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

I'm going to try something different this year. I've set up a folder just for Challenge discussion, questions and recommendations. Generally, there are pages of comments and it's difficult to go back to find specific conversations.

I decided that each card will have its own thread. You may ask questions, obtain rulings, and discuss recommendations for tasks there.

This thread will be for general discussion only. Please hold off on your questions until I get the challenge posted.

I think this is a great idea, Janice.

It's a little bit of extra work, but I think it will pay off in the long run. Each Card in the General Challenge thread will be linked to it's help thread so it should be easy to find.

That's really smart. It will make it easier for answering questions & making recommendations to have them linked too. I think it's more work up front and more threads to keep track of, but also more organized so it should make it easier the rest of the year.

Very smart Janice! All these threads will hopefully be much shorter so people can have a look at them to see if their question has already be answered. And it's also very organized for finding recommendations!

Good thinking Batman!

Brilliant idea! I know as the year goes along and I have a question I always wonder if it has been posted before, but don't want to slog through all the posts ( I know lazy). Janice, you are the Yoda Master of year-long challenges!

Agree, this makes a lot of sense. Thanks for all the extra set up Janice, but I think this will help us all. Thanks for thinking of it!

Very helpful idea. Thank you for the thoughtful extra work that you put into this challenge.

Awesome challenge Janice!

I love that what I did last year for badge 2 is now the official requirement :) I'll aim for badge 2 again but will gopher for all tasks, just to make sure I have options.

I love this part of the challenge, the gophering, setting things up, the planning. I'm so excited. This looks great Janice. You've out done yourself.

I mentioned earlier that I was rethinking the structure of the badges. I originally had badge 2 - 5 as completing cards. Then I thought about you and how you approached it last year and decided it would be fun to do that approach this year. So I changed things around at the last minute. You were my inspiration. :)

I like how you are mixing it up on how to get the badges. Awesome challenge!!

It might make it a bit more challenging.

This looks like a great challenge. Can’t wait to organize and look for books.

Pfew. I just copied all the relevant tasks to my thread. I have some ideas right away, but definitely need to do some proper gophering as well! Great tasks, Janice.

I expected a car/truck task so I snatched up a book with a car on the cover just in case last year. I also bought a cozy mysteries set recently that I thought might come in handy for topplers and challenges, and it fits one of the tasks too.

In terms of gophering, I'm glad I had some questions wrong! I also had several where the option I'm not supposed to read would have been easier.

Peggy wrote: "Pfew. I just copied all the relevant tasks to my thread. I have some ideas right away, but definitely need to do some proper gophering as well! Great tasks, Janice.

I expected a car/truck task so ..."

As I pulled cards and looked at questions, I marked down "True" or "False" on my spreadsheet. That was a few months back. Then once I had 30 questions for each category, I created the cards and wrote the tasks. I'm now reviewing my answers to the tasks I need to do and I'm saying, "Oh yeah! I get to do that task." Or "Crap, I don't want to do that task." So it's a rather surprising and fun process.

It's a good thing there's only the cat to hear me, because there's a lot of "yay, yay, nay, nay, nay, yay, nay.. oh crap!" going on. And I'm still in my jammies.

After copying and pasting my tasks it appears I will be spending a bit of time in the 1800's and in France. I think I will be reading the classics in 2020!!!

I'm glad you're enjoying it as much as we do Janice.

Lol, I gophered for the first 5 cards and I already have found more books than I normally read in a year..

Excellent! I've copied all the tasks to a spreadsheet, like I did last year, to keep my thread tidier. Whilst I'm gophering for the spreadsheet, I'm not going to plan exactly which books I'm going to read for the year. I did it this way last year and it felt less pressured for me. Doesn't look like I'll get as many non fiction books slotted in as this year but that's ok.

Jayme wrote: "After copying and pasting my tasks it appears I will be spending a bit of time in the 1800's and in France. I think I will be reading the classics in 2020!!!"

I've got a few 1800's tasks as well. I'm going to be reading historical fiction, it seems.

Me too, Sarah. The only ones I’m gophering specifically are the tasks with a “list”, and I’m only making note of things that I own from those lists.
As much as I’ve been waiting with baited breath, now that it’s out it really does nothing but cause me grief for the rest of the year as every book I pick up has to be weighed against not just this year, but whether it would be “better” to leave it for next year . . . :(

That being said, as always the challenge looks awesome Janice :) Thank you for all of the hard work, and headaches :)

Janice, I have a more general question.

