“Mashed Potato May” Will Change Your Reading Life
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What is the book of mashed potatoes? To the average reader, this is a meaningless question, but listeners to Ariel Bisset and Raline Lemay Books Unbound Podcasts will recognize the word immediately. This refers to books you’re sure you’ll love, but you’ve put off reading – like skipping the last bit of mashed potatoes at your meal.
Mashed potato books include that classic you know will be an all-time favorite that’s collecting dust on the shelf, that book you preordered six months ago but hasn’t seen the cover yet, or the backlist of an author you gave a five-star rating to once and never saw again.
May Mashed Potatoes There’s a readathon that encourages us to finally pick up those mashed potatoes books, even if you’ve been putting them off for months, years, or decades. Sometimes, the pressure of an anticipated book feels too much. Or, maybe you’ve been waiting for the “right moment” to finally read it. Whatever the reasoning, life is too short not to read the books we are most excited about.
This Readathon is an opportunity to elevate your reading life by prioritizing the books you are most excited about. Even if they end up being a disappointment, it will be a relief to finally cross them off your TBR list.
I can’t tell you what your personal mashed potato books are, but if you want to mash together this readathon with the Read Harder Challenge, here are some works that are good contenders.
Task #8: Read a Classic from Zero to Well-Read Podcast
go tell it to the mountain by james baldwin
The Classics is the most common version of the Mashed Potatoes book, which makes it easiest to combine task #8 with Mashed Potatoes May. Sometimes, readers put off picking up the classics because we worry we won’t understand them. Luckily, you can listen Zero to Well-Read Podcast The episode that follows, which summarizes the key findings and provides all the background information you need.
Task #10: Read a book recently adapted for film, TV, or musical
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
Are you stopping watching? Project Hail Mary Unless you read the book? Let mashed potatoes be the motivation to finally take it up! So, you can probably still see it in theaters. However, this work doesn’t just apply to the biggest conversions: You may have been interested in reading this Witch Hat Atelier Manga series that just got an anime, or PBS adaptation vengeance Have convinced you to take the original.
All Access members, read four more books pairing Read Harder with Mashed Potato Mays.
Task #14: Read a work of magical realism or fantasy
house of spirits by Isabel Allende
This is one of the most famous and beloved books of magical realism, so if you have even the slightest interest in the literary tradition, it probably belongs on your TBR list. Bonus: It recently got a Spanish-language adaptation on Prime Video, which means you can check out Task #10 at the same time.
Task #20: Read a book in space
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
you can definitely pick up Project Hail Mary Also by Andy Weir for this work, but I can’t pass up a chance to recommend The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It’s a sci-fi classic, which is why I think it has good potential to become a mashed potatoes book, but if you don’t think you’re a sci-fi reader then I highly recommend it. The books in this series are some of the most fun I’ve ever read, and you don’t have to put up with hard science-fiction interpretations.
Task #21: Read a genre (SFF, horror, mystery, romance) book in translation
I who have never known men By Jacqueline Harpman, translated by Russ Schwartz
It is a post-apocalyptic novel about a group of women who are locked in underground cages and have no memory of how they got there or how much time has passed. It was published in France in 1995 and translated into English in 2024. It had a moment on BookTok, so there’s a good chance it’s reached mashed potato status for some readers at this point!
Task #23: Read a book by an African author
my sister, serial killer By Oyinkan Braithwaite
If you’ve been a Book Riot reader since the beginning, you’ve probably also read my sister, serial killer By Nigerian author Oyinkan Braithwaite Or add this to your TBR: It was a big hit among our readers when it came out. If you’ve already read it but haven’t read her latest novel, cursed daughtersThis mashed potatoes is another contender for a May read!
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