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!

General rules:

1. The books may be in any format - paperback, ebook, audiobook.
2. The books may be in any genre.
3. The books may NOT be combined with the Monthly Challenges. They may be combined with the Monthly Group Reads, Topplers, or Buddy Reads.
4. The books must be read between January 1 and December 31, 2014.
5. The challenge is for 6 books that are 500 pages or longer. You may read as many books as you like.
6. The page length of the books is based on the edition you read. If you are reading an ebook/Kindle, we will accept the page number listed on the ebook/Kindle Edition, if available. If no page numbers are available, we will go with the hardcover edition.

Specific rules:

1. Each book must connect in some way to the book preceding it. It is highly recommended that you preplan each milestone before you commence that milestone. If you like, you may preplan the entire year as books may be swapped out at will.

2. Each book must be greater than 500 pages. You may combine two or more books to obtain that goal as detailed above.

3. You must start your own reporting thread in the Year Long Challenge folder, and title it with your name and year 2014.

4. As indicated above, reserve a message for each milestone. This will be where you will list the books that you will read for each milestone. Example

5. You must read each milestone in order. The books within them may be read in any order.

6. When listing your books, indicate the page number. EG - The Forever Queen 656 pages.

7. Please use "add book/author" to link the book BY TITLE. You may add the cover link as well, but people using mobile apps may not be able to see the title of the book.

I think that's it.

You really thought hard on this one, Janice. Good job!

So everyone starts out as a slug and then moves into the next category after 6 completed books and so on.

This is going to be very interesting. Love it :-)

It really does look good, Janice. I'm looking at my 'bricks' shelf and trying to plan already!

I know it will be a waste of time for me to plan ahead but since most books I read are over 500 pages this should play into my hand quite well and less stressful than say an alphabet

After you complete 6 books, do you get to keep building on that chain to get to the next level or do you have to start a new chain? Sorry if I missed that part. Sounds like fun! Gotta love big books.

Julia wrote: "After you complete 6 books, do you get to keep building on that chain to get to the next level or do you have to start a new chain? Sorry if I missed that part. Sounds like fun! Gotta love big books."

You keep building the chain.

Janice, this looks fun!
Just one question:
Is it allowed to overlap books of other group's challenges?

Sandra wrote: "Janice, this looks fun!
Just one question:
Is it allowed to overlap books of other group's challenges?"

No. You may not overlap the year long challenge books with the monthly challenges. You may overlap with the monthly group reads, topplers or buddy reads.

Sorry Janice, I should have asked: Is it allowed to overlap books of other groups' challenges? :)

ETA: Other groups but YLTO

I assume Sandra means the challenges of groups that are not this one.

An interesting challenge for my first one of this group! Like Travis said, many of my reads end up being quite long, a quick look shows about 350 of my to-read list being 500+ pages (the massive Winston Churchill's The Second World War topping the list at a mind-numbing 4,532 pages and a recent acquisition of a nice boxed edition I had been searching for.

I'm sure I'll also be using the connecting pair method as well though. This should be quite interesting!

I am very excited about this! What a fun challenge!

ooh, I've got the first of what will assuredly prove a number of stupid questions

(there are no stupid questions, only stupid questioners..er, small people parts? however that goes)

And if the answer to any of these is no, I understand, just seeking clarity....

So genre connections are allowed, and series...but what about award lists? Such as if both books are Man Booker winners, or on the Modern Library 100 best novels, or for that matter the Time 100 list?

What about a series of books all published in the same year (maybe only allowable if before a certain year?) such as all published/written in 1925 or something? I can't think of a series I'd want to do like this, but it sounds a little interesting.

So excited to read all the books I put off for the alphabet :) Great challenge Janice!!

Wow! Thanks, Janice! That is one HUGE challenge - and must have taken a heap of figuring out. I usually put off reading doorstops, so it's a great incentive to get through some of the ones that have been sitting here a while - and I might actually have to plan in advance (shock, horror!!)

My utterly irrelevant question, which will no doubt show my ignorance from the word go (but if I'm going to be spending the year with him, it's better I ask now than in July): who is Slick Slug? Any chance of an introduction?

Oh no! I should be doing some actual work at work today, not planning a challenge!

