Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

This week, you and your team will be playing Battleship! Are you ready? Here's how it works...

Ships are hidden on your team's game board. There are a total of five ships for you to find and destroy. Ships can be placed vertically or horizontally on your board and come in all sizes (one 5-Block Ship, one 4-Block Ship, two 3-Block Ships, and one 2-Block Ship). There are no diagonal ships. Each team has their own unique game board so you won't be able to pick up any hints from the successes or failures of the other teams.

Team members will earn guesses for their team by completing tasks. There are many tasks to choose from and, with the exception of the overlapping tasks (the ⚡tasks) all tasks are repeatable and able to be completed by multiple team members. For example, a team member could hypothetically read multiple romance books and earn a guess for each one completed. Alternatively, the whole team could read a romance book each and earn a guess for each romance book completed. To keep things challenging but achievable, some items can be overlapped. Any task with a ⚡ next to it can be overlapped with other tasks. If you have any questions, please ask. We're here to help as needed! You will need to coordinate some on the overlapping tasks since they have limits, but for the most part you'll just be coordinating your guesses.

In this challenge, reading more quickly may get you more guesses but it won't guarantee your team's success. You'll have to work together and coordinate your guesses to win. Your team's mod knows where the ships are hidden and will verify whether or not your guess is a hit or a miss. Mods will check and update the game board as often as they're able but it is possible you'll read and complete tasks as a team more quickly than the mods are able to update. You do not have to use your guesses as soon as you get them. Keep track of them and use them strategically as the board is updated. Mods can participate and earn guesses for their teams. However, since they know where the ships are, their respective teams will have to do the guessing for them.

BATTLESHIP TASKS

Reading Tasks
- Finish 3 Books (Single Member) ⚡
- Finish 10 Books (2 Books per Member) ⚡
- Finish 15 Books (3 Books per Member) ⚡
- Finish 20 Books (4 Books per Member) ⚡
- Read 5 Books for the ATY Reading Challenge (2 per Member) ⚡
- Finish a Book or Story in One Sitting ⚡
- Read for 2 Straight Hours (1 Per Member; Limit of 10 Hours) ⚡
- Finish 3 Books Started Before the Read-a-Thon (1 per Member; <75% Complete) ⚡
- Read 4,000 pages (600 per Member) ⚡
- All members of the team recommend a book

April Fool tasks!
In celebration of some of the greatest April Fool pranks...
- The Swiss spaghetti harvest: read a book set in Switzerland or by a Swiss author
- Sans Seriffe: read a book set in a fictional location
- The Sydney iceberg: read a book with snow on the cover
- Nixon for President: read a book about politics
- The London UFO: read a science fiction book

Title Tasks
- Read a Book with a One-Word Title
- Read a Book with an Article in the Title (a, an, the)
- Read a Book with a Long Title (6+words)
- Read a Book with a Color in the Title

Genre Tasks
- Read a Sci-Fi Book
- Read a Fantasy Book
- Read a Dystopian Book
- Read a Mystery/Thriller Book
- Read a Historical or Historical Fiction Book
- Read a Young Adult Book
- Read a Middle Grade Book
- Read a Picture Book
- Read a Horror Book
- Read a Romance Book
- Read a Non-Fiction Book

Author Tasks
- 2 Books by a Female Author (1 per Member) ⚡
- 2 Books by a POC ⚡

Format Tasks
- 2 Graphic Novels or Manga (1 per Member)
- Read a Book in a Series
- Listen to 20 Hours of Audiobooks (5 Hours per Member) ⚡
- Read a Poem
- 3 Short Stories/Novellas (1 per Member)

Setting/Character Tasks
- Read a Book Set in Winter
- Read a Book Set in the Country You Reside In
- Read a Book with a Child Main Character

Publishing Tasks
- Read a Book Published in 2018
- Read a Book Published More than 10 Years Ago
- Read a Book Published Outside the Major 5 Publishers (Penguin Random House, Macmillan, HarperCollins, Hachette and Simon & Schuster)

Cover Tasks
- Read the Rainbow (1 Book for Each Color - Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple/Violet) ⚡
- Read a Book with a Spring Cover (Trees, Flowers, etc.)
- Read a Book with a Summer Cover (Sea, Beach, etc.)
- Read a Book with an Autumn Cover (Leaves, Pumpkins, etc.)
- Read a Book with a Winter Cover (Snow, Ice, etc.)

