| A book by an author you read (or were supposed to read) in school | A book about an artist | An alternate history book | A book from a used book store | A non-fiction book on a topic that interested you had as a child: White Holes by Carlo Rovelli |
| Have a friend choose a genre for you; read a book in that genre | A book with the name of a city in the title (must be referring to the city) | A book by a Nobel Prize winner | A book adapted into a stage production (play, musical, opera): Solaris by Stanislaw Lem | A book on Time’s The 100 Must-Read Books of 2025 list |
| A book featuring a lighthouse | A book you learned about from a stranger on the Internet | FREE SPACE (any book): Custodians of Wonder by Eliot Stein | A book about a vacation: The Dead Mountaineer’s Inn by Boris & Arkady Strugatsky | A book with a drink on the cover or in the title |
| A book centered on one or more sibling relationships | A Hugo Award or Nebula Award winning book | A book translated from Chinese, Japanese, or Korean: The Village Beyond the Mist by Sachiko Kashiwaba | A book by an author you’ve never read before, blurbed by an author you love | A book a friend wants you to read |
| A debut novel published this year | A book that’s in the public domain | A book set in the last place you traveled to | A book with “murder” or “death” in the title: Murder at Gulls Nest by Jess Kidd | A book about an off-putting woman: When the Museum Is Closed by Emi Yagi |