Great challenge Janice, thanks for putting so much thought into it, and I'm really looking forward to participating! When I read this on my phone this morning my first thought was 'thank god for the combination option' because I don't read that many chunksters and could only think of reading a fantasy series, which often do have rather many pages.

But! I found out that you can order books by page numbers and I realized I have at least 30 books of over 500 pages on my TBR (even more if I count not only the first in a serie), so 2014 seems like a good year to start reading some of those :)

Great challenge Janice. Thanks for all the thought you've put in to it (and putting us all out of our misery) ;-) I have LOADS of bigger books so this is great - I may well be reading a lot of Fantasy books in 2014!

Wow Janice, this is well worth all those teasers. :) Thanks for the work you did coming up with this one!

One question, can the books be rereads? Diana Gabaldon has the newest in the Outlander series coming out this year and I'm in the process of rereading the series in preparation for that. No biggie if not since I have a number of chunksters on my TBR pile. Lol

Haha, I'm trying to make an order and I have 8 books organized now with all kinds of different links because I thought that would be fun, only to realize that they would also all fit under a 'historical fiction' link! It seems that all 500+ page books on my TBR are either fantasy or historical fiction ;-)

Oh! I could go for a historical fiction (in the broadest sense of the word probably) challenge, but without using the genre as a link.

Another great challenge, Janice. Almeta and I were betting it would have something to do with reading door-stoppers, but then, of course, you had to add that evil twist!

Wow, great challenge Janice! I have got a lot of chunksters on my TBR so it will be great to finally read them. Thanks for coming up with this challenge for us.

I am off to do some gophering! :D

Work has gone out the window while I gopher for which books I'm going to read and obscure links between them. I know my list will definitely change.

I am loving everyone's creative names for their challenge posts!

Oh this has turned out to be a lot trickier than I thought. Great work Janice!!

I foresee my handbag/satchel being rather heavy for the majority of 2014.

Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can the books be tied by something silly, such as both having red covers or both having a tree on the cover, something like that? It doesn't sound like there are any limitations, but I thought I should check. Two books, each with someone with a mustache on the cover?

I'm gonna change my title, I love the ones everyone is coming up with. :)

I did not even think about linking the covers. Great idea Laura!

Thanks! Count on me to come up with an oddball scheme lol.

Gréât challenge! Can't wait! And I am sooooo happy I read mostly on my kindle now lol

Great one. This is going to be fun, trying to find connection between books i want to read. I discovered this morning that many of my books in my pile are between 400-500 books. Grrrr...

I got quite a few big ones tough, no fear.

Janice, can you also use personal links, like 'first book I'll ever read by this author'?

Sandra wrote: "Sorry Janice, I should have asked: Is it allowed to overlap books of other groups' challenges? :)

ETA: Other groups but YLTO"

I'm sorry, Sandra. I didn't read your question properly. You may certainly combine books from this challenge with those that you have in OTHER groups.

Will wrote: So genre connections are allowed, and series...but what about award lists? Such as if both books are Man Booker winners, or on the Modern Library 100 best novels, or for that matter the Time 100 list?

What about a series of books all published in the same year (maybe only allowable if before a certain year?) such as all published/written in 1925 or something? I can't think of a series I'd want to do like this, but it sounds a little interesting.."

Absolutely! You may connect them in any way you like. Book awards or year published are both great ideas! I knew people were going to come up with some interesting and fun ways to link their books.

Rachel wrote: "My utterly irrelevant question, which will no doubt show my ignorance from the word go (but if I'm going to be spending the year with him, it's better I ask now than in July): who is Slick Slug? Any chance of an introduction?"

LOL! Slick is kind of our group's mascot. I'm not the fastest reader on the planet and for one of the challenges, I was marking my progress with a ticker from ticker factory that had a snail crawling through the grass. (Unfortunately, those tickers no longer work in Goodreads.) Somehow, through all the teasing and tomfoolery that tends to happen in this, someone named him Slick.

Here's a picture of the ticker:




The picture shows, but they no longer bring forward the updates. Slick should be sitting at 17 instead of 13.

Janice wrote: "Sandra wrote: "Sorry Janice, I should have asked: Is it allowed to overlap books of other groups' challenges? :)

ETA: Other groups but YLTO"

I'm sorry, Sandra. I didn't read your question prope..."