Award/Rating Tasks
- A Book from the 2017 GR Choice Awards
- Finish a Book with an Average GR Rating of Between 4 and 4.3
- Finish a Book with an Average GR Rating Below 3.5

Read-a-Thon Tasks
- Complete every Read-a-Thon Game

Green Team
Laura (Mod)
Lori
Susan
Tammy
Chattie
Emily
Samantha (Message 16)
Veronica
Perri
Edie
Lieke
Jennifer
Debra

Pink Team
Sophie (Mod)
Katie (Mod)
Samantha (Message 3)
Joan
Michelle
Erin
Jillian
Kelly
Silvia
Chinook
Ira

Blue Team
Bryony (Mod)
Rachel
Erica
Marina H
Rachelnyc
Tracy
Hannah
Kathy Jo
Hilde
Jill
Jody

To avoid any potential confusion with what is considered a "game" for the read-a-thon task, I will be updating a list here:

- Kick-off
- Getting to Know You
- Bookish A-Z
- Recommendations
- Candy Book Tag
- Halfway Check-in
- Scrabble

Were the author tasks also suppose to have lighting next to them since they require multiple books?

No, they are a team task (requiring multiple team members) but they cannot be overlapped with other tasks (the meaning of the lightning)

Laura wrote: "No, they are a team task (requiring multiple team members) but they cannot be overlapped with other tasks (the meaning of the lightning)"

Thank you, Laura, I was wondering the same thing. Will you get two guesses per prompt for the author task then? Otherwise it seems it would be wiser to chose one of the prompts with only one book required.

You would only get one guess.

But you have a very good point ;)

Okay, I'm not sure then why anyone would choose those tasks then. Books by female authors and POC would work else where and be worth 2 guess but if you work together as a team you only get one guess.

I went back and changed the rules so please review.

The author tasks now have lightning bolts. So they can be overlapped with other tasks.

A team earns one guess once they complete two books that are by a person of color OR a female author. So the same book could count for a POC, another lightning task, and one non-lightning task.

In other words, it is a bonus if you read a book by a female author or POC but your team has to read two.

Laura wrote: "
I went back and changed the rules so please review.


The author tasks now have lightning bolts. So they can be overlapped with other tasks.

A team earns one guess once they complete two book..."

Thank you, Laura, now it makes sense :)

Thanks, Laura that makes sense.

Question for the Mods:

One of our tasks is to completed 3 books started before the readathon began, as long as those books have at least 25% to be read during the readathon. That task is also listed as an overlapping task, so does that mean the books used for that can also be used for one of the non-overlapping tasks? Like, a genre or publishing task?

Those books can be used to count towards the page count (4,000 pages) or potentially the 2-hours straight.

But you have to start a book during the read-a-thon in order to count it towards any other prompt.

Thanks, Laura!

Does the 25% rule also apply to long books? I have a few audio books one started with 12 hours left of a 23 hour book and the other 10 hours left from 18 hour book.

I personally would say you could count them for the hours for the audiobook task and then pages after you max out the audio task (5 hours). But I wouldn't count them for the "Finish 3 Books Started Before the Read-a-Thon" task.

It has always been a % rule but if people don't like the rule then we could potentially change it to a rule with # of pages instead. I can see where % could be unfair for a long vs. short book.

Oh, also, just so I'm clear on all the rules - the ⚡ tasks can only be completed once each, right? So once 2 POC authors or Female authors have been read, we can cross the task off completely, right?

The last read-a-thon it was 125 pages so I thought they would work for this one. I have shorter books I can switch to and finish my longer books after the read-a-thon.

I wouldn’t be opposed to counting them multiple times, just like you can with the other tasks. You would just need to fully complete them every time. So 1 guess for 2 POC authors and then another guess if you do another 2.

I just would say you couldn’t complete the “Finish x books” prompts more than once since they’re cumulative in nature (you get another guess when you move to the next level).

I'm sorry, I think I explained the percentages incorrectly, honestly because they confuse me.

Jillian, you can count your audiobooks for the "started before the read-a-thon" task.

The rule is that a book can be counted for that as long as you have at least 25% remaining in the book. I was thinking it was the other way around.

Summary

Started before the read-a-thon, at least 25% remaining or less than 75% complete:
- Read for 2 Straight Hours (1 Per Member; Limit of 10 Hours)
- Finish 3 Books Started Before the Read-a-Thon (1 per Member)
- Read 4,000 pages (600 per Member)
- Listen to 20 Hours of Audiobooks (5 Hours per Member)

Started during the read-a-thon:
- All tasks, depending on format (short story, graphic novel, audiobook, etc.)

If you max out your personal audio limit (5 hours) then you can begin counting your hours as "pages" for the page task.