Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

Thanks to everyone who joined in with 24B4Monday. The totals are in and as a group we read 214 hours, 25 minutes over the three days. Pretty impressive I think!

We finished 38 books in that time - have a look at the cover collage below to see what other people were reading over the weekend.

Books completed



As always, we want to organise activities that members of our group enjoy so we would love to hear your opinions on 24B4Monday to help us plan other activities in future. Here are a few questions but feel free to add any other comments too.

1. Did you enjoy tracking the number of hours you spent reading, or would you prefer to set different goals (like pages read or books completed)?

2. Would you like the mods to organise other weekends like this during the year, or should we just have our regular week-long read-a-thons?

3. Are there any activities (eg games, different discussion threads etc) you’d like us to include a future 24B4Monday weekend if we have another?

4. If you didn’t join in then is there anything we could change that would encourage you to participate in future?

5. Do you have any other suggestions for activities you’d like to see in our group?

Thank you again to everyone who took part over the weekend, and I hope you enjoyed your time reading.

PS - if you haven’t yet voted for the June Book of the Month then you have until the end of the day on 16 May. There’s currently a tie between 11/22/63 by Stephen King and Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid so your vote could be the tie breaker!

1. Did you enjoy tracking the number of hours you spent reading, or would you prefer to set different goals (like pages read or books completed)?

I liked tracking hours spent reading, although it is harder than keeping track of pages. I found it enlightening to see how long I read.

2. Would you like the mods to organise other weekends like this during the year, or should we just have our regular week-long read-a-thons?

Yes, I'd participate again.

3. Are there any activities (eg games, different discussion threads etc) you’d like us to include a future 24B4Monday weekend if we have another?
I liked the low-key aspect of the 24B4Monday. I don't need other activities, but if they were there I'd join in.

4. If you didn’t join in then is there anything we could change that would encourage you to participate in future?

5. Do you have any other suggestions for activities you’d like to see in our group?

No. Thanks for organizing this event!

I enjoyed it allot. It helped me be more aware of my reading time. I would definitely participate in this again.

1. Did you enjoy tracking the number of hours you spent reading, or would you prefer to set different goals (like pages read or books completed)?

I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so it would be easier for me to track pages than hours. I always feel like I have to shut off the timer if I get interrupted even briefly, and having to deal with the timer sometimes makes me hesitate to try to read if I don't have a whole chunk of time for it. That said, I could enjoy having different events that track reading in different ways--I don't really mean to complain about the timer version!

2. Would you like the mods to organise other weekends like this during the year, or should we just have our regular week-long read-a-thons?

I'd probably join in one of these again.

3. Are there any activities (eg games, different discussion threads etc) you’d like us to include a future 24B4Monday weekend if we have another?

Not specifically. In a way it's nice not to have the distraction from reading, and keep it simple, but it could also be fun to have a few mini-goals of some kind for extra motivation.

4. If you didn’t join in then is there anything we could change that would encourage you to participate in future?

5. Do you have any other suggestions for activities you’d like to see in our group?

I enjoy the activities you do have!

1. Did you enjoy tracking the number of hours you spent reading, or would you prefer to set different goals (like pages read or books completed)? I liked tracking the hours for something different to track. It gave me a perspective of how much time I do spend reading on a weekend.

2. Would you like the mods to organise other weekends like this during the year, or should we just have our regular week-long read-a-thons? I think a mix of both would be fun. Maybe for a weekend we could do a weekend bingo board or something. Just thinking of something different to do.

3. Are there any activities (eg games, different discussion threads etc) you’d like us to include a future 24B4Monday weekend if we have another? The simplicity of this one was nice with not too much pressure. I would say keep these simple and for the week long ones have all the activities. A couple of other weekends could be just a bingo board like I put above or some other idea. Maybe one weekend we could do a page challenge.

4. If you didn’t join in then is there anything we could change that would encourage you to participate in future?

5. Do you have any other suggestions for activities you’d like to see in our group? Can't think of any other ideas besides what I put.

1. Did you enjoy tracking the number of hours you spent reading, or would you prefer to set different goals (like pages read or books completed)?

I did enjoy tracking my hours. It was nice for me since I switch between so many books and formats to track by hours. I have never tracked my hours before. I would have trouble with tracking by page number since many of my books are audiobooks. But, I would not be bothered if the tracking changed for other 24B4Monday weekend read-a-thons.

2. Would you like the mods to organise other weekends like this during the year, or should we just have our regular week-long read-a-thons?

I really liked this one since it was low key.

3. Are there any activities (eg games, different discussion threads etc) you’d like us to include a future 24B4Monday weekend if we have another?

I think the games should be saved for the week long read-a-thons.

4. If you didn’t join in then is there anything we could change that would encourage you to participate in future?

I joined so it is not really applicable but I think it would be nice to have this once a month or every other month. I really like how it was at the top of the thread list. It made it easy to find.

5. Do you have any other suggestions for activities you’d like to see in our group?

Nothing comes to mind.

Thank you again to everyone who took part over the weekend, and I hope you enjoyed your time reading.

I plan my reading based on hours so this challenge worked perfectly for me. I read a bit more than I normally would on a weekend (and more than once I picked up a book instead of the TV remote!) because of this challenge so I'm glad I participated.

The challenge didn't really seem very interactive but I don't really know how that could be changed because it's such a short time frame that people are really more focused on reading than posting.

1. Did you enjoy tracking the number of hours you spent reading, or would you prefer to set different goals (like pages read or books completed)?
- I'd prefer different goals, but mostly because I track EVERYTHING except my time read. Page goals would be better for me, personally.

