowed from a friend: Piranesi by Susanna Clarke | A graphic novel | A book by an author born in the same year as you | A book recommended by the staff at your favorite bookstore: So Much Blue by Percival Everett |
| A book about a sport: Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan | Historical fiction: When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamín Labatut | A book published this year: Spear by Nicola Griffith | A fantasy novel whose setting is not based on Europe: The House of Rust by Khadija Abdalla Bajaber | A memoir or essay collection: Nobody Knows My Name by James Baldwin |
| A short story anthology | A book you started in the past but never finished | Any book! (Free space): J R by William Gaddis | A book published by a small press | A book involving time travel: Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut |
| A novella (under 200 pages): Roadside Picnic by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky | A book on Vulture’s Best Books of 2021 list | A book with a family tree or character list inside: Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov | A book published under a pen name: Daniel Deronda by George Eliot | A thriller: The Colorado Kid by Stephen King |
| A book published in the 1990s: Seeking Whom He May Devour by Fred Vargas | A book with a cover you don’t like: The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd | A book by someone who has won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, or Tony: Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches by Tony Kushner | A book a friend wants you to read | A book by a non-American author: Hamlet by William Shakespeare |