Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

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The Group Bingo Challenge is designed to be completed as a team. If you signed up to play along, your team assignment can be found here.

The only way to complete this challenge is to work together, so you'll need to communicate with your team. Discussion topics for each team have been set up for this purpose. Check in with your team as often as you can to make sure you're all working towards your common goal and to cheer each other on. A little encouragement goes a long way!

Team Peach Discussion Topic
Team Cherry Discussion Topic
Team Lemon Discussion Topic

Pay attention to the Bingo card. Any square that has a red starred square cannot be overlapped with any other red starred squares. Any square with a blue star cannot be overlapped with any other blue starred square. And any yellow star symbol cannot be overlapped with any other yellow starred square.

EXAMPLE: The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han
This book could be used to check off quite a few squares -- female author, set in the summer, YA book, part of a series, etc. Since there is no overlapping, as a team you would need to decide which square to assign this particular read to. It could not be used to check off multiple starred squares. You could, however, count it towards your groups overall page count (O1), towards your 10 books read (B1), or any other non-starred square.

THE SQUARES EXPLAINED:
If you're looking for a little more clarification on the challenge, here are the all the Bingo squares broken down.

B1-Finish 10 Books - Your group needs to have collectively finished reading (from beginning to end) a total of 10 books to claim this square. Each member can only contribute a maximum of 2 books to this total.
B2-Read Something with a One-Word Title - Read a novel, short story, poem, graphic novel, comic, manga, etc. with a one-word title.
B3-Read 5 Books for the ATY Challenge - Collectively, you need to read 5 books that are being counted towards the ATY in 52 Books Reading Challenge. Each member can only contribute 1 book to this total. But, since many people use the read-a-thons to catch up on their challenge, this shouldn't be too tricky.
B4-Read a Sci-Fi or Fantasy - Any member of your team can read a sci-fi or fantasy book to complete this square for the team.
B5-Read 2 Books by a Female Author - Two members of your team will have to read books written by a female author to check this square off your card.

I1-Complete Every Read-a-Thon Game - This doesn't mean that every member of your team has to do every read-a-thon game. It doesn't even mean that one member of your team has to do every read-a-thon game. It means that between all of you, at least one team member must have participated in and completed each of the read-a-thon games. Although we'd like to think that everyone is playing along, it's possible for one team member to participate in all the games and score this square for their team. It's also possible that each team member only play one game to check this square off. Divide and conquer however you like, readers!
I2-Read 2 Graphic Novels or Manga - Two members of your team will need to read a graphic novel or manga to cross this off your card.
I3-Read a Book in a Series - Any member of your team can read a book in a series (doesn't have to be the 1st book in the series) to complete this square for the team.
I4-Read 2 Books Set in Summer - Two members of your team will have to read books set in the summer time to finish this square off.
I5-Read a Mystery or Thriller - Any member of your team can read a mystery or thriller to complete this square for the team.

N1-Read the Rainbow - As your team reads the many books it will read, pay attention to the colors of the cover. You can check this off if your team is able to read a book with a cover that corresponds to each color of the rainbow.
N2-Read Outside for 6 Hours - Summer is coming to a close, guys! Get outside and enjoy that fresh air while you still can. If your team collects 6 hours of quality reading time in the great outdoors you can snag this square. Members can contribute a maximum of 2 hours for their team toward the total.
N3-Every Team Member Recommends a Book to the Team - You're going to be spending a lot of time together so why not recommend a book to your fellow teammates? If every teammate drops a recommendation, you get this easy square. You do not need to read any of the recommendations for the challenge, this is just a fun little social task. Call it a freebie. ;)
N4-Listen to 20 Hours of Audiobooks - Your team must come together and listen, collectively, to 20 hours of audiobook goodness. Each member can only contribute a maximum of 5 hours to the overall total.
N5-Read a Poem - Read a poem. You don't have to read a whole book of poetry... just one poem. That's it. Any member of your team can read a poem to complete this square.]

G1-Finish a Book or Story in One Sitting - Sit down and read up! If any member of your team can plow through a whole book (no matter how long or short it is) in a single sitting, they can claim this square for your team.
G2-Read 3 Short Stories or Novellas - Three members of your team will need to read a short story or novella to complete this task.
G3-5 Members Read for 1 Hour Straight - 5 different team members must read for an uninterrupted hour each to scratch this off your card.
G4-Finish 3 Books Started Before the Read-a-Thon - Were you part way through a book before the read-a-thon even began? Now is your chance to finish those books off! Three different members of your team must finish a book they started before the read-a-thon to claim this space. The book needs to have been no more than 75% completed to count.
G5-Strategize with Your Group - Keeping up with your group is vital to your success in this challenge. If your group's discussion topic reaches 30 or more comments, you can claim this square.

