Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

New Year, New You! Are you still sticking to your New Year's Resolutions? For this team challenge, you're going to be working together to check as many of those goal boxes as possible!

Each book read by an individual may only be used for one prompt per team challenge. Don't forget about your bookmarks! You get some for every 1000 pages read (or 15 hours of audio listed to).

THE CHALLENGE

Read Those Books
- Earn one bookmark for every 1000 pages read as a team.
- Earn one bookmark for every 15 hours of audio listened to.

Money
- Earn 2 bookmarks
- A book featuring a rich person
- A book where a financial event is important (inheritance, bank failure, depression)
- A book with a green cover
- A book with a number in the title
- A self-help book (financial or otherwise)

Health
- Earn 2 bookmarks
- A book with a character who has a physical illness/disability
- A book with a character who has a mental illness/disability
- A book with a birth or a death
- A book involving doctors, nurses, or a hospital
- A book featuring food on the cover

Career
- Earn 2 bookmarks
- A book set in a workplace
- A book where a character changes jobs
- A book with a retired character
- A book with a blue-collar/hands on worker
- A book with characters too young to work

Family
- Earn 2 bookmarks
- A book with a family gathering
- A book with a family secret
- A book with a large family
- A book with a family conflict
- A book whose title starts with a letter in the word FAMILY

Hobbies
- Earn 2 bookmarks
- A book featuring a hobby you might be interested in
- A book involving sport
- A book involving music
- A book involving reading and/or writing
- A book involving camping/hiking/hunting

THE TEAM
Captain: Alicia
Captain: RachelG
Roxana
Irene
Traci
Deborah
Samantha

THE SPREADSHEET
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

Good morning! Or should I say, dzień dobry!!

Excited to start this read-a-thon with all of you.

Our Polish team name is inspiring me to read a translated book from Poland, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead.

Hey all! I am excited to spend this week reading with you! What books are you planning to start with? I am going to start this challenge with a self-help book: How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie.

Hi everyone! I don't have any strict plans for reading this week. I am either going to start with The Secret of the Lost Pearls or Mystery in Provence.

Hi all! Excited to be on a team with y’all, even if I’m going to have to google how to pronounce it 😂

I think I’ll be starting with The Keeper of Night, which I’m about 45% through already (put it on hold to finish a book for a book club that meets tomorrow). After that, I think Not Your Valentine, which is pretty short.

Hi Team! Looking forward to the read-a-thon. I am currently reading The Sentence and will probably be about 35% - 40% of the way through when we get started tomorrow so that will be my first book. Seems like it could fit a lot of the categories depending on how much I we need to stretch interpretations, lol.

I am doing the ATY challenge in order so have a few books selected for those but can always do a side read if we need a particular category filled.

I filled in the spreadsheet with my books, I often don't want to know to much about a book before getting started so will need to figure out how they fit later on.

Hi team!! :D So happy to be participating in another readathon with y'all so soon, especially since I haven't read any books yet in 2023 and really needed the reminder and motivation to start my reading challenges!

I have two books that I started reading today that I can finish tomorrow morning, so I'll add those to the spreadsheet. I'm like Samantha in that I try to read books knowing as little going in as possible but hopefully the other books I have lined up will end up giving us a lot of options!

Hi team! I surprised my niece for her birthday weekend, so won't be helping much in the first 2 or 3 days but will be back to normal after that.

I'm currently about half way through the Luminaries and hoping this will help me finish that. I have a few audiobooks I have my eye on too and will check out categories.

CURRENTLY READING


Hopefully, I'll be finish both of these this weekend. I have 5 hours left in Night Circus and 200 in The Cat Who...

UP NEXT


Once I finish those two, I'll try to knock out Convenience Store Woman and Mysteries of Thorn Manor as they are shorter.

Hello all! I look forward to reading with you! I have a few books in progress and a few more planned so I'll work on figuring out where they may fit.

I'm really hoping to just live in my PJs with my books this weekend so hopefully I'll have a strong start!

Happy 1st day of the readathon!!

I just realized that there's two Deborahs here. I double checked and my sign up was message 21 so I think I'm in the right spot for this team but if I should head to the other team, feel free to let me know.

Happy reading!

I didn't finish my book yesterday and left 109 pages which I finished this morning. Going to add it to the spreadsheet. About to get started on my second.

