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Last year I participated with my mom and sister in the Pioneer Book Reading Challenge. 44 books in 1 year…Except we didn’t find out about it until April. We didn’t let the late start deter us, and we ended up having a ton of fun reading all kinds of books and making new discoveries.

Apparently it’s an annual tradition, and they switch it up every year. You can find a printable version of their 2020 Book Reading Challenge here.

Here’s what I did for last year’s challenge:

• Man Booker Prize winner or nominee — Loitering with Intent, by Muriel Spark

• Book by a female author — Quiet, by Susan Cain

• Book recommended by friend or family — Educated, by Tara Westover

• Newbery Award winner or honor — Walk Two Moons, by Sharon Creech

• Pioneer Book Employee Pick — Stuart Little, by E.B. White

• Book by an African-American author — Hidden Figures, by Margot Lee Shetterly

• Book from the Self-help section — The Organized Mind, by Daniel J. Levitin

• Book by an author you’ve never heard of — The Little Book of Hygge, by Meik Wiking

• Oprah’s Book Club selection — Icy Sparks, by Gwyn Hyman Rubio

• Publisher’s Weekly Bestseller from the 1960s — Up the Down Staircase, by Bel Kaufman

• Book by a Nobel Prize winning author — Captains Courageous, by Rudyard Kipling

• Book with a red cover — The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet, by Reif Larson

• Play or screenplay — The Beggar’s Opera, by John Gay

• Book from the Poetry section — Everything On It, by Shel Silverstein

• Collection of short stories — The Innocence of Father Brown, by G.K. Chesterton

• National Book Award winner or nominee — Challenger Deep, by Neal Shusterman

• Book from the Nature/Ecology section — The Natural World of Winnie-the-Pooh, by Katherine Aalto

• Book from the New Arrivals display — Founding Faith, by Steven Waldman

• Book you’ve never heard of — Every Book Its Reader, by Nicholas A. Basbanes

• Book set in or written about your home state — More Than Petticoats, by Gayle C. Shirley

• Publisher’s Weekly Bestseller from the 1970s — Watership Down, by Richard Adams

• Pioneer Book Customer Pick — The Cat, the Professor, and the Poison, by LeAnn Sweeney

• Pulitzer Prize winner or nominee — So Big, by Edna Ferber

• Book from the Biography section — Life of Johnson, by James Boswell

• Book by an author born over 100 years ago — I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith

• Book from the US History section — A Square Meal: A Culinary History of the Great Depression, by Jane Ziegelman and Andrew Coe

• Book from the Sports section — The Lost Cyclist, by David V. Herlihy

• Book with a strong female lead — As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust, by Alan Bradley

• Book published the year you were born — Owl Moon, by Jane Yolen

• Book involving the ocean — The Book of Barely Imagined Beings: A 21st Century Bestiary, by Caspar Henderson

• Nonfiction book you probably disagree with — Kings of the Grail, by Margarita Torres Sevilla and Jose Miguel Ortega del Rio

• Publisher’s Weekly Bestseller from the 1980s — The Butter Battle Book, by Dr. Seuss

• Book translated to English — The Life of Elves, by Muriel Barbery

• Hugo or Nebula winner or nominee — The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman

• Book from the Westerns section — Rowdy Rides to Glory, by Louis L’Amour

• Book from the True Crime section — The Poisoner’s Handbook, by Deborah Blum

• Christmas or holiday book — The Father Christmas Letters, by J.R.R. Tolkien

• History of a foreign country — Korea: An Illustrated History from Ancient Times to 1945, by David Rees

• Book with 500+ pages — Building Green, by Clarke Snell and Tim Callahan

• Book from the Science section — The Thing with Feathers, by Noah Strycker

• Book from the Bestsellers display — The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, by Marie Kondo

• Book set in or written about Utah — The Great Brain, by John D. Fitzgerald

• Publishers Weekly Bestseller from the 1990s — Every Living Thing, by James Herriot

Because only one of us currently lives in Utah, the girls in my family decided to create our own 2020 reading challenge—one that would allow us a bit more flexibility and not require us to make purchases at a bookstore 800 miles away. We narrowed our ideas down to a list of 31.

Can anyone think of another important something that comes in 31?

That’s right! Baskin Robbins’ original 31 flavors of ice cream! When my brother-in-law heard how many books we planned to read, he told us we should try a different flavor of ice cream every time we finish a book.

Sold.

So far I’m one book down, 30 left to go, and can highly recommend the Cherries Jubilee flavor of ice cream. Yum!

If you’d like to join our unsponsored Baskin Robbins 2020 Book Reading Challenge, you can download a printable version here to track your progress (literary and culinary).

Be sure to share on social media, #31books31flavors. Happy reading and ice cream eating!