I was considering Death of a Dapper Snowman for the challenge. When I bought it through Kobo, I remember it said in the description the length was about 300-350 real-book pages, but apparently this ebook is no longer available there so I can't find that information anymore. If I look at all the ebooks on GR and the paperback on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/Death-Dapper-S...) it's also all around 350 pages, and Kobo has the audiobook which is listed as 7.4 hours of listening time (https://www.kobo.com/us/en/audiobook/...). The ebook on Amazon says it's comparable to 302 pages of a paper book (https://www.amazon.com/Death-Dapper-S...).

Weirdly though, there's only one paperback edition in GR (and a different one from Amazon and some other websites I checked) which says it's 170 pages.

Should I still use the 170 pages the GR paperback edition gives me, even though this doesn't compare very well to all the other sources?

Help! Could someone post a link to tineye? I thought I had the link, but can't find it and when I Google it I keep getting weird links. Thanks :(

I have also a general question about the rule #11. Order of Books read.

The rule states: "There is no requirement regarding the order the books are read. You can read badges out of order. For example, if you've read a book for Geography in Card 1 and counted it for Badge 1, you may read another book that fits another task for that card and count it for Badge 2 even though you have not finished badge 1."

My question is: should the example say "... and count it for Badge 3/4/5 even though...". Earlier in the rules it's said that Badge 2 requires reading from the remaining 18 cards that were not read from for Badge 1. Because that would mean that we can't read another book for Badge 2 from a card that we've read from for Badge 1, right?

Uhh, I hope I explained my question at least remotely understandably.

ETA: of course, as usually, amazing challenge!

Jayme wrote: "Help! Could someone post a link to tineye? I thought I had the link, but can't find it and when I Google it I keep getting weird links. Thanks :("

https://labs.tineye.com/color/

Camilla wrote: "Jayme wrote: "Help! Could someone post a link to tineye? I thought I had the link, but can't find it and when I Google it I keep getting weird links. Thanks :("

https://labs.tineye.com/color/"

Thank you Camilla!!!

Peggy wrote: "Should I still use the 170 pages the GR paperback edition gives me, even though this doesn't compare very well to all the other sources?.."

Unfortunately, the answer is yes. The rules say the first paper edition listed, and that is the only one.

Janice wrote: "Peggy wrote: "Should I still use the 170 pages the GR paperback edition gives me, even though this doesn't compare very well to all the other sources?.."

Unfortunately, the answer is yes. The rule..."

Thanks! It was worth a try ;-)

I'll just read the first one for no reason. The next books in the series have 350-page paperback editions :)

Camilla wrote: "I have also a general question about the rule #11. Order of Books read.

The rule states: "There is no requirement regarding the order the books are read. You can read badges out of order. For exa..."

I had a long answer to that and "poof" - it went bye bye.

If you are working on badge 1 (or 2) and you've already read a book for say Card 1, and you end up reading a second book that would also fit a task in Card 1, claim it as Badge 3.

Once you get to Badge 3 and you have 5 completed cards along with some additional completed tasks in other unfinished cards, those additional books would get moved to Badge 4 (except for those books in Badge 1 & 2 - they're set in stone). You aren't going to make that determination until you've completed Badge 3.

Does that make sense?

Please note that I have made a significant change to Card 2, Nay Task 4. I have changed the Genre from Action/Adventure to Thriller.

Janice wrote: "Does that make sense?"

Yes, I understood that part (the books being pushed forward). My question was about the example given in the rule. The example states that you can complete a task from the same card for badges 1 and 2, which shouldn't be possible according to the rule given for badge 2 (Badge 2 - From the remaining 18 cards, read one task of your choice from each card).

I've added a general ruling regarding author names. There are several cards requiring author names match initials or even specific names, so thought I would add the clarification here as well.

Author names: If a task requires that you match initials or specific names for the author, it's easy to figure out when the author has two names. but becomes tricky when there are 3 names or initials. If the task specifies first and last name, then we will literally go with the first name and last name listed. Eg. We would ignore the Jackson in Harriet Jackson Brown. If her name was hyphenated (Harriet Jackson-Brown), we'd go with Jackson. If her name was listed as HJ Brown, or H.J. Brown, we'd go with H Brown. In the case where there are more than one author, either author may be used.

Camilla wrote: "Janice wrote: "Does that make sense?"

Yes, I understood that part (the books being pushed forward). My question was about the example given in the rule. The example states that you can complete a ..."