I hope to get some prescription glasses returned today so I can finally get that off my thoughts and focus on reading for the rest of the week.

Deborah wrote: "I just realized that there's two Deborahs here. I double checked and my sign up was message 21 so I think I'm in the right spot for this team but if I should head to the other team, feel free to le..."

Oops! It looks like you are right. I am actually on Team Tammikuu. I will take my stuff off the excel sheet.

And... My niece stole my Kindle. Happy first day of reading everyone! I just realized the book I'm reading with my niece and nephew this weekend will work. I'll add it to the spreadsheet!

I'm starting off finishing Fairy Tale by Stephen King as I had about 200 pages left in that. I have a snuggly puppy and crocheting to do both of which pair well with audiobook reading!

Finished The Night Circus today. I think I would have DNFed if I didn't want to count it for our read-a-thon.

Will probably finish Convenience Store Woman tonight as it's a shorter book.

I hope everyone has had a lovely Saturday and had a chance to enjoy a little reading.

I finished The Sentence and slotted it in under A book involving reading and/or writing. It can some other prompts so if someone can only use this let me know and we can probably do some switching around.

I am probably not going to get much more reading in today but will get started on The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry tomorrow.

Finished Convenience Store Woman and put it under character with mental illness/disability. It was definitely an interesting short read, but one I’ll have to ponder. Still trying to finish up the cat who could read backwards then not sure what I’ll start tomorrow.

Thinking either Ex Talks or Dead Romantics.

I loved Dead Romantics!

I finished off Fairy Tale and put it in for sports related as the main character played a lot of sports and it's something that keeps coming up throughout the book.

I also finished up Ymir which I put in for physical disability. It's sci-fi so not exactly human disabilities but missing parts and chronic injuries so I think it works.

I'm starting a couple longer books next but will probably pick up some faster reads alongside them too.

Sold! I’ll start dead romantics tomorrow!

I finished Mystery in Provence and Murder at the Breakers today and will start Mrs Hudson and the Spirits' Curse next.

Didn’t get much reading in today (Saturdays are always really busy for me), but I’ll finish Not Your Valentine tonight, which has food on the cover. The Keeper of Night after that!

I realized last night that my planned books columns were messed up because the spreadsheet wasn't syncing on Friday. Sorry if that made anyone else's columns wrong.

I should finish the hiking/camping book today. Nice job on the first day of the readathon all!

I am going to highlight the prompts we have completed on the plans page. I think it will help us figure out what is left to be filled. If anyone has a color preference, feel free to change it.

Hey Team!! How’s everyone doing today? I’m a bit slow today, as my daughter is sick. I’ll try to get some pages in tonight after she goes to sleep

Alicia hope your daughter feels better soon!

I have a little headache so not getting as much reading done as I was hoping to but I am really enjoying The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry so hopefully I can finish it quickly!

I switched gears and binge read Dawn today which I put in for involving birth or death as that was the only open prompt it fit.

Hope you feel better soon Samantha and your daughter too Alicia!

Reading will slow down tomorrow (boo work) but I'm hoping to make progress listening to Spare at work.

Get well soon, Samantha, and Alicia's daughter 💛

I finished The Keeper of Night today and put it on "character changes jobs." Next up, I think either Knight's Castle (a quick, nostalgic reread), Nocturne, or starting Spinning Silver... not sure yet.

Thanks All!

I finished the Cat Who Could Read Backwards and put it under a rich character.

Off to bed!

Hope Alicia's daughter and Samantha both feel better soon!!

I was unexpectedly busy today, so I'll probably end up reading around 100 pages. I'm hoping to finish my book either tomorrow or Tuesday so then I can get started on my book with a number in the title!

Could someone remind me of the basic rules of books we read for readathons? I know they're supposed to be at least 100 pages but what were the rules about comic books/graphic novels, chapter books, etc?

Graphic novels/picture books must be at least 200 pages.

I am hoping to finish A Sprinkle in Time today which is one of the two books I want to read this week for the main ATY challenge. I am finding that the books I have to read are not really fitting the prompts we have this readathon.

Thank you all for the well wishes my head is much better this morning.