2. Would you like the mods to organise other weekends like this during the year, or should we just have our regular week-long read-a-thons?
- I think having weekends like this on the months we don't have Read-A-Thons would be fun!

3. Are there any activities (eg games, different discussion threads etc) you’d like us to include a future 24B4Monday weekend if we have another?
- I would like a bit more games or something... I felt like it wasn't super interactive. Even just a reflection thread each day with questions to answer or... I don't know? I was busy so I don't even know how much I would have been on here, but I think having active discussion threads brings more people in to the event.

4. If you didn’t join in then is there anything we could change that would encourage you to participate in future?
- You could consider having people set their own goals (pages vs. time vs. books) rather than it being only time read.

5. Do you have any other suggestions for activities you’d like to see in our group?
- Y'all are doing a great job!

1. Did you enjoy tracking the number of hours you spent reading, or would you prefer to set different goals (like pages read or books completed)?
I personally think tracking hours works best for me. The words per a page or a book can fluctuate greatly, but my reading speed per word stays pretty constant.

2. Would you like the mods to organise other weekends like this during the year, or should we just have our regular week-long read-a-thons?
Other weekends would be great!

3. Are there any activities (eg games, different discussion threads etc) you’d like us to include a future 24B4Monday weekend if we have another?
Beat the Backlist has the Mini-house competition to see which groups can read the most books. I think that would work out well to divide people into groups and see who reads more.


4. If you didn’t join in then is there anything we could change that would encourage you to participate in future?
N/A

5. Do you have any other suggestions for activities you’d like to see in our group?
From what other people have said, you could have the option of tracking number of books, amount of time, and/or number of pages. Loved the challenge. I got through so much this weekend!

1. Did you enjoy tracking the number of hours you spent reading, or would you prefer to set different goals (like pages read or books completed)? I liked it, but pages would be good too. When it's just a weekend, I'd prefer not to track number of books in case I'm in the middle of a tough one, and I love tracking things!

2. Would you like the mods to organise other weekends like this during the year, or should we just have our regular week-long read-a-thons? I liked having this weekend organized. I wouldn't want more than one a month, but it helped me sit down and read rather than watch tv or get lost in the internet.

3. Are there any activities (eg games, different discussion threads etc) you’d like us to include a future 24B4Monday weekend if we have another? I like Joan's idea of bingo. I wouldn't want too many activities, threads, or things too track, because I get bogged down with those rather than reading (even if I'm not active, I still read everyone else's comments!)

4. If you didn’t join in then is there anything we could change that would encourage you to participate in future?

5. Do you have any other suggestions for activities you’d like to see in our group?
You all do a great job! Thanks for adding in these activities.

1. Did you enjoy tracking the number of hours you spent reading, or would you prefer to set different goals (like pages read or books completed)?
It's much easier for me to track the number of pages read than the amount of time. Like someone else mentioned above, I'm a bit of a perfectionist about it and want to figure out the exact amount, but didn't have the patience this time so I ended up just approximating.

2. Would you like the mods to organise other weekends like this during the year, or should we just have our regular week-long read-a-thons?
I wouldn't mind another one, but it would be nice to have a bit more advance notice. It's possible I just completely missed any mention of this one, but I had no idea it was coming and probably would have planned my reading a bit differently if I'd known.

3. Are there any activities (eg games, different discussion threads etc) you’d like us to include a future 24B4Monday weekend if we have another?
It was nice to have it very low-pressure since there weren't any games or activities to keep up with, but on the other hand, I also didn't find it particularly interactive. I don't have any specific suggestions though, since I'm not sure what to add that wouldn't take too much time away from reading.

4. If you didn’t join in then is there anything we could change that would encourage you to participate in future?
N/A

5. Do you have any other suggestions for activities you’d like to see in our group?
Nothing I can think of right now

Rachel, it was announced in the monthly newsletter. We had a request for the newsletter to be copy/pasted in the announcements from now on so that shouldallow for more advanced notice in the future.

We will also likely have it scheduled (i.e. first weekend of the months that there is no read-a-thon, purely by example)

Suggestion for those of you who think tracking hours is complicated or whatever...

Track how many pages you can read in an hour of the book you are reading. For example, you read 25 pages per hour. So, if at the end of the day you are on page 100, you’ve read for 4 hours. And if the book is 300 pages, you know that it will take 12 hours to finish the book.

dalex wrote: "Suggestion for those of you who think tracking hours is complicated or whatever...

Track how many pages you can read in an hour of the book you are reading. For example, you read 25 pages per hour..."

If I can bring myself to do that, it might be helpful... It doesn't actually fix the perfectionist problem of wanting to be exact though. :-)

Laura wrote: "Rachel, it was announced in the monthly newsletter. We had a request for the newsletter to be copy/pasted in the announcements from now on so that shouldallow for more advanced notice in the future..."

Fair enough. I rarely look at the Announcements thread to be honest, since I can usually get a good sense of what is going on in the group just by looking at the activity on the threads themselves. I remember getting the monthly newsletter, but can't be sure I had the chance to read it this time around -- so I'll definitely pay more attention next time.

Laura wrote: "Rachel, it was announced in the monthly newsletter. We had a request for the newsletter to be copy/pasted in the announcements from now on so that shouldallow for more advanced notice in the future..."

There is a monthly newsletter?

Brandy, we’ve just started the newsletter and the first one was sent on 1 May. You should be subscribed automatically as you’re a member of the group. I think some people don’t receive it if their privacy settings only allow messages from friends, so if that applies to you then you can check the moderator announcements thread as the newsletter will be posted there too.

Thanks for the feedback everyone, it’s great that people enjoyed the weekend. As Laura mentioned, we are going to look at having a regular activity like this, maybe on a set weekend every month. Look out for details soon!