Ahhh! I know what happened with my example. I had a different plan for how the badges would work and the day before I posted the challenge, I changed my mind. I forgot to update the example.

It should read "For example, if you've read a book for Geography in Card 1 and counted it for Badge 1, you may read another book that fits another task for that card and count it for Badge 3 even though you have not finished badge 1."

Thanks for pointing that out. I will fix that.

Another question related to pages/edition: I have an omnibus of The Chronicles of Narnia. If I were to read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for example, should I just count the pages it has within my omnibus or go by the first paper edition listed on GR? And for cover, would I use the same cover for all of the 7 books (the omnibus cover) or also use the first paper edition?

Wow, Janice, this is amazing!

I lined all my answers up with all the tasks and have it all ready to go. I am going to have a lot of covers to look for--and some genres I haven't ever tried before if I make it to all 180 books (theoretically possible for me with my commute...).

I am apparently way more trivial than I thought, with over 50% yays, I think.

Peggy wrote: "Another question related to pages/edition: I have an omnibus of The Chronicles of Narnia. If I were to read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for example, should I just count the p..."

I would go by the first paper edition of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Beth wrote: "Wow, Janice, this is amazing!

I lined all my answers up with all the tasks and have it all ready to go. I am going to have a lot of covers to look for--and some genres I haven't ever tried before..."

I tried to balance tasks out the best that I could, but I guess it depends on the configuration of your Yays and Nays. Things might get thrown out of balance. And then again, maybe I'm not all that balanced. Hehehe!

Whew that was a lot of work. Dom and I spent 3.5 hours yesterday and 4 hours today working on Zoom (like Skype) coordinating our tasks! (The ones we had in common.)

Janice wrote: "Beth wrote: "Wow, Janice, this is amazing!

I lined all my answers up with all the tasks and have it all ready to go. I am going to have a lot of covers to look for--and some genres I haven't ever..."

I’m not sure any of us can say you aren’t balanced...you know throwing stones while living in glass houses and all...

I'm glad I'm not alone, Jannene. :)

Definitely not alone lol

Janice and Rusalka, thanks a lot for the good wishes. There has been a respite this morning from the rains. I managed to complete the Trivia Test and create my thread also. Thanks for all the help. The test was great fun and I understood how little I know!!

It is a great idea to have separate threads for discussing books for each card. It is going to be hectic for me till the end of February 2020 as I am busy with my needlework for the first needlework exhibition of 2020 in the Mother's Embroidery Department of Sri Aurobindo Ashram. It would be great if I could read more books in 2020 than in 2019.

Jannene wrote: "Whew that was a lot of work. Dom and I spent 3.5 hours yesterday and 4 hours today working on Zoom (like Skype) coordinating our tasks! (The ones we had in common.)"

See, I'm a genius! B-)

Janice, it's a great challenge! The badge structure makes it much more difficult (thanks for that Peggy *grumble-grumble* ;-p There is a nice spread of genres so I think we will fun with it.

Thank you for the effort you put in to it. So happy to hear you are also enjoying it :-)

Well, it wouldn't be a challenge without a bit of a challenge Margo ;-)

Margo wrote: "Janice, it's a great challenge! The badge structure makes it much more difficult (thanks for that Peggy *grumble-grumble* ;-p There is a nice spread of genres so I think we will fun with it..."

The movie mania challenge was too easy and I felt like a maniac trying to keep up with you all. The idea is to slow it down a bit and hopefully spread it out more evenly across the year.

You can still slot books into badge 3 if you need to.

You really threw me Janice. I needed to check the list for one of the tasks on the MM 2019 challenge and I could not find the link until I searched through 6 pages of the threads. I was looking for the list to check for a book, that might fit the task. I decided to give up on it. I still have books to read that will fit tasks, but will not yield me another badge. Are you still keeping track? Should I just give up and move on to planning for the trivia challenge? I guess most of the books still planned there will move over to the new tasks eventually.

I haven't given up, Cherie. I have 4 books to badge 2 and I expect to get there! :)

Cherie wrote: "You really threw me Janice. I needed to check the list for one of the tasks on the MM 2019 challenge and I could not find the link until I searched through 6 pages of the threads. I was looking for..."

I'm not sure how I threw you, but as long as you've got it figured out, it's all good.

Yes, I'm still tracking if people are reporting. It's up to you if you want to continue or focus on the 2020 challenge. I'm still reading books for the MM challenge because whatever I don't read will become my 2020 Leftover Stew challenge. I'd like to pare down the number of unfinished tasks if I can.