Reading challenge - suggestions needed!

[sproutish]

So, I've set myself up a sort of challenge of different types of books to read. I tend to get stuck on similar books and wanted to branch out a bit.

My plan is to keep a little reading journal type thing, detailing what I liked/disliked etc etc. I'm aware this is very much like setting myself unnecessary school homework but I'm enjoying it so far!

The boxes I still need to tick are:
A classic romance
A book that became a film
A book with a number in the title
A book written by someone under 30
A book with non-human characters (I've already read Animal Farm before)
A funny book
A book with a one word title
A book of short stories
A Pulitzer Prize winner
A trilogy

If anyone has any suggestions for really good books that fall under these categories I'd be v v grateful!

Straight off I would highly recommend the Blackhouse Trilogy by Peter May.

I've just finished reading it for a second time and forgot how good it was.

Set on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebredes, each book tells it's own story but they follow on one to the other and as a Trilogy work really well.

Fab thanks WayCat! I'll come back and tell you what I think but it sounds just my cup of tea

For a one-word title book I can think of Halfhead, by Stuart MacBride.

It's sort of a science fiction book, set about 50 years in the future, and for me was a total departure from what I usually read.

A bit gory in places in typical MacBride style, some dry humour here and there, fast and pacey.

Sounds completely different for what I'd go for usually too, but that's what I want!
Ive found myself reaching for books set in late 1800s/early 1900s more and more, mysteries but quite a nice bimbling pace.
Need something completely different that will get me excited again!

The Name of the Rose or LA confidential for book to film. WARNING: both way more complex than the films.
The Martian is also a good book to film or in sci-fi category if you want something lighter and uplifting.

A classic romance
Barchester Towers

A book that became a film
The Martian

A book with a number in the title
Slaughterhouse five or 1066 and All That

A book written by someone under 30
Bright Lights Big City by Jay McInerney

A book with non-human characters (I've already read Animal Farm before)
The Wind in the Willows

A funny book
Mapp and Lucia or Three Men and a Boat or any Wooster and Jeeves or 1066 And All That

A book with a one word title

A book of short stories

A Pulitzer Prize winner

A trilogy
Jane Smiley's Some Luck Trilogy. I recommend Some Luck on its own if you only want to read one.

A classic romance: Pride and Prejudice/Peruasion/Sense and Sensibility if you haven't read any of them.

Book that became a film: Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis De Bernieres, Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

Book with number: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Under 30: The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton

Non humans: Watership Down or Black Beauty

Funny book: Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis

One word title: Lolita by Nabokov

Short stories: Where I'm Calling From, Raymond Carver or To Room Nineteen, Doris Lessing

Pulitzer Prize winner: Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

A Trilogy: His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman or Lord of the Rings by Tolkien

A few of those suggestions cross over into other categories - I think Gone WW and the Carver both won Pulitzers, etc lots of movies made, so can mix and match, hope you find something you like!

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead is this year's Pulitzer prize winner, it's on my to-read list and I've heard very good things about it.

Octavia E. Butler wrote some great short stories

For a number in the title, I thought 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' (Khaled Hosseini) was fantastic.

The Lord of the Rings is really one novel in 3 volumes, but I'd still stick it under the trilogy section because it's too good not to read. The Two Towers has a number in the title, so you could get it in that way too

Thanks everyone! I'll come back and let you know how it goes!

Btw, love your challenge. I try and mix it up for reading but realistically I fall back on the same authors/genres.
Making notes from some of the suggestions.

I was hard-pressed to think of many true trilogies that were any good tbh

Bookend LOTR with The Hobbit and Silmarillon if you want to fulfil the category with a clear conscience, OP

I agree with Peter May's Lewis trilogy, or The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and the rest of the original Millennium trilogy.
Book made into a film - The Great Gatsby/Little Women/Suite Francaise
Sounds like a fab challenge, happy reading!

I've always been a bookworm... I graduated this year and found that when I was at uni I wasn't reading as much for fun and when I was it was just easy reads that I knew I'd like already. Was very much judging books by their covers - so wanted to set myself some new challenges now I've got a bit more time for it

Here's a few ideas:

A book that became a film - Notes on a Scandal
A book with a number in the title - Starter for Ten
A book written by someone under 30 - The Secret History
A funny book - I, Partridge
A Pulitzer Prize winner - The Goldfinch

Actually think I already have the Girl With The Dragon Tattoo + 2, was given them for Christmas many moons ago but don't think I ever finished them! So will give them a bash.
I've never read LOTR! That will definitely make it onto my list as well in some form too now.

A classic romance - Jane Eyre
A book that became a film - Rebecca
A book with a number in the title - 1984, catch 24
A book with non-human characters (I've already read Animal Farm before) - The Island of Dr Moreau
A book with a one word title - atonement
A book of short stories - Kate Mosse
A Pulitzer Prize winner - To kill a mockingbird. Harper Lee
A trilogy - All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness, Languedoc Trilogy by Kate mosse

A book that became a film -The Book Thief
A book with a number in the title - ONE
A book with non-human characters -The Humans by Matt haigh 😛
A funny book - A man called Ove
A book with a one word title
A book of short stories- Rachel Joyce has a lovely book of short stories but I've forgotten what it's called! Something to do with Snow
A triology- Child 44 is amazing and the following two

A book with a one word title - ONE

A classic romance - Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

A book that became a film - Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien. It's also a trilogy.

A book with a number in the title - A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

A book written by someone under 30 - Carrie by Stephen King

A book with non-human characters - Watership Down by Richard Adams

A book with a one word title - Idlewild by Nick Sagan

A book of short stories - one of Roald Dahl or Stephen King's collections

A Pulitzer Prize winner - To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Romance ~ Mansfield Park

Book that's a film ~ The light between oceans, M L Stedman
(or The Hunger Games)

Number in title ~ A thousand acres, Jane Smiley

Non human characters ~ Wind in the Willows

A funny book ~ A confederacy of dunces , John Kennedy Toole
or a bit lighter, The Queen and I, Sue Townsend

One word title ~ Wool, Hugh Howey

Short stories ~ The assasination of Margaret Thatcher, Hilary Mantel

Pulitzer winner ~ All the light we cannot see, Anthony Doerr
or The Shipping News, Annie Prouix
or The Colour Purple, Alice Walker

Trilogy ~ The Lord of the Rings

Pulitzer Prize winner: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay By Michael Chabon (or The Shipping News, mentioned above)

Trilogy: The L-Shaped Room and sequels by Lynne Reid Banks

A book that became a film - Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller
A book with a number in the title - 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
A book written by someone under 30 - Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
A funny book - Love in a Cold Climate, The Pursuit of Love both by Nancy Mitford
A book with a one word title - Angel by Elizabeth Taylor
A trilogy - His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman

Forgot a Pulitzer Prize winner - A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

Ada's suggestion of the Queen & I for a funny book made me remember the Alan Bennett book about the Queen discovering her local library - I think it's called The Uncommon Reader? Funny & very short.