You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion

Year Long Challenge - 2014

The challenge for 2014 is to read chunksters - books that are more than 500 pages long - and to connect them as if they were links in a chain. Some of you may say, "But I don't read books that long!!" (view spoiler)[Keep reading because there is a twist coming! (hide spoiler)]

Each subsequent book must connect in some way to the preceding book. You are only limited by your imagination as to what type of connection(s) you want to use. Just be sure to enlighten us so that we understand your methodology. Some ways in which you could connect - - author, word in title, series, genre, last letter of one title to the first letter of the next title, etc.

You may change the connection with every book, or use that same connection throughout the challenge if you choose.

Example:

Caribbean, by James A. Michener (832 pages)
The Covenant, by James A. Michener (1240 pages) - connect same author
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever, by Stephen R. Donaldson (1160 pages) - connect with the word covenant
Four Past Midnight, by Stephen King (930 pages) - connect with author's first name
I Am the Chosen KingHelen Hollick(592 pages) - connect with King

Another example connecting with words that "belong together" (sword, blade, cutting):

Theft of Swords (694 pages)
The Blade Itself (536 pages)
The Chalice and the Blade (514 pages)
Cutting for Stone (541 pages)
The Sword of Shannara (776 pages)..... and here I'm going to switch the connection to a series starting with

Sword of Shannara
The Elfstones Of Shannara (564 pages)
The Wishsong of Shannara (512 pages)

As long as you can connect to the previous book, you are good to go. If you don't want to go to all that work, consider choosing a genre or a series as your connection. Maybe you want to do Slick Slug's level (more on that later) in one genre or series and then switch to another for Mickey Mouse's level. Just make sure that there is something - anything - that connects the last book of one section to the first book of the following section.

Here comes the twist for those who read shorter books.... You may read two or more shorties that when combined, total more than 500 pages. Say you want to read a Cozy Mystery series. We'll use the Hannah Swenson Series:

Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder (436 pages)
Strawberry Shortcake Murder (320 pages)
Total pages = 756. You may read both of these books as one selection. (Count one book)

Blueberry Muffin Murder (310 pages)
Lemon Meringue Pie Murder (352 pages)
Total -pages = 662. This, then becomes your second selection. (Count one book)

Note: You may not carry page totals forward! You may not take the total of the first selection, which was 756 - 500 = 256 and add those 256 left over to the next selection. Lets just keep it simple.

You are not restricted to series if you want to use this strategy of combining books to achieve 500 pages. Perhaps you want to read one author's catalog. Combine books to give you a combo of 500+ pages.

The challenge is broken into various milestones, spearheaded by one of the following characters as your mascots along the way.
- Slick's Slugs - 1 - 6 books
- Mickey Mouse's Marchers - 7 - 12 books
- Roadrunner's Racers - 13 - 18 books
- Tasmanian Devil's Trouncers - 19 - 24 books
- Buzz Lightyear's Bombers - 25 - "To infinity and beyond"

Once you have completed 6 books, you will receive designation as one of Slick's Slugs and will be awarded your badge of completion. You may complete as many milestones as you want. Each time you complete a milestone, you will receive a badge.

Please start your own reporting thread (eg. Janice's 2014 Year Long Challenge). Immediately do 5 messages - Msg 1 "Reserved for Slick's Slugs, Msg 2 "reserved for Mickey's Marcher, etc. This way you can edit these 5 messages throughout the challenge to list the books that you will be reading, and indicate completion date. It will make it much easier for me to track your progress.

The rules follow!