There are two things that I notice when I am working on completing my Pick Your Poison challenge:
- 1. I have a tendency to look for books by starting at the top of the challenge and finding books for all the top topics and neglect the ones at the bottom of the list. If I were smart, I'd try to find books for one category in each topic, then two, etc., and then if I didn't finish I could claim I was only going for 52 or 78 books instead of having a bunch of holes clumped together.
- Sometimes I discover that I've made a category that's significantly harder than I intended.
This year, I decided to combat #1 above by starting to review the list from the bottom every time I look at it. Which lead to discovering that I'd done #2 way down at the bottom with the category "A book with musical notes on the cover."
The thing is, I know I've read books with musical notes floating in the air in the cover art. And I've read other books that have sheet music displayed on a piano or an instrument stand or similar, with musical notes visible. But finding a book like that? Short of going to the library or bookstore and pulling books off the shelves one at a time to look at the covers, I don't know of a good way to find books that qualify. And one of my favorite fallbacks, Goodreads Lists, has failed me.
So I decided to create my own list. So far the pickings are slim, and mostly nonfiction, but if you have a Goodreads account and some suggestions to add to the list, feel free. Or if you don't have an account but know of a good book to add to the list, feel free to comment and I'll add so that others can benefit.
I'm still in the beginning stages of finding books, and may stumble across other categories that are really tough. If there's a category that has you stumped, share it in the comments and maybe others can make suggestions for you.