Janice, Actually I didn't write the question properly. Should have written groups' instead of group's. :)

Esther, Same thing here! I have so many books between 400-500 pages! 486, 478, 491!!!

Peggy wrote: "Oh no! I should be doing some actual work at work today, not planning a challenge!"

You and me both! It's after 9:00 and I'm still in my jammies when I should be dressed and at my desk working. I work from home, so at least I don't have to go out in the snow and cold.

Your example is exactly what I had in mind for combining shorties to make a "chunkster".

Patty wrote: "One question, can the books be rereads?..."

You certainly may!

Thing Two wrote: "Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Ha! SCORE! I made Thing Two happy. Teehee!

Laura wrote: "Can the books be tied by something silly, such as both having red covers or both having a tree on the cover, something like that? It doesn't sound like there are any limitations, but I thought I ..."

You're right. There are no limitations. Just make sure you indicate what the connection is so that I'm not scratching my head trying to figure out if you are within the rules.

The sillier the better and the more fun you'll have.

I think I'll change my thread title too. I was more focused on getting it up to use as an example in the details of the challenge.

Amber wrote: "Janice, this is a FANTASTIC challenge! And I've learned my lesson from the alphabet challenge: instead of charting my course in advance, I'm going to decide as I go. It makes it easier to read wha..."

Just make sure you link the book in someway to the proceeding one. And list them all so that they are in one place. One of the problems that I tried to address from last year was that some people didn't have a list. When they finished a book, they added a message to their thread - which makes it very hard for tracking. That's why I have everyone reserving the first 5 messages, one for each milestone.

Yeah, I've already changed my reporting thread name to something more relevant to ME!

Janice wrote: "Rachel wrote: "My utterly irrelevant question, which will no doubt show my ignorance from the word go (but if I'm going to be spending the year with him, it's better I ask now than in July): who is..."

Thank you! I'm sure myself and Slick will be best mates by the end of the year - I'm expecting to be travelling most of the way with him in the slow lane (although I fancy coming up with some really daft connections if I get as far as Mickey.)

Just so you know - the Slicky ticker seems to have transferred it's allegiance to the iPhone app - he's breezing past the 17 mark on my phone!

Rachel wrote: "Just so you know - the Slicky ticker seems to have transferred it's allegiance to the iPhone app - he's breezing past the 17 mark on my phone!"

Now that is interesting! Hmmm - some things work on the pc that don't work on the mobile apps and apparently vice versa.

Great challenge! I'm looking forward to this!

I was wondering, to combine shorter books, do these necessarily need to be series books? i.e Could I combine two, non-series shorties by the same author to build a chunkster?

thanks!

It took me at least one hour (and some bits of time during the day), but I finally managed to link 18 books together. I'm ready for January!

Way to go, Peggy! :)

I have got 24 books lined up now which is probably a bit ambitious but we shall see. I can't wait to begin! :D

Great challenge, Janice! I usually avoid the big books because I mostly read on the way to work and I don't want to carry them around... but this year I will have to figure something out :)

Now time to choose books! (... forgetting about my test tomorrow)

I can't wait to start - I have 12 books linked but I have more but I just need to come up with some connections. Getting wrapped up it the excitement but I still need to complete 2013 challenge first!

So how tentative can these connections be?
I have planned for the start of next year Bleak House and The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs. Beeton: The First Domestic Goddess. The second is the biography of Mrs Beeton, who wrote Mrs Beeton's book of household management. So I could link to bleak House based on the word "House".

But is that just a little smidgy bit too tenuous a connection?

Janice,

When I was looking for books for the Tea Cozy Challenge, I compiled a list of 16 or 17 books that I was looking at for points for the challenge. It dawned on me this morning that I could link them ALL as First In A Series and Food Name in the Title. Even some of the author's names over lap. None of them are door-stops, but I could still apply them together. I could even read all of the fun books that Nancy dug up for her Alphabet challenge for this year.

The links and titles that all of those that posted so far are just amazing!

My first goal for next year is to attack the huge pile of physical books that are currently stacked on my extra office chair and the huge pile of audio titles on tape that are camped out on my kitchen table. I will have to see how creatively I can "link" them up.