I should have no problem finishing The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry today but I am not excited by the books I have for my next prompt. Any suggestions for a 200+ page Graphic Novel that fits a book with ONE of the five "W" question words in the title? I am going to keep looking for something that inspires me to read instead of the books that am not really excited for.
EDIT:
I found a fun audio book to fit the W question prompt so I am set!

It has been a busy day, but I should finish off Spare shortly which I think will work for family gathering out of the prompts we haven't marked off yet. Not sure what I'm focusing on next.

Just finished Dead Romantics and loved it!! Not sure where to put it yet, as it doesn’t fit any open categories. So I’ll start a second round on something.

I’ll start Mysteries of Thorn Manor tomorrow and we can put it under a title that starts with a letter in FAMILY. It’s a novella so I’ll def finish tomorrow.

Glad you found a book that fits Samantha!

I'm having the same issue as Rachel with the books I'm reading not really fitting the prompts, but hopefully I'll be able to squeeze them in somewhere. I won't be able to get much reading done until Friday, but will keep updating my pages to contribute to bookmarks.

I am having the same problem Alicia and Irene. I enjoyed my book but it isn't a great fit for anything. It was a short story collection so maybe that is adding to my confusion. There was a wedding in one and there was a lot of family conflict about the details - you know the basic arguments about how many goats to sacrifice to the stone god and how many candles it takes for the for the half blind love demon to transcribe your names into the book of eternal devotion. I put it there it was only a little of the book but think it should be ok.

I probably won't get a ton of reading done today hopefully the rest of the week will be a little better.

The money category is definitely the hardest!

I don't do my yearly challenge in order, so I'll check to see if I have any books on my TBR that could fit. I know I don't have a self-help book but I probably have a green cover or inheritance book.

I have a long drive home today so I'll finish Mysteries of Thorn Manor so we can complete the Family category.

Edit: I also added two bookmarks to finish up the Career Category. Then we'll just have Money and Health for the first round

I'm part way through a travel day so should make good progress on books today. I downloaded a self help book that I'll start after I finish my current audiobook. I'll try and sit down and look more at the spreadsheet today when I get home.

Samantha, I've had that sort of struggle with books of short stories too. What you did makes sense to me. The story you describe sounds interesting, did you enjoy the book? I really like a good book of short stories.

Also, I put the Ramona book under characters too young to work since she and her sister are too young and it's relevant because there are money problems, but it can be moved if you think it should be all characters.

I am pretty far ahead in the ATY challenge so will see if I can find a some side read that might fit the Money category.

Traci, I really enjoyed the short story collection, it was Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory. It is a little weird which I appreciated; like most collections it has some stories that stand out and some that don't work as well. My library only had it on audio and I thought that the narrators did a great job.

Traci wrote: "Also, I put the Ramona book under characters too young to work since she and her sister are too young and it's relevant because there are money problems, but it can be moved if you think it should ..."

I think this seems like a perfect read for this prompt!

I added in Mysteries of Thorn Manor to complete the Family section. It was ok, but maybe there will be a 2nd full book after this novella.

I'll also start Station Eleven tonight which we can use for a book with a number in the title (Money Category). I had free days in the beginning, but I think Station Eleven and possibly The Ex Talk on audio will be the last ones I finish up for this read-a-thon

I’m about halfway into A Thousand Miles to Graceland, which has turned out to be way more about doctors and hospitals than I expected it to be… so if that’s still open when I finish it (hopefully tonight), I’ll go ahead and put it there and complete the Health category (other than bookmarks).

@Alicia, I'm almost done with my book with a number in the title (there are no other prompts it fits sadly!) so just giving you a heads up in case you were going to start it just for that prompt :)

I’ve actually been meaning to read it and I’m sure it’ll fit other categories, but thanks for the heads up!

I have a low number of green covers. Some are possibly green, but maybe blue. Or others don’t have enough green. And the financial event one stumps me. So I’m not a ton of help in that category.

I requested a green cover book from the library that I can start in a day or two (once I finish the Luminaries, which fits the financial event and other prompts) if we still need it. I'll start a self-help book on audio tomorrow; it's under 6 hours so I'll finish tomorrow or Thurs.

I wanted to share: my niece got up (and made me get up) 1/2 an hour early today at 6:40 so we could finish a book before school since I left today. I love how much she and her brother both love books!

Traci, I love that! Well worth waking up early!