O1-Read 4000 Pages - As a group, read 4000 pages total through the week. Speed readers, keep your cool! Each member can only contribute a maximum of 600 pages to your group's total.
O2-Read Something Historical - It could be a biography, historical fiction, non-fiction, etc. Only one member of your group has to read something historical for the team to claim this square.
O3-Read a YA, Middle Grade, or Children's Book - If any member of your team reads a young adult, middle grade, or children's book you can finish this square.
O4-Read a Book with an Article in the Title - That's any book with "A," "An," or "The," in the title. That shouldn't be too challenging, right? If any member of your group reads a book with an article in the title they can claim this square for your team.
O5-Add 3 Books to the ATY Reading Map - Three members will have to read a book and submit it to be added to the ATY Group Reading Map. Since we're only adding ATY Challenge books to the reading map, this should encourage you to plug away at your challenge list! Squad goals!

As a side note, if you're working on the Group Bingo Challenge and the Individual Bingo Challenge, you little go-getter, you CAN overlap your reads between the two cards. The squares are actually designed to overlap in some places. ;)

Now get out there and get your read on!

Quick question-for N3 we only to recommend a book (each person on the team), but we don't need to actually read it, correct?

Also, I think there was a typo/error with N4 & N5. I'm assuming the team has to collectively listen to 20 hours of audiobooks, but how many hours can one person contribute?

Brianna, that is correct. You do not need to read the book recommendations - at least not as far as this Bingo challenge is concerned. That's just for fun and to put further burden on your TBR shelf should anyone recommend something that interests you.

And yes, that was a massive typo! Thanks for catching that. It is fixed now. Each member can contribute a maximum of 5 hours to the audiobook task.

Okay, sounds great. Thanks for the detailed descriptions and a very nice Bingo card btw! It seems like hard work to coordinate this time, so thanks a million to all our fabulous mods!

My questionish comment: Partly read books mostly fit in the count-the-pages Bingo square?

Clearly it's better to choose new books. Oh sigh :D I'll see where I can fit in the "partly read but need to finish" books in the challenge, because I really don't need to start more new books.

Looks fun! But can already started books (started before the readathon began) not be used to fill in the bingo squares if I finish them during the readathon?

Elín Birna wrote: "Looks fun! But can already started books (started before the readathon began) not be used to fill in the bingo squares if I finish them during the readathon?"

You can use it for G4! And page count! Or can we put a book only in one of the two? The G4 has a star in it.

Edit: And the same goes for audiobooks. If I were to read Henrietta Lacks (microhistory) as audiobook, does it count also in audio minutes?

Aglaea, you can overlap a starred square with an unstarred square, just not two starred squares. So for Henrietta Lacks, you can count it as historical and then use the audio minutes but you couldn't also use it as the female author. I hope that makes sense!

Elín Birna, you can use any finished book for the squares, even if it was started before the read-a-thon. G4 is devoted to books that were partially complete but the remaining squares can be completed regardless of when you started the book. But obviously you can only count the portion you actually read for the read-a-thon under the page count/hours read.

Ok great, thanks Laura!

The bingo card is so lovely! Great work. I am extremely excited about this group bingo challenge.

I have a question about audiobooks. I do a lot of my reading as audiobooks these days. If I complete my 5 audiobook hours, and then after that I listen to an audiobook for a book that's 300 pages, can I count that as 300 pages read toward the 4000 pages goal, or does it have to be actual reading?

Thanks for all your work Emm, Laura & Zaz to make this SO FUN for the rest of us.

Katie, I don't see an issue with counting the audiobooks since so many group members consider them to be the same.

Katie, I do a lot of audiobooks too when I'm doing other things. I usually estimate the page count based on how far into the audiobook I am. If I'm 50% through and it's a 300 page book then I assume I would have read approximately 150 pages. You can do this for the challenge.

No problem with using audio for page count, but don't use them for both page count square and audio square :)

I'm maybe pushing it a bit far but after listening to the max 5 hours for the audiobook square, can I count the rest as the page count square? (audiobook junkie talking here)

I don't see a problem with that as long as you're not counting the pages from the 5 hours you used for the audiobook square.

Sophie, I'm such an audiobook junkie too and asked the same question.

Sorry Katie I didn't give your question enough attention, but at least we have a clear answer! ;)

Thanks for clarifications. Our mods are the best! *hands over slice of lemon cake*

Mmm... lemon cake.

I had to modify the card, guys. I'm sorry. I know you're all working hard and plotting it out but I felt the instructions were to vague and I wanted to make sure everyone was playing the same game. Unfortunately, when I make these things, it can be difficult to anticipate how you guys will read them and what questions you will have so what makes sense in my head doesn't always translate well. Hopefully this card modification will make things clearer.

Some squares were designed to overlap. Some squares were not. The change is:

Any square that has a red starred square cannot be overlapped with any other red starred squares. Any square with a blue star cannot be overlapped with any other blue starred square. And any yellow star symbol cannot be overlapped with any other yellow starred square.

Just to clarify- red can't overlap with red, but yellow can.
If we read a book for B1, it can be used for I3 (book in a series). Correct?

and we can cross blue with read (B1 & O1)

Yes, that's correct :)

You've got it, Brianna. Again, sorry, these things seem so much clearer in my head.

Don't worry, Emm. It's only a specification, not a huge change or anything. And it's natural to think of things out of one's own perspective because that's the only one we have :) Keep up the great work!